Should i lose weight first and then build muscle?

summerjames076
summerjames076 Posts: 5 Member
edited October 2015 in Fitness and Exercise
Can someone please help me... ?
I wana know if I should first lose weight before I start working on toning and getting hard abs ?
Iv been on the no carb and no sugar diet for a few weeks while I exercise for about over an hour every day... But I am not losing weight , js gaining muscle. I wanted to lose more weight though and wanted a thinner waistline bt now it seems the exercise is just making my waist look bigger as its gaining muscle...
Should I stop and first reach my target weight before exercising towards hard abs???
Iv been exercising religiously for a few weeks so I don't wana stop to lose weight if its not gonna help me get bk my small waist and all the work I did would b in vain...?
I also don't eat my full amount of calories every day because I'm not hungry but then I exercise a lot so I'm thinking my body is storing energy so would it help if I first lost more weight to reach my target weight and then start exercising?
Please help!

Replies

  • AsISmile
    AsISmile Posts: 1,004 Member
    Are you accuratly measuring your calories? Because if you eat at a defecit you will gain hardly any muscle.
    More likely you are retaining water in that area while the muscle recovers, which will also show up on the scale.

    Just continue weightloss while strength training. That way you will maintain existing muscle (not gain muscle) while losing weight in the form of fat.
    Believe me, you will not get bulky.

    Also, eat at least 1200 net calories, as in eat back exercise calories. Otherwise you are just starving your body.
  • McCloud33
    McCloud33 Posts: 959 Member
    Yes and no...and I say this because your whole mindset is wrong from the start. First, you can either build muscle OR lose fat. It's *nearly* impossible to do both at the same time.

    Exercise while on a calorie deficit helps you to hold onto what muscle you already have, granted you're using that muscle enough for your body to say "hey, that muscle is important, maybe I should hang on to that". This is where a whole body lifting program is helpful. If you're just running or doing an elliptical or something, you're not stressing all of those muscles enough for your body to hold onto them.

    The only way to get "hard abs" is to lose the "soft fat" that is covering them up. You say that your waist is "looking" bigger, but have you actually measured it? If not, it might be helpful to start taking measurements every week and track it. Appearance can change drastically and have nothing to do with muscle gain/fat loss. Bloating and water retention for instance can make you look bigger even though nothing has changed.

    The second thing is, yes, you generally want to get down to a certain weight before you try and build muscle. I think it's usually 10-15% for guys and 17-22% for women, or something like that. But again, I don't think this is your problem if all you want is to see those abs. You're not trying to build the abs so much that they pop through the fat...you have to lose enough fat to reveal them.
  • Josalinn
    Josalinn Posts: 1,066 Member
    McCloud33 wrote: »
    You're not trying to build the abs so much that they pop through the fat...you have to lose enough fat to reveal them.

    That gave me a terrifying mental image. All of what McCloud and AsISmile is correct, though.

    Strength training while eating at a deficit lose the fat will help you keep the muscles you have, and you will get stronger, although the muscles themselves won't really grow.

    If you don't have one, get a heart rate monitor to measure how many calories you burn so you know how much to eat back. I don't eat them all back, maybe 80% so that I have room for errors.

    Good luck and give it time.
  • jeremywm1977
    jeremywm1977 Posts: 657 Member
    McCloud33 wrote: »
    Yes and no...and I say this because your whole mindset is wrong from the start. First, you can either build muscle OR lose fat. It's *nearly* impossible to do both at the same time.

    Sorry, and no offense, but this statement is *kitten* to the point that flies are surrounding it.
    I've never seen such a misinformed health/fitness statement since the last time I watched Dr. Oz

    Speaking now to the OP:
    Fat loss is achieved by burning more calories than you ingest, and your body burns more calories effectively through building muscle..........meaning that both are, to some degree, happening at the same time.

    Adding on to this point, there is no such thing as "spot reduction". If you want to get toned abs, again, focus on a calorie deficit and build muscle.......not just in your abs, but everywhere. Muscle needs calories to stay alive, and will burn fat to do so, and it doesn't care where that fat is. Since your legs have the largest muscle groups, focus on lower body strength workouts, but build muscle overall. Sure, go ahead and do situps or crunches until you're blue in the face, but don't expect that alone to give you a six-pack.

    I also love when people say, "[body part] looks bigger". Did you bother to actually measure it, or are you just gauging by sight alone? Also, why are you doing any kind of restrictive diet, ala no carbs or sugar? Two of the main benefits of carbs, specifically complex carbs, is energy and metabolism. It has been my experience, as well as many on this very forum, that restrictive diets are always doomed to failure, are unsustainable, and will lead to weight gain after the diet ends.

