Fat loss advice

[SpeedRacer 1]

Quote

The only way that you can lose fat and not lose muscles at the same time is if you use a steroid

this goes against things I have read. Lots of people, if they eat right AND EXERCISE will lose fat & gain some (not a lot) of muscle at the same time.

Speed Racer
--------------------------------------------------

[Orchid 0]

The secret to losing fat without losing muscle starts with not being too aggressive or extreme with your reduction of carbohydrates. You need carbohydrate management, not carbohydrate elimination.

How: by reducing carbohydrates by 20% of daily needs and within 48 hours replenishing the glycogen in the muscle by eating 100% of daily carbohydrate requirements, allows for fat loss, without muscle loss. In essence you have two fat burning days, then a recovery day. By doing this you'll have the best of both worlds. You will experience fat loss that averages between 1-2 pounds weekly, while muscles are being well fed. You never drastically deplete the glycogen stores in the muscle so athletic performance is not affected like on a low carb diet.

"Love is doing small things with great love."

Lacrosse: Legally beating men with sticks since 1492

[Steel 0]

There is not enough information provided to give an absolute answer. It depends on your starting point.
Also you will never loose all fat and no muscle. There will always be a ratio from which your goal is to minimize the muscle loss.

As for supplements that help you preserve muscle mass there really is only steroids or HGH. However, without the right amount of food at the right time, you can do a lot.

How difficult it will be to loose an insignificant amount of muscle mass while loosing bodyfat depends on what percentage of bodyfat you are at initially and your leptin levels. The biggest problem explaining this is that people normally don't know what their bodyfat levels are at. And even worse than that, is that there are a ton of places out there which can give you a bogus bodyfat level because their tests are useless. The only real accurate bodyfat test requires that you be submerged underwater.
Any experienced body builder can get a pretty good guess at what your bodyfat levels are by just looking at your abs. If they are barely outlined you should be about 12%. By 10% most men's abs are clearly outlined. Most of the pictures on the bodybuilding magazines where the guys look shredded are taken at competitions in a condition that they can't realistically keep for more than a week. There they are ranging from 2-6% bodyfat at those competitions. The closer you come to competition level bodyfat the more you need to worry about tricks to keep from loosing muscle.

Some of these tricks included cheating your diet once every couple of weeks on the weekend by overeating by possibly 500-1000 calories for a couple of days. This will restart your Leptin levels, which controls the ratio of bodyfat to muscle that is lost.
But now back to reality and what matters. The averagae American Male is carrying around over 20% bodyfat. If you can't look in the mirror and count out your six pack you are definately over 12%. If you can't pull your skin in that area down slightly with your thumbs and then count out your six pack the you are probably over 14%. Finally if that is the case you could just keep your caloric intake down to 1800 daily ( that is the minimum for males) and you will not need to worry about anything else. Your muscle loss will be insignificant.

If you want to exercise then that can help slightly. But if like most people you believe that because you exercised that you could eat more, then it will most likely cause more harm than good.

If I could make a wish, I think I'd pass.
Can't think of anything I need
No cigarettes, no sleep, no light, no sound.
Nothing to eat, no books to read.

[Hausse 0]

Quote

Quote

The only way that you can lose fat and not lose muscles at the same time is if you use a steroid

this goes against things I have read. Lots of people, if they eat right AND EXERCISE will lose fat & gain some (not a lot) of muscle at the same time.

I highly doubt that. The only time that might happen is if you start your diet and start exercising for the first time in your life and with that have pretty much zero muscles. If you have been doing even a little excercise, then you will lose muscles unless you use as the above poster said steroids or HGH (what ever you do, don't do HGH).

[Steel 0]

Quote

Quote

Quote

I highly doubt that. The only time that might happen is if you start your diet and start exercising for the first time in your life and with that have pretty much zero muscles.

Obviously if you have no muscles to start from you have no muscles to work with. But I agree that when you first start working out you will notice the quickest muscle increase. However, another thing that is often over looked is that at first your muscles will get stronger without growing. Because normally all the muscle fibers are not being used. As one begins to workout they will start to use more of their muscle fibers and when they get to the point that they can't just use more fibers, the fibers will start to grow.

So I agree that its delusional, when people who have never worked out before after a month are attributing weight gain to muscle gain.

