Trying to gain muscle

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dmav8402
dmav8402 Posts: 1
in Fitness and Exercise
I've been losing weight for a couple months, and just started taking Creatine to try to gain muscle. I also do chest presses and bicep curls, but I'm not seeing any results.I feel I am at my ideal weight but I am wanting to lose more body fat, and build more muscle. Any advice on diet and exercise that will help me reach my goals?

Replies

  • smiles04
    smiles04 Posts: 44
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    Hey :smile: I am also trying to gain some muscle weight. I find it helps to drink a protein shake after every workout or sometimes at least just once a day. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich before bed each night couldn't hurt either. Try getting in as much protein and carbs as you can and really work on strength training. I hope you can accomplish your goals!
  • songbyrdsweet
    songbyrdsweet Posts: 5,691 Member
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    You can't pedal a bike in two directions at once.
    If you want to lose fat, you need a caloric deficit. This means your body has to use fat to make energy because it doesn't have enough calories available.
    If you want to gain muscle, you need extra calories. This gives you more 'building blocks' to build muscle.

    So one thing doesn't happen at the same time as the other.
  • fastplastic
    fastplastic Posts: 7 Member
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    p90x ...its the real deal
  • metalpalace
    metalpalace Posts: 576
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    You can't pedal a bike in two directions at once.
    If you want to lose fat, you need a caloric deficit. This means your body has to use fat to make energy because it doesn't have enough calories available.
    If you want to gain muscle, you need extra calories. This gives you more 'building blocks' to build muscle.

    So one thing doesn't happen at the same time as the other.

    In theory you're kind of right but I whole heart-idly disagree with you as well as the theory. Like fastplastic just stated... P90X is the real deal. I know literally hundreds of people who lost fat while simultaneously putting on muscle mass on that program.
  • vhuber
    vhuber Posts: 8,779 Member
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    [/quote]

    In theory you're kind of right but I whole heart-idly disagree with you as well as the theory. Like fastplastic just stated... P90X is the real deal. I know literally hundreds of people who lost fat while simultaneously putting on muscle mass on that program.
    [/quote]

    I was thinking the same thing here!!! It's good to see you back on the post's!!! Hope all is well with you!!!
  • metalpalace
    metalpalace Posts: 576
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    In theory you're kind of right but I whole heart-idly disagree with you as well as the theory. Like fastplastic just stated... P90X is the real deal. I know literally hundreds of people who lost fat while simultaneously putting on muscle mass on that program.
    [/quote]

    I was thinking the same thing here!!! It's good to see you back on the post's!!! Hope all is well with you!!!
    [/quote]

    It is great to see you to! How have you been? I seem to go on and off this thing. Facebook I'm a regular on. Do you facebook by chance?
  • songbyrdsweet
    songbyrdsweet Posts: 5,691 Member
    Options
    You can't pedal a bike in two directions at once.
    If you want to lose fat, you need a caloric deficit. This means your body has to use fat to make energy because it doesn't have enough calories available.
    If you want to gain muscle, you need extra calories. This gives you more 'building blocks' to build muscle.

    So one thing doesn't happen at the same time as the other.

    In theory you're kind of right but I whole heart-idly disagree with you as well as the theory. Like fastplastic just stated... P90X is the real deal. I know literally hundreds of people who lost fat while simultaneously putting on muscle mass on that program.

    It's not a 'theory'. It's fact. These are body systems we understand enough to know that they operate on the same track but in opposite directions. You might be able to build muscle mass on a miniscule scale one the days you eat excess and lose fat on the days when you're in a true deficit. You'll look larger when you increase your muscle definition from fat loss. But you can't maintain a 500 calorie deficit at the same time you have a 100-200 calorie excess. You also can't convert fat to muscle or vice versa.
  • metalpalace
    metalpalace Posts: 576
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    You can't pedal a bike in two directions at once.
    If you want to lose fat, you need a caloric deficit. This means your body has to use fat to make energy because it doesn't have enough calories available.
    If you want to gain muscle, you need extra calories. This gives you more 'building blocks' to build muscle.

