How did you lose Body Fat and Grow Muscles at the same time?

Aviation21

I lost about 27 lbs at about the 5 month mark of doing CrossFit, waist from 38” to 35”and decided to focus on muscle building while following the Paleo diet (97% Paleo diet – not 100% strict). I focus on all protein sources like eggs, meat, Whey Protein from Trader Joes and eat a ton of veggies. I put on about 5 lbs over the last 3 months and I am pretty sure it’s all muscle since my waist is still pretty thin and when looking in the mirror I still look trim. I have some fat in the love handle area and a little around the belly.
Now I want to try and lose another 10 lbs and yet continue feeding my muscles. As an old wrestler my experience with weight lost always means losing some muscle.
Anyone successfully lost body fat percentage and continued to grow muscles at the same time?
If so, how did you do it?

Aviation21

I guess I asked the impossible question! LOL Will just stay the path I am following and increase my workout schedule!

kimkilbride

Well I am by far no expert but from my experience I try to stick with a lot of protein and veg and limit my fruit and I try to eat them earlier in the day in order to burn the sugar instead of storing it. Are you taking any supplements before or after your workout?

kelly_e_montana

I followed Eat to Perform and lost 10% body fat while staying the same scale weight. They have a page called Eat to Perform on Facebook. Many of us in this group follow them.

ascrit

Aviation21 wrote: »

I guess I asked the impossible question! LOL Will just stay the path I am following and increase my workout schedule!

This is a smaller group so you should not expect immediate answers to all your questions.

As far as your question goes in addition to any advice you get on here you may want to consult with your coach and/or a registered dietitian.

Aviation21

Hello kimkilbride, yes I take fish oil, glucosamine & chondroitin, and Trader Joe's Whey protein.

Kelly_e_montana, I have checked out Eat to Perform from one of your posts a while back. If I am not successful with adding more CrossFit workouts per week (from 3 to 5) I will give it a try. Thank you.

Hey ascrit, you are probably right, I figured after 8 hours nobody had a good idea for me. With the money I am spending for CrossFit (for me and my daughter) trying to avoid paying for a dietitian too. I figured there are plenty of folks here with success stories. Thanks for the reply!

Rock on folks!

AllanMisner

It can be done, but it will be hard and slow. I did it over a nine month period of time about a year and a half ago. If you don’t have a lot of patience, this isn’t for you (it is better to bulk and cut in cycles if you want fast results, and yes, you’ll lose some muscle during the cutting portion).

Drop your calories 200 below maintenance plus burn. Make sure you’re getting plenty of protein. No sugars, no alcohol, no bread, no dairy, no pasta, no rice, no beans, no tropical fruit, and limit plain potatoes to once or twice a week. Drink plenty of water.

Lift heavy. Do some metabolic work (crossfit). And have some long slow walks (not runs, walks).

If the scale goes down more than a pound in a week, up your calories 100. You really shouldn’t lose weight on this, but will see the body composition changes after a month. Ten pounds of fat will take about six months to lose this way, but you’ll likely add a few pounds of muscle if you’re really hitting it in the gym.

ascrit

Aviation21 wrote: »

Hey ascrit, you are probably right, I figured after 8 hours nobody had a good idea for me. With the money I am spending for CrossFit (for me and my daughter) trying to avoid paying for a dietitian too. I figured there are plenty of folks here with success stories. Thanks for the reply!

My insurance company pays for consultation with a dietitian, maybe yours would as well.

Personally, while it is always nice to hear about what worked for different people I still prefer to talk to an expert who can tailor something to me specifically.

lemurcat12

I'm currently experimenting with ETP, but don't yet know if it will work for me. If nothing else it will be a way to take a diet break and eat close to maintenance, which I've been needing, until I get ready to cut again.

Inkratlet

Well, I started ETP on the 17th Feb so I'm in week 4 right now.

I've lost a kilo and I've PBed my squat clean, clean & jerk, front squat, figured out stringing together double unders (although that's largely a confidence thing) and this morning I PBed my snatch not just for 1 rep but I beat my previous 1RM in a complex of 1 power snatch + 1 hang squat snatch.

My scales - granted, inaccurate but useful to measure trends - have me down from 38% bf to 36%.

One of my fellow 6am-ers said she'd noticed I'd lost weight but wasn't sure if she should say something. I spent about 10 minutes gabbling on about ETP to her which is always a sign you're enjoying something because I do the same with CrossFit given half a chance. Oh, and the past couple of weeks the WHOLE office has had infections, colds, viruses etc. and I have had nothing despite sitting in the path of the air conditioning.

So I don't really care now what happens weight wise. I'm performing better, sleeping well, recovering faster (I don't think I've had any real DOMS to speak of since starting) etc. etc. and people are seeing a difference.

I've tried cutting calories, cutting carbs, cutting this that and the other and it's all left me either hangry and venomous to be around, ill, or I lasted a grand total of 3 days before having a pizza (Paleo). On ETP, I'm sticking to the plan effortlessly.

Aviation21

Thanks for the reply!

I am checking out ETP now! For those of you that have been following ETP for 6 months or more I have one question can I continue on the Paleo diet or will I have to alter the types of food I eat again?

kelly_e_montana

You can eat paleo on ETP but you're gonna get real sick of sweet potatoes. Most people experiment and simply add potatoes, white rice, or oatmeal around their workouts based on what they tolerate best. I tolerate the oatmeal well so that's mostly what I use to bump my carbs up.

bostonwolf

^I'm doing it mainly with white rice, but I'll probably add some oatmeal to my breakfasts soon too as I've never had issues with it.

butterbear1980

I ate strictly grain free/sugar free for two years. When I upped my carbs, added in white rice, oats, cane sugar, and ice cream my overall health, sleep, and mood improved....and my gym performance improved noticeably; both my engine and in strength.