Loosing fat and muscle while working out 6x a week

Need some help guys.
I've been doing bodyweight exercises 6x a day with one rest day.
Almost meeting my calorie intake but not quite. I try my best to meet my protein intake.
I alternate yoga and hiit after my bodyweight workouts.

At the moment I don't know if I should increase my calorie intake or cut some cardio out?
(Goal: Gain muscle/loose fat)

Replies

  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,421 Member
    How are you determining the percentages of loss of each? I mean, recomp is what you're attempting? Or?
  • JenG20
    JenG20 Posts: 14 Member
    Well I alternate the days. (day1) lower body/hiit, (day2) upper body/yoga, (day3) core/hiit. (day4) rest day then I repeat.
    I currently use this scale for measurement.
  • JenG20
    JenG20 Posts: 14 Member
    My goal is to ultimately gain muscle and burn fat. Every week I try to calculate an expected calories burned from training 6x.
    I try to build muscle by doing the bodyweight and weight training. Leaving hiit/cardio to burn fat.
    Yoga is just added to increase flexibility and ease sore muscles.
  • JenG20
    JenG20 Posts: 14 Member
    I've been doing this for a month. So far I've dropped 5lbs.
  • TrishSeren
    TrishSeren Posts: 587 Member
    psuLemon wrote: »
    TrishSeren wrote: »
    JenG20 wrote: »
    My goal is to ultimately gain muscle and burn fat. Every week I try to calculate an expected calories burned from training 6x.
    I try to build muscle by doing the bodyweight and weight training. Leaving hiit/cardio to burn fat.
    Yoga is just added to increase flexibility and ease sore muscles.

    You can't build muscle in a calorie deficit. The bodyweight/weight training is good as it'll help your body hold onto the muscle you already have but you wouldn't see an increase of muscle mass as you're eating in a deficit.

    Well this is completely false. It's not as optimal, but it is definitely possible and more likely probable if there is a good training stimulus. If you want evidence, see below.

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10611633/gaining-muscle-in-a-deficit/p1

    Interesting, thanks for this!
  • JenG20
    JenG20 Posts: 14 Member
    psuLemon
    Thanks for your info there. Very helpful. I’m trying to get most out of my workouts done through bw training because at the moment I can’t get to the gym.
    Also thanks for also pointing out that body fat is burned through a deficit than cardio. I’ll be looking into that link you sent too!


    sgt1372
    Thanks for your comment. I decided that I’ll start with the cutting phase. I’m just concerned on loosing too much muscle.

    Yes! I’ll stick to what I’m doing at the moment I’m planning on bulking then later in the fall.


  • TallGent66
    TallGent66 Posts: 84 Member
    Doesn't the body prefer to burn fat first when in a calorie deficit?
  • robthephotog
    robthephotog Posts: 81 Member
    TallGent66 wrote: »
    Doesn't the body prefer to burn fat first when in a calorie deficit?

    The body wants the most convienient source of energy.

    Usually itll burn glucose in the muscle then fat stores combined with protein (muscle) stores and finally even lean or vital organ tissue if it comes to it.

    If you are stimulating the muscle tissue to grow (ie resistance training) the body will prefer fat bc it needs to be rebuilding muscle tissue to heal. Hence why most suggest resisitance training on top of proper diet for weight loss. So you lose "mostly" fat.
  • TallGent66
    TallGent66 Posts: 84 Member
    TallGent66 wrote: »
    Doesn't the body prefer to burn fat first when in a calorie deficit?

    The body wants the most convienient source of energy.

    Usually itll burn glucose in the muscle then fat stores combined with protein (muscle) stores and finally even lean or vital organ tissue if it comes to it.

    If you are stimulating the muscle tissue to grow (ie resistance training) the body will prefer fat bc it needs to be rebuilding muscle tissue to heal. Hence why most suggest resisitance training on top of proper diet for weight loss. So you lose "mostly" fat.

    Is it realistic to hope for lost weight to be 80% fat, 20% muscle? Or 90 / 10?

    Thank you.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,260 Member
    edited July 2019
    TallGent66 wrote: »
    TallGent66 wrote: »
    Doesn't the body prefer to burn fat first when in a calorie deficit?

    The body wants the most convienient source of energy.

    Usually itll burn glucose in the muscle then fat stores combined with protein (muscle) stores and finally even lean or vital organ tissue if it comes to it.

    If you are stimulating the muscle tissue to grow (ie resistance training) the body will prefer fat bc it needs to be rebuilding muscle tissue to heal. Hence why most suggest resisitance training on top of proper diet for weight loss. So you lose "mostly" fat.

    Is it realistic to hope for lost weight to be 80% fat, 20% muscle? Or 90 / 10?

    Thank you.

    Less likely with the large deficits you're pulling.

    increased protein intake, muscle stimulus, moderate deficit (no more than say 25% of TDEE while carrying obese levels of fat or 20% starting around mid overweight levels of fat) and your 80-20 or 90-10 while obese or 67:33 when overweight... sure.

    Increase your deficits to the level you have and I would expect the ratio to worsen

    I note that in all these discussions non-fat mass does not exclusively consist of muscle mass.

    and that exceptional results are just that... exceptions.
  • TallGent66
    TallGent66 Posts: 84 Member
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    TallGent66 wrote: »
    TallGent66 wrote: »
    Doesn't the body prefer to burn fat first when in a calorie deficit?

    The body wants the most convienient source of energy.

    Usually itll burn glucose in the muscle then fat stores combined with protein (muscle) stores and finally even lean or vital organ tissue if it comes to it.

    If you are stimulating the muscle tissue to grow (ie resistance training) the body will prefer fat bc it needs to be rebuilding muscle tissue to heal. Hence why most suggest resisitance training on top of proper diet for weight loss. So you lose "mostly" fat.

    Is it realistic to hope for lost weight to be 80% fat, 20% muscle? Or 90 / 10?

    Thank you.

    Less likely with the large deficits you're pulling.

    increased protein intake, muscle stimulus, moderate deficit (no more than say 25% of TDEE while carrying obese levels of fat or 20% starting around mid overweight levels of fat) and your 80-20 or 90-10 while obese or 67:33 when overweight... sure.

    Increase your deficits to the level you have and I would expect the ratio to worsen

    I note that in all these discussions non-fat mass does not exclusively consist of muscle mass.

    and that exceptional results are just that... exceptions.

    Not sure I should 'eat back' all exercise calories expended, as I'm not sure how reliable those estimates are.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,260 Member
    TallGent66 wrote: »
    Not sure I should 'eat back' all exercise calories expended, as I'm not sure how reliable those estimates are.

    I can't spot the post right now... but going from the memory of a different post are you not averaging well below the minimum 1500 for a male. While being exceptionally tall? And well over 250lbs?

    I mean when you should be losing at a maximum sane rate while still eating well over 2.5K calories and you're eating sub 1500 and ZERO exercise calories back.... I don't know that I would worry too much about exactitude.

    Having a debate about 60%, 70%, or 80% or even 50% of exercise calories if you take food intake logging inaccuracies into account? Sure. It may well be open for discussion.

    Debating whether 0% is correct? I'll take a wild guess that it is unlikely to be.