How do I maintain my physical strength but at the same time lose my love handles!
Question: The obvious way I hear to lose love handles is to do alot of cardio. However, I heard if I do a lot of cardio, then I will lose alot of my strength. I want to get rid of my love handles, but at the same be able to lift what I am lifting now (ex. Flat Barbell Bench is 225 for 3 sets of 8). I seriously don't want to lose the love handles but then lose alot of my mass and strength. The love handles is the only problem I have on my body. Any tips?
Answers: The obvious way I hear to lose love handles is to do alot of cardio. However, I heard if I do a lot of cardio, then I will lose alot of my strength. I want to get rid of my love handles, but at the same be able to lift what I am lifting now (ex. Flat Barbell Bench is 225 for 3 sets of 8). I seriously don't want to lose the love handles but then lose alot of my mass and strength. The love handles is the only problem I have on my body. Any tips?
when i cut bodyfat, i slowly shift my nutrient intake. i increase protein by about 50 grams a day, and cut carbs by about 50 g a day as well. my cardio goes from 20 minutes a day, 4 days a week to 30 minutes per day. after week 2 if i stop losing fat, i take cardio to 45 minutes a day, still 4 days a week. after week 3 i begin to cut carbs. i cut about 30-40 g per day. another week goes by and i will then increase cardio to 45 minutes a day, 5 days a week. that is all the cardio i can stand to do. i hate it. from there on in, i tweak my diet. my carbs will be as low as 200 grams a day. 75 grams in the morning for breakfast, 75 grams post workout, and the other 50 are with mid day dinner. i dont count vegetables in my diet, my last couple meals in the day are proteins and veggies. it takes a little bit of pre planning and alot of work to find the right balance between cardio and diet manipulation but if you do, you will drop fat with minimal muscle loss.
you wont lose your strenght if you do cardio. Athough it looks like you are losing mass, it is because you are toning your body hardcore.
I've done a lot of reading and the best thing that I've come across and had some success myself with is the combination of a high protein diet and a low weight, high reps work out.
The short version is that the more muscle you have, the more calories your body burns simply being alive. If I remember right, 1 pound of muscle burns 50 calories a day. Therefore, if you slightly reduce your calorie intake and slightly increase the amount you burn a day, you'll lose weight without adding a lot of mass.
I highly recommend reading the first "Abs Diet" book because it has an insane amount of information about how your body works and digests food and such.
swimming. You get the more exercise than running, it's easy, it's fast, there are classes all over the place that are pretty cheap for people who want to swim, and it does exactly what you want: gives you a super hot chest, strong, built but not over built leg and arm muscles, pecs and a total six pack. You loose the stuff around the middle first.
Basically, it's a quick, easy cardio/weights workout;]
I hope that helped!
Best wishes,
Alia<33