maintaining muscle

margannmks

I keep reading posts that say you cant build muscle and lose fat, so if Im wanting to just maintain the muscle I have built and now lose some fat how do I change my lifting ie do I continue the same schedule just use less weight and do more reps or cut back on lifting days per week. And what about calories, apparently Im not eating at a deficit because I have built enough muscle and still have the stubborn fat pockets on inner thigh, back of arm and upper abs. Mostly Im not wanting my arms/ shoulders to get any more muscular but still need to work on back and glutes. I do a bootcamp style class so I dont have alot of control over exercises but can control the amount of weight I use and can do other training.

stephaaniemarie

I'm not an expert, just speaking from my own experience. I have lost 28 lbs and do a lot of weight lifting, and I have nice muscle definition showing as I'm dropping weight. I also try to make sure I eat a lot of protein. I don't think the two are totally mutually exclusive.

margannmks

Thats been my experience too ive lost 25 lbs and built considerable muscle, increasing weights as reps get easier and going to fatigue, doing intense cardio and eating 1400-1600 in calories, some days im under 1400 but thats on my non exercise day.I try to stay 40/30/30 carb protein fat.I have upped the potein ive always made sure i have it at every meal,never been the cereal,bread eater anyway and ive increased it from 12-15 grms to 20 on my meals. Im a sugar junkie but i count it in my totals. Im thinking ill just keep doing what im doing but not increase my weight anymore on the areas im happy with and do more on the ones im not. In the upper body class we do lots of shoulder, bicep,tricep so i have lots of definition there and muscle size, my daughter called me hulk,not sure if that was good or bad. I definetly dont want to lose the muscle i gained just cant seem to get that last stubborn fat off. Ive been doing this for a year and a half so its not like ive been trying to do it over nite or expecting too much too soon. The schedule is mon tues lower body they alternate one will be more cardio and the other is more strength,wed and thurs upper body and split the same way fri is total body kinda like circuit were its a mix of everything . And on sat i usually just do my bike for 40 min,sun rest day( except doing housework,laundry,gardening,playing with dog, the usual). I know this is getting kinda long sorry i just want to stay the same except for the fat, i dont want to be skinny muscley like that woman on survivor last season. At my age i think i look better with some plump,just wish i coul move it around:)

cwolfman13

You just continue to lift...you don't really need to change up your lifting provided you are doing a good routine to begin with. Your lifts should still have progressive overload....you can still make considerable strength gains in a deficit of energy, you just can't build mass...the same you cannot "build" fat in a catabolic state, so to you cannot build muscle mass. Catabolic is catabolic.

Note that strength does not necessarily equate to mass and building muscle...strength gains are largely attributable to neural adaptation rather than mass.

Also note that a lot of people mistake the shedding of fat and revealing of muscle to be building muscle...when reality is that muscle existed already and it is just being uncovered. It may be firmer than it was and to be sure that muscle will be "pumped" with fluid...but that's not actual muscle mass.

margannmks

You just continue to lift...you don't really need to change up your lifting provided you are doing a good routine to begin with. Your lifts should still have progressive overload....you can still make considerable strength gains in a deficit of energy, you just can't build mass...the same you cannot "build" fat in a catabolic state, so to you cannot build muscle mass. Catabolic is catabolic.

Note that strength does not necessarily equate to mass and building muscle...strength gains are largely attributable to neural adaptation rather than mass.

Also note that a lot of people mistake the shedding of fat and revealing of muscle to be building muscle...when reality is that muscle existed already and it is just being uncovered. It may be firmer than it was and to be sure that muscle will be "pumped" with fluid...but that's not actual muscle mass.

Other than the last paragraph i have no idea what the first two meant ,not trying to offend but what is progressive overload and " gains in a deficit of energy " mean, and that second paragraph lost me completely.

jlclabo

You just continue to lift...you don't really need to change up your lifting provided you are doing a good routine to begin with. Your lifts should still have progressive overload....you can still make considerable strength gains in a deficit of energy, you just can't build mass...the same you cannot "build" fat in a catabolic state, so to you cannot build muscle mass. Catabolic is catabolic.

Note that strength does not necessarily equate to mass and building muscle...strength gains are largely attributable to neural adaptation rather than mass.

Also note that a lot of people mistake the shedding of fat and revealing of muscle to be building muscle...when reality is that muscle existed already and it is just being uncovered. It may be firmer than it was and to be sure that muscle will be "pumped" with fluid...but that's not actual muscle mass.

Other than the last paragraph i have no idea what the first two meant ,not trying to offend but what is progressive overload and " gains in a deficit of energy " mean, and that second paragraph lost me completely.

gains in a deficit of energy equates to, you can get stronger while eating in a caloric deficit, but not add muscle mass.

progressive overload refers to the amount of weight you are lifting. keeping the weight higher and reps lower will preserve current muscle mass and potentially add to strength gains. I/E: stay in the weight range that puts you in the 3-5 rep per set range.

neural adaptation is your CNS(central nervous system) getting use to the increased weight load and also getting stronger. your CNS is what ultimately determines how "strong" you will be vs muscle mass.

margannmks

Wow that makes more sense, thanks

margannmks

Sorry not to imply the other way didnt make sense, i just understand now what was said.