90 minute Q&A - All fitness and weight loss related please

Is there any way to tone bat wing arms after weight loss besides surgery?

Depends. Is it skin or is it still an excess of fat in that area?

If it's skin, Tom Venuto wrote an awesome piece you should read here:

http://www.burnthefat.com/loose_skin.html

If it's fat, well, the only thing to do is stay patient and work on losing more than you have already. That's assuming you're not already at a healthy weight / body comp.

When we talk about toning, we often forget that we're really talking about two separate tissues - fat and muscle. We aren't going to convert one into the other so we have to find a way to balance both that leads to the most aesthetically pleasing look for us. In most peoples' minds, this means minimizing fat stores and maximizing muscle mass.

I wouldn't suggest banging out loads of direct tricep resistance training exercises as that's likely to do little for you. But following a structured and progressive resistance training program paired with a reasonable diet that's calorically aligned with fat loss is, simple, yes, but also likely the optimal approach.

Again, that's assuming it's excess fat. If it's skin, refer to that article as I wholeheartedly agree with it.

I have about 43 more pounds to lose and I'm terrified of having loose skin. I had a baby 1.5 years ago, and my stomach muscles still haven't recovered. Is there anything I can do to prevent or at least lessen the severity of loose skin from weight loss?

See the above answer. Unfortunately there's not much you can do... the vast majority of the issue is going to be dictated by your genetics. I've personally seen people lose 30 lbs and have lose skin issues while also seeing people lose 100+ lbs and be perfectly fine. A lot of it is a crapshoot.

I'm not a fan of surgery for aesthetic reasons in most cases, but lose skin is one of those things I make an exception for. You work your butt off to achieve health and a good body... once you get to the point where the only thing that's holding you back is something you likely won't be able to alter... well, surgery's a viable option in my mind.

Granted, I think before opting for that route you need to give it some time once you reach your "goal weight." The rebound of skin can take a while if it's going to happen.

I also think you need to do what you can to optimize body comp. Most people have the nutrition part down, but many aren't doing anything to manage the muscle side of the equation (strength training), and that's a problem.

But if you've got those bases covered and you're still having issues... well, again, surgery is a viable option in my mind.

double post

Is there anything fundamentally different about what works going from 30% bf to 15% as compared to going from 15% to 8%?

i.e. does the method matter more the leaner you get? Or is it still just about patience, commitment, and consistency?

Hot damn that's a great question.

Generally not much changes fundamentally. You still need a deficit in order to tap into the fat. You still need a balanced exercise approach to optimize body composition.

However, what does change is your body's sensitivity to stress. Generally speaking, and your mileage may vary, people can handle less volume/intensity as their bodies get leaner. Which is counter-intuitive for a lot of people. They think they should be doing more at this stage, especially seeing as how the rate of progress slows to a crawl for a lot of people... they get impatient and try throwing more at the body.

But the fact is, being lean goes against our body's natural inclination. And because it doesn't necessarily "want to be " lean, it's going to increase sensitivity to stress. Meaning bmr can reduce the most at this stage of the game as your body attempts preservation. More injuries or simple aches and pains can pop up in response to exercise. Desire to train and mental drive can be reduced.

In a nutshell, you simply have to refine your approach as you progress down the latter of leanness. For me, personally, that means focusing on the basics that drive the most benefit and shedding everything else since my body's recovery ability is minimized. After that it's all about patience.

I do tend to get more nitty gritty with the timing of my carb intake at that stage too. I've found it to be beneficial for optimizing partitioning of calories, but at the end of the day, the difference between hitting your daily targets with macros/calories vs. timing carbs around training likely isn't going to be terribly drastic so it really boils down to a matter of preference.

At what BF should you stop eating at a deficit if you want to build muscle?

That's pretty difficult to answer. If I were to pull a number out and say something like 10%, that might be just right for some people and off base for others. An example of the latter would be a scrawny teenager who never lifted a weight in his life who's sitting at 12-14% bf and 150 lbs. No way am I having that kid diet. I'm going to focus on getting him strong and building up some muscle, which ultimately will improve his body comp in the end anyhow... you either push it down by losing fat or you pull it down by adding muscle, the latter which all in all is a tediously slow process in most cases.

And yeah, adding muscle is typically accompanied by adding some fat, but in some populations it's a necessary evil. And in some populations, like the novice scrawny dude, even though he's sitting sort of high in bf%, focusing on adding muscle can actually lead to concurrent fat loss.

I'll say this. I don't worry about body fat %. I don't track it on myself or with any of my clients. I let the mirror, pictures, and performance determine progress.

Be that as it may, again, if I were forced to pick a number, I'd say 10%. It seems the fatter you start a surplus phase, the more fat you tend to accumulate throughout the process.

Are they ideal? Likely not. I'd prefer to see some form of progressive loading on the body to ensure muscle loss - especially age related muscle loss. You have to remember, it's also the quality of muscle that deteriorates with aging, and traditional, progress strength training is the best option for offsetting such losses.

That being said, resistance training comes in many packages. I mean think in these terms... in research, we'll see where overweight and sedentary test subjects wind up gaining muscle in their legs when they're placed on a walking program. Why's this? Walking isn't resistance training? But it is! You're moving load/resistance (your body weight) repetitively using your leg muscles.

Most around here wouldn't realize that same effect in response to walking and here's why.

Our bodies adapt to an overloading stimulus. If you're overweight in sedentary, walking at volume pushes your muscles over that threshold where they're forced to adapt. Most around here are active enough where they need high threshold stimulus to drive progress. Which is why progressive resistance training with external weights is ideal. You can always stay ahead of that threshold as your body advances/adapts.

Can you preserve the muscle you currently have using simply your body weight? It depends on how much muscle you currently have. If you're a former athlete and/or you've built up a decent base of muscle by way of training, most body weight training strategies isn't going to cut it since you're stimulating your body with a stress that's below what it's accustomed to dealing with (that whole overload thing). If you aren't rocking a significant base of muscle to begin with and your threshold for adaptation isn't very high... sure, things like yoga and pilates can do the trick. Optimally? I wouldn't say so. But if you loathe traditional forms of resistance training, it's likely a decent alternative.

Any tips for losing the last 10? Why is it so difficult?

Any tips for fine tuning of the macros at this point?

Did you read the lean getting leaner monster thread here?

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/113609-relatively-light-people-trying-to-get-leaner