I’m going to disagree with your statement. I’ve seen it too many times where the subject uses only strength training and diet and goes from 250lb flab to 180lb toned. Pumping 3x the amount he started at.
Are you saying that a body can not turn energy from fat to muscle building blocks?
If I don’t get your study forgive me. I did try a quick search but getting thru all the diet pill crap got to be a little overwhelming. In the mean time, your more than welcome to link to a study supporting your side. Since it was your claim being disputed 1st
I’m going to disagree with your statement. I’ve seen it too many times where the subject uses only strength training and diet and goes from 250lb flab to 180lb toned. Pumping 3x the amount he started at.
Are you saying that a body can not turn energy from fat to muscle building blocks?
If I don’t get your study forgive me. I did try a quick search but getting thru all the diet pill crap got to be a little overwhelming. In the mean time, your more than welcome to link to a study supporting your side. Since it was your claim being disputed 1st
I gotta run, I’ll check back sometime tomorrow.
I will definitely provide the links for my abovementioned side. (At the hospital right now so don’t have them handy. I’ll get them when my 24 hour shift ends and when I actually get to go home.)
The anecdotal evidence you gave actually did not support your argument. “Pumping” 3x of what he started at shows no muscle gain. It simply shows increased strength. This could be done by better muscle fiber recruitment or form. Personally I’ve seen huge gains in total pounds lifted over short periods of time. Especially so after taking a long time off. If total fat and lean mass percentages were taken, it will show that there has been no gain in lean mass-I am apt to believe that there was a loss.
To answer your question regarding energy from fat to muscle building “energy”-no. Amino acids from protein is required to build muscle. Fats are made from lipids and lack essential amino acids for muscle building. Both sources can fuel the production of ATP for energy needs but amino acids cannot be made from lipids. This is the age old question-can fat turn to muscle, asked differently.
It seems they all covered “activities” don’t forget the basics for your metabolism which drives your calorie burning… 1).l-carnitine and chromium picolinate. 2)your saturday cheat day is doable without weight gain- giving sat and sunday training-just not 2 cheat days in a row and no 2 am binge… (I came up a bunch or rules for myself as I shedded 50lbs of mass).
yeah, i’ve been thinking about increasing my run volume. assuming that i want to focus on weight loss for a couple of months rather than overall tri performance, would it make sense to ease off of swimming and biking (maybe a couple rides and two or three swims per week for maintenance) in favor of increased running?
For me, I bought some race wheels, Zipp 404s with a wt limit of less than 200 lbs… so, every morning when I step on the scale I remind myself of the “investment” and how one more pound is taking me dangerously close to the limits of the equipment… it works for me…
Nice. I did a similar motivational thing–I bought a wetsuit over the winter that was about 1/2 size too small. I knew when I bought it, that I would have to lose about 10-15 pounds for it to fit right.
8 pounds to go :-/
As for the weight loss thing, it’s been mentioned several times already, but don’t consume any calories within, say, 3 hours of going to bed. It helps a lot. The same calories late in the day are so much worse than the same calories early in the day.
It is a myth to think that you can “maintain” or gain muscle while losing fat
Thats not true at all.
Many, many people lose lots of weight…fat…at the gym buy doing nothing more than weight training and building muscle.
I believe you have been taken in by some misinformation. Kindly point to a study that supports this statement. To date there has been no study(that I can think of) that states muscle can be gained while fat is lost simultaneously. This is a simple mathematical equation;
To gain weight(muscle or otherwise): you need to eat more than you burn.
To lose weight(muscle or otherwise): you need to eat less than you burn.
There’s no way for you to eat more(gain muscle) while eating less(lose fat)
J Am Coll Nutr. 1999 Apr;18(2):115-21. Links Effects of resistance vs. aerobic training combined with an 800 calorie liquid diet on lean body mass and resting metabolic rate. Bryner RW, Ullrich IH, Sauers J, Donley D, Hornsby G, Kolar M, Yeater R.
Department of Human Performance and Applied Exercise Science, West Virginia University, Morgantown 26506, USA.
