Lose fat & gain muscle, best way to eat?

MrsLVF

What is the best proven way to eat when you're over weight & want to lose the fat & gain (or at least keep) the muscle?

I have been strength training every other day & do cardio, daily.
I'll be 41 next week & I'm @37%BF. (according to BMI & accu-measure calipers)

SafireBleu

Have you tried this site? http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/ It is supposed to tell you how much to eat to lose fat and not lean body mass. Everyone says you need protein to build muscle. I have upped my protein a lot recently and it is affecting my kidneys. I have in the last week cut all animal protein from my diet and I have lost 5 lbs and BF went from 32.8 to 30.6. I have not lost any lean body mass according to my scale. I might be the exception to the rule. Generally the macros are set to 40 carbs/ 30 protein/ 30 fat. My macros need to be different because of my kidneys. My calorie intake is pretty much the same as it has always been though. I'll let more experienced people answer but generally this is what I have read here. Every body is different though so after playing around with calories you might need to play around with your macros like I have been.

MrsLVF

Thanks for the tip, Ive' checked that site out. And I've been playing with the macros too. I haven't quite figured out what's going to work yet.

Gordie580

You really need to go to a Dr. and get a true BF%. The calculators are good, but not everyone is the same

Topsking2010

Bump

JeepBrah

I don't think you will lose alot of muscle if you are 37% bodyfat infact you will gain muscle if you do it right. eat clean and hit your macros if you want to lose weight you should be like 500calories under your maintance It gets hard to keep the muscle once your under 10%

erickirb

What is the best proven way to eat when you're over weight & want to lose the fat & gain (or at least keep) the muscle?

I have been strength training every other day & do cardio, daily.
I'll be 41 next week & I'm @37%BF. (according to BMI & accu-measure calipers)

Do less cardio, and allow the calories in your system to repair your muscles instead of using the energy for cardio.

Cardio is great for heart health and endurance, but acutally makes your body lose lean muscle. If your goal is to lose body fat and not lean muscle, back off on cardio to very little, and achieve your deficit from diet alone.

Cardio allows you to eat more while having the same deficit , as you could get from diet alone. On top of that if you don't want to lose lean muscle, ensure you get enough protein, and lift heavy (for you, 6-10 reps is more than enough as long as you have trouble keeping good form on the last couple of reps) and that your deficit is not too large (0.5 to 1lb/week goal would be best depending on how much you have to lose)

twinmom01

I am sure this will court controversy...BUT for the last 6 months I have been eating a Primal/Paleo lifestyle (removeal of all grains, beans, not eating a few certain veggies - keep dairy in but very, very little) - within this eating lifestyle I also skew my carbs to the lower end -of about 80-100 g /day (eat lots of veggies and keep the fruits I eat to a small amount and lower carb/sugar ones at that) - eat plenty of proteins and good for you fats (olive oil, coconut oil, almonds, pecans, avocados)

I also do kickboxing (for the past year) and Crossfit (for the past 3 months) with very little cardio (only Cardio I do is what is in the classes).

I have lost over 18 lbs in the past 6 months...but I have toned up quite significantly, lost a bunch of inches and I can actually see muscle defination (even though I am still a bit fluffy) and gained tons of strength....

wk9t

bump

jonski1968

Bummp

MrsLVF

I don't think you will lose alot of muscle if you are 37% bodyfat infact you will gain muscle if you do it right. eat clean and hit your macros if you want to lose weight you should be like 500calories under your maintance It gets hard to keep the muscle once your under 10%

Thank you, What are your macros recommendations?

JeepBrah

I don't think you will lose alot of muscle if you are 37% bodyfat infact you will gain muscle if you do it right. eat clean and hit your macros if you want to lose weight you should be like 500calories under your maintance It gets hard to keep the muscle once your under 10%

Thank you, What are your macros recommendations?

what are your stats? and male or female?

