How to Lose Fat but not Muscle

Edphil2

I need some serious advice. I am really watching what I eat. I am 52, male, and currently weigh 173 lbs. I also do weight training 3 days a week, run one day a week, maintain about a 1600 calorie intake, carb, fat and sugars under my goals and try to intake 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight (175 grams). I have lost 20 pounds since the first of the year. I take body measurements monthly and have noticed that I am losing lean muscle along with the fat. What can I do to keep losing the fat without losing the lean muscle mass? HELP!!!

BerryH

As far as I understand it, you will always lose some muscle mass along with the fat, it's the way the body works. The trick is to minimise the proportion of muscle loss to fat, and it sounds like you're going the right way about it with strength training. Lift heavy, low reps for maximum results. Good luck!

Edphil2

I have changed my lifting routine to 5 sets of 5 reps each to be able to incorporate heaver weight. I've only been doing this routine about 2 weeks, as opposed to the old standard 3 set of 10 reps.

Smuterella

you need to eat at maintenance or just under

scottb81

Are you taking caliper measurements to calculate bodyfat or just measuring everthing with a tape measure? If it's the tape measure tnen fat comes off from everywhere on the body and a bodypart could get smaller without any loss of lean muscle.

Edphil2

OK, another thought. Once I get all the fat off, how would I be able to gain the muscle mass back without also gaining the fat back also? Dang, this is hard!

LorinaLynn

Like Berry said, some muscle is often lost, but your calorie intake is pretty low for a guy. Have you already reached your goal weight?

Edphil2

Lisa, I set my goals to maintain body weight, thinking if I stay under, I should be good.

Scott, I'm just using a tape. I never would have thought I was carrying fat in my arms or chest, but I guess it's possible.

Edphil2

Lorina, I still have a little belly fat I want to lose. I want to see them abs. I'm starting to just get a hint of them.

vancil01

Change your lifting routine, not just the sets and reps, but do different exercises. I love this program: http://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/hardcore-look-at-jim-wendlers-5-3-1-powerlifting-system.html it helped me increase my maxes in bench, squat, mil.press and dead lift significantly in a short amount of time. These are all exercises that will help you gain muscle throughout your entire body, focusing on core.

scottb81

Have you been getting stronger with the weight lifting? If your weight room performance is improving then I doubt you are losing any significant amount of muscle. On the other hand, if it is steadily getting worse . . .

DaveRCF

What you are going through is a carbon copy of my own experience. Difficult to lose weight and build meaningful muscle mass at the same time.

My advice is to not worry about it too much until you reach your goal weight. That is when I'd really focus on adding muscle. And at the end of the day, it should really be about how you look and feel, not about the numbers.

You seem to be doing everything right; I bet that by continuing with a 5X5 program after you hit your target weight and you can eat more calories, the muscle mass will come.

Good luck!

Sidesteal

A few comments, just my opinion:

1) I agree with Lorina. I also stared at her pic for a while, for the record. I'd consider upping your calorie intake. How tall are you or do you know your bodyfat%? You should be able to slow the cut down and that should help things a bit.

2) You can have fat on your arms and chest.

How long have you been lifting for and are you using a pre-written program? Curious what your training volume is like. It's possible that you would benefit from adding volume.

ilovedeadlifts

Came in to see lifting routine.


Sidesteal is gonna have good advice on this. So I'll let him handle it.

Edphil2

Scott, Dave and Side:

I haven't really noticed any max lift gains...kind of staying stable. I've been lifting for about a year. When I started (and was not worrying about fat loss) I was improving max lifts steadily and gaining mass. I'm 6 foot tall but dont know my percent body fat.

Monday is chest: flat bench 5X5@185, Flat flys 5X5@30, incline bench 5X5@135, incline flys 5X5@30, decline bench 5X5@185
Tuesday is legs and back: squats 5X5@155, machine press 5X5@225, leg extensions 5X5@85, leg curls 5X5@85, upright rows 5X5@55, shrugs 5X5@135
Wednesday id running: 5K
Thursday is bicep and tricep: overhead press 5X5@95, curls 5X5@65, cable tricep extesions 5X5@45, reverse incline curls 5X5@25. push-downs 5X5@60, preacher curls 5X5@30.

I also do pull-ups every workout 3 sets of 6, and push-ups 3 sets of 15.

Any comments welcome, and my diary is open. Thanks to all.

LaMujerMasBonitaDelMundo

Its pretty normal that we lose fat & muscle at the same time but with weight lifting helps minimize muscle loss while in calorie deficit and at the same time losing the fat but it doesn't guarantee that you will not lose any muscle unless you start to eat a bit above your maintenance calories. Also consider taking skinfold caliper test to measure body fat% from time to time so you will know exactly if you're losing fat or muscle.

Sidesteal

Scott, Dave and Side:

I haven't really noticed any max lift gains...kind of staying stable. I've been lifting for about a year. When I started (and was not worrying about fat loss) I was improving max lifts steadily and gaining mass. I'm 6 foot tall but dont know my percent body fat.

