Am I burning muscle, or fat?!
Question: I think I'm doing too much cardio. I'm down to 224 from 268, yet I still have quite a belly. I am at 18% body fat right now , and 29.1 BMI. I lift weights about twice a week, but do 300-500 calorie cardio burns everyday. I try to eat lean foods as often as I can. Tuna, Salmon, vegi's, almonds, chicken. I don't see my gut going away, and I can't tell where to be looking for results. How many calories, and how much protien should I be taking in, and should I back off on cardio? I want to have a leaner body, but I've never had much muscle mass to start with.
Answers: I think I'm doing too much cardio. I'm down to 224 from 268, yet I still have quite a belly. I am at 18% body fat right now , and 29.1 BMI. I lift weights about twice a week, but do 300-500 calorie cardio burns everyday. I try to eat lean foods as often as I can. Tuna, Salmon, vegi's, almonds, chicken. I don't see my gut going away, and I can't tell where to be looking for results. How many calories, and how much protien should I be taking in, and should I back off on cardio? I want to have a leaner body, but I've never had much muscle mass to start with.
First of all, Congrats!!! That's quite a weight loss you've achieved. Depending on a number of factors, like age for example, your belly should tighten up a bit over time. Skin elasticity will take some time after that kind of weight loss. But I digress, let me get to the plan....
Calories...Multiply your body weight, 224, by 13 and that should get you 2912 calories, if you eat that many calories everyday, with your current exercise level, you should maintain your current weight. Drop 500 calories to 2412 calories a day and you should lose a pound a week and that's really a great pace to maintain. You could drop another 500 calories/day if you want, but know it will lower the likely hood that you stick with the diet. If you drop any more than that, you increase the chance that your body will not respond in a cooperative fashion. You may stop losing weight, you may get sick, you will very likely find yourself with little or no energy, so keep it above 1900 calories/day.
As far as the diet goes, beyond simple calories, look to the food pyramid, try and have a basic division of 3rds. 1/3 protien, 1/3 fat and 1/3 carbs. As much as that will flucuate, try not to let the fat get any higher than 1/3. Remember tot count the good fats too, like that found in avocados and nuts. You might want to add yogurt to your daily diet as it does great things for digestion and complments every part of your diet. Personally, I also like some good fiber in the morning with my yogurt like oatmeal or kaschi, it really gets the metabolism going in the morning. A serving of fruit and handful of walnuts rounds out a great breakfast.
I wouldn't worry about about burning muscle unless you are on a low carb diet, it should take you a long time to get to that point. No need to cut back on cardio, it's great for the heart. I would reccomend you take weekly waist measurements and write them down much as you do your calorie count. Over time you will see whether your waist is getting smaller or not even when it doesn't seem too.
cardio iz da ****!
just kidding
it will make you lose the most weight and get you in best overall shape
the only way you burn off muscle is if your anorexic and your body has nothing else to eat
You need to be doing abdominal work to get rid of your gut and it will be HARD to get rid of.
Crunches, leg lifts, sit-ups. Google various exercises of that nature.
Stick with the weight lifting and diet. Muscle mass burns fat, but you need quite a bit of it to do that.
Muscle weighs more then fat anyway, so I don't think you are burning muscle. Try an hour of walking in the morning as it is low impact excersise.
do a lot of core exercises
You're not going to make progress if you are inconsistent. Eat lean foods in small portions every single time, not just sometimes. You need 60 grams of quality protein a day. Don't back off on cardio. Don't drink alcohol or eat refined carbs. In order to burn fat and not muscle, you need that lean protein every day. The idea behind burning fat is that your body has to consume itself to get adequate energy. You can't exercise then gobble food thinking that you need it. You have to eat LESS than you need in order to lose weight. Almonds are not "lean" food, but are still a good nutrition source - just don't overdo it, as all nuts are very fatty - it has good fat in it, but you don't need to eat pounds of almonds - a handful a week is plenty.
You should be at an approximately 2000 calorie a day diet. I don't trust your 18% body fat percentage - it's probably closer to 25%.
Hey! This is really a good start. You are not burning muscle, it is definitely all fat that you are burning. The only way you would ever burn muscle is if you were starving yourself, in which case all your body's fat reserves would be used up first. Muscle is the last resort for your body to provide you with energy.
It sounds as though your diet is good, and i think the amount of exercise you are doing is good also, but if you want more results then you could try stepping it up a bit. Maybe do some cardio work outs three times a day instead of just two. Cardio is very good for your heart, it helps with a healthy blood flow.
You may be finding that the fat is difficult to move or is taking a long time. But do not panic!! Too many people think the faster you lose weight the better, but believe it or not it is actually better for your healthy if you take your time doing it. I know this may be frustrating but if you lose all that weight in one big hit very quickly, you are only going to put it on again just as fast as you lost it. The reason for this is your body sees your rapid weight loss as 'starving', and so begins stocking up on your reserves once again in case it should happen at some other stage. It can also lower your immunity to colds and other illnesses because your body is in a kind of 'shock'.
Make sure you eat plenty of vegetables and fruits so you get all the vitamins and minerals you need. Meat is important in your diet but having a deficiency in a vitamin or mineral can be just as annoying. I'd suggest you speak to a dietician about how much of any food you should be eating. If you phone around, you should be able to find one within your price range. You would probably only need to see them the one time - just for a food outline and perhaps some tips on losing weight.
But please take your time. You are off to a very good start and the amount of weight you have lost already is great. The belly is one of the hardest places to remove fat from, so perhaps try some exercises that target that area specifically (again, if you see a dietician or even a trainer from a gym, they should be able to give you some advice about how to lose it). I wish you all the best. Good luck!!
You've done well so far. Sounds like you are burning muscle and fat. The big test is to look at your body shape to determine how you are losing weight.
When you gain muscle and lose fat, your body shape will change. The area where you keep the most of your fat will be smaller in proportion to the rest of your body. So if you kept all your fat around your belly your belly will be slimmer.
If you've lost muscle your body shape will not change, you will just weigh less. So, if you've kept all your fat around your belly, you will still have a big belly in relation to the rest of your body.
The prime example is to look at Jerrod from the subway commercials. Sure, he lost a lot of weight, but a lot of it was muscle. Now he is only slightly overweight ("and sexually ambiguous" as Moe Sizlack would say).
You may want to replace some a couple cardio sessions a week with weight lifting sessions to start building muscle. Remember the key to any good workout program is change. You may also want to try to vary your cardio sections and do a different type (i.e. stationary bike instead of treadmill.) for variety.
Make sure you keep a close eye on how you feel. If you start feeling rundown or depressed your are burning muscle and not fat.
Keep up eating lean protein foods. Avoid foods high in saturated fat. And remember to rest. Because resting is when your body builds muscles.
Your basal metabolic rate is approximately your bodyweight (lbs) x 10, add 30% if you are lightly active , 40% if you are moderately active and 50% if you are very active. Thats how many calories you should consume. According to the World Health Organization an active adult should get their bodyweight x 0.4-0.6g of protein per day.
Stick to the cardio you are doing and add more muscle building exercises like crunches. Maybe try pilates.