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2009/01/29, 06:34 PM
I've been training since around March 2008, averaging 3-4 times a week. In a nutshell, I do 6 weeks of strength-building, followed by a 1 week break, then 6 weeks of mass-building, another 1 week break, and finally, 6 weeks of endurance training. Then the cycle repeats.
When I started out, I weighed about 210-215 lbs. (I'm 5'11"). Now, I'm hovering around 233 lbs. It's obvious I've gained muscle mass; my chest is bigger, my shoulders are wider, my arms are thicker. However, I doubt I packed on THAT much muscle. Well, I know I didn't pack on that much: a suit I wore in late September at 224 lbs. barely fit me in mid-January at 230 lbs. It was tighter around the shoulders, but tighter around the waist as well.
When I started training, I barely did any cardio, then added the treadmill to my routine (about 20-30 minutes, after weight-training). I injured my right ankle and switched to doing about 10-15 minutes on an elliptical or stationary bike instead. Recently, I've upped my elliptical/bike time to about 20-25 minutes per session.
Around the time I started doing cardio (August 2008, I think), I also started being more careful about my diet: cutting out fried foods, sugars, white flour, etc. After a couple of months, I saw that my weight was still going up, so in addition to my diet, I started exercising portion control. And my weight continued to go up.
The most intriguing part of my inability to lose weight is when I'm cheating. If I had an occasional weekend when I would allow myself a few slices of bread, some pizza or pasta or even some sweets, my weight would actually be down come Monday. Why is it that I'm losing weight when I'm eating more?
The dilemma I find myself in now is that I want to lose fat, but I'm afraid of losing all the wonderful muscle mass I've built up over the past 10 months or so. I'm afraid that too much cardio will eat at my muscle mass. Also, I feel as if the reason eating is making me lose weight is because my muscles are undernourished. Once I feed them, they get to the work of burning calories. Of course, I could be completely wrong about that.
The bottom line is is that I weigh around 233 lbs. right now, the most I've ever weighed in my life, but I'm also eating healthier than ever before and going to the gym regularly.
Can someone help me figure out what I'm doing wrong? How do I lose the fat without burning the muscle? Or do I just have to accept muscle loss if I want to lose weight?
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2009/01/29, 07:17 PM
First, regarding losing weight on a weekend when you cheat, that is just a fluke.
If you are truly eating clean, drop about 200 to 300 calories a day from your diet and up your cardio to 30 minutes minimum. That will be close to eating and exercising about a pound a week less. If your weight stabilizes, you now know how much to eat to maintain.
Next stop weighing more than once a week. After you find your maintanance level, you can drop a couple of hundred calories a day and your weight will start dropping.
It sound like you have a good grasp on the muscle building . A pound is 3500 calories or thereabout. Combining reduction of daily calories and upping cardio will take the weight and inches off.
Cardio can be simple walking. At my weight a mile at 4 mph burns 135 calories. I walk 18 to 25 miles a week on top of my lifting. 20 miles x 125 calories lets me eat a little more and stay lean. Eating makes me happy.
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Sometimes life is like herding cats
Charlie
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2009/01/30, 03:47 PM
I weigh myself around 5 times a week; I've noticed that I tend to weigh less on Mondays, after weekend binges (is it just me, or is harder to eat clean on weekends than weekdays?).
Anyways, I will definitely up my cardio time. The thing is, will I be losing muscle mass? One the one hand, I'm immensely hungry all the time and trying to keep my portions in check, but on the other, I want to make sure my muscles are nourished.
I'm having a hard time figuring out just how much I need to eat.
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