want to loose bodyfat but not size

f140

Ok I am a bit of an ignoramus when it comes to the diet part of lifting weights. Anyway I feel I have put on a nice bit of muscle in the last two years as I would train hard around 5 times a week. The diet is the part which is catching me. I'm 5ft 8, male and now 78kg. I would have been around 70kg a lot of my life and it was a big achievement in itself to get up to 78kgs.


My problem now is that in those two years I have put on a lot of bellyfat as well. Id say I am well at 20% bodyfat by looking at online diagrams. Although bodyfat is high I feel I still have a lot of muscle under this.


I literally don't know about the best way of going about loosing this belly. I really don't want to loose any size/muscle as it has taken me so long to build it up to this stage.


So I need to know what is the best approach to get down to around 15% bodyfat. Is it all just diet and heavy weights or is it diet, cardio and heavy weights. I have never really counted calories so don't even know what calories and macros I should be consuming now? Where is the best place to start?

Cake Man

f140 wrote: »

Ok I am a bit of an ignoramus when it comes to the diet part of lifting weights. Anyway I feel I have put on a nice bit of muscle in the last two years as I would train hard around 5 times a week. The diet is the part which is catching me. I'm 5ft 8, male and now 78kg. I would have been around 70kg a lot of my life and it was a big achievement in itself to get up to 78kgs.


My problem now is that in those two years I have put on a lot of bellyfat as well. Id say I am well at 20% bodyfat by looking at online diagrams. Although bodyfat is high I feel I still have a lot of muscle under this.


I literally don't know about the best way of going about loosing this belly. I really don't want to loose any size/muscle as it has taken me so long to build it up to this stage.


So I need to know what is the best approach to get down to around 15% bodyfat. Is it all just diet and heavy weights or is it diet, cardio and heavy weights. I have never really counted calories so don't even know what calories and macros I should be consuming now? Where is the best place to start?

Just on the bolded bits above (the first part) - that's just all part and parcel of bodybuilding (bulking and cutting), to cut body fat you NEED to drop weight. Yes there will be a bit of muscle loss during this but as mentioned, this is unfortunately normal. If you find a way to cut only body fat without any muscle loss whatsoever, bottle it up and sell it and you'll be a very rich man!
To minimise muscle loss, protein should be kept relatively high (1.0-1.2g per lb of body weight is a generally acceptable range) and keep at the weights. Many use a rule of thumb of about 0.4 or 0.5g of fat per lb body weight and then fill the rest of your calories with carbs.
On a cut, it's normal for you to not be able to hit higher numbers on your lifts so it's a case of trying to just maintain them. In terms of macros, you can kinda adjust them as necessary but on a cut you could go something like 40% protein, 30% fat, 30% carbs. That could breakdown as 170g protein (35%), 85g fat (35%) and 150g carbs (30%) totalling about 2000cals. As mentioned, play around with these figures to suit you.


On the second bolded part, yes it's at least 80-90% down to diet. You mentioned you've never calorie counted - this has to change and you simply need to track absolutely everything that you consume (use myfitnesspal). You just will not succeed by eyeballing quantities of food/drink and guesstimating calories. Buy a small scales too to measure out everything.
Work out your TDEE, eat about 250-500 below that figure for a few weeks and re-calculate. Anymore of a deficit and you'll drop weight too fast and lose muscle mass (refer back to the top of my post).

Mellor

f140 wrote: »

I really don't want to loose any size/muscle as it has taken me so long to build it up to this stage.

Size and muscle are too different things.

You can lose the fat without losing any muscle, or losing minimal muscle.
But losing fat will mean you get physically smaller. It has to, fat makes up part of your physical size.

Losing fat will be mostly down to diet. You'll have 10 different posters offer up the best solution, But it really boils down to eat less, move more.

1. Eat real food, a roughly equal 20-40% each of protein fat and carbs. Don't worry about precise splits imo.
2. Eat about 2000cals a day. Aiming for .5kg loss per week. Adjust calories up or down as needed to match that goal. (this will also look after accuracy of activity and intake estimates)
3. Lift weights, aim to get stronger. This will help retain muscle.
4. Do cardio if you want. What ever variety you prefer. Some people are dogmatic about the fact you don't need it. I have better results when I include it.

newcar2016

Cake Man wrote: »

Work out your TDEE, eat about 250-500 below that figure for a few weeks and re-calculate. Anymore of a deficit and you'll drop weight too fast and lose muscle mass (refer back to the top of my post).

Would it be better to work off your Basal Metabolic rate?

Some may over estimate their Total Daily Energy Requirements.

Alf Veedersane

newcar2016 wrote: »

Would it be better to work off your Basal Metabolic rate?

Some may over estimate their Total Daily Energy Requirements.

And how would you work off the BMR?

BMR + x kcals?

It's always going to be a suck it and see approach anyway. If you track accurately, then the results will speak for themselves. You're always going to need to assess and review no matter what you work off.

newcar2016

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

And how would you work off the BMR?

BMR + x kcals?

