Losing Fat And Gaining muscle at (Relatively) the same time

Posted document.write(''+ myTimeZone('Sun, 27 Apr 2008 15:34:10 GMT-0700', '27 April 2008 05:34 PM')+''); 27 April 2008 05:34 PM 27 April 2008 05:34 PM So first of all, my overall goal is to lose fat, and gain muscle. What guy doesn't want that?

Heres my problem. I can't get any stronger with my current diet/exercises. I have my diet and exercise down so that I can lose fat. I eat around 2200 calories on days that I work out, and for my workouts, I alternate days of lifting and cardio.

Now while I am definitely seeing fat-loss results, I am also definitely seeing a slow decrease in muscle strength. My question is, what should I change so that I can lose fat, and gain muscle.

I know it's not possible to do both at the same time, but what should I do so that I can gain muscle and lose fat in lets say a 3 month time frame.

Should I just focus on one goal per month? Or should I simply tailor my diet on a day to day basis? e.g. Low cal, low carb on my cardio days and high cal, high carb/protein on my lifting days.


By the way, I currently get about 120g protein/day, 320g carb/day. Both regardless of what exercises I am doing.

Thanks!

how tall are you? weight?

what goal do you want really? fat loss or mass now?

help us out a bit!

You can not gain muscle in a caloric deficit which is what is necessary to loose fat.  By weight training while in a deficit you preserve the muscle you do have and you strengthen the muscles you already have.  There is a big difference between amount of muscle you have and the strength of those muscles.  So it has to be one or the other, if you want to add muscle then you have to have a caloric surplus in order to do this.  But you will gain fat thus needing to cycle back into a fat burning strategy to loose the fat that you gained and loosing a little bit of the muscle you gained.  You have to decide what is most important right now and go for that goal.  Now you said you can not get any stronger with your current diet/exercises, please clarify your question and maybe post your workout so we can help.

Original Post by iamme1270:

how tall are you? weight?

what goal do you want really? fat loss or mass now?

help us out a bit!

I'm about 5'-10" 170lbs.

I've been on the bubble about this the last few days, but I'll decide right now that I want fat loss to be my primary goal. Especially since thats what my lifestyle has been working towards for the last several months.

What I mean by, "never getting any stronger," is that I never see any improvements in reps, therefore I never get to increase the amount of weight I'm moving in my exercises. I know now that I can't build muscle while in a calorie deficit, but I'm afraid that I'm losing too much muscle and that I am slowly getting weaker.

So my question is, Is my diet SOLELY to blame(e.g not enough protein, etc.), or is it perhaps something to do with my workout? Like today I tried resting a little bit more betweens sets today and that really helped my reps go up. I'm resting about 1:30 in between sets now.

I know I can't properly express what is going through my head, but thanks for listening anyway. I'm really just trying to gather as much information as a can, and then make an informed decision for myself.

PS. I am expecting to lose muscle in a deficit. I am just trying to make sure that I am doing everything possible to minimize that muscle loss while still maximizing fat loss.

How big is your deficit?  A small deficit will make it easier to maintain muscle while too large a deficit will cause you to lose muscle faster.

And what does your current lifting routine looke like? exercises? sets/reps? frequency?

One thing with out seeing your work out is to do something to shock the muscle.  For instance do 5*5 at as much weight as you can handle to complete the first to sets of 5 then the other three should be failure with 4 or even three with negatives for the last couple of reps.  Do this on a complex exercise like bench press, you can do squats but it can be dangerous so make sure you have a few spotters and a power rack.  Or even go the total opposite way take a very light weight and do a set of 100 with as little rest as possible to get through them all.  Try something that is totally off the wall to in a sense wake up your muscles.  Drop sets are a great tool to use 3 sets at 10, 8, 6 reps with increasing weight each time.  Ideal range for strength reps wise is 5-8, growth 8-12 and endurance 12 on up.  8-12 is probably the most beneficial area since you gain strength, promote growth and endurance. 

I think cookk has good points-- and sometimes, there is nothing like a good muscle shock & drastic routine change to see some changes in strength-

sully is correct in the diet- it's a thin line w/mass maintenance & fat loss- you have to continually try different diet approaches to see what makes your body tick as an individual

define your goal better -- - bc if you've dropped fat like you said- how much more do you want to drop realistically at your current stats? Unless you were really flubbed up & weak-- but I doubt that as you seem young-- you must be pretty lean as a someone w/testosterone & at that height & weight--

maybe you should think about what your aim is-- if it's some more strength & some mass- eat CLEAN & in a surplus, HEAVY on protein-- (i am a broken record)

i went through a heavy mass build, then dropped fat, then restricted way, way way too low & instead of dropping fat after a great initial response, I started to ADD FAT bc i was too low calorie/protein wise- by eating 6x a day complex carb/protein (1g per lb body weight) I am FINALLY melting fat off my low abs/butt as I wanted to! My mass loss has been MINIMAL to slim at all-- and my strength has GONE UP vs losing any-- i'm fueling for the power to lift heavy still & do my endurance cardio training... but then again- I'm a CHICK!

make a decision on which you want more-- but remember it's 80% diet, 20% fitness & protein & complex carbs are key - deficit=fat loss & surplus=mass & mixing up your routines certainly builds greater mass capabilities...

Oh & I'd double check your daily calorie needs- that 2000-2200 seems low on a deficit even and your protein is low!

Well tomorrow I'll only have 30 minutes to work out, so I'm going to try and "shock" my muscles.

I guess I'll try and work on finding that fine line. This week. I had a really bad diet weekend, so I haven't been able to really monitor any accurate results from the changes I've been making.

My goal for right now. Pretty much just comes down to 6-pack.

My long term goal. 6-pack, V-shaped back, dinner plate pecs.

I've decided to aim for getting that six pack before I go for more muscle. I think I'm just going to keep my diet about the same, maybe eat a few more calories each day, eat more protein, and just try to push myself at lifting. That should help me get leaner, while not losing any muscle right?

I went to a nutritionist a few months ago, told her my fat-loss goals and my level of exercise, and she told me to eat between 2200 and 2400 calories a day (When I work out) to lose at a healthy rate. And it usually winds up being closer to 2350 calories that I consume each day.

check out bodybuilding .com I think 120g  of Protein is too little. Eat about 1-1.5x your weight in protein. So 170-255g a day. Lower your carb to keep under your daily caloric limit. I am personally on a low-carb, high-protein diet. Anyways check out bb.com.