Losing fat w/o losing LBM/strength training for beginners

macchiatto

I am getting closer to what has been my goal weight of 128. Most of my weight loss so far has been accomplished by eating low-carb/high-protein and doing cardio (running over the past year), with some things thrown in like Jillian Michaels DVDs and more recently some other workout DVDs involving tricep dips, push-ups, planks, squats, etc.

I am new to this group and after getting Sara and SideSteel's BF% estimate recently and info gleaned from reading a lot of the threads on here, I am wanting to adjust my goals and approach. Acc. to your estimate, I'm still at about 28-29% BF. I'm 5'7" and 132 lbs, so this means my LBM is only about 94-95 lbs. I'm guessing I may have lost a fair amount of LBM through a lot of yoyo dieting and not doing strength training. This also means my goal weight needs to be a bit lower (~125 lbs) to get to a better BF%. My BF goal now is 24% and I'll re-evaluate once I get there.

So my question is, first: What do I need to do to ensure I don't lose any more LBM while I continue to work toward a better BF%? And I mean specifically, how much and what type of strength training? I've started training for a 10K and would still like to do that as well, along with some HIIT and strength training. Are body weight workouts enough for a relative beginner?

Also, I had been following a modified Dukan Diet and only recently started tracking calories again, but I've adjusted my calorie and macro goals based on advice from this group and am wondering if this sounds like a good place to start with my new approach (taking into account that I have PCOS):
Calories: 1360
Carbs: 102 gm
Fat: 53 gm
Protein: 119 gm
i.e. 30/35/35
And then eat 50-75% of my exercise calories on days I work out.

SideSteel

I am getting closer to what has been my goal weight of 128. Most of my weight loss so far has been accomplished by eating low-carb/high-protein and doing cardio (running over the past year), with some things thrown in like Jillian Michaels DVDs and more recently some other workout DVDs involving tricep dips, push-ups, planks, squats, etc.

I am new to this group and after getting Sara and SideSteel's BF% estimate recently and info gleaned from reading a lot of the threads on here, I am wanting to adjust my goals and approach. Acc. to your estimate, I'm still at about 28-29% BF. I'm 5'7" and 132 lbs, so this means my LBM is only about 94-95 lbs. I'm guessing I may have lost a fair amount of LBM through a lot of yoyo dieting and not doing strength training. This also means my goal weight needs to be a bit lower (~125 lbs) to get to a better BF%. My BF goal now is 24% and I'll re-evaluate once I get there.

So my question is, first: What do I need to do to ensure I don't lose any more LBM while I continue to work toward a better BF%? And I mean specifically, how much and what type of strength training? I've started training for a 10K and would still like to do that as well, along with some HIIT and strength training. Are body weight workouts enough for a relative beginner?

Also, I had been following a modified Dukan Diet and only recently started tracking calories again, but I've adjusted my calorie and macro goals based on advice from this group and am wondering if this sounds like a good place to start with my new approach (taking into account that I have PCOS):
Calories: 1360
Carbs: 102 gm
Fat: 53 gm
Protein: 119 gm
i.e. 30/35/35
And then eat 50-75% of my exercise calories on days I work out.

You're going to need some form of resistance training and ideally that training should get progressively more intense over time. If you are going to opt for body-weight I would check out You Are Your Own Gym or Convict Conditioning.

As far as "how much" you would need, I would start by doing at least 3 sessions per week.
Weight training may end up being a better choice especially as you get more experienced but if you are relatively untrained as far as resistance based training, body-weight should be fine at least for a while.

Given your volume of cardio I would really take your rate of weight loss slow. Size of deficit (rate of weight loss) will also impact your ability to retain lean mass. The leaner you get and the faster you attempt to lose, the more likely you are to lose muscle.

We would need to see gross caloric intake to make a more accurate assessment but based on BW and considering the volume of cardio you're doing I would lose no greater than 1lb/week.

macchiatto

Thanks so much for your reply! Very helpful.
I usually burn 250-350 cals/day from exercise (that will increase as my 10K program goes on and my runs get longer) so my tentative plan is that I would be eating the 1360 calories on days I don't exercise and 5-6 days a week, when I exercise, eating about 1500-1600 calories.