im on a diet and been training hard for about a few months now… ive gained a faiir amount of size and strength for a while but now im dieting harder and doing more cardio cuz im having a really hard time losing fat… unfortunately I am starting to lose size and strength as well even though im getting in alot of protein (1 gram per lb) im still losing size (i get around 1500-1700 calories a day)… is there any way to avoid losing the muscle or should i just lose the weight first and then bulk up?
The following articles may help you estimate how many calories you should be getting a day.
Massive eating part 1 and 2
http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=460331
http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=460327
If you are training hard your body may need more fuel. From what you’ve stated, the calorie deficit in your diet would impact on your strength training. If you read through Dr John’s articles you’ll notice he weighs 200lbs but requires more than 5000 calories a day for strength training.
From my understanding, the more muscle you build the faster your metabolic rate, meaning more calories burned. Strength training will build more muscle and burn more calories. So you should be focussing on building muscle through hitting the gym hard and eating what your body needs.
Not providing your body with the fuel it needs and the calories it requires can reduce your strength training gains. Cardio can also reduce your strength training as aerobic activity and endurance relies on training slow-twitch fibres while strength training is predominately fast-twitch.
From my experience, it is more difficult to put on weight than it is to lose. Guys considred ‘smaller’ can train for years to put on maybe few lbs of muscle or not even see any size difference. ‘Larger’ guys have the advantage of having the ‘solid’ frame to begin and can lose weight in much less time.
This link will provide you with a heap of info:
http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=640350
Well your calories seem a little low, unless you’re on the velocity diet, or weigh less than 145 lbs.
I looked at a previous post you made, and it was recommended that you try out the T-Dawg diet 2.0. This is a great diet, and in about a week, I am going back on it myself.
Excessive low calories for too long can actually impede fat loss. Your body could start focusing on burning muscle as a priority over fat. Even the Velocity Diet is limited to a maximum of 4 weeks.
Go back and look at the T-Dawg diet again. It lists starting at 15 times your weight. (That is 3000 calories for a 200 pound person.) And then dropping 500 calories after 2 weeks. (2,500 calories again for a 200 pound person.)
The higher calories the first two weeks will help your metabolism recover, and I think you would prefer to loose more fat while eating more food.
Now what are your stats? Height, weight, and if you know it, your percentage of bodyfat. (BF) Also giving us an idea of what you eat and when can help too, not to mention your workouts. The more information we have, the easier it is to know where to help you make changes to improve your results.
thanx for the feedback… im 5’6 198lbs… high bf% i dont know how much but its high… i try to eat smaller meals every 2-3.5 hours to keep my metabolism high, and I dont eat any carbs after 4pm or 2hours before i hit the gym… i hear this way your body will burn more fat… the problem when i was eating around 2000-2400 calories was that i wasnt losing any bodyfat so i had to drop it down and now i am losing the fat but some size too. although I dont mind losing size much since i already have a large frame, i do worry about losing mucle strength … i try to keep my carb intake moderate, around 100g like the T-Dawg diet suggest and also eath them earlier in the day like i said
[quote]mike51183 wrote:
thanx for the feedback… im 5’6 198lbs… high bf% i dont know how much but its high… i try to eat smaller meals every 2-3.5 hours to keep my metabolism high, and I dont eat any carbs after 4pm or 2hours before i hit the gym… i hear this way your body will burn more fat… the problem when i was eating around 2000-2400 calories was that i wasnt losing any bodyfat so i had to drop it down and now i am losing the fat but some size too. although I dont mind losing size much since i already have a large frame, i do worry about losing mucle strength … i try to keep my carb intake moderate, around 100g like the T-Dawg diet suggest and also eath them earlier in the day like i said[/quote]
You don’t eat carbs after 4pm? You don’t eat carbs after you train? How do you know you weren’t losing fat with 2,000 cals a day? Because your weight wasn’t dropping? Body fat loss is not directly related to “weight” loss. You seem turned around in many areas.
For one, there is no reason at all to avoid carbs after 4pm. Some, when dieting, avoid carbs late at night simply because they won’t be engaging in too much activity at that point in the day. YOU ARE STILL TRAINING after that which means you are not giving your body what it needs to recover. Regardless of one post recently made on this forum, you don’t cut carbs after weight training completely. They aid in recovery and your muscle glyogen is low if your training was intense.
Your body doesn’t burn more fat simply because you quit eating carbs after 4pm. If you cut calories too much, which it seems you have, you will lose muscle and less fat. You seem impatient, as if you should have seen immediate results in fat loss and since you didn’t, you cut calories even more. I think you need to stop and reassess your method. You are headed in the wrong direction.
the reason I dont eat carbs after 4pm is becuase I work out at 7 and I heard that you burn more fat if you cut out the carbs a few hours before you do cardio. I also understood that if you eat most of your calories earlier in the day, the better chance you have of losing fat. …of course, I am new here and i could be doing the wrong thing, but thats why i keep posting up messages. again, thanx for all the feedback
Yeah, you’re doing the wrong thing. Maybe if you were on the Anabolic Diet, but as it stands you’re setting yourself up for failure. You should eat carbs after and probably before lifting. In fact, you would probably benefit by staggering a large percentage of your carbs around your workouts. (Read through all the Berardi articles for explanations and suggestions of food choices and nutrient timing)
For cardio days, you could keep carbs to earlier in the day if you wish. In terms of calories, I would recommend eating 2000 for awhile and see how it goes. Judge body composition by the mirror and your clothes. Don’t go by the scale. If you’re still not dropping bodyfat, try dropping to 1800. I wouldn’t drop below this unless you’re sure you’re not losing fat. I don’t think that most men should eat less than 1800 calories a day.
I can’t speak to competition dieting; it’s a whole different animanl. But for the normal lifter who wants to get relatively lean (high single digits or even a little less lean) I don’t see below 1800 calories for most men being good.
[quote]mike51183 wrote:
the reason I dont eat carbs after 4pm is becuase I work out at 7 and I heard that you burn more fat if you cut out the carbs a few hours before you do cardio. I also understood that if you eat most of your calories earlier in the day, the better chance you have of losing fat. …of course, I am new here and i could be doing the wrong thing, but thats why i keep posting up messages. again, thanx for all the feedback[/quote]