Building muscle at the same time as losing fat

Hi Everyone! I thought I'd jump in here and tell you what I'm doing. I'm a 56 yo grandmother of 6 and I'm into week 7 of Beach Body's Body Beast program. I'd like to quote what the Book of Beast says about the topic you are all discussing. "Being dedicated to nutrition is just as important as the workouts. If you aren't fueling your body to build muscle, you won't get the results you're looking for. This means you have to eat a lot. Quite possibly more than you ever have in your life. And what you eat needs to be clean, unprocessed, healthy food, in the appropriate macronutrient ratios"

"Macronutrients are the proteins, carbohydrates, and fat that make up all food. When you're doing Body Beast, you'll need enough protein to rebuild muscles and help stabilize blood sugar. You'll need enough carbohydrates to supply energy for your workouts and help support recovery. And you'll need enough fat to keep your body functioning properly"

(Beach Body Book of Beast) by Sagi Kalev, professional bodybuilder, sports model, nutritionist and trainer.

Now granted this is the program I'm using but there are great trainers out there that can help with training and set up great nutritional programs making sure you're doing what you need to do and get the benefits you're looking for. Make sure to do your research and pick what's going to work for you. I have a lot of weight to lose but right now I'm concentrating more on building muscle and gaining strength. As I build more muscle I have noticed that the scale may not be budging but my body IS changing. I calculated my body fat % using this program but I'm using MFP to log my food, and my workouts and this site calculated pretty close to what my program came up with. You will get just what you put into any workout. So I hope you all have great success in whatever you're doing!!!

jonathanwgreene wrote: »

You can do both, but... It will take longer, and the results will take longer to be visible. For me, I find more cardio helps reduce body fat. I find lifting heavy, with fewer reps helps build muscle. I am currently doing both. What I see is that I am losing the body fat, but I am not getting built with large muscle growth. What I am seeing is my muscles are getting lean and cut. Once I hit my weight goal, I intend to build with more emphasis on muscle size. I can tell you that at present my strength is rising considerably but again, Im not challenging Arnold for size anytime soon.

I'm not trying to beat Arnold for size either, I'm just trying to get healthy....Besides, women don't have the testosterone that men do so we can't bulk up....so basically even though you're a man and I'm a woman we are pretty much doing the same thing.