Muscle vs. Fat (loosing weight)

mustnothrowcantelopes

what exercises or what kind of excercise should I do that is targeted towards losing weight instead of gaining muscle. My biggest problem area is my waist. I'm one of those people that have a body shape that is -male but I'm female-a reverse triangle. I have broad shoulders, a large chest and a large stomach. I feel like most of the time all the fat gets deposited there. I have a flat butt and no curves. My top is larger than my bottom half in proportion. It's been a problem for a very long time. I'm afraid that if/when I start exercising, I'll be putting on more weight from gaining muscle , which I don't want to do. I want to get to my target weight and then start toning my body. My other fear is losing inches in the wrong places. Ever since I started this journey, I feel like the reason I can't see where I lost the weight is because my chest or places like my butt, which is pretty much non existent, are the areas that got smaller, not my stomach.

hroush

You have no choice in where you lose weight as your body will choose for you. If you just want to lose weight, you want to do cardio (running, biking, elliptical, etc.) where you get your heart rate up, but you don't put a lot a strain on your muscles at once. If you start lifting, you will still lose weight as the fat will melt faster than the muscle gained.

Should you want some shape to your bum, running will help with this. The way to do this faster, however, is squats and other rear leg exercises. Not only would this lifting give you shape, but would also burn fat as your legs are your largest muscle group and thus the largest fat burners.

In other words, don't be afraid of strength training. It would take you longer to get to your end goal by doing cardio and then lifting rather than lifting and doing cardio at the same time.

jhardenbergh

do cardio and when it comes to weights do low weight and high reps (15-20 reps per set), cardio will help you get rid of the fat and doing the high reps will help you tone as you go. I don't take in a lot of calories daily so I do one exercise for each body part, one set of 20 each. biceps=curl, triceps=tricep extensions, chest=bench press, back=lat pull down, legs on the other hand I do a couple since squats, calf raises, leg extension, if you go to the gym look at the equipment usually there's a label on it that show what body parts are worked. If you don't go to the gym, pick up some of those resistence bands. I travel a lot for work and bring them with me. My exercise physiologist said you don't need to belong to a gym, there are plenty of options of working out at home.

dave4d

You have no choice in where you lose weight as your body will choose for you. If you just want to lose weight, you want to do cardio (running, biking, elliptical, etc.) where you get your heart rate up, but you don't put a lot a strain on your muscles at once. If you start lifting, you will still lose weight as the fat will melt faster than the muscle gained.

Should you want some shape to your bum, running will help with this. The way to do this faster, however, is squats and other rear leg exercises. Not only would this lifting give you shape, but would also burn fat as your legs are your largest muscle group and thus the largest fat burners.

In other words, don't be afraid of strength training. It would take you longer to get to your end goal by doing cardio and then lifting rather than lifting and doing cardio at the same time.

I agree. If your main goal is your body shape, strength training is a must. If you just do cardio, you may still keep the same shape, only smaller.

jenomaha

Another important piece of the puzzle is nutrition. No matter how many crunches you do, if you are not eating properly, you may not get the abs you're looking for. Here is a link with some info:

http://www.ehow.com/about_5398325_nutrition-plan-develop-abs.html

here is a link with food suggestions:

http://www.quickandsimple.com/diet-weight-loss/tips-calculator/belly-fat-foods

Good luck!