help want to lose body fat but gain muscle

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hotpooch
hotpooch Posts: 4
in Fitness and Exercise
i gave up smoking a yr ago but put on a stone so would like to shift that but i but would also like to gain muscle so does that mean i consantrate on losing weight first then gain muscle.....

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  • edorice
    edorice Posts: 4,519 Member
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    It is possible to gain or maintain muscle while losing fat. Weight lifting burns calories.
  • suziehomemaker
    suziehomemaker Posts: 116
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    no when i trained with a trainer they told me that you always want to do weight lifting as well as cardio while watching your calorie intake, this way your muscle burns fuel constantly while cardio works your heart and lungs and burns calories as well, then watching your calorie intake limits the fuel your body has immediately on hand so it burns your reserves (fat stores)...hope that helps
  • jamie1888
    jamie1888 Posts: 1,704 Member
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    Agreed with edorice. Be sure to eat enough protein to support the muscle growth.
  • thefatqueen
    thefatqueen Posts: 16
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    You will need to exercise, which will help you lose weight, and tone your body. Exercise and food reduction go hand in hand,. Be sure and acurately record EVERYTHING you eat and your exercise. I have noticed people put in the things like cleaning house for calories burned.. guess what you got fat while you were doing that. I ONLY include extra's example: I always walk the dogs x fast, xc distance. I input only what I do beyond that point.

    Good luck AnnaLiese
  • NoAdditives
    NoAdditives Posts: 4,251 Member
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    It's hard to gain muscle when you have a calorie deficit. If you do cardio and strength training you can build some muscle, but not much. It takes a lot of extra calories and tons and tons of protein to actually build (grow) muscle. My husband is trying to gain muscle right now and he is supposed to eat at least 3000 calories a day. His growth has slowed because he has a hard time eating that much.
  • hotpooch
    hotpooch Posts: 4
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    at the minute i do 3 cardio classes a wk and 1 body pump class so maybe i should introduce a bit more weight training then also i was taking protein shakes after each session but stops cause i thought i should lose some weight first maybe i should start the shakes back up aswell lol it can all be very confusing knowing wot the right thing to do is
  • lisawest
    lisawest Posts: 798 Member
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    Sounds like you are trying to do what is commonly referred to as "cutting." Search in the forums and there are quite a few others on here doing the same thing. NoAdditives is absolutely right. You can NOT build new muscle while at a calorie deficit. Muscle requires a LOT of calories and your body does NOT like to build it because of this. I would recommend working on dropping fat first. After you've dropped a few percentage points in your body fat, then you can work on building. Then cycle back through.

    Be sure to search the forums! There have been several people post about how they are doing this. Although I do believe that it has been several months since I've seen one.

    HTH!

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