Slug to Athlete...well sorta

busyliving

Hey all,

so I am looking for some advice in regards to weight lose and building up my strength.

I am 23, 5 11", and male (don't know if that important or not)
I weight approx 14 stone, and to be honest I’m not worried about my weight just where it seems to be holding up.

So I have played a bit of rugby and soccer in my youth, but nothing really for the last 7 years...yeah i know:mad: I have also done quite a lot of cycling, so my legs are pretty strong, but in terms of upper body...I’m as strong a wet paper bag.

So I am really looking to build up my upper body and in the process lose my belly...So in my early stages of research I have read a lot of conflicting stuff.

Firstly I know I need to have a better diet in order to lose the fat and in general be healthier. Also cardio and some weight training will help with the fat lose, but I have read a few articles that say if you over do the cardio and don't eat enough you start to burn muscle (which I can't afford to lose).

Also I have read that in order to build up muscle you need to eat a lot in order for your body to build up.

So I just want to know if it’s possible, to lose fat while building up my strength without doing something crazy like going to the gym 5 times a week.

Or is just getting together a healthier diet, doing some cardio and maybe so light strength training, such as push ups, blank and other home exercises to start with, until I start losing a bit of the belly...

I'm really confused to what to do; if anyone can help I’d greatly appreciate it

EileenG

There's a lot of broscience out there, which says things like "eat six times a day or your metabolism will slow down". "Don't do cardio or your muscles will shrivel up" and "Don't cut your calories or you will go into starvation mode and start piling on weight" and my favourite "the fat burning zone".

Most of them are either pure crap or the tiniest grain of truth buried into a ton of misinformation.

Get into the gym, lift weights, concentrating on big compound lifts like squat, bench press, deadlift, pull-up, dips, stiff leg deadlift, lunges, military press etc. Lift heavy, as heavy as you can manage with good form for 8-10 reps, then get out of the gym.

Do cardio, and do it hard. Expect to pant and sweat Harder work gives better results.

As long as you are lifting weights, you won't lose muscle. And as long as you have a significant amount of fat, your muscles are safe. The people who need to worry about losing muscle in a calorie deficit are the competition ready bodybuilders who have very little fat to lose.

Fix up your diet. Base it on fresh whole food, with plenty of protein and healthy fats and green vegetables, and only enough carbs to fill the gaps. Cluster your carbs around workouts for energy boost and post workout glycogen replenishment.

There's a wonderful thing called Noobie Gains. This is a sort of fitness honeymoon, so that for the first few months of training, you can lose fat and gain muscle at the same time. It won't last forever and eventually you'll have to decide which is more important, losing fat or gaining muscle, but right now, you can do both. Make the most of it.

Transform

Do body weight workouts to begin with - move on to using a kettlebell and get a pull up bar.

Eat as suggested here and go from there

Keep focusing on getting stronger and enjoy the process