  • jeremywm1977
    jeremywm1977 Posts: 657 Member
    McCloud33 wrote: »
    You're not trying to build the abs so much that they pop through the fat...you have to lose enough fat to reveal them.

    Probably the one thing McCloud stated that I wholeheartedly agree with.

  • Cahgetsfit
    Cahgetsfit Posts: 1,912 Member
    jeremywm1977 wrote: »
    McCloud33 wrote: »
    Yes and no...and I say this because your whole mindset is wrong from the start. First, you can either build muscle OR lose fat. It's *nearly* impossible to do both at the same time.

    Sorry, and no offense, but this statement is *kitten* to the point that flies are surrounding it.
    I've never seen such a misinformed health/fitness statement since the last time I watched Dr. Oz

    Speaking now to the OP:
    <b>Fat loss is achieved by burning more calories than you ingest, and your body burns more calories effectively through building muscle..........meaning that both are, to some degree, happening at the same time. </b>

    Adding on to this point, there is no such thing as "spot reduction". If you want to get toned abs, again, focus on a calorie deficit and build muscle.......not just in your abs, but everywhere. Muscle needs calories to stay alive, and will burn fat to do so, and it doesn't care where that fat is. Since your legs have the largest muscle groups, focus on lower body strength workouts, but build muscle overall. Sure, go ahead and do situps or crunches until you're blue in the face, but don't expect that alone to give you a six-pack.

    I also love when people say, "[body part] looks bigger". Did you bother to actually measure it, or are you just gauging by sight alone? <b> Also, why are you doing any kind of restrictive diet, ala no carbs or sugar? Two of the main benefits of carbs, specifically complex carbs, is energy and metabolism. It has been my experience, as well as many on this very forum, that restrictive diets are always doomed to failure, are unsustainable, and will lead to weight gain after the diet ends.</b>

    Just wanted to say - first time I've seen someone else say this :smile:

    I've been losing weight AND building muscle for a year. True - hardly any weight has come off (6 kilos only) and it can be sooooooo frustrating when you see people losing 30 kilos in a year and me - 6 - it's like MOVE SCALES!!!! But... I look better. I just have to keep reminding myself that when I look in the mirror without cringing now. I actually LOOK in the mirror now. And OMG take selfies. Before I would look at my face/hair in the bathroom and that was about as far as I got (if that most days).



  • Cahgetsfit
    Cahgetsfit Posts: 1,912 Member
    PS - a few weeks of exercise won't show much visible results depending on how much layer of fat you have around you. It took me a good 3 months before I could visually see any changes. The tape measure didn't lie though.
  • caroayalafree
    caroayalafree Posts: 4 Member
    summerjames I say keep doing cardio, log all your food (leave a deficit), and exercise smartly: mix your workouts, cardio, interval and weight training: arms, legs, abs, etc. Now don't expect to have abs to show until you reach a pretty low body fat percentage. From experience I can tell you that my abs did not really show until I got under 18% body fat. But that was accomplished by not just exercising with cardio, High Intensity Intervals Training and weights but most importantly eating a very clean, high protein, no sugar, low sodium diet. That's when the magic really happens. Whatever you do do not get discourage and do not stop exercising. Mix it up! Your body needs to be challenged in different ways. Good luck!
  • 1mumrevolution
    1mumrevolution Posts: 269 Member
    jeremywm1977 wrote: »
    McCloud33 wrote: »
    Yes and no...and I say this because your whole mindset is wrong from the start. First, you can either build muscle OR lose fat. It's *nearly* impossible to do both at the same time.

    Sorry, and no offense, but this statement is *kitten* to the point that flies are surrounding it.
    I've never seen such a misinformed health/fitness statement since the last time I watched Dr. Oz

    Speaking now to the OP:
    Fat loss is achieved by burning more calories than you ingest, and your body burns more calories effectively through building muscle..........meaning that both are, to some degree, happening at the same time.

    Adding on to this point, there is no such thing as "spot reduction". If you want to get toned abs, again, focus on a calorie deficit and build muscle.......not just in your abs, but everywhere. Muscle needs calories to stay alive, and will burn fat to do so, and it doesn't care where that fat is. Since your legs have the largest muscle groups, focus on lower body strength workouts, but build muscle overall. Sure, go ahead and do situps or crunches until you're blue in the face, but don't expect that alone to give you a six-pack.

    I also love when people say, "[body part] looks bigger". Did you bother to actually measure it, or are you just gauging by sight alone? Also, why are you doing any kind of restrictive diet, ala no carbs or sugar? Two of the main benefits of carbs, specifically complex carbs, is energy and metabolism. It has been my experience, as well as many on this very forum, that restrictive diets are always doomed to failure, are unsustainable, and will lead to weight gain after the diet ends.

    So much sense in one post. Love it

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