bulking up

You can definitely build muscle while losing weight! I am doing it right now I started out with just cardio and I have added light weights to my program and have steadily lost weight and as the fat comes off, I see the muscles smiling through.

Here's a couple of articles that may help.

http://exercise.about.com/od/weightloss/f/losefatgainmusc.htm

http://www.sparkpeople.com/community/ask_the_experts.asp?q=70

Everything I've read, except for some extreme diet programs (look up the anabolic diet if you're interested) all says that you cannot gain muscle mass without a calorie surplus. The problem is when you have that surplus you will gain both muscle mass and some fat. So what body builders do is take a few months to bulk where they eat big surpluses and do lots of weight training. Then as competitions get closer, they go on heavy diets to burn off the fat they added.

When you're on a calorie deficit, your body is looking to get energy to make up for what you haven't given it in calories from food. It gets this from your fat stores and by metabolizing portions of muscle. The key is to minimize that muscle loss which can be done by ensuring you have enough protein in your diet and doing heavy weight lifting while you are on a deficit.

I'll share what I've done to date, just as an idea, not saying this is the right or wrong way, but it is what's worked for me so far. I started out on a big deficit. Lost over 2 lbs a week and got down to my goal weight. However, I still had some giggly areas I wanted to get rid of and some areas that were skinnier than I'd like that I want to bulk up with muscle. So I've now started a calorie cycling diet. For two weeks I eat somewhere between 500-700 calories over my maintenance. During those two weeks, I do lots of strength training. I go 6 days a week, doing upper body and back one day, abs and legs the next (so that my muscles also get proper rest). I keep cardio to a very minimum just enough to warm up before my lifting sessions. After those two weeks, I switch to a calorie deficit of 300-500 calories. I still keep doing my weight training but add back some more cardio to assist in burning off fat. Throughout all of this I eat at least 1g of protein for each pound of body weight to ensure my body has enough of the building blocks to build or maintain muscle. The goal is to build more muscle during the bulk cycle than I shed during the cut cycle. Kind of a two steps forward one step back approach, but it's the closest thing I've found to being able to build muscle and cut fat at the same time. The results have been fairly positive so far.

so if I don't lift will my body eat my current muscles?

If the muscle isn't "challenge" it will. The body really doesn't want to use fat as energy. We genetically have it as a survival mechanism and if there is less muscle in the body, then less calories are burned, which is why the body will utilize muscle for energy if it's not being stressed.

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General rule of thumb is that "building muscle", or generating new muscle tissue, requires a calorie surplus.

That being said, genetics and physiology sometimes breaks a general rule. You may be one of those. Even in that situation, you are not going gain new muscle tissue with a significant deficit. So if you are one that does not eat back your exercise calories and maintain very large deficits beyond the recommended net caloric goal, your odds of gaining are that much more stacked against you. Heck, some individuals can eat a 2500 calorie surplus a week, lift heavy, and not gain a thing after 6 weeks.

Here is why should lift anyway.
The stimulation of the lifting encourages your body to find energy in your fat stores (that copious ugly yellowish tissue that your trying to get rid of) over the long term rather than the readily available glycogen stored in your muscles. This benefits occurs around the clock as long as you lift on a regular basis.

If your only form of exercise is cardio (long distance running for example) your body eventually sees significant upper body muscle and lower body fast twitch muscles as a biological liability. You burn significant calories on a regular basis running, but you don't actually use the other muscles. So why expend precious calories keeping them primed for work they are not doing. So their glycogen is consumed along with fat. As a result they are not that strong and shrink in size, consuming fewer calories as a part of your resting metabolism.

Lifting heavy stimulates those muscles. As you work them regularly, your body responds with, "Holy crap! I actually need those. I have to devote resources to repairing them and keeping them primed for work". As a result, they store glycogen and water, thus looking fuller. They play more of a role in your resting metabolism as they repair. Your nervous system improves efficiency in using them, resulting in strength gains. You just look better and feel better as you shed the fat to reveal actual functional muscle.

Monitoring my body composition while lifting the past 3 months I have gained about 6 pounds of muscle while losing 15 lbs of fat. I eat back my exercise calories as a general rule and am set to lose about 1.5 lbs a week.

Your mileage will vary due to variables of individual physiology. The tape measure will be your friend. Don't go by the scale alone.

Hope that helps.

I suggest you do an easy lifting routine that covers all muscles. Keep the set numbers low (2 or 3) and your rep numbers high (12 - 15) of a weight that is a bit of a challenge when you get to the 12th rep. This will tell your body not to metabolize existing muscle because it is needed. Just 20 min a day will suffice. Focus on one group a day (arms, back, shoulder, legs, chest) each week.

You have got to be joking right?

i do at least 25min cardio 6days per week....went from walking to walking uphill, to running now...and its all i do cardio wise. plus its addicting. i hit a plateau and thought about adding str. training to my workouts. so now and for the last 3 months i run for 25 to 30min. then i hit the weights for 45min at least 6days per week....my plateau was crushed, and i have noticed some crazy changes in my body! the good kind...

so yeah, you can build muscle while losing weight....we are almost at the same amount lost as well.