Tips on losing fat and not muscle?

kassiebby1124

c: Hi! I come bearing another question. The scale finally moving again. I do have a question though. How can I ensure I'm losing FAT and not muscle? I lift heavy 3x a week to try and retain my lean body mass and I run twice a day 3-4x a week (sometimes more because I like it (: )

I drink water 24/7 (sugary drinks make me feel sick) and I try to avoid those high empty calories like cookies and such. I'm 40% body fat and my ultimate goal is to be 18%. Supposedly it make take another year or so, which I'm okay with. But how can I make sure that I AM losing fat and lowering my body fat percentage without losing muscle? I know some weight on the scale is water and what not so I usually measure myself anyway.

Thanks so much!

-Kassie

Mokey41

You will lose some lean body mass just because your whole body will shrink with weight loss. Your plan sounds great to maintain the lean mass that you need in the future.

DopeItUp

Good strength training program (you're already there) and good protein intake (1g per 1lb of LBM is generally recommended) is about all you need. Keep up the good work.

kassiebby1124

Thanks all (: I try to stick to lean meats right now (I'm coming from being a vegetarian to eating meat again so I'm using baby steps)

wlawhorn1993

OK bear with me here, #1 if you are going to lift heavy and try to add muscle mass, while at the same time maintaining a caloric deficit to lose fat, you are going to need to be on strict nutrition so that you have the ability to allow your muscles to recover. If you lift heavy and don't eat enough protein you will lose muscle. If you lift heavy, eat enough protein, but don't watch your calories you will gain fat. If you make sure that you are getting enough protein over 6 meals a day, 1g per LB LBM, and youeat enough carbs to have the energy and nutrition to lift, so that your body can produce ATP and not cause you to be acidonic, and stay under your TDEE, you will lose weight and gain muscle, but that is pretty difficult to do. I would recommend lighter lifting more reps to maintain your vascularity and exercise what muscle you already have, along with -20% of your TDEE, cardio, and make sure you get that protein. Lose to your target weight, and then Increase your lift weight to break down your muscles and let them recover, allowing to get bigger. That way of you have to slip a little to get your protein and you gain a few lbs, you can flip right back over to -20% tides and lighter lifting to bring your fat down w/o burning any muscle.

wlawhorn1993

One more thing just as a reminder, when you lift heavy, nutrition on your rest days is twice as important as on your lift days, because that is where muscle is built, in recovery.

lindustum

OK bear with me here, #1 if you are going to lift heavy and try to add muscle mass, while at the same time maintaining a caloric deficit to lose fat, you are going to need to be on strict nutrition so that you have the ability to allow your muscles to recover. If you lift heavy and don't eat enough protein you will lose muscle. If you lift heavy, eat enough protein, but don't watch your calories you will gain fat. If you make sure that you are getting enough protein over 6 meals a day, 1g per LB LBM, and you eat enough carbs to have the energy and nutrition to lift, so that your body can produce ATP and not cause you to be acidonic, and stay under your TDEE, you will lose weight and gain muscle, but that is pretty difficult to do. I would recommend lighter lifting more reps to maintain your vascularity and exercise what muscle you already have, along with -20% of your TDEE, cardio, and make sure you get that protein. Lose to your target weight, and then Increase your lift weight to break down your muscles and let them recover, allowing to get bigger. That way of you have to slip a little to get your protein and you gain a few lbs, you can flip right back over to -20% tides and lighter lifting to bring your fat down w/o burning any muscle.

I don't understand this at all. I am just reading NROLFW and it says I should eat 2k - 2,2k a day depending on whether it's a workout day or not. But I am worried that, as you seem to imply, when I don't eat at a deficit, I will not get rid of the fat. I am SO CONFUSED. Lots of the weight lifting success people here on the forums have eaten between 1800-2200 and gotten into the shape they wanted. I thought that the increase in muscle would increase the amount of energy needed to maintain them, which is why you get rid of fat in the long run, albeit slowly.

Yes/No? Help? Is there ANY sticky post explaining fat loss as opposed to weight loss? I am in my healthy weight range so I am not bothered about how heavy I am. It's about BF%.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

89nunu

For starters generally keep with what the book tells you. Look at the Roadmap and find out your tdee. Eat enough protein and enjoy the nrol4w, it's a great program. Don't let someone confuse you!