Monday is chest: flat bench 5X5@185, Flat flys 5X5@30, incline bench 5X5@135, incline flys 5X5@30, decline bench 5X5@185
Tuesday is legs and back: squats 5X5@155, machine press 5X5@225, leg extensions 5X5@85, leg curls 5X5@85, upright rows 5X5@55, shrugs 5X5@135
Wednesday id running: 5K
Thursday is bicep and tricep: overhead press 5X5@95, curls 5X5@65, cable tricep extesions 5X5@45, reverse incline curls 5X5@25. push-downs 5X5@60, preacher curls 5X5@30.

I also do pull-ups every workout 3 sets of 6, and push-ups 3 sets of 15.

Any comments welcome, and my diary is open. Thanks to all.

Random thoughts, this is just my opinion:

I would consider looking at a few different pre-written programs.



But honestly, to say that this is what is causing your problems would be guessing on my part. The FIRST place I would look would be your diet, by increasing calories and slowing down the losses a bit.

If you don't change programs, at the very least I'd ramp up your back lifts as that's lacking pretty badly IMO. If you don't plan on doing deads, at the very least consider consolidating your pullups onto back day and hit them hard, and add some type of bent row (yates/barbell/db).

If you look at it, you're doing a total of 25 sets of chest, and 10 sets of back and the exercises you chose for back are upright rows and shrugs (whereas deadlifts and pullups would hit a larger area).



I would expect lifts to still increase while you're cutting weight. They won't go up as fast as they would during a bulk but you should still get some increases.

Edphil2

Thanks Side. I have had some lower back issues, and deadlifts seem to aggrivate them. I have tried bent-over rows and they dont seem to bother me, so I will add them as a regular. Any other ideas for the back?

One thing I left out was that I also take a one hour yoga class after my workout on Tuesdays. I love that class.

Sidesteal

Thanks Side. I have had some lower back issues, and deadlifts seem to aggrivate them. I have tried bent-over rows and they dont seem to bother me, so I will add them as a regular. Any other ideas for the back?

One thing I left out was that I also take a one hour yoga class after my workout on Tuesdays. I love that class.

Assuming that yates/barbell/pendlay rows would also cause lower back problems, I'd add a DB bent row, a seated type of row (either a low cable row or a chest supported row) and consider sticking all of your pullup work on your back day as well. Doing it this way I'd start with the pullups first and hammer the balls out of them (consider adding weight as well).

But again, I doubt this is a big contributor to your issue, it's just something sort of glaring that I noticed when looking at the program. There's other areas for improvement and a pre-written one would do you well, but the above changes should help a bit. As it is now you're hammering chest pretty good and severely neglecting the lats.

Ultimately I think raising calories will be the biggest contributor though. Find a sweet spot so you can slowly lose weight but get enough calories in to keep strength gains going. I think 1600 is pushing it too low.

mexy04

bump

ninerbuff

Right up my alley. You'll ALWAYS lose a little muscle when lowering fat. It's inevitable, however it can be minimized by HEAVY *kitten* lifting and good nutrition.
Body fat is burned more from your RMR than any cardio activity, so raise your RMR with HIIT cardio and intense lifting.

If you want to gain muscle, you need surplus, and just like losing a little muscle with fat, the opposite happens. You gain a little fat with muscle.

A.C.E. Certified Personal Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

imogenjade

protein

erickirb

The best way is a slight caloric deficit of no more than 250 cals/day (0.5lbs/week goal), adequate protein, and a heavy lifting strength training routine (preferably compound lifts).

If you are only eating 1600 cals I would venture to guess that your deficit is quite large. Are you netting 1600 or eating 1600. I would suggest do not net lower than 1600 (1600 plus eat back all the calories you burn from exercise)

minadeathclutch

go to bodybuilding.com !! THERES GREAT ADVICE THERE. from people who know!

erickirb

Lisa, I set my goals to maintain body weight, thinking if I stay under, I should be good.

Look like some days you are more than 1000 cals under, that will def. lead to the loss of lean muscle. Try to be within 300 cals of your maintenance everyday.

hirensthenameliftinsthegame

cyclical dieting always works wonders for me, have a 10-20% surplus on training days and eat at maintenance or below on non training days, along with switching up your calories.

have higher carbs than fats on training day and keep protein the same throughout, then switch it up with higher fats, lower carbs on non training days and protein the same.

its not impossible to lose fat without sacrificing muscle, i have lose about 4 % or so in the last 5 months while gaining alot of strength in all my lifts. It just takes a longer time, if you want to you can speed it up by lowering the cals on your non training days by 20% at max, and focus on getting big lifts in on your training days none of the accessory work like db flys and **** like that. Hit as many muscles as you can and lift as heavy as possible without sackin form(causes an increased response of intracellular ribosome activity and hormone production). Low carb--->less than 15% of your total daily cals from carbs is classified as low carb(avoid fruits/veggies or fructose sugar as much as possible on those days to avoid refilling your liver glycogen)

Read my blogs, i have a few things posted on training and dieting...

biged335

Here's an articile I read that might help.

http://www.askmen.com/sports/bodybuilding_900/988_body-recomposition.html

Kissybiz

Change your lifting routine, not just the sets and reps, but do different exercises. I love this program: http://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/hardcore-look-at-jim-wendlers-5-3-1-powerlifting-system.html it helped me increase my maxes in bench, squat, mil.press and dead lift significantly in a short amount of time. These are all exercises that will help you gain muscle throughout your entire body, focusing on core.

This is an awesome site.