Need some advice on gaining muscle while losing weight

tunachicken32
tunachicken32 Posts: 2
edited November 7 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi guys, I just joined this site and setup my profile. I'm a pretty lean 5'11 guy, who weighs 148 lbs. The weight isn't really any issue, but I do have a bit of a beer belly combined with facial fat. What I'm looking to do right now is to tone my upper body. Last year, I tried to lose weight by cutting diet and doing some elliptical and ended up losing some muscle along the way as well, ended up with skinny arms - lost some of the muscle gains that I made few years ago :(

This time around, I've decided to combine daily cardio (30 min sessions on treadmill @ 3.5mph) followed by 20 min strength training session. From what info I could gather online, it seems like I should eat around 200grams of protein everyday to make sure I don't lose muscle. Is that true? or would I still lose some muscle along the way?

Related to this, I need to figure out how many calories to take. The website recommends that I take 1200 calories, so I entered all the food I ate for the day and I was short by 100 calories (need to eat more), but then I added my exercise routine, which burns roughly around 190 calories per day, then the site recommended that I get 290 more calories for the day. If I only take 100 calories, would that result in faster weight loss?

Replies

  • bigdaddy987
    bigdaddy987 Posts: 21
    This is how I started... I changed the way I look at food. I now see food as proteins carbs and fats.
    Now considering the information you can figure how much food your body needs to maintain body weight or lose fat and even gain muscle.
    Start by putting your information into this calculator http://iifym.com/iifym-calculator/
    Now Customise your goals in my fitnesspal and try to match your protein, carbs, and fat numbers you got on the calculator on iifym.

    Now if you are looking to gain weight/muscle I would suggest an app on android/iphone stronglift 5x5... Start the program and progress from the start. It might seem boring at the start, but i'm telling you.... stick with it you will see serious gains..... Gaining weight you should gain roughly 1 lb a month. I say this because most people gain about 100g of muscle per day so in a year you can gain up to 8 lbs of lean muscle. Dont start off with a 1200 cal diet that will just straight up mess with your metabolic rate in which your body precesses food.

    There is no such thing as "clean eating" its a myth. Make sure that you are however getting micro-nutrients aka vitamins / minerals. These are part of the building block that your body needs.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    At 5'11" 148, you are already at the low end of a healthy weight for your height.

    If MFP gave you a 1200 calorie goal, you entered something wrong. I am 5'4" 133 and a 41 yr old female and I am losing weight eating 1600 cals a day. And I don't work out as much as you do!

    I'm sure folks who know more will give you more specific info, but you need to eat more and focus on building muscle. If you work out as much as you do and eat so few calories, you will probably end up losing more muscle. To get more ideas on how many calories you need, try using some of the TDEE calculators online.
  • Wetcoaster
    Wetcoaster Posts: 1,788 Member
    Eat food....lift weights.

    Unless you like the skinny look.
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  • Dionsysus84
    Dionsysus84 Posts: 3
    This is also my situation (5'11", ~140lbs and looking to lose love handles / beer gut). I don't want to be a bodybuilder but I'd like to define my upper body / abs. If I do ab workouts and light weights several times per week, how many calories would be optimal?
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  • tunachicken32
    tunachicken32 Posts: 2
    So I followed advice given here and started taking more calories and my weight went up by 5lbs and all of that went to my gut - further messing up my problem.

    A family wedding is coming up in a couple of months, is there a way to get rid of the gut? I've always been a lean/skinny guy and I'm fine with that look, definitely don't want the gut hanging over the belt look on the wedding day. Weird thing is that my arms and legs are still skinny, it's just the gut and face that has all the fat.

    For now, I've started keeping log of everything I eat on this site and setup a Goal as well. According to the site, if I'm consuming 1200 calories and doing 30 minutes of brisk walk everyday, then I'll lose 7.2lbs in 1 month - which should make me look much nicer.

    To minimize muscle loss, I'm thinking of drinking protein shakes. What do you guys think?
  • cityruss
    cityruss Posts: 2,493 Member
    edited January 2015
    What was more calories?
    What's your BMR and TDEE according to the numerous calculators online?

    As has already been stated you need to choose a goal.

    - Lose "weight" (and by weight this means bodyfat, lean muscle mass etc)
    - Lose bodyfat and maintain lean muscle mass (The holy grail)
    - Gain "weight" (hopefully mostly lean muscle mass)

    Building significant muscle requires a calorific surplus, just the opposite of losing bodyfat. A quick online calculation shows at your stats an intake of 2375 calories would be a cautious approach to building muscle.

    In my humble opinion, all the protein shakes in the world aren't going to stop you losing lean muscle mass whilst consuming 1200 calories a day.

    Eat and exercise.
  • bos10fit
    bos10fit Posts: 80 Member
    Lifting weights in a calorie deficit would be considering cutting. The object of a cutting phase is to lose as much fat as possible while minimizing muscle loss.

    CUTTING SUMMARY:
    •Small meals every 2-3 hours
    •Cut back on the carbs (oats, rice, potatoes, etc..)
    •Your overall calories must be decreased (mostly from the carbs).
    •Increase your cardiovascular workouts, frequency and durations.
    •Don't try to cut weight too fast... slow and efficient is the way to go. If you see your lifts going down week after week, that is an indicator that you need more nutrition to maintain your muscle mass.
  • SergeantSausage
    SergeantSausage Posts: 1,673 Member
    Not. Gonna. Happen.

    For most folks, most of the time, those are two mutually exclusive goals that won't happen at the same time.

    Lose fat. Build muscle. Pick one.
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