workouts designed to lose both fat and muscle

This weekend, I met with the trainer of the gym that had a very high initiation fee and the pool - but they threw in the free consult with the trainer to help convince me to join (I'm meeting with the trainer of the gym I decided to join on Wednesday evening) - it didn't work, but he got me thinking about the numbers thing...

After looking at my fat% and my weight he said (and I agree with) the only way for me to get to my goal weight is to actually lose muscle. If I just lost the extra fat, i would still be at 193 lbs then 20% for normal - he had me at 225-230 - yeah, not what I wanted.

Now my question is. I know that I need to lose both muscle and fat - have any of you been through this?  I've always been strong and had lots of muscle (collegiate athlete), but now I want it mostly to go away.

Thoughts/Suggestions/ help?

Thanks!

Kim

Hi there!   No answer for you, but the people in the Exercise forum are extremely happy to help answer these types of questions!  Good luck to you!!

I'll head over there... Thanks!

Kim

I am no expert but as muscle mass burns fat I think it would make most sense to concentrate on the loss of fat first and then later once you get closer to your goal weight to trim down muscle. If you have the fat% you desire a good trainer would be able to build an excercise routine for you to reduce your muscle mass and bring out more definition and quality vs. quantity.

That would be ideal, but I don't want to build up muscle (collegiate athlete - threw shot put & discus - thats how I know how to work out) just to then have to lose it - I do have another appointment with another trainer, but wanted to find out from anyone here if they've gone through this.

Thanks!

Kim

 I'm no physical trainer or anything, but ask someone ELSE besides someone at a "high initiation fee" gym. As long as you're burning off more calories than you take in, you will lose weight. If you've never exercised (like I never did) you may lose muscle along with the fat (depending on your diet) but eventually I would think that you'd HAVE TO be building muscle.

There's a woman on here from CT who's a body builder . . . can;t remember her name. Leslie, maybe? Anyway, SHE'D be a good person to ask!

Yep, asking another trainer on Wednesday night, just wondering if anyone else has gone through this.  I think she's on the exercise forum.

Thanks!

Kim

 Hi There
There's really no way around losing JUST FAT.  I know alot of competitors who try and diet down before the show to maintain as much muscle as possible but always always lose lean muscle mass.  The key is to limit the amount of muscle you lose by combing weight training (major muscle groups)  and cardio (on different days) AND by your food and supplement intake.  SOOOO important to get in your protein 60-120 gr a day(60 is min for bandsters and more for exercisers and even more for weight training). I always take in additional amino acids - this helps rebuild and sustain muscle.

Also, eating in the morning is key  - as difficult as it is for bandsters to eat in the morning its critical that we don't continue in the nightime canabolic state (our body eating our muscle for energy!).

You will also need to take in moderate carbs (for energy) no carbs or fat for energy will result in using muscle for energy - counterproductive.

There are many many thoughts on this topic and this is my opinion from what my trainers have told me.  

One key point that is pretty cool surrounding cardio is this:
Interval Training (training that alternates between a high intensity sprint followed by a rest period).  Lots of different thoughts on the timing - 30 sec high followed by 90 sec low or 1 min high 1 min low or 15 sec high and 45 sec low.  When you body starts cardio, it will utilize free floating fats in your blood for energy (triglycerides - the bad stuff) - once that is depleted (which is a very short period of time) you body will then revert to glycogen in your muscle (from carbs) then lastly uses muscle.  In a typical high intensity aerobic class - your burning muscle after the first 30  mins.  So what happens with Interval training is that during the rest right after the sprint, you blood system is filled with those triglycerides again - when you start the sprint again, your body will look for those first before going on to glycogen.  So on those Interval training days - there really is no need to have many carbs.  That is truly the only way to lose fat and maintain muscle mass as long as you are doing some form of weight training during the week.

Don't kill yourself over the scale - use a tape measure instead!!!  Measure those inches and watch them melt - the scale will catch up.  You will never weigh 200 lbs and wear a size 2 - its all good in the end!

Feel free to reach out with further questions!

 Thanks for taking that one, Leslee!

 Don't worry, as you lose weight, you *will* lose muscle!  It's very difficult to lose fat without losing muscle along the way.  I had a "Bod Pod" measurement when I'd lost about 1/3 of my excess body weight.  The measurement showed that I had 165 lbs. of "lean mass".  So, I figured that should be my goal weight.  But, when I got to that weight, and was re-measured, I still had excess fat.  Obviously, even though I was working out, both strength training, and cardio, I lost *some* muscle along the way.  I re-adjusted my goal weight to 150, which was quite lean for me.     

Anyway, my advice is to focus on losing your excess weight, and do lots of cardio, and you *will* lose muscle and fat.  However, that doesn't mean that you should skip strength training.  If you work with a good trainer, they should be able to help you work on *balance* to be fit and toned without building more muscle than you want.  I'd guess that if you threw shot, then you probably focused on upper body strength, and maybe now you need to focus more on lower body.  

In your quest to lose weight, don't lose sight of the fact that our muscle mass is our metabolism furnace.  The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn just by walking around and living your life.  

Tami