OBJECTIVE: Utilization of very-low-calorie diets (VLCD) for weight loss results in loss of lean body weight (LBW) and a decrease in resting metabolic rate (RMR). The addition of aerobic exercise does not prevent this. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of intensive, high volume resistance training combined with a VLCD on these parameters. METHODS: Twenty subjects (17 women, three men), mean age 38 years, were randomly assigned to either standard treatment control plus diet (C+D), n = 10, or resistance exercise plus diet (R+D), n = 10. Both groups consumed 800 kcal/day liquid formula diets for 12 weeks. The C+D group exercised 1 hour four times/week by walking, biking or stair climbing. The R+D group performed resistance training 3 days/week at 10 stations increasing from two sets of 8 to 15 repetitions to four sets of 8 to 15 repetitions by 12 weeks. Groups were similar at baseline with respect to weight, body composition, aerobic capacity, and resting metabolic rate. RESULTS: Maximum oxygen consumption (Max VO2) increased significantly (p<0.05) but equally in both groups. Body weight decreased significantly more (p<0.01) in C+D than R+D. The C+D group lost a significant (p<0.05) amount of LBW (51 to 47 kg). No decrease in LBW was observed in R+D. In addition, R+D had an increase (p<0.05) in RMR O2 ml/kg/min (2.6 to 3.1). The 24 hour RMR decreased (p<0.05) in the C+D group. CONCLUSION: The addition of an intensive, high volume resistance training program resulted in preservation of LBW and RMR during weight loss with a VLCD.
How was your % body fat done? I am 5’9" and weigh 155 and my body fat is 11%. This was done on a Dexascan in my office, which is very accurate. So unless you are very muscular I am sceptical of that. That being said, if you are very muscular it should be a little easier to lose weight since muscle burns 30-50 calories per pound more than fat does.(3-5 pounds per year) Then again if your mostly muscle and want to weigh less you may need the Lance Armstrong technique and lose muscle you don’t want. I agree with others opinions above: Calories in- Calories out! Fill yourself up with high fiber and high water content foods, use a food diary for a week, get rid of high fat foods(chocolate,butter,cheese,etc.)from your house so there is no temptation. Very easy to gain a pound, very hard to lose one. Good Luck!
i have started lifting three times per week, which i’ve heard can have a positive effect on fat loss, as well as being beneficial for SBR."
Lifting might be beneficial for SBR but not as beneficial as SBR is for weight loss. For me, it is always cranking up the bike miles in the spring that gets rid of the last few pounds.
what are I carnitine and chromium picolinate? I’m assuming their supplements. If so, do they actually have an effect?
It seems they all covered “activities” don’t forget the basics for your metabolism which drives your calorie burning… 1).l-carnitine and chromium picolinate. 2)your saturday cheat day is doable without weight gain- giving sat and sunday training-just not 2 cheat days in a row and no 2 am binge… (I came up a bunch or rules for myself as I shedded 50lbs of mass).
I am 5’9". My BF% use to be over 30% and I weighed 173. It is now around 7%. I weigh just over 160 lbs.
There are a lot of various opinions in here but none are ones you can have too much confidence in because we don’t have enough information to draw a complete picture.
We don’t know how you calc’d your BF%. Honestly, a picture with your shirt off would be a better than any method short of hydrostatic or an autopsy because I don’t find the other methods to be too reliable and suspect you are probably higher than 13%
How often do you drink alcohol?
We need a food calendar.
You are probably at your current training volume because that’s all you can do for now. If you could do more, you probably would be doing it already. So the place to put your focus is on your food intake and making some simple changes. IE - no alcohol, switch to diet soda, etc. (get more specific when we see a food journal).
I agree with LEARN, really watch the food intake. I’m starting to get back in shape now after not racing for about 2 years. I’m about your size (5’9", 12% 175lbs) maybe a bit more muscular, (stopped riding for a while and lifted a lot). When I try to drop weight I really dedicate myself to what I’m eating. No alcohol, cut out the refined sugar, many small meals, water instead of cola, etc. Wish you luck.
yah you’re probably right about the bf% being off, i just plugged some measurements into a website i found. however, before getting into tri (about a year ago) i used to lift a lot, all through college and about a year into grad school (i’m 25), so i’ve always had a pretty good amount of muscle. that being said, i wouldn’t be surprised at all if it was higher.
in terms of a food journal, i started keeping one this week. not sure how u would want me to post that though so you could take a look at it, it’ll be pretty long.
in terms of what i eat and drink, i haven’t drank soda since i was in junior high, so thats not a problem. booze on the other hand…i’ve stopped drinking entirely during the week, but usually have some drinks on the wkd. thanks again for everyone’s input.
