Dropping BF% While Gaining Weight?

[russianbear561]

I'm pretty sure I've seen one or two elaborate threads regarding this, but my searching came up with nothing and this section could use a little FAT itself,,basically I wanna know about the required diet (IE: How much above maintenance, a macro breakdown, etc)...would be,, and to what extent should cardio work be involved?

I'm actually a little confused about the role cardio plays in this situation, I thought weight gain/loss was simply calories in vs calories out, so would cardio work against the gaining weight part while simultaneously helping me cut BF%, would it just be a good addition in general, or is BF% completely reliant on diet?

[memcop]

I have ripped fat off using 50p/30c/20f macro breakdown but have also gained muscle. I was a 275 sedentary male now I am 235ish. I started lifting in jan also adhearing to the above diet. You have to feed according to your weight for me thats nearly 3500 cals with suppliments (you can find the req cal on this site). Cardio on an empty stomach after waking up (30min) and whole carbs early in the day using the macro breakdown and vegetables for carbs in the latter. I also eat 8 times a day...I use fitday.com for macro breakdown its free. On my second off work day I cook for six days and have my one cheatday on the weekends.

I hope this helped you look in shape so 40/40/20 may do.... my protien level is high cause I had serious weight to loose you may not need this.

[alexa83]

memcop is totally right...I am using the same 50p/30c/20f macro breakdown because I have serious body fat to get rid of and this was given to me by AVIAD with USPLABS direct. I have been taking OEP and RECREATE and with AVIADS dieting help I have lost 3 in in 3 weeks..and still going

[rdferguson]

I'm pretty sure I've seen one or two elaborate threads regarding this, but my searching came up with nothing and this section could use a little FAT itself,,basically I wanna know about the required diet (IE: How much above maintenance, a macro breakdown, etc)...would be,, and to what extent should cardio work be involved?

I'm actually a little confused about the role cardio plays in this situation, I thought weight gain/loss was simply calories in vs calories out, so would cardio work against the gaining weight part while simultaneously helping me cut BF%, would it just be a good addition in general, or is BF% completely reliant on diet?

I'm not sure to what extent you can gain weight and decrease body fat % simultaneously. I expect that there'd be a lot of bro-science and no-science floating around, but I'll try and offer you a reasonable answer with what I've got.

You're most likely aware of the common recommendation that to bulk up you should eat ~500kcal above maintenance and to cut you should eat ~500kcal below. I imagine that most body recomposition diets would be zig-zag diets, so 500 above on strength training das and 500 below on off-days, causing you to stay about the same weight and hopefully get decent (but not optimal) muscle mass gains while getting decent (but not optimal) decreases in bodyfat%.

In your situation of trying to gain weight and drop bodyfat%, I imagine that something like 500 above and 250 below would be more suitable. Consume 1g protein/lb bodyweight every day, and cardio on your off-days. Cardio isn't necessary to lose weight or to decrease bodyfat in general, but doing cardiovascular training 3+ days per week for a month or longer tends to make it easier for your body to utilise fat stores for energy. Don't do strength training and cardio in the same session.

To be honest, I can't make any promises that this will work, but using what I know about what does work in bulking and cutting seperately, it seems reasonable to me. Make sure that over the course of the week you are at a total caloric surplus rather than deficit, but that you have some days where you are at a deficit with some cardio. Do some solid strength training, eat your protein, and, in theory at least, you should gain some weight while maintaining or decreasing bodyfat%.

[tominho7]

i agree with rdferguson. a zig-zag diet would be the best way to go about recomping. But it is best to just bulk or cut. It is much faster and easier to plan. But if you are adamant about recomping then you can shoot me a PM.