I'm gaining fat AND muscle, any help out there for a newbie? :(

teriberi · 02-05-2007, 12:55 PM

I used to do cardio (running ,taebo or kickboxing) 6-7x a week and very little weight lifting. At that time I ate around 1200-1300 calories per day, less protein and lots of good carbs.

In the past month or so I switched it up to doing the following schedule:
Day 1: Chest, shoulders,tri's, abs
Day 2: Legs
Day 3: Back, bi's, abs
Day 4: REST
Day 5: Repeat of day 1
Day 6: Repeat of day 2
Day 7: Repeat of day 3
Day 8: REST

I've been doing cardio maybe 2-3x per week (besides the intervals of cardio between sets in the above routine).

I am noticing that I am getting broader through the shoulders/chest and my legs are getting bigger. I really want to lose fat though, I think this change started out good, but now I think I'm putting fat on in addition to muscle.

I have been eating 1400-1800 calories per day; lower in carbs (the carbs I do eat are mainly veggies and some whole grains). I would say I eat around 50% protein, 20% fat and 30% carbs on average.

Does anyone have any advice on what I'm doing wrong? I want to trim down but still maintain the muscle I have gained. I don't know how much cardio I need to be doing in order to accomplish this. Or how restricted my calories need to be.

Thanks for any input!

~Teri

HardcoreFitness · 02-05-2007, 01:06 PM

well sounds like your doing everything right. You just have to experiment some to see what your body responds to. I'd recomend trying to do your cardio when your glycogen levels are the lowest ( In the morning before you eat breakfast, and immediatly following weight training.

teriberi · 02-05-2007, 01:09 PM

Is that like an either/or? Either cardio before eating in the AM or right after weights? Please tell me it's not both!

THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HardcoreFitness · 02-05-2007, 01:11 PM

haha well that depends on your metabolism. Some people can get away w/ doing cardio twice a week and others like me do cardio twice a day 4 days a week. like i said its all how your body reacts and how quick you want to reach your goals

lordofchaos · 02-05-2007, 01:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by teriberi

I used to do cardio (running ,taebo or kickboxing) 6-7x a week and very little weight lifting. At that time I ate around 1200-1300 calories per day, less protein and lots of good carbs.

In the past month or so I switched it up to doing the following schedule:
Day 1: Chest, shoulders,tri's, abs
Day 2: Legs
Day 3: Back, bi's, abs
Day 4: REST
Day 5: Repeat of day 1
Day 6: Repeat of day 2
Day 7: Repeat of day 3
Day 8: REST

I've been doing cardio maybe 2-3x per week (besides the intervals of cardio between sets in the above routine).

I am noticing that I am getting broader through the shoulders/chest and my legs are getting bigger. I really want to lose fat though, I think this change started out good, but now I think I'm putting fat on in addition to muscle.

I have been eating 1400-1800 calories per day; lower in carbs (the carbs I do eat are mainly veggies and some whole grains). I would say I eat around 50% protein, 20% fat and 30% carbs on average.

Does anyone have any advice on what I'm doing wrong? I want to trim down but still maintain the muscle I have gained. I don't know how much cardio I need to be doing in order to accomplish this. Or how restricted my calories need to be.

Thanks for any input!

~Teri

1. get a bodyfat analysis (most gyms will do a caliper style one for you) and then start to track both weight and BF%. Also go use a good calorie calculator to see what your body needs. I don't know your weight (and I learned long ago not to ask a lady that if she doesn't offer the information freely

) so I can't tell you if your calories are off or not, but going by the picture, I would guess they are about right currently as it sounds like you are decently active not someone who just sits around all day. Basically check it out, put in the correct activity level and see what it says, from what you described I would be shocked if you should be under what you have now...

2. How long were you at the lower levels of calories? You may be/have gained as your body might have been in starvation mode with that little cals and that much exercise/cals burned and it takes a little while to reset that once you start eating at the right levels

3. Good luck, hopefully I am being atleast a little helpful

teriberi · 02-05-2007, 01:26 PM

I seriously live in the boonies, I would LOVE to know my bf%, but I settled for calipers at home, CRAZY variations, so I have no clue what my bf is for real.

You are a smart man!

But, I weight 145 and would like to be at around 135 or so.

I am pretty active, and I would say I was eating way too little calories for way too long (hmmm, maybe a year or more?) So, if my metabolism is resetting itself, how long can this take??? I'm terrified that I'll sit idly by while I THINK that I'm just readjusting but just getting fat in reality, not cool.

I think that I seem to lose weight at the 1350-1450 calorie range and maintain or gain at 1600-1800, but from what I read 1350-1450 might be on the low side if you are active? Geez this stuff is hard to figure out!

Thanks for your feedback!

lordofchaos · 02-05-2007, 01:49 PM

hmm... do you have a friend, mom, dad, brother, sister, bf, gf (gotta cover all my bases here), husband, etc.. that could assist you in doing the caliper measurement, I find it is more accurate and consistant if I have someone else do it, but that may be because I usually have someone who is more experianced do it...

If not, get out a tape measure (like the kind a tailor uses) and do your measurements that way and track them to see if you are getting improvement... also, I am not sure but I think the army BF% tape measurement has a variation for women and men so you could google search that and then either measure yourself or get help from someone if possible and run it through that calculation to see what it comes out to.

As far as how long it takes to reset your cals. that all depends on the person unfourtunately, but I would say that if it doesn't happen in another 2weeks or so it probably won't or you probably were not undereating (although for your weight and activity level I think you probably were). I would recomend either getting the bf% through what I mentioned above or just doing the measurements, then watch what happens over the next 2 weeks to a month and see if you have any changes then adjust your diet a little and try again. Looking at your stats, I think you are either right on or very close though, so I don't think a drastic change is in order.

again good luck and happy fat loss

teriberi · 02-05-2007, 01:57 PM

my husband has been helping me take measurements, but when I plug the numbers in online, depending on the website, I get totally different amounts. Anywhere from 16-23%, that's quite a range!

I have been using the tape measurer, so far no changes there!

I think it's possible that my metabolism is so insanely slow that I need so very few calories to lose or maintain. I think I permanently wrecked it with the years of yo-yo dieting.
If I wanted to I could gain 10lbs in a week NO PROBLEM, it's terrible! If I'm not a calorie Nazi, I gain.

I will search for the Army bf calculator, thanks!