Ok hi guys, I discovered this website a while ago and it helped immensly with me loosing weight. I have lost 15lbs, but now I have been lifting weights at least 5 times a week and can see improvments in stregnth and pysical looks. My problem is that I still have belly fat and love handles a bit. I know I need to loose at least 10-12 pounds of body fat, but I don't want to have such a reduced calorie diet that I am burning off the muscle I am building. Should I just loose the weight and then focus on muscle or can it be done at the same time.

a lot of the bodybuilding threads i read some people are eating like 3000 calories a day! i wouldn't dream of doing that also I have upped my protein intake and try to eat at least 140-160g a day. i also have been looking into met-rx meal replacement bars, which give lots of protein and vitamens but with onyl 320 calories.
could someone point me in the right direction? How do I know how big of a calorie reduction I can have and still not burn off any muscle I am building but still get rid of my excess fat.

thanks
reno

how many calories a day are you getting?

and what are your current stats?
Height/age/weight/i assume male as your gender

40 -60 grams of protein isn't all that much...

well first off on the protien i meant 140-160

I am male,26 years old, and 5 ft 7-8inches. and weight 156.6 this morning.

Now when I was trying to shead a lot of lbs i would have like a 1500 calorie deficit. now I keep it at 500 because of fear of loosing muscle but it sucks because I feel like the fat isn't comming off because the scale isn't moving down, could I just be building muscle as fast as i am loosing fat? doesn't seem likely to me.

anyway today I have consumed 1700 calories consisting of 39 grams of fat, 170 carbs, and 111 protien.

any help is appreciated.

reno

Those last few are tough man. You are doing pretty well just keep it up. I am in a pretty similar situation. Just watch the protein and keep the lifting up, lift heavy. Your body may want that last few to be muscle but you dont so just do what you can. It will happen. Just be patient and diligent.

sweet. yeah I just started watching the protein like 3 days ago when I noticed I am seeing muscle growth. I don't use much free weights but I use 11 machines per workout at the YMCA. they use Fitlinxx there if you have heard of it. I lift total around 20,000lbs a workout. I am lifting 100+ on 3 of the machines, the benchpress machine, lower back, and seated row.

I also use fitday to log all my activites and workouts and calories consumed so that I can keep the 500-700 deficit a day.

i just get worried when i see the scale going up and have the thinking that it should go down but I understand muscle weighs more than fat.

reno

what do your measurements look like? if you aren't keeping track - do invest in a 99 cent cloth tape measure you'll see much better results that way than on the scale.

Are you doing any type of free weight training?

I just wanted to add that you should eat as little of meal replacement products as possible and focus on natural food. You can get enough protein with right diet containing a lot of cottage cheese (low fat), legumes, egg whites, white meat (without fat) etc. This can help you keep the muscles you are building. Adding a lot of vegetables, fruit and other milk products (all low fat) will help you loose those last pounds. It is all in the discipline. Eat at least 5 times a day in a 2-3 hours schedule. And remember it takes time to achieve goals and a lot of discipline to keep them.

To your success!

Just curious why you recommend everyone follow this.

Because it is much better to intake small amounts of food every few hours than eat just 1- to 2 or 3 times a day and overeat yourself like most of people do.
This way you can keep your levels of energy constant through out the day.

if that worked for you that's great -but it's not effective at all for a lot of people -myself being one of them... It really doesnt help much with energy levels and just left me hungry all day long...

3 meals a day works fine -and keeping calories in check is what counts... not when they are consumed

I don't think it really makes much difference. More of a difference what/how much than when. The possible exception being your post WO meal. I'm not saying small, frequent meals arent good. It can help SOME people with hunger control and makes it a little easier (IMO) for macro tracking. The overall effects as far as fat loss goes though, Im not so sure.

what happens if i can't keep my protein levels at 140-160g a day am I destined to loose muscle mass for that day??

Its not quite as dramatic as all that. Its just something you should pay a little extra attention to. There are supplements is you are having problems getting it in. Or if you are short just down a can of tuna etc... Since you are taking the 5-6 small meal approach, so long as you have some protein with every meal you should be get pretty close.

well i ended getting body fortress whey protien. also I got some l-glutamine to help with muscle breakdown since I am having a 1000 calorie deficit everyday. i only need to loose like 12 more lbs to be at 140 so then I can start eating more. I am gonna drink one two scoop shake in the morning, which is 52g one 26g before my workout and one 26g after. I will also be taking 500mg of l-glutamine after every workout.

does this sound like a good plan? I will be having at least 104g of protien a day, plus the protien I get from eating throughout the day.