If I am trying to gain muscle while losing body fat is it the right time to do some cardio before or after I lift?
Doing both at the same time is not efficient. It’s not impossible, but you’ll take 10 times as long.
I’d suggest losing the fat first while preserving as much muscle as possible. When that’s done, concentrate on building muscle while trying to keep fat gains to a minimal.
There’s a bunch of articles on the site describing how to do both these things.
[quote]pookie wrote:
I’d suggest losing the fat first while preserving as much muscle as possible. [/quote]
Please don’t tell this to everyone. This poster could very well be the size of chiragh in the picture forum. Everyone doesn’t need to lose fat first before they start gaining muscle.
Prof X is right.
Personally, I think I am at the “upper limit” of BF at 18%. As long as I am below 18%, it’s all about bulking/EATING massive.
if you are above the 18% marker, than you will likely lose weight pretty easily by making minor dietary changes and increasing activity.
What are your stats? height, weight, BF%, years lifting, current training regimine, current eating habits?
Tell us more…help us, help you.
Im at this point now…my bf is probably around 11-12% and Ive plateaued…I have my calories real low, probably 2000-2100 (down from 2600-2800)…doing 2 days of hiit and 2 days of mod cardio…doing full body fat loss from rugged.
Im thinking maybe I should up the calories and do a slow bulk, and maybe the extra muscle will burn this last little bit of fat.
Oh yeah Im 31 5’11" weight 190-192. Anyone suggestions?
[quote]raymond333 wrote:
Im at this point now…my bf is probably around 11-12% and Ive plateaued…I have my calories real low, probably 2000-2100 (down from 2600-2800)…doing 2 days of hiit and 2 days of mod cardio…doing full body fat loss from rugged.
Im thinking maybe I should up the calories and do a slow bulk, and maybe the extra muscle will burn this last little bit of fat.
Oh yeah Im 31 5’11" weight 190-192. Anyone suggestions?[/quote]
11-12% isn’t fat. What are your goals?
[quote]Professor X wrote:
Please don’t tell this to everyone. This poster could very well be the size of chiragh in the picture forum. Everyone doesn’t need to lose fat first before they start gaining muscle. [/quote]
I’m telling it to the initial poster; “everyone” else can judge for themselves whether it applies to their own situation.
He mentions “losing fat” in his post. I presume he knows what his own goals are.
Anything else you need explained?
[quote]pookie wrote:
Professor X wrote:
Please don’t tell this to everyone. This poster could very well be the size of chiragh in the picture forum. Everyone doesn’t need to lose fat first before they start gaining muscle.
I’m telling it to the initial poster; “everyone” else can judge for themselves whether it applies to their own situation.
He mentions “losing fat” in his post. I presume he knows what his own goals are.
Anything else you need explained?[/quote]
Apparently so considering the crap you just posted. Some of the people asking these questions are newbies. Telling them things must be done one certain way without any further info about alternatives could set them back. There, was that clear enough? Everyone doesn’t need to diet down. He didn’t ask you what YOU need to do. He asked what he should do…which should have led to you asking questions about his current condition and his goals.
Since 2 weeks ago i began taking:
4 HOT-ROX/ day
4 Alpha Male/ day
2 Carbolin 19/ day
in addition I take 2-3 Low-Carb Grow! shakes per day. For PWO I drink 2 scoops of Surge and for lunch and dinner I eat 2 chicken breasts and stemamed veg. and also eat Grow! bars for snacks.
I lift 5-6 times a week and run 30 min of cardio after each time I lift. I figured this would be the best way to gain/preserve as much muscle as possible while losing fat.
Help please!!!
Where are my results???
[quote]jpouma1 wrote:
Since 2 weeks ago i began taking:
4 HOT-ROX/ day
4 Alpha Male/ day
2 Carbolin 19/ day
in addition I take 2-3 Low-Carb Grow! shakes per day. For PWO I drink 2 scoops of Surge and for lunch and dinner I eat 2 chicken breasts and stemamed veg. and also eat Grow! bars for snacks.
I lift 5-6 times a week and run 30 min of cardio after each time I lift. I figured this would be the best way to gain/preserve as much muscle as possible while losing fat.
Help please!!!
