How to maintain weight, but replace fat with muscle?

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  • TheRealParisLove
    TheRealParisLove Posts: 1,907 Member
    I've mostly done this. If you look at my ticker you can see that I haven't lost much weight at all, but I did lose 7-8% body fat. My clothing went from a size 10-12 down to a 2-4.

    How did I do it?

    *I increased my protein intake to 30% of total calories consumed.
    *I do a lot of cardio. I know the CW is to reduce cardio when you want to put on muscle, but this didn't work for me. I get 6-8 hours of moderate to vigorous cardio a week.
    *I do very little weight training, maybe 30-40 minutes a week, but I go hard and heavy. Supersets work best for me.
    *Get plenty of sleep.
    *Eat lots of low calorie, nutrient dense foods.
    *Eat very close to maintenance, eating back most of your exercise calories. We're talking a deficit of 5-10%.

    I've been maintaining for several months. I know why-- not exercising as much and eating junk way too often. Now that the days are getting longer and the weather is getting nicer, I'm ready to tackle this task again. I shooting for 18% body fat and 120 pounds over all. If 18% ends up being heavier, then that's ok with me. :smile:
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
    My belief is with the correct techniques that you should eat more protein and weight train. Your body breaks your muscle down. For the nutrients and if you provide enough for your body then it won't need that. You don't want to eat all your protein sources at once. You want to eat small amounts through the day. I also take a casein protein at night so your muscles are slowly being fed the nutrients throughout the night when you aren't eating at night, because this is the time where your muscles repair themselves. But with this in mind you do have to include weight training in your workout. Not lower weight with higher amount of reps. You also have to understand that doing it right where you aren't losing massive amounts of muscle requires you to lose weight slowly so that way your body doesn't thing that its starving. You are still more than likely going to lose some muscle, it's inevitable until you are at your ideal weight and trying to build, but it can definitely help. Now keep in mind I got this from someone that this worked for not through any studies, it may not work that way for everyone.

    While I agree that it is not optimal to get all your protein at one go, you do not have to eat small meals throughout the day. Your body can absorb quite a bit in one go (and in fact it needs a certain amount in one go to stimulate protein synthesis) and what it does not absorb immediately will be absorbed later.

    Also, the OP should not be looking to lose weight.

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