no progress Diet?exercise?both?help!

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sbukx
sbukx Posts: 16 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
okay so im roughly 134lb and 5'9 which is a healthy weight. My main goal is to gain muscle and tone up everywhere, espeshially my stomach legs and bum.
My diet is healthy for example, wake up have smoothie, snack on fruit or a few crackers, lunch will be pasta, or meat, snack again with fruit or ill have a coffee, dinner will be meat and potatoes or some type of carb and few veggies or fish or something. Ill go to te gym and do 20 or 35 mins cardio, either incline walking or rowing or eliptical trainer fat burn. Ill do my weights either my arms or leg day or abs etc. I will then have a snack after e.g porridge or a protein shake.
At the weekend i may have a packet of crisps and bacon sandwich or something or alcohol.
Granted i shouldnt eat or drink that if i want to reach a goal, but theres people that eat worse than me hardly exercise and have better bodies?

Im not jiggly or anything, but i cant seem to shift this excess fat on my stomach espeshially at the bottom or tone my bum? What do i need to do? What am i doing wrong? Tips please everything is welcome!!! Thanks.

Replies

  • prideofthelion
    prideofthelion Posts: 27 Member
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    Seconded! I am also running like 20miles per week, various speeds. I got the 4 pack going on but want to shift the rest and make it 6!
  • Faithful_Chosen
    Faithful_Chosen Posts: 401 Member
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    Okay, let me summarize: you want to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time...? That is going to be hard. To lose fat you need to eat a deficit and in order to gain muscle mass, you need to eat a surplus. See the problem? I would focus on fat loss first. Buy a scale, set MFP to the settings you want and stick to the calorie goal. Exercise to get a few more calories to eat (eat Max 50% of your exercise calories back) and to start training existing muscle so your body won't use them for fuel. Do both cardio and strength training. Once you get to, or near, your weight goal, you can start strength training in order to bulk up. Good luck!
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
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    What are your actual goals? Because it sounds like you're trying to recomp (gain a little muscle/lose a little fat while maintaining weight) but then the diet you've described doesn't sound like it's set up for recomp. It also doesn't sound like you're actually tracking your calories, which could be why you aren't seeing progress.

    Both of these seem like they'd be useful to you:
    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat
    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1161603/so-you-want-a-nice-stomach
  • Equus5374
    Equus5374 Posts: 462 Member
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    Lift, lift, lift, lift, lift, lift.... Also be aware that high running mileage will chew up fat and muscle. That's why a lot of the top runners look like stick figures.
  • SergeantSausage
    SergeantSausage Posts: 1,673 Member
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    Lose fat.

    Gain muscle.

    Choose one.

    Mere mortals can't do both at the same time.
  • sbukx
    sbukx Posts: 16 Member
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    So if i were to build muscle wouldn't that tone some of the fat I already have? Or do I need to lose the fat first, and then gain muscle?
    Theres not that much fat to loose, its just abit on my stomach really, so is there any chance by gaining the muscle and eating healthily without doing a deficit I could tone the fat I have into muscle or lose it gradually?

    Sorry if I sound dumb im just trying to get my head around it.

    Could you also explain the terms you are using e.g. Recomp

    Thanks
  • DeguelloTex
    DeguelloTex Posts: 6,652 Member
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    Fat doesn't tone.
  • auddii
    auddii Posts: 15,357 Member
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    diannethegeek wrote: »
    What are your actual goals? Because it sounds like you're trying to recomp (gain a little muscle/lose a little fat while maintaining weight) but then the diet you've described doesn't sound like it's set up for recomp. It also doesn't sound like you're actually tracking your calories, which could be why you aren't seeing progress.

    Both of these seem like they'd be useful to you:
    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat
    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1161603/so-you-want-a-nice-stomach

    This. Recomping means that you are happy with your weight but would like to change the composition of your body (more muscle, less fat). It's a long process where you eat at maintenance and add in progressive resistance training.
  • sbukx
    sbukx Posts: 16 Member
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    Yeh I just searched re composition and It looks like the thing for me.

    Trying to workout my macro nutrients on days I train and days I dont, e.g carb cycling? Anyone got any info on that and how it works with recomp?

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