Shifting to cutting fat

[RagingWaters]

Well I have been trying to build muscle since I began a lot of time ago, but I feel stalled. After some deliberations, I decided to start losing fat rather than gaining mass in order to vary a bit my trainings.

The object of this thread is that I'm almost new to this way of training. Basically I know I have to eat a bit less and do more cardio. I don't know how to use weight training for this, or how to exactly readjust my diet, or avoiding losing muscle, etc. Naturally I'm going to search info on my own, but a little help from the guys here at CC would be very apreciated.

[G-Spot19]

Basically if you want to cut you need more cardio as you said and lighter weight at higher reps when you do weights. Also, Oldie posted a topic a few years ago about making your body anabolic. You should find it in the core. When I followed this advice i was cut as hell. My body fat % was basically non existent and i didnt lose alot of size. Also, look into the 6 week ab program. That dude teaches you how to cut and do it fast.

[RagingWaters]

Thanks for the info.

Guess what, some days ago I went to my local drugstore to weight (and measure my bodyfat) and I got 185 pounds with 18'8% body fat. Shit. I think my body looks good, and many people (especially ladies, but never say it in front of me) think it looks even more good, but... comparing my stats with those people post on the internets, I'm less then mediocre:(

I'ts fine anyway, it should be easier to lose that fat :wink:

[oldie42]

18.8% bf is nothing to be ashamed of man. Especially if you were bulking. Throw in 30 minutes of cardio every other day, try for 4 sets of 20 reps on a light weight for your lifting routine. If you use your muscles lightly but still work them good, your body will see that there is a need to keep the muscle that you've built and you won't lose much size. Keeping the cardio at 30-45 minutes and then getting the hell out is going to do you good...you won't overtrain yourself and you will be getting slimmed down nice. Of course, your diet is going to have to be clean and cut your calories down. Keep your protein intake up though. Eat lots of vegetables and fibrous fruits, nuts/seeds. Fiber will fill you up so you're not as hungry. This is a GOOD thing to keep the calories down.

[RagingWaters]

Thanks a lot oldie, but I need to ask some questions to a guy that actually knows about the business.

1- Should I do cardio day 1 then weights day 2 etc? (and rest 2 days/week)

2- I once read somewhere that to lose fat is better to what I'm trying right now: do quick bursts of cardio excersise (1 minute beating yourself and then 1 minute of relax, period) instead of doing steady cardio over a long time, so that metabolism is supposedly boosted. They say than 100m sprint athletes were fitter than marathon atletes to give weight to their ideas. What do you think?

3- What where you meaning with:
Keeping the cardio at 30-45 minutes and then getting the hell out is going to do you good..

4- Since I began to eat not as much as I used to, I feel thirst much more frequently. I take it as a good sign, since I now drink much more water than before, but it still bugs me.

I know these are a lot of questions, but the info on the internets is not very reliable, and I wanted to know what do successful people think.

Thanks again.

EDIT PD: I was naturally pretty fat. With weights, I were able to maintain my weight while changing my fat for muscle over (a loong) time. So I think I technically I wasn't bulking up but anyway. Just throwing in some additional info.

[oldie42]

1. I would recommend doing cardio and light lifting all in the same day. Or you could do a circuit type training.

2. You're going to end up stressing your body out a lot more than you should if you do one minute of intense exercise and one minute rest. The idea of cardio is to keep your heart rate up...I don't see how getting your heart rate up and then letting it calm down and then getting it back up again will help. Seems like you will only stress your heart more than you really should, and will probably release massive amounts of cortisol, which you DO NOT want.

3. What I meant was, do your cardio and get out of the gym. 30-45 minutes, but don't go over 1 hour. Your body will start to release massive amounts of cortisol, which will probably lead to fat retention, which you aren't wanting.

4. Drink at least 1 gallon of water per day. It's good to have a thirst, water is going to be your best friend in this journey.

[Rum_Runner]

I love HIIT (high intensity interval training) for losing weight. Less time all the benefits.

http://www.hiitsource.com/getting-started/
http://musclemedia.com/training/hiit.asp
http://www.intervaltraining.net/hiit.html
http://www.fastexercise.com/pdf/Gibala_CurrSportsMedRep-6_2007.pdf
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11772161

[RagingWaters]

Thanks guys, thanks thanks thanks.

[RagingWaters]

Yay, I got progress! I lost 700 grams, from which 600 were from fat, thus lowering my bodyfat from 18'8 to 18'3 % in 1 week! I hope to keep it up.

[oldie42]

Awesome brother! Keep at it!

[G-Spot19]

Great Job! You are on your way! I like how CC sees fit to try to help better men in more than just penis enlargement. We hit every thing possible for self improvement on here at some points in time.

[RagingWaters]

Yeah, that's good. In fact I saw some improvements, i had some excess fat and now it has dissapeared from where it annoyed the most! I was touching myself yesterday and I felt my waist more smooth and my arse less full. I still get the small belly when I sit down, but these small changes made me feel great (I even had a boner).

I was stalled at that weight because I wasn't able to eat more (mom cooks) so I decided, for the moment, to lower my weight by losing fat, in hopes of gaining that weight back later in form of muscle.

I can't wait for the competition round 2 to end.

[RagingWaters]

More progress for week 2.

My body fat dropped to 18.0%, but oddly enough, the scale said I now weight 185 pounds again. I believe it could be because of my wear, since first measurements said I was 6 ft tall and this measure said I was 6,1 ft (because of my sneakers, previous measures were with sandals, between another things).

If it's actual weight, well, it is better as muscle than as fat-it is exactly what I'm looking for. Anyway HIIT & reduced diet are doing their job.

