HALLELUJAH! Steve and Chris finally laid it out well in the “Slim Fast” post. I thought that it was important enough to post it as another thread. The goal for many of us is either 1) FAT loss 2) LEAN WEIGHT (muscle) gain or 3) Some combination of both. This is done by a combination of MACRONUTRIENT CONTROL, cardiovascular work and resistance training. You may lose WEIGHT by eating only honey buns and Snickers at below caloric maintenance, but a significant amount will be muscle. So the idea that if you want to lose, “just eat less than you need”, irregardless as to macronutrient makeup, is a dangerous simplification to this whole game.
Any thoughts, guys?..
Mufasa …you sure have a lot of posts haha…i think this is where most of us struggle…its quality of sources, where exactly does our macro %'s lie and how to time the meals…for example I did my first low carb diet(albeit very brief) a couple weeks ago…now i’m slowly adding carbs in…at 175 grams a day right now i feel like a baloon…I’m hoping that my metabolism will regulate itself soon since it is necessary to have carbs for growth(i’m in a building phase) . i could just eat junk if I want or not eat all day the load up on carbs at night but that would cause fat gain…not what i want…and if I cut up with low quality sources ina hypocaloric environment…that leads to muscle loss…i think the key word that evryone searchs for is OPTIMAL…What is optimal for you personally…Mike
Mike: By real world experience, you made my point EXACTLY! The issue is macronutrient CONTROL, not elimination because one is “good” or one is “bad”. Or that to lose fat, what you eat doesn’t matter…just eat less than maintenence…I really can’t believe all the bad advice that beginners get in the gym…thanks for you input!