help!..muscles soft and flabby with diet

[livindagym]

what the hell do u do to lose fat and keep muscle??? ive followed all the guidelines and diet plans...i lift heavy...i dont take in many calories or carbs..i eat mainly baked chicken..organic black beans or pinto beans...protein shakes..a little fruit..i dont eat half of what i used to eat when i was bulking up....i have managed to go from 218 lbs down to 205....sure ive lost some bodyfat..my stomach is smaller but my lower abs and love handles are still flabby as hell .....my strength on my deadlift and squats has gone down to nothing..my legs have shrunk incredibly.....my bicep strength and chest strength havent gone down much at all however.....but my once hard rock chest is now very flabby and jiggly..despite still being fairly big.....what am i doing wrong here??? i mean i lift each muscle 2x per week ..a few heavy sets....eating very clean...yet my muscles are softer and flabbier than they were when i was bulking..and ive lost very little stomach fat...should i just start bulking back up????

[robwein83]

When you are eating low carb, your body is going to retain much less water in your muscles. You've lost a lot of water weight.

What you really need to do it to find out exactly how many calories that you should be eating so that you are not eating too little.

Rule of thumb is to eat 500 calories under your maintenance per day. And aim to lose about 1 lb per week (more if your bodyfat % is extremely high). Otherwise, if you lose weight too rapidly then you are also going to be losing muscle at a higher rate.

While in a calorie deficit, you should only be hitting each muscle group once per week to allow for recovery. Remember, while cutting, you are focusing on losing body fat, while maintaining muscle mass. Don't abuse your muscles! Recovery is key!

The process of leaning out is a humbling experience for anyone, since your muscles will start to look more flat while still having that bodyfat on yourself. This is a period which you have to just suck up and realize that once you lean out and carb back up, you're going to look 10X better at...say 180 lbs and 8% bodyfat, than 220lb and 16% bodyfat.

It's that in between stage while trimming bodyfat which I think takes the most guts to go through. Anyone can bulk up and be at higher bodyfat percentages with the immediate fulfillment of harder denser muscles that fill up a t-shirt. It takes a whole lot more to suck it up and go through the "period that you are describing" so that you will actually look good with your shirt off.

Again, your "flabbier" appearance is because your muscles are retaining less water. As soon as you switch back to a diet with more carbs, those muscles will fill right back up and you'll look better than ever. You've just got to learn to put up with the humbling experience.

This is an example of a complexity of changing the aesthetics of the body, which people whom are unfamiliar with the sport would be completely unaware of. What you're describing is normal. However, obviously a guy cutting from 16% bodyfat to 8% is going to be more humbled than say... a guy cutting from 10% down to 6%, since he is already relatively lean to begin with. once you get your bodyfat down, keep it down and you'll experience less time in the "in between" stages.

[livindagym]

When you are eating low carb, your body is going to retain much less water in your muscles. You've lost a lot of water weight.

What you really need to do it to find out exactly how many calories that you should be eating so that you are not eating too little.

Rule of thumb is to eat 500 calories under your maintenance per day. And aim to lose about 1 lb per week (more if your bodyfat % is extremely high). Otherwise, if you lose weight too rapidly then you are also going to be losing muscle at a higher rate.

While in a calorie deficit, you should only be hitting each muscle group once per week to allow for recovery. Remember, while cutting, you are focusing on losing body fat, while maintaining muscle mass. Don't abuse your muscles! Recovery is key!

The process of leaning out is a humbling experience for anyone, since your muscles will start to look more flat while still having that bodyfat on yourself. This is a period which you have to just suck up and realize that once you lean out and carb back up, you're going to look 10X better at...say 180 lbs and 8% bodyfat, than 220lb and 16% bodyfat.

It's that in between stage while trimming bodyfat which I think takes the most guts to go through. Anyone can bulk up and be at higher bodyfat percentages with the immediate fulfillment of harder denser muscles that fill up a t-shirt. It takes a whole lot more to suck it up and go through the "period that you are describing" so that you will actually look good with your shirt off.

Again, your "flabbier" appearance is because your muscles are retaining less water. As soon as you switch back to a diet with more carbs, those muscles will fill right back up and you'll look better than ever. You've just got to learn to put up with the humbling experience.

This is an example of a complexity of changing the aesthetics of the body, which people whom are unfamiliar with the sport would be completely unaware of. What you're describing is normal. However, obviously a guy cutting from 16% bodyfat to 8% is going to be more humbled than say... a guy cutting from 10% down to 6%, since he is already relatively lean to begin with. once you get your bodyfat down, keep it down and you'll experience less time in the "in between" stages.



thanks for the advice man!..maybe i should stay in this stage til i get my bf % lower...thing is i feel kind of stuck....i can see my abs fairly good if i tighten my stomach...but i still have the fat on the obliques and lower abs that doesnt seem to go anywhere...i havent done much cardio tho...should i go on and implement some cardio?? sprints?? or should i say screw it and start back bulking up...im really getting tired of being so weak....my upper body is still strong as hell..but my lower body is weaaaak man....i used to squat 350 for 20 reps....now i can barely squat 270 for 5 reps....i was deadlifting 380 for 5 reps..now im doing 315 for 5 reps...my legs have shrunk down to nothing..just skinny as hell...my chest is still huge tho.......just tired of having birdlegs.they used to be massive.....am i doing something wrong in my diet here?

[robwein83]

thanks for the advice man!..maybe i should stay in this stage til i get my bf % lower...thing is i feel kind of stuck....i can see my abs fairly good if i tighten my stomach...but i still have the fat on the obliques and lower abs that doesnt seem to go anywhere...i havent done much cardio tho...should i go on and implement some cardio?? sprints?? or should i say screw it and start back bulking up...im really getting tired of being so weak....my upper body is still strong as hell..but my lower body is weaaaak man....i used to squat 350 for 20 reps....now i can barely squat 270 for 5 reps....i was deadlifting 380 for 5 reps..now im doing 315 for 5 reps...my legs have shrunk down to nothing..just skinny as hell...my chest is still huge tho.......just tired of having birdlegs.they used to be massive.....am i doing something wrong in my diet here?

The biggest thing you have to remember is that changing the bodies aesthetics is like a marathon, not a sprint. Meaning, it takes a long time of dedication. It's just going to to take time. The best thing you can do is figure out how many calories you should be eating. You need to figure out your maintenance and then subtract about 500 from that.

Start reading more stickies in the "losing fat" and "nutrition" threads. There are some good guidelines there.