Fat loss whilst maintaining muscle mass and strength
I'm new to this website and farily new to weight lifting. I started working out seriouslly in January and took a 50 day cycle of X-Factor (6 a day), Green Buldge (7 a day), and Up Your Mass (2 shakes a day).
I put on a great deal of size going from 188lbs to now weighing 202lbs. I like the size increase in my chest, biceps, etc.; however, my belly fat increased and I'm at 20% body fat. My strength has increased to lifting 240lbs which I like too!
I currently started a cycle of PRIME and 100% Whey Protein. I'm trying to find a way to loose the bellt fat without loosing much if any weight, and without loosing much if any strength. I only want to loose the fat around my stomach. I'm afraid to really start cutting because I don't want to go back to my original wieght and strength.
Is there anything I can take or do to ONLY loose belly fat without suffering in other areas? I'm not on a strict diet and quite frankly don't have the time or money to eat a super strict nutritional diet, but I'm open to ideas. Any help abuot products are greatly appreciated.
First, if you've only just started training in January, then taking supplements over and above the staples (creatine, multivitamin, good fats, protein powder, BCAA's) is quite UNnecessary.
Second, good on you for your results.
Third, you canNOT spot reduce. When your body loses fat it goes from all over. I have used this analogy before: Spot reducing is like trying to empty a pool of water from ONE side only (i.e. it canNOT be done; the water goes from all over). Your body may lose fat from one AREA of your body first, but you cannot dictate WHERE it will go from. If your midsection is the last area that you lose fat from, then it will go from there last.
Fourth, strength is NOT correlated to weight. If you lose fat it does NOT mean that you will lose your strength. If you maintain the muscle mass that you HAVE, then your strength:weight ratio will actually INcrease (and I know for a fact that I get stronger when I get leaner!)
Fifth, you DON'T need to follow a cutting diet and be ridiculous with calories or carbohydrate intake to lose fat. But you DEFINITELY need to make sure that your DIET is spot on for fat loss (otherwise you're just wasting your time). You don't need to be super strict with your diet either to lose fat. So long as your nutrtion method is designed correctly
(A recommended way of eating would be calorie cycling: 3-4 days low below Maintenance calories, and then 1-2 days above Maintenance calories (although you can make variations of this), and works EXCELLENTLY for fat loss, whilst keeping muscle and strength gains, and even adding to them). If you diet is not in check, then getting a fat burner should not be the priority. Diet is the KEY to fat loss. With diet (see "Tips" below) and training alone a decrease of 0.5-0.7% BF per week is very doable.
Sixth, IMO, you DON'T need a fat burner unless you're ALREADY relatively lean (<10% BF for a male), since any results you see if higher than that won't be very noticeable.
Lastly, do some research and reading of your OWN about different nutrition (some set out below for you) and training techniques. It's not that hard to find material 9and there are at LEAST four different threads on the same page asking and answering this question).
ROSIE'S DIET TIPS FOR FAT LOSS
1.
First, you need to work out what your MAINTENANCE calories are (There are various methods and equations that you can use to calculate this; most take into account current body mass, height, and activity level). Then, to lose fat, you need to make sure that you’re having up to 500 calories LESS than maintenance. Depending on how fast or slow you lose the fat, you can adjust and tweak your calorie intake each week.
2. Eat every 2-3 hours after waking. This helps keep the metabolism going throughout the day, as well as keeping insulin levels stable (so, you can see that 3 meals is simply NOT enough, even small portions).
3. EVERY meal should have complex carbohydrates [CHO] (i.e. kumara, rice, oats, etc.), QUALITY LEAN protein (chicken breast, fish, tuna, salmon, lean beef, egg whites, etc.), and FIBROUS CHO (i.e. vegetables, green ones in particular).
4. Drink 4.5 litres of water per day. This will help keep the system clean.
5. It has been proven that TWO servings of DAIRY per day helps lose MORE fat than if one avoids it altogether.
6. Do NOT avoid fat (The only fat she should be avoiding is Saturated fat and Trans fats). You NEED fat in your diet, as fat plays major roles in energy metabolism and other parts of your body (Wardlaw & Hampl, 2007). Make sure to have at least 30 grams of GOOD fats (i.e. flaxseeds or flaxseed oil, fish oils, peanut butter, nuts - especially almonds and walnuts, hempseed oil, olive oil, etc.) per day (i.e. this is ~2 tbsp of flaxseed oil or peanut butter).
7. Don’t drink tea or coffee. Try drinking GREEN tea instead; it helps with thermogenesis, and is especially good if you take it one hour before doing cardio first thing in the morning.
8. Don’t drink alcohol. Alcohol has NO nutritional value and is full of calories.
9. Minimize adding salt to food. Instead, flavour a meal with herbs and spices (i.e. ginger, cumin, cayenne pepper, curry powder, chilli powder, and garlic all help thermogenesis a bit).
10. The only sugar needed on a regular basis is the NATURAL sugars found in food; these are mostly found in fruit. Too much sugar plays havoc with insulin levels and these should be as stable as possible throughout the day. The best time to be having sugar is straight AFTER a RESISTANCE workout, when the body is trying to replenish muscle glycogen stores (Burke, 2006).
11.
Do NOT avoid CHO. You NEED at least 50-100 grams of CHO per day for your body to burn fat effectively. A good guideline is to have at least 1 gram of CHO per kg of body mass per day as a MINIMUM (Burke, 2006).
12. Eat most food as 'natural' as possible. This means fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, grains, etc. Try not to eat too much packaged food, as it is full of extra calories and sugar.
13.
Most importantly, remember that it IS OK TO CHEAT every now and then. Actually the body NEEDS cheat meals and day. By throwing all the guidelines I have just mentioned above out of the way and having a day where you eat what you want it helps, and will also help prevent your body from going into starvation mode (where the body battles you to hold onto the fat as much as it can). If you prefer NOT to ‘cheat’, then adding in 1-2 higher CALORIE days (i.e. go up to Maintenance, or even Bulking, or even slightly higher), with the extra calories coming from quality COMPLEX CHO, you should be ok.
Supplements should NOT be a big deal, as most fat loss can be done through simply eating the right food at the right time. And unless everything that you’re doing is already done to ensure the maximum results in the timeframe that you want to achieve it in, and then supplementation should not be the focus. However, there ARE a few supplements that I think are important to any regime:
1. A multivitamin. (Although you should be eating as much of a variety of food as possible, in order to meet the RDI/AI of most nutrients from actual food).
2. Creatine monohydrate. Creatine helps the body to recover faster, as well as aiding in increasing strength levels and lean body mass [LBM].
3. Flaxseed/Hempseed/Fish Oil. This is the GOOD fats. Flaxseed or Hempseed oil is great with breakfast or in protein shakes.
4. Protein Powder. This just helps for the in-between meals, or after the gym, and to make sure that you get enough protein in (You should be having 1-1.5 grams of protein per kg of body mass per day; this is so that muscle loss is prevented, and can even assist in small gains in LBM).
Apart from these 4 ‘base’ supplements, you don’t need a lot (supplements are just a way for companies to make money. You can do everything without them!). And forget about using
fat-burners or thermogenics; they are a waste of time unless you are ALREADY lean and are looking for that ‘extra edge’ to lose the last 1-2% bodyfat (i.e. like a fitness competitor, etc.)