[ownd]

Dont worry about what the scales say when cutting. Look at the mirror for results and your body fat caliper. Also cardio is the main way to lose the fat, and strict dieting. Taper off your carbs as the day progresses and hit 6 meals per day with protein in each meal. 1.5 grams of protein per lbs of body weight


i usually do 50 percent protein 30 % carbs 20 %fat

[ownd]

also i would suggest you do HIIT sprints let me know if you dont know what they are, and give a try to some circuit training for serious fat burning. 300 work out example and what not.

[RagingWaters]

Thanks ownd, I'm actually doing HIIT on my stationary bike with the brakes at 50%, so I can get pretty worked :wink: among with some light weight training, 4 or 5 series of all muscles at 15RM aprox. I don't know what is circuit anyway, but I'll keep on HIIT while it works. Also I don't have a caliper :neut:

[RagingWaters]

I have a question that just came to my mind... ¿Does the stored fat affect the metabolic rate?

Because I want to build muscle but I'm limited to a certain max of calories due to what my mom cooks. If I lose fat but it doesn't affect my metabolic rate, well, the benefit would be just looking better, but I still could not build muscle.

[Rum_Runner]

yes and no. Metabolic rate really is effected by muscle mass, however stored fat makes an impact on insulin levels and the effect that insulin has in the body. So losing the extra pounds especially belly fat will make you better at using the bodies fuel.

Although not impossible it is difficult to cut fat fast and not lose some muscle. It can be done but in your case cutting fat for a month or three will probably not effect your muscle mass to much.
http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/mondays_with_thibs_stripping_fat_with_metabolic_pa irings

[110189]

Also...

Try to do more reps. Like sets of 20-30.

You start burning more calories and build muscle at the same time.

Also try doing compound movements with 20-30 reps.

[RagingWaters]

Week 3:

Weight is 184 pounds. Body fat is 17'7% and still dropping! At this rate (0'3%/week) I'll be ripped... by Summer 2009 :( but I can't complain since is great anyway. Also, taking in account that my weight remains almost the same, this implies I'm also gaining lean muscle (at a slower pace) so things are rolling.

[wern]

A few things.
First, answering your previous questions:

1. That depends on a lot of things. I believe it is better to do 1 day weights, one day HIIT (high ntensity interval training (the exercises you mentioned in question 2). Both weight training and HIIT increase your metabolism for up to 24-48 hours, so by doing either HIIT or weights every day (or for a period of 4 days instead of two), you double your overall metablism, which will have a massive impact on fat loss.

2. There are many many studies that support HIIT over low intensity cardio training. The fact that they cite long distance runners' physicques against sprinters' physiques is encouraging but it doesn't really mean anything. Just check out the forums about HIIT to find out what normal people think of it. I do it, and I find it is superior to reguar cardio because
a. it takes less time
b. you don't need any machines or a gym, just put your shoes on and do 8 30 second sprints over a 20 minute period outside your house.
c. Due to a and b, it is a more sustainable exercise, because you can do it at any time and it doesn't take a chunk out of your day.

4. I don't think thirst has much to do with "not eating as much". Rather it would have something to do with an increased metabolism. As Oldie says, drink plenty of water. Not juice, not coke, but WATER. Start loving water. If you want to drink juice or coke, do sobut don't count it as "water".

"My body fat dropped to 18.0%, but oddly enough, the scale said I now weight 185 pounds again."

Thats not "odd" at all. "Fat" doesn't hold water. But for every gram of muscle in your body, the body retains 4 grams of water. So if you lose 5 pounds of fat, and gain 5 pounds of "muscle" (which constitutes less than 1 pound of protein and less than 4 pounds of water associated with that protein, and some other substances, such as glycogen and the water associated with the glycogen), you will look smaller, but weigh the same.

"I'm actually doing HIIT on my stationary bike with the brakes at 50%"
If that works for you, then great. I have found, through my own exeriences, that machines hinder HIIT, because they limit your body's ability to perform the spasmodic movements associated with "pushing yourself to the limit". When you are really sprinting at 100%, your movements won't be as "controlled" or as gracefull as you they would be when sprinting at 80% of your ability.
That's why you have to "put breaks at 50%", because your limbs won't like the machines restrictions when you are trying to cycle really really fast. So you put breaks at 50% and the result is that you aren't doing cardio anymore, you are doing cardio + resistance training. If you already worked your abs ad quds that day, or the day before, they haven't recovered enough for you to d this exercise, and they won't recover enough by the next day, when you do the resistance training again. The result will be overtraining, which will really have a bad effect on your whole motivation.

[wern]

2. You're going to end up stressing your body out a lot more than you should if you do one minute of intense exercise and one minute rest. The idea of cardio is to keep your heart rate up...I don't see how getting your heart rate up and then letting it calm down and then getting it back up again will help. Seems like you will only stress your heart more than you really should, and will probably release massive amounts of cortisol, which you DO NOT want.

It is very very arguable whether Cortisol causes fat gain. I think you are worrying about something trivial, or to put it differently, something that doesn't have enough scientific basis.
Even if it could be proven that cortisol release is exclusively responsible for fat gain (meaning that if two identical or similar people are tested and somehow a coritisol response is stimulated i one every day and they therefore become fatter than their counterpart), how can you test the exact amount f cortisol that is required to gain fat, and then how do you test the exact levels of cortisol that are released per individual per exercise.

There are plenty of factors that make you fat. After all, fat is there to protect us. It insulates us from toxins, keeps us warm, and provides a reservoir of energy. To try to micromanage cortisol output in order to reduce fat sounds very dangerous to me, because we simply don't know how much cortisol is "too much" for each person and we aren't aware of any safe ways to manage cortisol levels at a good level. It makes more sense to simply create a general environment in which the body deems it safe to shed fat. Ie regular execise, eating the right food.