How can I continue fat loss while continuing weight training

RGJeff
RGJeff Posts: 32
edited September 26 in Fitness and Exercise
Hi...

I lost about 50 pounds between January and March. With only 30 pounds to go, I decided it was time to start building muscle, otherwise I wasn't going to look right. My weight loss stopped dead in its tracks for a month now and I've since learned about muscle building and fat loss being mostly incompatable and you get poor results for both if you try both at the same time.

But I've been lifting weights on a regular basis for the first time in my life and I don't want to give it up. Still, I want to keep the fat loss the first priority, muscle building second priority. Can anyone tell me what kind of weight lifting I can do or should do that allows me to stay in the catabolic state for fat loss? Here is what I have been doing:

Every 5 days- work upper body muscles to failure in about 5 reps. 3 different glute excersises- low weight / 12 reps. 2 different ab excersises, low weight, 12 reps, no specific leg work. I really think I see results with this. I'm wondering if I can continue since I only train the upper body to failure, maybe I can stay in the catabolic state, and my recent lack of weight loss has been fat loss with muscle increase. Any chance of that?

Thanks!

Replies

  • Texaganian
    Texaganian Posts: 67
    Alas, I'm in the same boat. Looking forward to reading what people say.
  • brianlocal3
    brianlocal3 Posts: 33 Member
    Give a Monday thru Friday breakdown of your weight training and cardio workouts. I don't get exactly what you are describing. Also what is your diet looking like.
    A simple rule on food intake I use is try to get 1gram of protien and 1gram of carb per lb of BW. keep fat to 40-50 grams daily. Adjust accordingly for caloric needs.

    This will help maintain muscle mass. You can get stronger and firmer while doing both. Are you looking to get bigger in the muscles or just tone up?
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
    Weight lifting does not inhibit fat loss. It might inhibit weight loss, especially during the first few weeks, because you are replacing fat with muscle and muscle weighs more than fat. But that doesn't mean that you are no losing fat and improving your overall health. In fact, the more muscle mass you have the more calories you burn while at rest.
  • carl1738
    carl1738 Posts: 444 Member
    You can build muscle while losing fat, but strength training while on a calorie reduced diet is more about keeping the muscle that you do have. I've had good results with gaining muscle on a calorie deficit, as my arms and chest measurements are going up, but my waist measurements are going down. Make sure that you're getting at least 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. Stick mainly with compound or multi joint exercises like squats, deadlifts, barbell rows, bench presses, shoulder presses, and pullups or lat pulldowns. Always train your bigger muscle groups like quads, hamstrings, chest and back before you tackle your biceps, triceps, abs or calves. Use rep ranges from 5-15, and mix them up a little. And most importantly, keep up with the cardio to burn away the unwanted fat. Don't train the same muscle group on consecuetive days, or more than twice a week. Use weights that challenge you to complete the last rep. Take measurements on a regular basis, because I found that the scale didn't move down very fast, but my vital measurements certainly changed for the better. A mirror and measuring tape are better tools than a scale when you're strength training.
  • RGJeff
    RGJeff Posts: 32
    Looks like I get about 50 to 60 grams of fat per day, 200 carbs, and about 65 protien. With that, I was getting reliable weight loss until I started the work outs. The workout I descibed was one workout every 5 days. The only cardio to speak of is 3.5 mph walk arount the lake twice per week (3.1 miles) . I was looking for bigger upper body and glutes, just tone the rest.
  • brianlocal3
    brianlocal3 Posts: 33 Member
    Also, do you take supplements? You are asking alot of your body so it's going to need some high quality focused fuel.

    I'm new here so I don't know how this site works yet, but Beverly international and complete supplements have people who will help you put together a generic diet plan and supplement stack to help you out. It's free also.
    As a side note. The only supps I take for daily maintenance are fish oils, protein mix for in between meals and multi-vitamin. So I am not pushing supplements, but sometimes they are imperative for what you are asking of your body
  • Schwiggity
    Schwiggity Posts: 1,449 Member
    Add more cardio to your workouts I'd say.
  • oddyogi
    oddyogi Posts: 1,816 Member
    65 g of protein is WAAAAAY too little.. my minimum every day is at LEAST 90 g. My husband shoots for 150-200 because he's trying to put on muscle. I don't know how much you weigh, but you definitely need to eat way more protein. Also having protein after you work out is great.
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
    I'm thinking of writing up a detailed description of the physiological processes of anabolism vs catabolism (growing vs shrinking body tissue of any kind), there are a lot of interesting theories out there on building versus shrinking body tissues. I've done quite a bit of study into the human metabolism and catabolic vs anabolic states, and I'm thinking of giving a brief outline.

    I'm pretty busy with work this week though, and I'm already half way deep into my protein discussion in my blog, so it might be a while.

    until then I strongly suggest people read up on

    human catabolism and anabolism.

    Other things to look into are:

    Testosterone
    Insulin Like Growth Factor (IGF)
    Cortisol
    Insulin
    Growth Hormone
    Estrogen
    Hypertrophy and muscle fiber growth
    Physiological muscle adaptation
    Dormant muscle fibers and activation schedules (very closely related to caloric deficit resistance training)
    and ATP based muscle contraction (the glycogen depletion process)

    You might be surprised at how the body reacts to certain conditions.
    I.E. exercise in caloric deficit does NOT mean muscle growth per say.
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