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

Well, with muscle, if you don't use it, you'll lose it. So it's pretty easy to lose it.

In fact, it's just natural to lose some muscle while losing the kind of weight we are. It takes a lot more muscle to carry around 360 pounds than to carry 160 pounds, for example.

OTOH, muscle is a wonderful thing -- it boosts your metabolism and it helps with athletic performance -- and I tried not to lose too much.

But I had about 90-95 lb of muscle so it's not like I was muscle bound. I still do have about that much, because I continued to use my muscles and I lost fat instead.

So now I look like a runner when I had this image of myself as a curvy gal. (Though, unlike most female runners, I do still have boobage. ) But my wide hips and big ass that I thought were because of my bone structure were actually just FAT.

Bottom line: why not try to go for a low body fat percentage and keep as much muscle as you can? I try to keep under 20% and I'm a gal. (I can't tell if you are too. I know guys named Kim.))

But the real issue is that i haven't lost much of the muscle and have just gained additional fat over the years. At my peak performance, i was 200 lbs of muscle with 12% fat (225 lbs) - this was almost 15 years ago and i'm currently at 193 lbs of muscle - not much lost with not much work.  And I do have a small bone structure - so yeah - there is a change that I need to make in how I do things to get my overall weight down.

Now that I'm at a gym, I will work out and the fat will come off, but i want to lose muscle as well and be a normal weight.

Yes, I am a gal and I guess I've always been strong and am just looking for a change in that perspective.

Thanks for your insights!

Kim

 Hi There
With no disrespect, if you are 193 lbs of muscle and virtually no fat - then you should be pretty darn jacked and shredded.  This is something that every single female bodybuilder (natural or non natural) strives for - so why don't u get on the stage and strut yourself!  I'm serious.  I didn't look at ur pics - but my avatar was 12% bodyfat and for a woman is pretty darn hard to maintain - i maintain at around 17-18% off season.

As someone said above - forget what the scale says!  Even tho im  150-155 (and would love to see 125) I am quite happy wearing a size 4 and if I had to rid myself of muscle to get down to 125 - I'd probably still be the same size AND require less food per day. So who wants that?  Throw that scale away and buy a tape measure!

Why would you want to lose muscle to get to a goal weight? I say lose as much fat as possible but hit the trainer with a dumbell. Hang on to every ounce of muscle you can. Trust me if you get your body fat down to where it needs to be you won't care what the number on the stupid scale says. Judge things by how you look and feel and don't be a slave to a # on a scale.

I've been there before, where I worked out and lost the excess fat so that I've only had 12% body fat and couldn't figure out how to lose weight - I was 225 lbs in 1996.

I've always had a good 200 lbs of muscle (even after not working out for 15 years, I still have 193 lbs of muscle ) and would ideally love to lose about 50 of these  to 140-150 lbs of muscle. I have a small frame and would love to be 160-175 lbs and would be in great shape for this as well and possibly have a desire to go for a run if I'm not the weight I am or was.

It is about the health (I'm in good shape and good health according to the doctors) so I'm looking for options and experiences if anyone else has tried this.

Kim

i have to be honest with you, i have a real problem with the advice you are getting.  losing muscle on purpose (unless you have a large excess of muscle from body-building you are looking to reduce) isn't a great path to better health.  the more muscle you have, the higher your metabolism, and having lean muscle mass doesn't necessarily equate to having bulky muscles.  the focus everybody has on the scale or BMI is bit scary, it should be focused around health, your blood numers, blood pressure, and fat % etc etc....

I think it is that I have a large amount of muscle to lose. In my previous responses, I show that I'm still within 10 lbs of the most muscle that I was aware of. Was at 200 lbs of muscle and now at 193 lbs of muscle after not working out for 10 years.

At 6'1, when I was an athlete, I did work out 4+ hours a day and increased my overall muscle mass and even after 15 years, i haven't been able to lose it.

And while I'm healthy, I do want to work out to lose both the fat and muscle so that my overall weight decreases. I believe my overall question is that I have no need to be 225 lbs, so why should I be - why can't I be?

Does that make more sense on why I want to lose both fat and muscle?

Kim

sure, it just seems counter-intuitive, what kind of athlete were you in college?  i suppose if you would like to reduce both, focusing on running and maybe spinning without lifiting weights would do the trick.  if you are really serious about it, deplete your energy stores and keep going past "the wall"  this could take a while, that would force your body to consume muscle and fat for energy (however i don't recommend that approach).  like macmadame mentioned, simply not using your muscles will reduce them, so lay off the weights would be a start and just do cardio.  i'm still shy on giving this advice as i've always advocated so strongly that more muscle=good not bad.