Diet for cutting fat without losing muscle.

Jumpy

Right,

My usual workout is 30 mins of cardio followed by about 45 mins on the weights machines, about 3 sets of 8 reps per machine at a high weight.

Now I am feeling far stronger but there seems to be only a small amount of fat loss.
Reading a lot of diet comments on here it seems most of the recent ones are for gaining, I am looking for some ideas on cutting, but I still want to keep muscle mass, and build some more if possible.

Should I really minimise carbs? or will that have a negative effect in the long run? I dont mind if progress is slow as long as I dont lose muscle mass.

Jumpy

Maybe I should have put a question mark at the end of the Subject so it didnt look like spam.

Usually responses seem to be fast here.

Smellyirishman

It's hard enough to come up with an optimal "cutting" diet when you know things about the person. When they don't even give you the basics like current body fat, goal bf, height/weight, current diet idea etc.... it's just impossible.

Nobody has any idea what to suggest because it's different for everyone and right now you could be 9 stone Jane down the road or 20 stone Paul in Mr.Olympia.

yomchi

Whats your current bodyfat percentage? You need to set your self a goal there. Also you'll stimulate better muscle growth if you hit the weights first then cardio afterwards. Low intensity cardio is best for fat loss, for example if your aged between 25 and 30 you should aim for 105/110 BPM heart rate for about 40 mins.

Chucky the tree

I think the best way is to put on muscle weight first then start a cut. I would continue with gaining muscles and horse the calories into and not worry about fat gain until maybe christmas then start a cut for the summer.

Cutting and trying to gain muscle is very hard to do at the same time.

Dragan

Jumpy wrote:

Usually responses seem to be fast here.

Okay so, i'll give you an unusual response.

1) Read the stickies
2) Google is your friend
3) It helps if you give a little bit of info about yourself....sadly my powers do not reach to the otherworldly.

Jumpy

Ok my bad

I am at 27% Body Fat.
6ft
15st6

My cardio heart rate sits between 140-160 bpm, I guess that is too high?

Sorry guys I wasnt asking for a specific diet, just the best practices for cutting fat without losing muscle mass, in an ideal situation still be able to gain muscle mass.

What I have been doing is keeping carbs to an absolute minumum, the side effect of that seems to be sluggishness though.

Jumpy

Jon wrote:

Whats your current bodyfat percentage? You need to set your self a goal there. Also you'll stimulate better muscle growth if you hit the weights first then cardio afterwards. Low intensity cardio is best for fat loss, for example if your aged between 25 and 30 you should aim for 105/110 BPM heart rate for about 40 mins.

I have always done it the other way, more because I think "Well I am doing the warmup, might as well finish the rest of the cardio now too."

I hate cardio, not because its hard, its because its boring. I get satisfaction from weights because it feels like its doing something. That is why I do my cardio first to get it out of the way.

I am 27 so I fit into the 105/110 section you are talking about, but that does seem very easy... but I know zero about this stuff, still learning, so I will trust you on that.

Jumpy

Ok just read the stickies, some great info in there, looks like I am doing things wrong yet again. I am probably at about the Atkins diet level of no carbs (not quite so extreme, but close) on a rest day and generally only get a large amount of carbs in the post workout drink on gym days.

I have noticed the mention of egg whites here a lot, what is particularly bad about the yolk to be avoided? And how on earth would you separate them?

Dragan

Oh yeah, see the Anacat Protocol below.

Two amazing geniuses came up with it.

http://teamtest.freeforumsite.com/teamtest-about761.html

g'em

Dragan wrote:

Oh yeah, see the Anacat Protocol below.

Two amazing geniuses came up with it

:rolleyes: indeed...

Dragan

g'em wrote:

:rolleyes: indeed...

* has a little cry * My could be a geniass if I tried real hard!!!!!

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Jumpy

Thanks for the replies

rubadub

I have read a lot of online studies about how it IS possible to put on muscle while on a calorie deficit, especially if you are overweight to begin with, and a beginner to weights.

Take some photos of yourself to track your progress too, you can forget how fat you really were.