    So one thing doesn't happen at the same time as the other.

    In theory you're kind of right but I whole heart-idly disagree with you as well as the theory. Like fastplastic just stated... P90X is the real deal. I know literally hundreds of people who lost fat while simultaneously putting on muscle mass on that program.

    It's not a 'theory'. It's fact. These are body systems we understand enough to know that they operate on the same track but in opposite directions. You might be able to build muscle mass on a miniscule scale one the days you eat excess and lose fat on the days when you're in a true deficit. You'll look larger when you increase your muscle definition from fat loss. But you can't maintain a 500 calorie deficit at the same time you have a 100-200 calorie excess. You also can't convert fat to muscle or vice versa.

    I don't care if I don't understand the intricacies of the human physiology beyond a basic understanding.... You're in super stellar shape and I think that is AWESOME. Seriously you have a fantastic physique and it should be recognized
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
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    Ahh, sorry metal, but I have to agree with sb on this one. This one is backed up by copious amounts of research data.

    What you've probably seen is people losing fat mass around their muscles, which makes the muscles look more developed, and they've probably become stronger because they have trained their muscles to recruit more fibers for power, and maybe they also look a little bigger because when you activate muscles that were previously dormant, they start to retain fuel and water. All these things can give the appearance of building muscle, but you aren't actually building muscle, it is, in truth, impossible to build significant muscle mass at caloric deficit, the body just doesn't support it. The fact that they have larger volumes of water and fuel (glycogen) would also lend itself to slight weight gain. All of these things would make someone believe they have built up muscle mass. They didn't, and if they stopped working out, they would lose that same weight rather quickly (within 3 to 4 weeks usually).
  • musclebuilder
    musclebuilder Posts: 324 Member
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    I've been losing weight for a couple months, and just started taking Creatine to try to gain muscle. I also do chest presses and bicep curls, but I'm not seeing any results.I feel I am at my ideal weight but I am wanting to lose more body fat, and build more muscle. Any advice on diet and exercise that will help me reach my goals?

    Like sbs said, you want to focus on 1 goal at a time. Bodybuilders train in phases..They will train for months at a time focusing on building muscle while keeping bf to a minimum... Then they will diet. And during the diet the goal is to maintain the muscle they developed during the muscle building phase while losing bf. If you need help putting together a program to build muscle I and others will be glad to help. Just let us know what you want to do.:)
  • iplayoutside19
    iplayoutside19 Posts: 2,304 Member
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    It's simple physics really. If you're body does not have enough energy that it's shrinking itself, what makes you think it's going to build itself?
  • metalpalace
    metalpalace Posts: 576
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    Ahh, sorry metal, but I have to agree with sb on this one. This one is backed up by copious amounts of research data.

    What you've probably seen is people losing fat mass around their muscles, which makes the muscles look more developed, and they've probably become stronger because they have trained their muscles to recruit more fibers for power, and maybe they also look a little bigger because when you activate muscles that were previously dormant, they start to retain fuel and water. All these things can give the appearance of building muscle, but you aren't actually building muscle, it is, in truth, impossible to build significant muscle mass at caloric deficit, the body just doesn't support it. The fact that they have larger volumes of water and fuel (glycogen) would also lend itself to slight weight gain. All of these things would make someone believe they have built up muscle mass. They didn't, and if they stopped working out, they would lose that same weight rather quickly (within 3 to 4 weeks usually).

    Explain it however you want to I just haven't been curious enough to find out "why" but I have indeed seen many, many, many people go through very extraordinary transformations. Most of the time it includes building muscle and releasing fat simultaneously in a 90 day window.
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
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    Explain it however you want to I just haven't been curious enough to find out "why" but I have indeed seen many, many, many people go through very extraordinary transformations. Most of the time it includes building muscle and releasing fat simultaneously in a 90 day window.

