How Do I Lose Fat Without Losing Muscle?

[mighty_mouse614]

I have been doing cardio 3 times a week 1 hour each day, and I lift weights four days a week. My question is since I'm a raw vegan how do I lose fat without losing muscle too?

 

Thanks,

 

Monica

[xjohanx]

HIIT (high intense interval training) to burn fat and a high protein diet to prevent muscle loss

[beforewisdom]

I have been doing cardio 3 times a week 1 hour each day, and I lift weights four days a week. My question is since I'm a raw vegan how do I lose fat without losing muscle too?

 

You don't.

 

99% of the people out there can not lose fat without losing some muscle and can not gain muscle without gaining some fat.

 

Having written that you can do a lot to minimize the damage.

 

Limit your weight loss to 1 pound a week, continue to do strength/resistance work, and get enough protein ( see the sticky in the nutrition section )

 

If you do those things you will arrive at your goal weight looking tight and good versus flabby.

[Couture547]

I have been doing cardio 3 times a week 1 hour each day, and I lift weights four days a week. My question is since I'm a raw vegan how do I lose fat without losing muscle too?

 

You don't.

 

99% of the people out there can not lose fat without losing some muscle and can not gain muscle without gaining some fat.

 

Having written that you can do a lot to minimize the damage.

 

Limit your weight loss to 1 pound a week, continue to do strength/resistance work, and get enough protein ( see the sticky in the nutrition section )

 

If you do those things you will arrive at your goal weight looking tight and good versus flabby.

 

I've never bought into that theory that you must gain fat to gain muscle and vice versa. Maybe if your starving yourself. Alot of times people think there losing muscle becasue there muscles are smaller, but most of the size lose was water and fat. I've personally dropped 50 pounds in the last year and have gotten stronger in the process

[Zack]

Alot of times people think there losing muscle becasue there muscles are smaller, but most of the size lose was water and fat.

 

Seen that explanation before. Ironically, by another raw foodist...

[Couture547]

Alot of times people think there losing muscle becasue there muscles are smaller, but most of the size lose was water and fat.

 

Seen that explanation before. Ironically, by another raw foodist...

 

It's actually a fact. Fat and water makes people look like they have much bigger muscles that they really do have. And as far as losing muscle it's pretty hard to lose much muscle mass in a a short perid of time. They absolutely no reason you can't gain muscle and lose fat at the same time. If you eat really clean and exercise it's about impossible to gain fat

[beforewisdom]

[

 

I've never bought into that theory that you must gain fat to gain muscle and vice versa.

 

 

Generations of professional bodybuilders would disagree with you.

 

 

Maybe if your starving yourself. Alot of times people think there losing muscle becasue there muscles are smaller, but most of the size lose was water and fat. I've personally dropped 50 pounds in the last year and have gotten stronger in the process

 

Strength is not completely a function of muscle mass. You can lose muscle mass and gain strength.

 

Up to a certain point muscular strength is a combination of muscular coordination, coordination between the nerves and the muscle, and the state of certain chemicals in your muscles. Power lifters and Olympic lifters are stronger than bodybuilders, yet they are smaller.

[beforewisdom]

It's actually a fact. Fat and water makes people look like they have much bigger muscles that they really do have.

 

If it is a fact can you point out a citation for where someone can read it? Muscles do store glycogen ( sugar and water ), but not that much. Fat has very different appearance on the body than muscle.

 

They absolutely no reason you can't gain muscle and lose fat at the same time.

 

Only by a very limited amount. The only people non-genetically gifted people who can do more than a little bit of this are beginners, who are starting from zero.

 

 

 

If you eat really clean and exercise it's about impossible to gain fat

 

Legions of athletes, bodybuilders, trainers and experts of all kind would disagree with that.

 

If you take in more calories than you burn, even if you are an athlete, you will gain weight.

[VeganEssentials]

And as far as losing muscle it's pretty hard to lose much muscle mass in a a short perid of time. They absolutely no reason you can't gain muscle and lose fat at the same time.

 

That's actually not quite true. Just as an off-the-side example, a body part that is put in a cast and been immobilized can lose up to 50% muscle mass in just a few weeks, so muscle can be cannibalized by the body quickly if it is not used regularly.

 

This also does go for undereating/overexercising. You can strength train consistently, but if you burn yourself into a huge caloric defeceit, you can still lose a lot of muscle. The body loves to break down muscle for fuel as much or more than it does with fat, so it's always possible to lose weight and have a fair share of it be muscle. Ever wonder why people who lose a lot of weight but don't incorporate resistance training in their program often still look flabby after they drop a lot of fat? Many of them are losing a good deal of muscle along the way, so even if someone were to drop 40 lbs. of fat and lose 20 lbs. of muscle, they may be smaller but might still have the same type build in the end. Of course, this is an extreme example, but I've experienced the effects first-hand years ago from being too low on calories while dropping fat and lost a fair deal of muscle along with the flab. Of course, the faster you do something, the more drastic the unwanted effects will be. Lose weight too quickly, lose more lean mass / gain muscle quickly, you'll probably add some fat with it. The slower you work toward the goal, the less likely you'll be affected by the unwanted drawbacks, but most people do just expect some negative effect going in either direction because it's pretty unrealistic to believe that you could keep lean mass the exact same throughout while dieting or bodyfat levels consistent when gaining.

 

Finding the delicate balance is difficult for most people. 10+ years of training later and I'm still working on it

[Guest]

If you do it slowly you can lose fat while gaining muscle(not only maintaining). If you want to lose fat fast you will surely lose some muscle(some people lose a lot...some lose a little). I wouldn't worry too much about keeping a high protein diet...not gonna do anything for you. Just eat for sustenance and you'll be fine.

