Hey everyone!

First of all, I want to say WOW to people who has lost lot of weight....Very inspiring!! Keep up the great work! A bit about me, then my question to you all (the inspiring people!)

Ok, I'm in my 2nd weight loss adventure. Yes I call it adventure. In 2000, I lost 50 pounds in 4 months. I know it's a lot.. I did it by running on treadmill. I have the genes where I unfortunately can easily gain weight but at the same time, can lose weight easily. I stabilized the weight loss and maintained it for 5 years. So I know I can do it again because of this experience.

Now, 6 years later (2006), I stopped exercise, restarted bad diet. Guess what? Gained the 50 pounds back.

When I lost 50 pounds in 2000, I only did cardio till I reached my goal, then started weight lifting (gained 5 solid pounds of muscle)....

Now, I have lost 10 pounds, need to lose 33 more pounds. Question is: should I do the same thing again: do Cardio only till I reach my goal... or add weight training NOW while losing weight? I haven't done the weight lifting with cardio while I'm losing weight. The reason I didn't do that is because I'm afraid of getting muscle on top of the fat. For those who have seen The Biggest Loser, you see them weight lifting AND also doing heavy cardio...so how come they didn't have muscle on top of the fat?

I also never did my abs while I was losing weight because I was afraid that if I do abs, it'll be muscle on top of fat. Anyone does abs while you are losing weight?

I would appreciate the advice and education. Cardio is not the problem for me. Diet is now good... I just want to get toned, but not sure when is the right time?

Thanks!

Mike

Hello and welcome to WLF.

I am by no means an "expert" but I am not sure if building muscle over fat is possible. If I am not mistaken, I believe muscle builds over the bone and fat builds over muscle. I am not sure about abdonimal muscles though considering there is no bone for the muscle to build over.

There are a lot of smart people on this great forum. I am sure SOMEONE will correct me if I am wrong.

Do spend some quality time reading around the forum... the answers to your questions are trhere- as well as valuable education to get you off the yo-yo track...

Something a personal trainer told me at golds gym last week was that i shoulder avoid "ab" training as it would hardern the muscles in my abs, and slow down any "visable" weight loss in that area of my body.

How true is that?

B.S. There are reasons why don't have to do isolated ab exercises, but thats not one of them.

Not an expert but here is my take on your questions- I have been WT for the last 7 months and know a couple things, or so I hope.

Once you read around the forum a bit you will see that the philosophy here is to wt while reducing calories to preserve the muscle you have. Read around for the explanation of such but that is the bottom line.
Should.
Not possible. Why would muscle grow on fat? And you more than likely will not be 'growing' any actual muscle anyway- more of maintaining it.
Again- not possible. muscle is muscle and will not spontaneously grow on fat.
Read above
I do and I am pretty sure most people here do, but why the focus on abs? Abs are one muscle group.

'toned' is a product of fat loss. So you need to lose the fat to get the 'toned' look. That being said, you have the potential to look simply like a smaller version of your 'fat self' if you do not work to preserve the muscle you have now.


Oh an like Mal said- please read the stickies in this and the exercise forum. Huge amounts of information there for you.

I heard this also but have since dismissed it a bunk. I mean- is anyone not doing a bench press because there is fat there and the progress will not be clear?
avioding core/ab training is one of the worst things you can do- not overtrain them mind you, but simply avoiding it is tragic.

the logic is amazing- dont work a particular muscle group so that it will look better....
I need to become a personal trainer...

I got to say i take everything i hear from the trainers at golds gym with a grain of salt. Some of them look fresh out of high school.

Hey everyone,

Thanks for the replies! I appreciate it! I'll read the threads in other posts. I"m newbie here.....

I haven't decided yet if I'll do weight lifting and ab training, but it's good to hear that some has been doing that and did lose weight.

I'll wondering (probably will be found in other threads although), if doing weight lifting and ab training while also doing cardio accelerate the weight loss. More faster than cardio alone?

Thanks again

Mike

In reply to Rowe's comment, it isnthe opposite. If you strengthen your core it will look like you have lost more weight than you actually have. When the core muscles get stronger it will be like you are sucking in your gut naturally even when you are relaxed giving an appearance that you have less body fat.

jaoust,

Thanks for your reply. So you do ab training while you are losing weight. Do you also do weight lifting as well?

Thanks!

Mike

You WILL lose muscle during a big amount of weight loss. I insist you do weight training to play some defense... abs included.



Here is my workout routine:

Monday:

Shoulders and triceps.

40 minutes on treadmill.

Tuesday:

Back and core.

40 minutes on treadmill.

Wednesday:

HIIT on stationary bike.

Thursday:

Chest, biceps, and core.

40 minutes on treadmill.

Friday:

Legs.

40 minutes on treadmill.

Saturday:

Full body weight training. (1 set per muscle group (20-25 reps))

40 minutes on treadmill.

Sunday:

40 mintues on treadmill.


I found a great weight training routine that seems to be working great for me. Go to yahoo search engine and search "Doug's Mega Cutting Routine"... it is on muscleandstrength.com. I tweaked mine a bit, however.

Good luck!

For lack of better questions....

What does this 'routine' bring to the table?

No days off & cardio every day seem to me to be ripe for overtraining and simple exhaustion. Why do you feel cardio needs to be done every day?

Why do you feel that a body part split works better than several full body workouts per week? What is gained by working out each muscle group once a week?
Lastly- what is the theory behind Saturday? 1 set per muscle group and 20-25 reps? that really seems like overkill to me.

interested Brian is interested.

er?

I really dont understand this. Where is this information from?

Yes I do weights while training. Usually 2 full body workouts per week, with single sets of 15RM. I'll do two different exercises for some muscle groups. eg. for back doing seated row, and lat pulldowns. Chest bench press and pectoral fly. A typical workout week would be like this:

monday: Full Body Workout + 30 min cardio

Tuesday: Rest or 30 min moderate intensity cardio

Wednesday: Full Body Workout + 30 min cardio

Thursday: Rest

Friday: Hockey or HIIT

Saturday: rest

Sunday: 60 min cardio


Everything else is diet and don't forget to get enough sleep! Cheers