Loosing fat, keeping muscle...

[ragtag]

What's the trick to loosing body fat, while maintaining muscle mass?

From what I can gather, eating additional protein while on a diet, will help you maintain your muscle mass. While you otherwise run the risk of loosing both fat and muscle. Are protein shakes the way to go, or is there a better approach?

[Carl Carlson IV]

If you're already working out, it's all about your diet. You want to eat as lean as possible, lots of protein and simple carbs. I never really counted calories to any extreme but I've read that 40% protein, 40% carbs, 20% fat or some variation close to that is good. Protein shakes are good, yes, but also look to get your protein from other sources such as tuna, chicken, eggs, beans, nuts, etc.

Are you doing any weight training? If not, I highly recommend it in addition to some form of cardio a few days per week.

Lastly, please do not just look at the number the scale shows you. Muscle weighs more than fat, so while you are losing fat and adding muscle, the number may not go down as fast as you like. Even if you don't want to add more muscle, maintaining your muscle while burning fat is a long term, slow process.

In April this year I was 164 lbs and now I am around 160, but have added significant muscle mass. I could think "I've only lost 4 lbs in 7 months" or I can think "I've lost 4 lbs and gained muscle." It's all about your body composition. By keeping track of my stats I can look at the fact that my bench press has increased by 60 lbs, and other lifts similarly.

[Orecle]

Originally Posted by ragtag

What's the trick to loosing body fat, while maintaining muscle mass?

From what I can gather, eating additional protein while on a diet, will help you maintain your muscle mass. While you otherwise run the risk of loosing both fat and muscle. Are protein shakes the way to go, or is there a better approach?

Bcaa protocol on iron addicts website

[Eisho]

Eating smaller portions of 40/40/20 meals (as noted above) 6 times a day to keep your metabolism ticking over is good advice (though it takes some getting used to and means more preparation time). Also snack on a banana or some dates after a workout. In general switch to complex carbs (fruit and veggies) over simple carbs (stuff made with white flour).

The protein shakes available nowadays are quite complex in what they do and different shakes are designed to do different things. For example, you can get a slow release shake nowadays that is for drinking before you sleep. Others are pre-workout and so on. This can cost a fair bit of money though if you get really serious about it.

Check out Lui Marco on YouTube...very friendly guy and he has some good information about natural body building which he presents in an easily digestible manner. He shows his meals, reviews shakes and so forth, answers viewer questions.

Cheers,

Eisho

[Medusa locked]

I think the general approach for losing fat and maintaining muscle, is to keep a balance of cardio and strength workout.

For the interest of muscle development, I'll add that important to remember the body's metabolic windows. That means eating protein 1 hour before a workout and within 3 hours after a workout.

[Rickison]

Losing weight s nothing but losing fat, losing muscle is a stage which happens you fail to follow your routine exercise. if you got good body shape and muscles, you have to do something to maintain like exercise regularly, otherwise it you will face stuff time. if you are follow any food plan to reduce your fat then you have to go for some supplements that help you to tight your muscles and to maintain your overall health. Nirtic oxide is very good and effective in body building.

[Michealwolf]

Hi friend ... you do muscle building and that will lose body fat and gain muscle. dont wory about the pounds you will gain doing this though, Muscle weighs more than fat.. BEst of luck