Anyone trying to gain muscle and lose body fat.

HeathCothren51 wrote: »

I was told the best way to lose body fat was to eat clean, eat often , and try to have about 30 min at least of high heart rate cardio a day try for in the morning when I do cardio I try to keep my heart rate around 160

That is a lot of the broscience that gets passed around the bodybuilding community. We're not here to hate on you or to discourage you. We want to share our years of experience in lifting, dieting and researching the science behind both.

If eating "clean" helps keep you on track there is nothing wrong with sticking to it. I personally feel deprived and choose to eat cookies, candy, ice cream or some other sweets daily. Not all people can limit their intake of those, so cutting them out is fine too. Cardio is a tool to help with fat loss. It will still come down to how much you are eating compared to how much your body is burning. Cardio is awesome for heart and lung function, which can translate over to lifting especially on higher volume programs.

It's great that you have lost a lot of fat and it's true that due to starting out in the obese category you probably gained some muscle. Don't get super hung up on the numbers because most methods of calculating body fat/lean mass are inaccurate.

AmyNFox wrote: »

simplycidalia wrote: »

singingflutelady wrote: »

Good luck gaining muscle while losing 4 lbs a week. Recomp is much, much slower than that.

And this is what I'm wondering about. I want to lose weight (fat). I want to gain muscle. Not so sure I can do both efficiently at the same time. I do some weight training, but at this point, I would think that I need to focus more on the fat loss part of things and then attempt to put on muscle once I'm at or close to my goal weight.

Really that's not the best way to go about it. You'll lost more fat by lifting heavy weight often. Cardio doesn't just burn fat, it burns your lean muscle too. Plus by building muscle with weight training you'll be burning more calories with the extra muscle you have. The only cardio you should be doing right now is high intensity intervals that spike your heart rate.
This is a really common mistake. And honestly most of my clients come to me because "they've been doing hours of cardio and haven't seen any changes". 2 weeks of good nutrition and weight lifting and almost all of them have lost body fat while maintaining muscle mass.

This seems to be the bro science thread!
Cardio (which covers a huge range of course) doesn't burn muscle - it's not a preferred energy source.
Adding a pound of muscle will burn about an extra 6 or 7 calories a day.
HIIT isn't magic and isn't appropriate for everyone and neither should most people solely do HIIT.

No. I am trying to gain fat and lose muscle.

I'm trying to do the same! Just started about a week ago. Add me if you'd like

When you get to a certain point in weight loss and muscle gain it's like you hit a brick wall. The last bit of body fat will only come off if you (talking about me) are very disciplined. You have to go lean meat/protein, no sugar or fat, eat green veggies and good carbs. You need to cycle carbs out on off days. And you have to get enough nutrition to stay full and gain or not lose muscle. A lot of chicken, lean beef, white fish, egg whites, broccoli, asparagus, sweet potatoes, long grain rice and no cheats, no processed foods.
On the flip side you need calories and carbs to build muscle.
And High Intensity Interval Training is what a lot of the experts are talking about in training. Say a 30 second sprint and a 30 second walk and repeat 30 times. Many options here as long as it's high intensity followed by some low intensity. Mix it up with some steady state cardio as well.

dbrook1967 wrote: »

When you get to a certain point in weight loss and muscle gain it's like you hit a brick wall. The last bit of body fat will only come off if you (talking about me) are very disciplined. You have to go lean meat/protein, no sugar or fat, eat green veggies and good carbs. You need to cycle carbs out on off days. And you have to get enough nutrition to stay full and gain or not lose muscle. A lot of chicken, lean beef, white fish, egg whites, broccoli, asparagus, sweet potatoes, long grain rice and no cheats, no processed foods.
On the flip side you need calories and carbs to build muscle.
And High Intensity Interval Training is what a lot of the experts are talking about in training. Say a 30 second sprint and a 30 second walk and repeat 30 times. Many options here as long as it's high intensity followed by some low intensity. Mix it up with some steady state cardio as well.

I eat cookies, candy, pie, cake and ice cream all the way up until my bodybuilding competitions. It gets harder to fit them in as my calories get lower because I need to fill most of the calories with nutrient dense and filling things. You don't need carb cycling or a bro diet to lose weight, even at the leaner end of the spectrum. You don't even need cardio for fat loss, but it's great for cardiovascular health.

If you enjoy doing all those things then that's fine. It's just not absolutely necessary for fat loss goals.

HeathCothren51 wrote: »

Yea and no I disagree. I think it comes down to the individual. There is no evidence pointing in your way either. I know I am lowering my body fat % and increasing muscle. I am working with two guys who have been bodybuilding for 15 plus years both are in the 225lb mark and compete with sponsors if they say it can be done and its working for me. Then I will stay with it. Maybe some people can't I lifted with a guy years ago who just had a really hard time gaining muscle. Then again I know people who its comes very easy to them. This subject I have done my research on. Truth is there is no evidence either way. Bottom line is some can some cant.

There is evidence. I keep saying it's not impossible. You started out in two of the categories that are proven to be able to gain muscle in a deficit. You probably gained some. Those types of gains aren't going to continue forever. You will reach a point where they slow down significantly, especially since you are going to continue trying to lose weight at a very rapid pace.

HeathCothren51 wrote: »

Lol getting confused on what we are debating so many msg out. I am disagreeing with the fact that you can't burn fat and gain muscle over a course if time.

1. Obese people can lose fat and build muscle.
2. Beginning lifters can lose fat and build muscle.
3. People returning to lifting can lose fat and build muscle.
4. Your body can only use a specific amount of body fat to fill its needs, if you aren't eating enough your body HAS to use your muscle to fill its needs.
5. At a certain point in training and leanness your ability to lose fat and gain muscle nearly stops, unless you take steroids (which is what most bodybuilders do).