    It seems you're missing our points. Nobody said you can't lose fat. Being in a caloric deficit and losing fat are two completely separate things. It's absolutely possible to drop fat and gain muscle at the same time.
  • jrbowers83
    jrbowers83 Posts: 282 Member
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    I've been losing weight for a couple months, and just started taking Creatine to try to gain muscle. I also do chest presses and bicep curls, but I'm not seeing any results.I feel I am at my ideal weight but I am wanting to lose more body fat, and build more muscle. Any advice on diet and exercise that will help me reach my goals?

    Like sbs said, you want to focus on 1 goal at a time. Bodybuilders train in phases..They will train for months at a time focusing on building muscle while keeping bf to a minimum... Then they will diet. And during the diet the goal is to maintain the muscle they developed during the muscle building phase while losing bf. If you need help putting together a program to build muscle I and others will be glad to help. Just let us know what you want to do.:)

    Yeah I was thinking that. I feel like I'm ok with my weight, so I'm looking to bulk up a little and gain muscle. That would be cool if you could give me an idea of a program.
  • musclebuilder
    musclebuilder Posts: 324 Member
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    You can go to bodybuilding.com and click to enter the store. on the left hand side if you scroll down a bit there is (exercise tab) click it. this will take you to a page in which you can click on any body part and go watch short video's on how to perform those exercises for the target muscle group.. make sure that you focus on increasing repetitions or weight on each exercise every week. This will keep you growing. take a week off every 8-12 weeks of training to recharge the battery. After the week off start back up slowly. Your strength, endurance ect.. will be down after the week off. But within 2-3 weeks you'll feel back to 100% and stronger then before. On monday and wednsday Do 3 sets per exercise..first set is a warm up..choose a weight in which you can do 15-20 reps fairly easly. 2nd set pick a weight in which you can do 10-12 reps..3rd set choose a weight in which you can do 8-10 reps...On Friday you will be training for strength..Do as many warm up sets as needed, do not go above 5 reps per exercise..When you reach 5 reps on an exercise, increase the weight..You can mix up the exercise order if you want on any of your training days... also you can choose to add in some cardio on some of your off days..If you decide you prefer to do cardio on days you train. do the weight training in the morning and cardio in the evening or vice versa. Have fun building some muscle.:)

    Monday-Hack Squat/incline barbell bench press/wide grip chin ups/Hammer curl/Tricep extension/seated dumbbell shoulder press/standing calf raise/Pick an abs exercise.
    Tuesday-OFF
    Wednsday-Leg Press/Chest dips/1 arm dumbbell row/seated incline dumbbell curl/cable pushdown/lateral raise to front, side or rear..(you choose)/seated calf raise/pick an abs exercise
    Thursday-OFF
    Friday-Barbell Squat/Barbell bench press/barbell row/barbell curl/close grip bench press/seated db shoulder press/Standing calf raises..
    Saturday-OFF
    Sunday-OFF
  • metalpalace
    metalpalace Posts: 576
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    Explain it however you want to I just haven't been curious enough to find out "why" but I have indeed seen many, many, many people go through very extraordinary transformations. Most of the time it includes building muscle and releasing fat simultaneously in a 90 day window.

    It seems you're missing our points. Nobody said you can't lose fat. Being in a caloric deficit and losing fat are two completely separate things. It's absolutely possible to drop fat and gain muscle at the same time.

    Right on
  • metalpalace
    metalpalace Posts: 576
    Options
    I've been losing weight for a couple months, and just started taking Creatine to try to gain muscle. I also do chest presses and bicep curls, but I'm not seeing any results.I feel I am at my ideal weight but I am wanting to lose more body fat, and build more muscle. Any advice on diet and exercise that will help me reach my goals?

    Like sbs said, you want to focus on 1 goal at a time. Bodybuilders train in phases..They will train for months at a time focusing on building muscle while keeping bf to a minimum... Then they will diet. And during the diet the goal is to maintain the muscle they developed during the muscle building phase while losing bf. If you need help putting together a program to build muscle I and others will be glad to help. Just let us know what you want to do.:)

    Yeah I was thinking that. I feel like I'm ok with my weight, so I'm looking to bulk up a little and gain muscle. That would be cool if you could give me an idea of a program.

    P90X Baby!

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