Get fit and toned

[jamiedickson]

I have a problem right now. I am getting stronger, fitter but not slimmer. I am 32 and will be 33 in 4 months. I am looking at a 38 inch waist (should be 32) and the ability to outperform many people. I look like a fat c**t...excuse my "whatever language"

I need advice on how to combat this without losing my general strength and agility.

Jamie

[Uriel_da_man]

Being strong and being fat usualy get along just fine...

Doing weight lifting will in no way slim you down or tone you. For that you gotta lose fat, maily by doing cardio and following a healthy diet.

Remeber: to get slim you gotta take less calories than those you burn (but not much less, or you'll end up loosing all that muscle along with the fat).

[TennisDude]

Weight lifting is actually a good thing to do while cutting. Gaining muscle actually makes your metabolism speed up, so your body will burn more calories in a day with more muscle than it would with more fat.

Keep lifting weights, do cardio 3-5x a week, and follow a strict diet. Shoot for losing 1-2 pounds of fat a week.

-TennisDude

[AJbuilder]

I have a problem right now. I am getting stronger, fitter but not slimmer. I am 32 and will be 33 in 4 months. I am looking at a 38 inch waist (should be 32) and the ability to outperform many people. I look like a fat c**t...excuse my "whatever language"

I need advice on how to combat this without losing my general strength and agility.

Jamie

The first step you have to take is to re-evaluate your diet, because that is how you will drop the pounds. Though, it is actually a combination of weight lifting plus cardio plus a sound diet that would help you drop the fat, you will first have to place top priority on drafting up a diet that works for you so you can stay consistent.

This would involve the proper selection of food choices ( a lot of the healthy food choices are common sense anyway) and the ability to recognize one of the laws pertaining to heat loss and thermodynamics. It's simple. You must take in less calories than you burn and you will lose weight. Now make sure your food choices are high in protein, low on the GI scale for carbs, and supplement with flax or fish oil to get in your essential fats and you'll more than halfway there.

Eat 5-7 small meals per day rather than 2 or 3 large ones.

If you maintain your weight at 2500 calories, then simply create a slight deficit, only a slight one so that you avoid going too low on calories. If you go too low on calories initially you will lose muscle mass, lower your basal metabolic rate( your rate of metabolism goes down due to muscle loss, and even trigger the "starvation effect" that would stop the mobilization of fats( you store fats and don't burn it off efficiently at rest). So for example, if you currently eat 2500 calories , drop 500 of those calories down to 2,000 on week one. Do your weight training and cardio 3-5 times a week, or however you see fit. You should be able to lose 1-2lbs. weekly until you start to see a slowdown. Once the slowdown in fat loss occurs, it is a good idea to raise calories for 2-3 days and then drop it once again, then ramp up the cardio to bust through that plateau.


Another point. If you go too low on calories you will lose strength and that usually translates into some muscle loss as well. So bear in mind that you do not create such a high calorie deficit. In all cases, if you feel you're not losing weight, first increase the cardio you do and continue to lift heavy. Then if you see fit, decrease calories. You should always let your cardio and strength training do most of the energy deficit rather than relying soley on dieting. They work in a formula anyway. It's lifting plus diet plus cardio equating to fat loss.

Taking in at least one gallon of water a day will make a huge difference. Water is highly thermogenic in metabolic reactions during protein synthesis and repair, so you get to burn off fat even faster.

Get in lots of protein as well as more protein increases the thermic effect of food( once this happens your metabolism speeds and burns faster in the same amount of time allowing for quicker and more efficient fat loss) and supplement with a multivitamin and multimineral. A simple lack in one of the essential B,C, or E vitamins will often hamper your progress. It's better to pop in a vitamin pill daily for insurance. Better be safe than sorry. Like suggested before, flax oil is also very good idea as well. You need your omega 3s and 6s for general purposes like maintaining blood pressure, regulating bad cholesterol levels, limiting muscle damage, protein synthesis for growth, and setting the mobilization of fat stores so you burn off the fat.

Take a look at these links for some more ideas.

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=81315


http://www.johnberardi.com/articles/...n/complete.htm

http://www.johnberardi.com/articles/...aneating_1.htm


http://www.johnberardi.com/articles/...aneating_2.htm


http://www.johnberardi.com/articles/nutrition/index.htm

Any more questions , post in the "losing fat" section.

[crunch_a_munch]

get rid of foods in your daily life that you dont need. you dont need those chips, cookies or cheeseburgers. you dont need soda, lemonade or fruit juice. you do need vegetables, fruits and lean meats. you do need whole grain bread, oats and lowfat cottage cheese. try switching to mostly whole foods, foods that dont come in a colorful box or bag. and be patient.

[Eric_FXST]

I have a problem right now. I am getting stronger, fitter but not slimmer. I am 32 and will be 33 in 4 months. I am looking at a 38 inch waist (should be 32) and the ability to outperform many people. I look like a fat c**t...excuse my "whatever language"

I need advice on how to combat this without losing my general strength and agility.

Jamie

Man, wtf...I'm 33, wearing 38" jeans! I haven't worn 32's since high school.
Last summer, I was wearing 36" shorts at 202#. Just do 45 minutes of cardio twice weekly and watch what you eat. You WILL lose weight.

[Overload]

Diet will be your key. Weight training helps along the way as does cardio, but diet will be the most important thing in your quest for a smaller waist. I've been on a cutting diet with no cardio for a little over 2 weeks, have lost 9lbs and increased strength each workout. The guy helping me doesn't believe in cardio to lower BF as it can sacrifice too much muscle. He does it all with diet and certain supplements. Nothing big, things like chromium GTF, liver tabs, B6, BCAA and so on to help preserve the muscle while losing the fat. I'm not overweight to begin with but wanted some more cuts.

I'll post my diet if anyone has any interest in it. It's kind of bland but good sources of protein. I haven't lost any size and I'm down 2% BF in the time I've been doing this. As I said, without cardio. Which I can't stand so this diet is perfect for me. Of course depending on your own BW and BF% the calories will probably be different. I started at 170 and I'm now 161 with the same size measurements give or take a couple of CM's which was fat anyway.

Good luck Jamie. I'm 41 so it's never too late to get in good shape, slim down, bulk up or whatever a person's goal is.