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Originally Posted by koogala  Administrator, yes, I was referring to grams of protien per lb. of bodyweight and, yes, a 22" neck is about right. I am really caught up in the weightlifting thing because in order to maintain a positive nitrogen balance I have to eat all that protien & the weight is coming off very slow
for me. In the past when I lost it was in gobs because I wasn't so concerned with the build muscle/burn fat idea and I just ate 200- 300 calories per meal & didn't pay any attention to protien content. I guess what I have heard is true: When you are catabolic you will tear down & lose mass & eat less & anabolic is gaining mass & eating more.
I have read all the mags that say BUILD MUSCLE/BURN FAT. In my state
should I just curcuit train and worry about losing weight PERIOD, or is it actually possible to build muscle & burn off the fat WHILE LOSING WEIGHT
at the same time? Is the speed bag a good cardio workout? |
First off you need to think outside of the box a bit. Stop being so focused on what the scale says.
Do not look at your body weight as your only measure of progress when you are combining fat loss with lifting weights. If you are lifting weights, you are building muscle, and muscle weighs more than fat. You could lose 20lbs of fat, put on 20lbs of muscle, and think you made no progress because when you step on the scale, your body weight is exactly the same as when you started. But what you've really done is dropped your body fat percentage by almost 5%, and enabled your body to burn an extra 1000 calories a day (from the extra muscle, see below). This is why hydrostatic body fat testing is so helpful, because it lets you know of your true progress (how much muscle you added versus how much fat you have lost), which a scale cannot do. Your eyes can probably let know you as well
Just remember that every pound of muscle you put on burns 50 calories a day at rest, so although you may not see huge results right away from your weight lifting efforts, in the long run it will pay off big time. Just remember you are in this for the long haul, so you should not be overly concerned with drastic results immediately. Building muscle turns your body into a fat and calorie burning machine, and that is what will help you keep the weight off in the long run. Building muscle is so important.
The problem with your previous 200-300 calorie per meal plan was that you may have been starving yourself a bit, especially if you only at 3 meals a day. When you eat that little in a day, you are not only burning fat, but you will also burn away muscle too. Where it really gets you is in the long run, because when you lose muscle, you lose your ability to burn calories. When you got off that low calorie eating plan of yours, your body's ability to burn calories was lower than what it was before, which makes it easier to balloon back up to and beyond your old weight.
At the end of the day for you, since you want to gain muscle and lose fat and weight, the key is to create a small calorie deficit, taking in slightly fewer calories than you use for energy in a given day.
So at the end of the day what I am saying is, you can absolutely build muscle and lose fat, and still lose weight, which is your goal, but you have to stop looking at that scale for now, because the muscle you are adding will skew your results on the scale.
Regarding using the speedbag for cardio, it's a phenomenal workout, however, you really need to get your heart rate up for at least 20 minutes. If you can do the speedbag for more than 20 minutes, or want to add it to your cardio routine after say 30 minutes of riding a stationary bike, then by all means, go for it, as long as you can keep your heart rate up. If you can only do the speedbag for say 5 minutes total, and that was all you were planning on doing, then that is not enough, and you need to add other exercises to your cardio routine.
Something I do when I am short on time, is I will fly through the weight lifting exercises I do without resting, and can get a cardio workout while lifting weights, similar to circuit training, but a bit faster