Where are my results???[/quote]
You were asked what your goals are. 11-12% is not fat. Why are you dieting down even more at this point? You are also doing a very large amount of cardio. Couple that with a reduced caloric intake and it all may be why your body is refusing to drop any more weight. That is why you don’t go all out on cardio when dieting at first because your body will adjust over time and begin to lose LESS body fat. If you are already doing cardio 6 times a week when your metabolism slows down, you have no recourse but to do even more cardio or drop your calories even further. Going over-board could result in even more muscle lost.
This is me a couple of weeks sgo before I began to diet down and start the diet and routine Ive been doing. As to my goals I believe that my upper body is getting better and Im still gaining in strength along Im cutting down. I just feel Im thick in the midsection and need to catch it up tp the rest of me.
My pic from June 1st
[quote]jpouma1 wrote:
My pic from June 1st[/quote]
What are your long term goals? How lean are you trying to get short term? You have only been dieting for two weeks and are already doing cardio 6 times a week?
Here’s the deal, you aren’t lean, however, you aren’t fat either. If your goal was to add more muscle, it makes sense to clean up your diet but continue gaining. The more muscle you have, the better it will look after dieting. If your goal is to simply cut up what you have, the large amount of cardio you are doing along with your reduced caloric intake is probably why your body has stopped losing weight (even though this is even doubtful with only two weeks of dieting which implies that your diet is most at fault). One way around that is to spend a couple of weeks increasing your caloric intake in order to help speed your metabolism which has slowed down from the dieting you have been doing. 6 days a week is a lot of cardio. It gives you no recourse when your metabolism slows down except to possibily do cardio twice a day. That isn’t the best thing to do for the average trainer with a job and a life.
After two weeks of increasing your caloric intake to maintenance, you can attempt to reduce calories again (hopefully you aren’t attemptintg to starve yourself into losing body fat and are gradually reducing calories instead of dropping them suddenly…this can also lead to a halt in progress). I have done that in the past and it has worked for me. I would drop the cardio over that time period. When cardio is added back in, do not start off with 6 days a week. 3-4 days a week makes more sense, if that. Learn to rely on your diet more for results. It will give you something to fall back on when your metabolism slows while dieting (which WILL happen if you diet long enough).
[quote]Professor X wrote:
Apparently so considering the crap you just posted. Some of the people asking these questions are newbies. Telling them things must be done one certain way without any further info about alternatives could set them back. There, was that clear enough? Everyone doesn’t need to diet down. He didn’t ask you what YOU need to do. He asked what he should do…which should have led to you asking questions about his current condition and his goals.[/quote]
Crap? I told him that trying to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time is inefficient. Unless you’ve discovered a new method to alter body composition you’d wish to share, you’re the one who’s full of crap.
And if he’s really a newbie, how dumb are you to take his “11-12%” bodyfat number without question? Most newbies have no idea about bodyfat levels and usually underestimate it by at least 5-10%. Hint: You could ask him about his waist size and neck size, that could give you a better idea if his 11-12 estimate is accurate.
We’ve already seen that whenever someone talks about losing weight, you’ll jump on the thread and tell them they’re small and puny and need to gain some. Apparently, losing any weight at all is against your religion or something. You probably grieve everytime you have to take a shit 'cause your weight drops a little. Good thing you’re an endless supply of it.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
raymond333 wrote:
Im at this point now…my bf is probably around 11-12% and Ive plateaued…I have my calories real low, probably 2000-2100 (down from 2600-2800)…doing 2 days of hiit and 2 days of mod cardio…doing full body fat loss from rugged.
Im thinking maybe I should up the calories and do a slow bulk, and maybe the extra muscle will burn this last little bit of fat.
Oh yeah Im 31 5’11" weight 190-192. Anyone suggestions?
11-12% isn’t fat. What are your goals?
[/quote]
Professor X, my goals arent to be huge or anything, just a nice build with some good definition. After reading the rest of this post, I believe I have the same problem, eating too little and not making progress. With that said, I recently upped my calories to around maitenence or just below (I was 1000 below before). I am doing this in attempt to build some more muscle and thinking since each extra pound of muscle that you have burns more calories, that this will benefit me more in burning fat vs eating at a really low caloric deficit.
Right now, Im doing “full body fat loss” which I like because its 2 days of 3x5, and 2 days of 3x12…do you think this is a good program for what Im looking for (basically to lean out and add some muscle). I do 2 days of hiit (on non lifting days) and 1 other day of steady cardio (jogging). What do you think of this, and should I keep my calories right around maintenence? Here is a pic for reference…oh and thanks.
Here is another one…
Back View