Right plan to lose body fat but maintain current muscle mass.

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adammay93
adammay93 Posts: 14 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello everyone,

I'm currently 10 stone 10, 5ft9 Male, moderate muscle mass (currently Deadlifting 2 x body weight), with a fat % roughly around 12-14%.

With my summer holiday around 3/4 months away I'm aiming to get to aroune 9/10% body fat.

My matinence calories are around 2200 and I'm cutting buy a small 100 calories a day (macros 45 cards, 30 protein, 25 fats) and I'm currently doing 3 weightlifting sessions being whole body days (DUP) as well as 2 HIIT sessions.

With the idea of going into a Half Marathon a couple weeks before I'm holiday.

My only concern is about my muscle mass, I don't aim to grow much more over this time as losing body fat is my main aim, but I don't want to lose the muscle mass I currently have.

Soon to be replacing my hiit sessions with marathon training but concerned this will be too much cardio and will slowly kill my muscle mass, I'm trying to compensate this by keeping my protein relatively high through out the day.

Any advice? Thank you in advance!

Replies

  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
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    You won't lose muscle mass with a 100 calorie deficit. Protein does not need to be high to compensate for your training, just needs to be adequate enough to support your training i.e. .8 - 1.2g/lbm.



  • rybo
    rybo Posts: 5,424 Member
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    You won't eat away your muscle with a small deficit, even once you start training for the half.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
    edited January 2018
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    I wouldn't be concerned with muscle loss with such a small deficit - muscle is a fuel of last resort.

    FYI #1 - Averaging six hours of cycling a week hasn't impacted my muscle mass at all.
    FYI #2 - Carbs are also muscle sparing and more appropriate to your marathon training performance.

    Suggestion - protein and fat minimum goals and rest of calorie allowance as whichever macro is appropriate or desirable on the day gives more flexibility than fixed percentages.
  • adammay93
    adammay93 Posts: 14 Member
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    Do you all think the deficit is enough for the weight loss I'm aiming for?
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
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    adammay93 wrote: »
    Do you all think the deficit is enough for the weight loss I'm aiming for?

    I am a 1/2 marathon trainer myself and I think you need to pick a goal. Dieting when training for long distance races like this is hard, at least it is for me. Recovery from both lifting and running long distances especially you get into doing longer runs will be crucial to your training.

    Maintaining or just a small deficit like this is all I can do.
  • adammay93
    adammay93 Posts: 14 Member
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    As my main aim is to get as close to a 'beach body' as possible I am considering doing a couple of 10km runs instead of a half marathon if this will make my goal of losing 3/4% body fat will be easier.
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
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    adammay93 wrote: »
    As my main aim is to get as close to a 'beach body' as possible I am considering doing a couple of 10km runs instead of a half marathon if this will make my goal of losing 3/4% body fat will be easier.

    Are you already running? If so you already know the demands running puts on all your training combined. Fueling, resting and recovery needs to be accounted for and you will good imho for the 10k's.

    I see your main goal as 'recomp' with a 100 calorie deficit for very slow fat loss which will be a little over 3 pounds, is this enough for your to reach 4% BF loss?
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    adammay93 wrote: »
    Do you all think the deficit is enough for the weight loss I'm aiming for?

    Quick mental maths and there's a lot of variation in your OP and it's a bit more complex than this but here goes anyway....
    You weigh 150lbs so 1% is 1.5lbs.
    You want to lose roughly 3 to 4 percent - 4.5lbs to 6lbs.
    Your rate of loss at c. 100 cals / day is pretty close to 1lb a month and you have 3 or 4 months. Say 3 or 4lbs.

    So not quite there but pretty close and with all the changes in training plus assumptions round all fat lost and the difficulty in actually measuring BF% there's an element of suck it and see or make compromises (size of deficit, training goals.....).
  • adammay93
    adammay93 Posts: 14 Member
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    RoxieDawn wrote: »
    adammay93 wrote: »
    As my main aim is to get as close to a 'beach body' as possible I am considering doing a couple of 10km runs instead of a half marathon if this will make my goal of losing 3/4% body fat will be easier.

    Are you already running? If so you already know the demands running puts on all your training combined. Fueling, resting and recovery needs to be accounted for and you will good imho for the 10k's.

    I see your main goal as 'recomp' with a 100 calorie deficit for very slow fat loss which will be a little over 3 pounds, is this enough for your to reach 4% BF loss?

    I currently do 2 x 5KM runs and 1 x HIIT session on the days I'm not weight training. I'm looking at roughly losing 7-8 pounds of fat to be at 10%.

    Possibly cutting by an extra 50-100 calories? Or doing 15 min HIIT after my weight training might help me achieve this over the 3 month period?
  • adammay93
    adammay93 Posts: 14 Member
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    sijomial wrote: »
    adammay93 wrote: »
    Do you all think the deficit is enough for the weight loss I'm aiming for?

    Quick mental maths and there's a lot of variation in your OP and it's a bit more complex than this but here goes anyway....
    You weigh 150lbs so 1% is 1.5lbs.
    You want to lose roughly 3 to 4 percent - 4.5lbs to 6lbs.
    Your rate of loss at c. 100 cals / day is pretty close to 1lb a month and you have 3 or 4 months. Say 3 or 4lbs.

    So not quite there but pretty close and with all the changes in training plus assumptions round all fat lost and the difficulty in actually measuring BF% there's an element of suck it and see or make compromises (size of deficit, training goals.....).

    Yes this works out to about right, I'm more than likely around 15% so I'm looking around 7.5 pounds.
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    edited January 2018
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    adammay93 wrote: »
    RoxieDawn wrote: »
    adammay93 wrote: »
    As my main aim is to get as close to a 'beach body' as possible I am considering doing a couple of 10km runs instead of a half marathon if this will make my goal of losing 3/4% body fat will be easier.

    Are you already running? If so you already know the demands running puts on all your training combined. Fueling, resting and recovery needs to be accounted for and you will good imho for the 10k's.

    I see your main goal as 'recomp' with a 100 calorie deficit for very slow fat loss which will be a little over 3 pounds, is this enough for your to reach 4% BF loss?

    I currently do 2 x 5KM runs and 1 x HIIT session on the days I'm not weight training. I'm looking at roughly losing 7-8 pounds of fat to be at 10%.

    Possibly cutting by an extra 50-100 calories? Or doing 15 min HIIT after my weight training might help me achieve this over the 3 month period?

    I see sijomial did the math.

    All you can do is try your plan out. Make desired changes in diet or training goals as needed to reach your end goal and time frame.
  • rybo
    rybo Posts: 5,424 Member
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    adammay93 wrote: »
    As my main aim is to get as close to a 'beach body' as possible I am considering doing a couple of 10km runs instead of a half marathon if this will make my goal of losing 3/4% body fat will be easier.

    Whether you train to run 10km races or a half, should have no bearing on reaching your fat loss goal.

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