[Im Your Man]

 

 

If you take in more calories than you burn, even if you are an athlete, you will gain weight.

 

I think this is true for mesomorph body type, and even more true for endomorph since they can even gain fat by eating less than what they burn if they eat high GI food.

But for most ectomorph types, non-athletes and especially athletes won't gain bodyfat if they eat more calories than the amount they burn. Even when they try to gain weight they can't, eating more than 5000 cals/day is not enought and they really need to eat lots of chips, fries and cakes if they want to gain a pound of fat.

But in a sense you're right, if they don't gain weight that's because their metabolism always adapts to the calorie intake, so they burn everything. But I'm not sure if that's what you meant.

[Couture547]

It's actually a fact. Fat and water makes people look like they have much bigger muscles that they really do have.

 

If it is a fact can you point out a citation for where someone can read it? Muscles do store glycogen ( sugar and water ), but not that much. Fat has very different appearance on the body than muscle.

 

They absolutely no reason you can't gain muscle and lose fat at the same time.

 

Only by a very limited amount. The only people non-genetically gifted people who can do more than a little bit of this are beginners, who are starting from zero.

 

 

 

If you eat really clean and exercise it's about impossible to gain fat

 

Legions of athletes, bodybuilders, trainers and experts of all kind would disagree with that.

 

If you take in more calories than you burn, even if you are an athlete,

you will gain weight.

 

I was one of those people that couldn't get lean no matter what i did. I would cut my calories way down for long periods of time and exercise alot and still would have too much fat to be cut. Then i stoped eatting all cooked foods and i think it's more the fact that i don't eat any grains at all. Now i'm eatting about the same amount of calories as i used to gain fat with. now i stay much leaner than i was when i was exerices much more and restricting calories.

 

So i think there alot more to it than calories in calories out

[Guest]

The calories in calories out thing doesn't work for me either. I take in under 3000 a day and I supposedly use 5000-7000 a day depending in my training...this means I should lose 20lbs a month...but I'm lucky if I don't gain any weight.

[Richard]

Is there an accurate way to measure how many calories are burned during a day? That seems like a really complex task

[Im Your Man]

it's not so complex but it's always aproximate. With your weight and activity level. There's many sites, this is the first one I found :

http://www.healthstatus.com/calculate/cbc

[Im Your Man]

This one is pretty good,

http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

 

it gave the same number I knew since long time : I burn about 2000 calories days I don't exercice, and more than 2 500 when I'm active.

When I eat normally. I can increase my metabolism (so the body need or burn more calories all the time) by eating often small meals and work out many times/day.

[Guest]

Is there an accurate way to measure how many calories are burned during a day? That seems like a really complex task

 

There are a few large variables scientists never really include. Big people should require many more calories just to keep their body temps up. Heat is energy and calories are what we need to make heat so really fat people do use more calories than thin people(hence the low metabolism for fat people argument is worthless). A considerable amount of our calories goes to keeping our bodies warm. Then theres the efficiency question...a tuned athlete will burn less than someone else. With that all said the calorie burning calculations are based on weight, age and heart rate. Unfortunately the weight calculation has little to do with body heat...it has to do with energy needed to move more mass(which of course is relevant but not everything).

[Daywalker]

Many wise words already from Vegan essentials and Potter.

 

I agree that it is possible to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time, BUT it strongly depends on your bodyfat level and training experience. A beginner will have an advantage here, if instructed correctly. And you can go from 20%bf to 15% without losing musle far far easier than from 8% to 3%!

[alison]

The calories in calories out thing doesn't work for me either.

 

Me too! I am still finding my optimum way to eat, but tracking calories and eating low calorie does not result in weight loss for me. I know many people think that this is impossible and I must be missing something, but its just the way it is. My body seems to just adjust to the lower calorie intake and slow my metabolism down accordingly so there is no difference. I'll lose a little weight and then with no change in calorie consumption I'll put it back on again. Now that I'm strength training again my increased muscle mass will result in less body fat and I'm actually eating higher calorie now than before and I'm hopeful. I very seldom eat grains as it is, so that's not it for me. My body simply loves to weigh more than I want it to weigh!

[DV]

I have found that my body responds to calorie restriction by decreasing my metabolism. Therefore, I only restrict for 2-3 days and then go back to my maintenance level. I have maintained my current weight at 1700 calories per day and at 2700 calories per day - with the same activity level. It's definitely more complicated than calories in vs. calories out.

[cubby2112]

Yes, calories in vs. calories out works until your body adapts to the lower calorie consumption. That is why it is important to do like DV said and vary your caloric intake when cutting, or your metabolism will just drop and you will be in the same situation you were when you were consuming more calories.

[beforewisdom]

I lost 48 lbs last year by counting calories. I didn't need to keep going lower to keep losing. I lost about a pound a week for a year, some weeks a little more, some weeks a little less.

 

I had an amount I tried not to go beyond each day unless I could FEEL stomach hunger. On the other side, if I didn't FEEL hungry I didn't eat, even if I had some of my calorie allowance left over. I also exercised moderately.

 

Spending calories is like spending money. You really don't where everything is going until you write it all down. I think most people are out of touch with how much energy they are actually taking in. I think anyone who has had trouble losing weight should challenge themselves to count calories for 2 weeks. It is an eye opening experience.

[DV]

I believe that when you have a lot of weight to lose, the rules change a bit. For instance, if I were to lose more than 4-6 pounds in a month, some of it might be muscle. An obese person can drop much more without it being muscle. The challenge comes when you are approaching body fat % numbers in the teens for women and single digits for men.

[beforewisdom]

Good Morning. That is a rare type of fat loss situation.

[DV]

Not if you are on a bodybuilding forum and the original question involves losing fat while sparing muscle.