It's always going to be a suck it and see approach anyway. If you track accurately, then the results will speak for themselves. You're always going to need to assess and review no matter what you work off.

Well if you eat your BMR calories, unless you do alot of exercise you will probably be at a reasonable deficit that's okay but not too much either.

f140

started today with myfitnesspal on the phone. For a weight loss of .5kg a week it is recommending I eat 2200 calories. the macros then brake into 111g protein, 278 carbs and 74g fat.


Today I noticed I went above the protein targets with the fats and carbs on target. Will the extra protein matter that much?


Also did 15 minutes of the crosstrainer and at the end it said I had burned 200 calories. Is this sufficient?


What would be a normal weight to lose a week without losing too much muscle. Would .5kg be sufficient or too much?

newcar2016

f140 wrote: »

started today with myfitnesspal on the phone. For a weight loss of .5kg a week it is recommending I eat 2200 calories. the macros then brake into 111g protein, 278 carbs and 74g fat.


Today I noticed I went above the protein targets with the fats and carbs on target. Will the extra protein matter that much?


Also did 15 minutes of the crosstrainer and at the end it said I had burned 200 calories. Is this sufficient?


What would be a normal weight to lose a week without losing too much muscle. Would .5kg be sufficient or too much?

I wouldn't trust the calories on that crosstrainer. 200 sounds like a lot in 15 minutes unless you were really pushing yourself.

Could you get a heart rate monitor for your chest paired with a watch, may be more accurate.

I have heard the figure 1-2 pounds per week being promoted as being a safe loss so 0.5-1kg is fine.

As for the extra protein, does it result in extra calories?

Cake Man

Yeah I'd ignore the calories a machine says you burned, they're notoriously inaccurate. A moderately intense weight session would probably burn off 300-400cals so it seems unlikely 15mins on a cross trainer burned 200 (unless you were going at absolutely break neck speeds!).


The poster above asked if the extra protein is extra calories - absolutely it is. Protein is a macronutrient (along with carbs and fat (and alcohol) and these all equate to calories. Protein and carbs are 4cals per gram while fat is 9cals per gram). Wouldn't be too concerned about the little bit extra protein you took in, as long as it's not huge quantities. Just bear in mind every gram of protein will cost you 4cals so if you took in say and extra 20g protein, that's effectively an extra 80cals you've consumed. Doesn't matter if that protein is from meat, eggs, protein powder etc.


As another poster mentioned, a pound or so (0.5-1.0kg) per week is an ideal rate of weight loss. Any more and it's likely you're dropping too fast and thus, losing a bit of muscle.

Mellor

newcar2016 wrote: »

I wouldn't trust the calories on that crosstrainer. 200 sounds like a lot in 15 minutes unless you were really pushing yourself.

The shorter the timeframe, the higher the rate of energy.
For example the power (watts) you can hit on a short sprint on a rower is much higher than what you'll average over an hour.

Cake Man wrote: »

Yeah I'd ignore the calories a machine says you burned, they're notoriously inaccurate. A moderately intense weight session would probably burn off 300-400cals so it seems unlikely 15mins on a cross trainer burned 200 (unless you were going at absolutely break neck speeds!).

They can be way off at times, that's true. But the above sounds pretty reasonable to me.

A typical weights session burns energy a pretty low rate. Most people can generally achieve a much higher output with cardio. Plus, as above, you have a much great er work capacity over 15mins compared to 60mins.

For the OP, 200 cals it's about equal to a 2.5km run, ie 10km/h for 15mins. Which is quite an easy pace 15mins. Certainly nowhere near break neck speed.
It's a far assumption that running/treadmill is more or less equal to the crosstrainer.

Alf Veedersane

newcar2016 wrote: »

Well if you eat your BMR calories, unless you do alot of exercise you will probably be at a reasonable deficit that's okay but not too much either.

It's a bit extreme for the OP and especially with exercise added in. And a good target for the OP has been given which has assumed sedentary lifestyle.

arybvtcw0eolkf

Mellor wrote: »

Size and muscle are too different things.

You can lose the fat without losing any muscle, or losing minimal muscle.
But losing fat will mean you get physically smaller. It has to, fat makes up part of your physical size.

Losing fat will be mostly down to diet. You'll have 10 different posters offer up the best solution, But it really boils down to eat less, move more.

1. Eat real food, a roughly equal 20-40% each of protein fat and carbs. Don't worry about precise splits imo.
2. Eat about 2000cals a day. Aiming for .5kg loss per week. Adjust calories up or down as needed to match that goal. (this will also look after accuracy of activity and intake estimates)
3. Lift weights, aim to get stronger. This will help retain muscle.
4. Do cardio if you want. What ever variety you prefer. Some people are dogmatic about the fact you don't need it. I have better results when I include it.

I'm a big believer in cardio, and I often think people will make excuses to avoid cardio because its hard, and its boring.. But your muscles work best when supplied with lots of oxygenated blood, so when you're cardio fit your CV system is better placed to supply your muscles with that oxygenated blood.