If I could make a wish, I think I'd pass.
Can't think of anything I need
No cigarettes, no sleep, no light, no sound.
Nothing to eat, no books to read.

[SpeedRacer 1]

OK, well I do usually use the weight machines (mostly nautilus-type stuff) about 3-4 times per week, although occasionally I'm away or I don't have time to go to the gym, and up until now, I haven't been controlling what I eat or the beer consumption.

Speed Racer
--------------------------------------------------

[Hausse 0]

So I would say do the big three on free weights (get rid of the machines), three times a week, cut your calories by around 500 a day and you should do good.

[Steel 0]

Quote

OK, well I do usually use the weight machines (mostly nautilus-type stuff) about 3-4 times per week, although occasionally I'm away or I don't have time to go to the gym, and up until now, I haven't been controlling what I eat or the beer consumption.

For years I worked out and dieted religiously. Now, I just diet when my jeans are fitting to tight, which is typically accompanied by a 5-10 pound increase on the scale. I don't think I am wiser now or was wiser previously when I was more obsessed with it.

Part of me wants to get motivated and surpass my previous bench press record 275 for 10 reps or 365 for 1. The other part of me questions wether I feel like putting the required effort this time around, specially since being in my mid thirties makes it harder.

I think right now learning how to hang-glide and performing a loop sounds more like a burning desire I have.

If I could make a wish, I think I'd pass.
Can't think of anything I need
No cigarettes, no sleep, no light, no sound.
Nothing to eat, no books to read.

[SpeedRacer 1]

I went to the gym yesterday & will go again today, but I'm also hoping that this Saturday's 12 to 13 mile hike in the Shenandoah mountains will be a good start to the whole process.

Speed Racer
--------------------------------------------------

[DangerRoo 0]

might also try drinking Green tea and oolong teas

(I.C.D#2 VP)
""I'm good with my purple penis straw" ~sky mama

[aresye 0]

After reading most of the posts that have been made, I still stand by what I said earlier. Do CrossFit! Machines isolate muscles, and don't work the peripheral muscles that assist in muscle coordination, balance, and overall complexion. Unless you know exactly which muscles to balance out, you will likely overdevelop one area, and underdevelop another. This ultimately leads to imbalance, and most of your hard work will be lost when your body naturally tries to balance its complexion out.

The only machines you should be using at the gym should be a pullup bar, dip bar and/or rings, and a squat stand, for safety.

As for supplements. Anything in excess is bad for you. A 100% whey protein supplement does help if you take it post workout, and has been scientifically proven to be the fastest absorbing protein out of the many different kinds.

Other supplements I have taken include a few containing Nitric Oxide. It doesn't help a whole lot, like they say they do on the bottles, but if taken correctly, will help your performance by giving you a good pre-workout boost, and more efficient energy putout through the workout. I like to take a scoop (1 scoop) of N.O.Xplode before I workout. The bottle recommends 3. 3 scoops just makes me dizzy, and I don't see that much improvement. 1 scoop really gets me motivated to workout, and I've seen some great results.

As for diet. The zone diet is the way to go, whether you are working out or not. Just PM me your email address, and I'll send you a PDF document all about the Zone, in addition to giving various meal recommendations.

I came into the Navy at about 20% BF, at 195lbs. When I went to BUD/S I was down to 175lbs with 16% BF. Once I started CF, in addition to the supplements I've listed, I brought myself up to 185lbs, but with 13-14% BF. Now that I do CF AND the Zone, I've peaked and have stayed at 190lbs, and 12% BF, but my athletic performance has nearly quadrupled since I left for the Navy. Here are my most recent scores:

Max. Deadhang Pullups: 16
Max. Pushups (in 2min): 90-100
Max. Situps (in 2min): 90-90
CrossFit's "Fran": 7:36 (Some guys got this under 3min!)
1 1/2mi Run: 9:45min

*Also! Navy SEALs have adopted CrossFit, and almost every team has their very own CF gym. In addition to that, they start introducing CF right after Hell Week.

The Marine Corps has adopted CF as their primary workout routine.

My squadron has been given permission from our CMC to start utilizing CF for our workout training, after nearly 5 months of persuasion from one of my instructors, who is a CF certified coach. Now he is working on getting the rest of the squadron to utilize it as well.

Skydiving: You either learn from other's mistakes, or they'll learn from yours.