Lose fat but increase athletic performance?

Lose weight at a healthy rate, ensure you're getting adequate protein and incorporate some progressive strength training.

Check out the strength training programs here: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you/p1

Additionally if walking for 20 minutes hurts your feet - make sure you have proper fitting, supportive shoes and walk for 15 minutes instead of 20 minutes and build up slowly.

Plateaus don't happen because you're not "mixing it up" they happen because people either aren't patient enough to ride out water weight fluctuations or they've become complacent with their food intake and are eating more than they think.

Keep your deficits reasonable, find a good macro mix. Adequate protein is a must, but I notice that when I am too low on carbs, my performance suffers as well. But that's not everyone's experience, so find the right mix for you. And most important (I think), is find something you actually enjoy doing for your athletic training. Weights and lifting are great, but I know when I first started on my athletic journey, dragging myself to the gym to self motivate to lift weights was not really gonna happen.

I started 8 months ago at 235 pounds and woefully out of shape, not having done any substantial, dedicated exercise for at least 7 or 8 years (and I had never been very athletic even at my peak). I knew "going to the gym" was not for me based on my many false starts with doing so, so I needed to do something different. I dove hard right into it and joined a martial arts gym that teaches a style called Krav Maga. The first several classes, I thought I was going to die. But I stuck with it, and kept pushing myself (within reason, making sure to make adjustments to prevent injury), and saw huge gains. I'm down over 30 pounds now (with diet as well obviously), and my athletic performance has increased leaps and bounds. I just got my yellow belt at a 4 hour belt test on Sunday. After the test, our sensei said that when I first joined the gym, he didn't think I was going to make it to the end of the class, but now I'd transformed into a leader at our school.

My wife likewise was in the "obese, out of shape, and not motivated by the gym" category, and she found her fit with a gym that offers jump rope fitness classes. Something very different than what I am doing, but equally motivating and exciting for her. So I am a big believer that there is a type of exercise out there for everyone, not ones they will just do because they want to get in shape, but ones they would actually enjoy.

Now that I have built a fitness base from my martial arts, I am also able to supplement it by going to the regular gym and weight lifting and doing cardio. But I never would have been able to do that without first finding something I enjoyed to build my foundation with.

Tedebearduff wrote: »

erekstrusinski1989 wrote: »

Hello, I am looking for tips on how to get more cut but maintain my muscle, while increasing strength, endurance, cardio and bone density/durability.

Diet/nutrition tips are welcome, as well as fitness routines and all training tips.

Information about my situation: I started my fitness journey two months ago, lost 13lbs since then. 212 lbs currently. Was very out of shape with weak bone structure starting since 5 years ago and peaking 4 months ago before I started going for walks, which hurt my feet after 20 minutes.

Things I have had issues with during fitness journeys before: bone strength, injuries, losing weight too rapidly that it became unhealthy and sacrificed strength and overall endurance/durability, overworking one specific exercise and doing damage and struggling with incorporating different/new routines - becoming too set in my regimens that I don't mix it up enough to see progress anymore (hitting that plateu).

You need to hire someone and they need to sit down and explain to you that you can't do everything at once more or less. You need to decide on 1 goal and work towards that goal, once you reach that goal focus on your next one.

You can't reduce fat while keeping all your muscles and increase your strength it just doesn't work that way without "supplements". If that is what you want then you need to go on another message board that promotes the use of "supplements" or gear and ask them there what to take.

You do not need supplements to do any of that. Recomp pretty much covers all the bases required.

Reducing fat through a small deficit on rest days, eating at maintenance on workout days.

You maintain muscles through adequate protein intake and resistance training.

You build strength through progressive overload.

Tedebearduff wrote: »

erekstrusinski1989 wrote: »

Hello, I am looking for tips on how to get more cut but maintain my muscle, while increasing strength, endurance, cardio and bone density/durability.

Diet/nutrition tips are welcome, as well as fitness routines and all training tips.

Information about my situation: I started my fitness journey two months ago, lost 13lbs since then. 212 lbs currently. Was very out of shape with weak bone structure starting since 5 years ago and peaking 4 months ago before I started going for walks, which hurt my feet after 20 minutes.

Things I have had issues with during fitness journeys before: bone strength, injuries, losing weight too rapidly that it became unhealthy and sacrificed strength and overall endurance/durability, overworking one specific exercise and doing damage and struggling with incorporating different/new routines - becoming too set in my regimens that I don't mix it up enough to see progress anymore (hitting that plateu).

You need to hire someone and they need to sit down and explain to you that you can't do everything at once more or less. You need to decide on 1 goal and work towards that goal, once you reach that goal focus on your next one.

You can't reduce fat while keeping all your muscles and increase your strength it just doesn't work that way without "supplements". If that is what you want then you need to go on another message board that promotes the use of "supplements" or gear and ask them there what to take.

Not true. A small deficit and progressive weight training will result in fat loss, muscle retention and possibly gain depending on the state of the trainee. Strength gain will happen through neuromuscular adaptations. All without gear.