Maintain weight, lose BF% and Increase MMI

DManBB

Hey MFP world! Been working out for about 3 months now and I am happy to report I have lost 20 pounds and 6% body fat. Currently, 5'10" around 190 with 18.7%BF and 90MMI - Working out 4 times a week, got rid of cardio as it was lowering my MMI. My goals are to hit 15-16%BF and upwards of 93-95MMI. Eating around 2,800 calories a day: (280g carbs, 175g protein, and 105g fat). Is there any advice you would have for me?

Greatly appreciated everyone Looking forward to your comments.

misnomer1

Eat at maintenance calories, and keep lifting weights using any good progressive weight lifting programme. That's all I got.

RuNaRoUnDaFiEld

What is MMI?

sijomial

Eat at maintenance calories and train hard/well.
Optimising your lifting is the biggest driver for progress.
Macros look well thought out.

got rid of cardio as it was lowering my MMI

That seems very odd - exercise doesn't cause muscle loss without a severely compromised diet.
Are you using bioelectrical impedance to estimate your BF%?
If yes, then I'm wondering if the cardio was actually just altering your hydration levels which confuses BIA devices.


@RuNaRoUnDaFiEld
MMI = Muscle Mass Index, ratio of muscle mass relative to height.
Thought to be a better predictor for health/longevity than BMI. Which makes a lot of sense but introduces the problem of getting a reliable measurement of body composition.

RuNaRoUnDaFiEld

Thanks @sijomial

I thought it must be muscle mass related in some way. I'll have a read about it.

DManBB

sijomial wrote: »

Eat at maintenance calories and train hard/well.
Optimising your lifting is the biggest driver for progress.
Macros look well thought out.

Thanks @sijomical. What have you done (or currently do) in regards to preparation to optimize your workout time? Ex. Eating protein v carbs at a specific time or/post workout.

got rid of cardio as it was lowering my MMI

That seems very odd - exercise doesn't cause muscle loss without a severely compromised diet.
Are you using bioelectrical impedance to estimate your BF%?
If yes, then I'm wondering if the cardio was actually just altering your hydration levels which confuses BIA devices.

Yes, I am using a bioelectric impendance. The MMI was dropping and ECW/TBW was staying around .355?

LiftHeavyThings27105

On top of what @sijomial stated, workout will be huge. What - if any - program are you doing?

sijomial

Just be cautious of putting too much weight (sorry - no pun intended!) on what BIA scales tell you.
A good one can give a reasonable trend but with variable data points, some of which may be pretty wildly out.
A bad one can be worse than useless.
I wouldn't drop cardio because the scales appeared to show an impact - your choice of course but someone at maintenance calories with more than adequate protein doing moderate cardio should in no way suffer muscle loss from cardio.

Meal / nutrient timing is a virtual irrelevance unless you are doing endurance cardio or training more than once a day or you perform better in the workout itself fuelled or un-fuelled (personal preference).

It's the training that's going to maximise your personal results, so many people "exercise" rather than "train" and then wonder why their results suffer.

LiftHeavyThings27105

Yep! Agree with the above. It is mind-set. Training vs. exercise is a huge mind-set difference........just saying!

DManBB

So I have been doing 1on 1 personal training in a program through work. We workout twice a week with the trainer w/ open gym on Fridays. I'm working out 4x a week and change up the program style every 3-4 weeks. We were doing 6-8-10 drop sets, maximum mTor activation, and heavy double rest/pause sets. Now we are doing 6-12-25 sets, 3 exercise heavy to light weight sets. Any advice for when I am done with this program would be greatly appreciated!

How would you define "training v exercising"?

sijomial

Here's a list of programs collated by the ever helpful @psuLemon
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you/p1


"Training" has a defined goal and purpose. The training sessions build into a program to progress you towards that goal.
"Exercise" is good of course but can be scatter-gun, likely to be less than optimal, has no defined or measurable goal apart from vague it's good for you, keeps me fit, burns some calories as examples.
There's people who "go to the gym" and people who "train at the gym".


Exercise - today I'm going to do some cardio on the exercise bike.
Training - today I'm doing 180/220 watt ten minute intervals for an hour to help improve my hill climbing and FTP threshold.

Exercise - today I'm going to the gym to lift some weights.
Training - today I'm doing my upper body hypertrophy routine.

DManBB

Thanks so much @sijomial that was extremely helpful! If anyone has other thoughts/advice it would be greatly appreciated

DX2JX2

What kind of calorie deficit are you running? Theoretically, you can still afford to lose a bit more weight and you'll need to lose some in order to get the BF% down.

Are you sure 5'10" and 190 pounds is only 19% body fat?

DManBB

I am pretty close to a zero calorie deficit, if not in the positive range right now. I am gaining minimal weight, but adding on the MMI and lowering my BF%. I have been getting on a BIA scale for about 3 months now (weekly) to show the MMI, BF% and weight. sijomial mentioned not to take this type of scale 100 accurately, but I feel as though it has been relatively accurate as I weigh in at the same time of day every time.

I feel as though I will need to lower my current caloric intake, but I have another 3 weeks in this program I am going to wait it out till then.

I will keep you all updated on the maintenance processes. Please continue to give advice on workout programs or nutritional ideas! Thanks everyone.