Question about weight/strength training

mikepepsi

Hi guys,
my name is Michael, and ive struggled with my weight up and down since i was a teenager.
In my early 20s i hit a low weight and i was really happy with it, but looking back i was very much "skinny fat" and didnt like how despite having twiglet arms, i still had a belly.

I got there through very low calorie dieting and lots of cardio. But mainly low calorie almost starvation diet, which i see now is damaging in the long run. The weight eventually came back, though i was fitter.

Now, as an adult, ive yoyod a lot. But i have also been able to keep my weight in a reasonable range, until around 2014 when suddenly i gained a lot after leaving London.

My weight increased and then i met someone, we fell in love, and split up, and i ballooned further.
By the time i'd taken gym seriously again, i had lost weight then gained it back, and then through the last 4 months of 2015 i was strength and cardio training every day....and hardly losing any weight - i was actually gaining.

I put it down to muscle mass increase at the time, but friends told me i looked 'bigger then than they'd ever seen me' so perhaps my poor eating habits were not helping. I was also doing a fair bit of cardio at the time. But my waist was as big as it had ever been, at 44 inches

So i was confused as to why i wasn't losing the weight. However, when i moved to vancouver, things started changing. I became much more cardio active and cut back on junk food. The weight has been slipping off. Recently i rebounded a little due to a hectic work month or two and way too much junk to accomodate it, id also stopped hitting the gym so im going through a spike that im working to bring back down. I know it can be done with the right level of willpower.

As part of that, im back at the gym to up the strength training in tandem with being more active with walking and running again.

What i wanted to ask is this: is it indeed possible for me to maintain the muscle id built up last year whilst stripping the fat? Gently buiulding muscle whilst still dropping the scale weight? I discovered that losing weight on the scales is an important psychological motivator for me, even now, but i do take measurements too. And last year when i was training i was not losing inches either. which i guess is why i felt it was useless.

a45cal

Yes, that's entirely possible. Strength training while reducing your calorie intake is one of the only ways to maintain muscle while forcing your body to prioritize burning fat (HIIT is another alternative if you're into that sort of thing). You won't be able to gain muscle while eating reduced calories (you have to be in a caloric surplus to gain muscle), but you'll be able to keep what muscle you have and avoid that "skinny fat" look when you get to your goal weight.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

mikepepsi

Thanks Trixie! I definitely think on training days ill add in an extra 150 calories or so to my diet. And it's good to know i CAN see the weight go down whilst strength training.

I am also a fan of moderate intensity exercise despite HIIT being the hot keyword right now. I do do HIIT but i know i sustain jogging for miles and love doing that. So can someone reassure me regular jogging is also okay?

Unknown

This content has been removed.

fredericktambunan

Eat what you want in moderation, don't starve yourself and most of all lift weights and don't listen to what the next guy tells you.

raven56706

i just want to burn fat. Are you saying if i eat at a deficit while strength training, i wont see much results on muscle?

piperdown44

Both of you might benefit from this thread:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat#latest

Wheelhouse15

Very, very difficult if at all possible to maintain all muscle while in a deficit. You could do it with a very small deficit if you have a proper weight training program and know what you are doing. Drugs help here but I'm not going to recommend those for obvious reasons. Recomping might be the way to go but that takes a long time and a lot of determination and precision but a bulk-cut cycle is the traditional method here.

Now if you are asking about can you maintain what you gained last year than the answer is that you have already lost it so no you can't. Once you stop lifting you will start losing muscle soon after so you should be looking at rebuilding what you have lost.

raven56706

sorry to hijack the thread and i will start my own