Gaining muscle but not losing weight

[ann6918]

I am a 5'6" female and weigh 132 pounds. I took a couple months off at the beginning of the year to give my body a break, but have now been training HARD for the past 2 months. My routine involves lifting 4 days a week and doing cardio 1st thing in the morning 4-5 days a week for 30 min. My diet is pretty clean: total cals-1650, prot.-150-165 g/day, carbs are mostly salads & fruit. I have one cheat day a week.

Now to my problem: I am seeing lots of gain in muscle - which is good - but I'm not losing weight. I've lost about 3 pounds total and still need to lose another 7. I have muscles popping out everywhere, and my strength has skyrocketed, none of which I'm complaining about. But I would like to get back down to a nice, lean 125.

I hesitate to drop my calories below 1500 because I don't want to be stuck maintaining my weight on so little once I reach my goal. I also don't want to throw my body into starvation mode. I want to do this the right way with long term results!

Can anybody offer anysight? Thanks for your help!

[LincolnHawk]

What kind of lifting are you doing on those 4 days a week?

Heavy weight, light weight, high rep, low rep, high sets, low sets, etc.

[Fudog1138]

Bump on Lincoln Hawk. I hate to throw supplements in there, but have your tried any fat-burners?
As for cardio are you mixing it up? Example:
Sprints 2 days a week
Jog with heart rate at or around 120 (depends upon a few factors) 2 days a week
Stair climber

ect...

Mixing up cardio will force your body to adapt. That requires more energy/calories.

Just a thought.

[ann6918]

Thanks for the reply!

Warmup- 12-15 reps
1st set - 10 reps
2nd set - 8-10 reps
3rd set - 6-8 reps

More reps? Less reps?

[Aiken_Drum]

When doing strengh training on a maintainence calorie level, you gain muscle, but lose fat. So your body weight keeps the same but it changes in composition. If you wanna look less build/more trim, you need a calorie deficit, by either doing cardio or eating less. I recommend you the first option.

[hardknuckle]

If you're gaining muscle it is likely you won't lose weight. You are going to have to change you training routine around.

[LincolnHawk]

My advice:

1) Stay off a scale! It doesn't matter what you weigh, you're going for a look anyway. If you want to have your BF% tested, stick with that. I just don't see a point to a scale, unless you're trying to make a weight class for a sport.

2) Drop the last set in your lifting routines. Personally, if I were trying to lean up, I'd do sets of 12-15 (warm up), 10, 10, 8. Or 15, 12, 10, 10. Feel the burn, but keep the weight light.

3) Keep up the cardio.

4) Try a thermogenic (if you are so inclined). Hydroxycut does work, and you'll lose weight on it.

5) I've read that short bursts of cardio work for females better, where as long sessions benefit men more. Try a five minute sprint-jog. Lift. Then get back on and do the five minute sprint-jog again.

6) Try a full body work out three days a week, instead of single muscle days. Either that or do upper body twice a week, and do lower body twice a week.

Try some or all of these things, maybe they'll help.

[felix318]

You can gain muscle and lose fat and gain weight, because muscle is heaver than fat. For weight loss, do cardio in combination with diet and lifting.

[Nick.EG3]

muscle weighs more than fat, Your gaining lean mass which is keeping your weight the same because of the muscle size your holding. It's hard to gain size and lose fat because the caloric deficit doesn't provide enough fuel to your muscles. seperate your goals and decide which is best for you. lose fat or gain muscle.