MrsLVF

What is the best proven way to eat when you're over weight & want to lose the fat & gain (or at least keep) the muscle?

I have been strength training every other day & do cardio, daily.
I'll be 41 next week & I'm @37%BF. (according to BMI & accu-measure calipers)

Do less cardio, and allow the calories in your system to repair your muscles instead of using the energy for cardio.

Cardio is great for heart health and endurance, but acutally makes your body lose lean muscle. If your goal is to lose body fat and not lean muscle, back off on cardio to very little, and achieve your deficit from diet alone.

Cardio allows you to eat more while having the same deficit , as you could get from diet alone. On top of that if you don't want to lose lean muscle, ensure you get enough protein, and lift heavy (for you, 6-10 reps is more than enough as long as you have trouble keeping good form on the last couple of reps) and that your deficit is not too large (0.5 to 1lb/week goal would be best depending on how much you have to lose)
[/quote]
Thank you,
I have about 30 lbs to lose, of which I would like 30lbs of fat Thank you, I was wondering about the cardio. I've been doing 20-30 min on the elliptical. It's getting nice out, so I may just switch to hiking.
I do all my workouts at home, Olympic barbell, dumbbells, ez-curl bar, I am lifting "heavy", but because of the high BF% My arms are getting that bulky look, which is better than the waving lunch lady arms, but still not the look I'm going for, so I backed off just a wee bit I rotate between 8-10 reps & 10-15 reps every other workout. I am still lifting to just before failure. I hope that doesn't work against me.
[/quote]

what are your stats? and male or female?

Female 41 yo 5' 2.5" 158 lbs

MrsLVF

any other tips?

prettygirlhoward

bump

neanderthin

Yes increase your protein and engage in weight training, this will make all the difference. You can split carbs and fat anyway you want. The weight training while dieting signals survival and prioritizes what is liberated for energy, and with the weight training, muscle is preserved and body fat is liberated to a much higher degree, and the extra protein ensures muscle preservation actually takes place.

AeolianHarp

I wouldn't bother trying to specifically gain muscle and lose fat. If it comes then it comes. The optimal macronutrients (which is best for body composition) may allow for it but there's nothing really specific you can do to gain muscle while in a deficit. There's no special technique. Neanderthin pretty much hit it on the head. Lift weights, eat a bunch of protein, and you're money.

lionempress

Also check out http://www.leangains.com/2010/04/leangains-guide.html
The site also has peoples experiences with it.
Good luck in whichever way you chose to approach your goals.

MrsLVF

Whats better for macros 40/40/20 or 40/30/30 ?

AeolianHarp

Whats better for macros 40/40/20 or 40/30/30 ?

Neither. Percentages are god awful. Everyone should work based off of minimums and work from there.

Let's use me as an example. I calculate my calories to be at 1900 @ 152lbs (I'll probably increase another 100 calories this week but for the sake of simplicity I'll use 1900), so I would calculate in this exact order:
Protein: 1g/lb of BW, 1g/lb of target BW, or 1g/lb of LBM. I choose 1g/lb per BW to be on the safe side since I have no clue how much LBM I have. This means 152g of protein per day, which is 608 calories.
Fat: 0.35g/lb MINIMUM - I use 0.35 because I feel 0.25 is much too low. This gives me 53g of fat at 477 calories. I have 815 calories left over. Now I can distribute this how I want.

815 - 135 (I want 15g more fat) = 680 calories
680/4 (4 calories in 1g of carbs) = 170g carbs

So my macros are 152g protein, 68g fat, 170g carbs.

As a side note, fat minimum is actually lower than 0.35g/lb (it's 0.25g/lb) but I don't think people should set such a low minimum. 0.35g/lb is a much better starting point. Recommendations by Emma Leigh (a great nutritional mind) is a minimum at 0.45g/lb for fat but it's up to you really. I prefer starting lower and then distributing how I want.

SirBen81

40%P / 40%F / 20%C