Belly Fat And Muscle

Hi!

If you lose weight with no resistance training you'll lose muscle along with the fat. The more muscle you have the more your metabolism is boosted - in turn, burning more fat. The closer you get to your goal weight the harder it'll be to burn the fat without muscle mass. Don't worry about the scales so much - keep a note of your measurements. You won't be able to build much in the way of muscle if you're eating at a deficit, but you will be able to maintain what muscle you do have and boost your metabolism.

And lift heavy. Have rest days.

Hope that makes sense.

Contradictions, contradictions.

If you are doing 50 miles a day by bike, there is no way you are only doing 40 minutes each day, and you couldn't have been using the dumbbells. You won't lose thighs from cycling, especially not if you do 50 mile rides. Look at this link http://www.barelyhangingon.com/sports-talk/the-olympic-leg-off/ those are Olympic cyclist. Fear them. Moobs are another matter, and cycling doesn't help there. Bench press is one that hits the right muscle group though, even pushups would be better than cycling for that issue. One day, moobs become pecs. It just happens. Just not overnight. Then again.... you might just end up going http://lmgtfy.com/?q=otter+mode

Lift heavy -- check out 3x5, Starting Strength, Stronglifts, etc. It will help you build muscle and strength, produce more growth hormone and testosterone as a result to aid in that and reduce fat over all. You seem to need a total body recomp as you sound more like skinny fat right now (i.e. good weight but lacking muscle).

You could also add in a weekly or twice weekly sprint session -- this also helps with muscle growth (think about how jacked sprinters are -- Flo Jo, Michael Johnson, etc.) -- here's a good article explaining it: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/par46.htm

Also, eat sufficient protein -- at least 0.7 g per lb body weight.

Do you eat a lot of soy? It ends up creating a lot of estrogen in the body, which inhibits muscle growth and you get more of the man boobs look. If you're using protein powder, make sure it's whey not soy based.