Cutting fat & gaining muscle mass at the same time?

[QuickStrike]

I've always heard that is it much easier to:

Simply focus on bulking up and not care about gaining a little extra fat

or

Focus mostly on slimming down & cutting fat while trying to maintain muscle


I know that one can probably do both at the same time, but aren't they conflicting and the results delayed?

[Mr.Goodtimes]

a lot of this depends on your body type. you can do whats referred to as a "lean bulk" where you eat enough to gain muscle and stay energetic, but gain minimal to no fat.

I've pretty much been on a constant lean bulk for about the past two years. I'm staying lean while also slowly gaining muscle, and loosing fat, a little bit at a time.

If you cut hard enough, and try to get your body fat real low, you WILL loose muscle, and you will get weaker, thats just how it is. if you wanna gain muscle and strength on a cutting diet, then prosteroids/steroids are about the only way to do it.

When i used to try and cut, within a couple days i would begin to feel weaker, my muscles would feel as "full" and while i was losing fat, i was also losing muscle.

It's very possible to stay lean while bulking, you just have to make sure that you eat the right foods. You might put on 10lbs of muscle in a year or so vs. 15... but you also wont have 10lbs of fat to lose when your done, and you wont be ashamed to take your shirt off either.

[jwinch2]

I've always heard that is it much easier to:

Simply focus on bulking up and not care about gaining a little extra fat

or

Focus mostly on slimming down & cutting fat while trying to maintain muscle


I know that one can probably do both at the same time, but aren't they conflicting and the results delayed?

You heard correctly. There is a reason that bodybuilding has an off season and a competition season. The signaling processes at the cellular level which allow for protein synthesis versus lipolysis and the stimulus from an exercise standpoint required to initiate them are polar opposites. Furthermore the hormonal response needed to initiate satellite cell response which is what leads to muscular adaptation require synthesis from low density lipoprotein cholesterol which is primarily derived from animal fats. Not taking in significant amounts of what are typically considered "bad" fats is going to lead to an attenuated protein synthesis response. Taking in enough kilocalories in the first place to provide the substrate for training adaptation and the proper lipoproteins to generate the hormones needed for adaptation makes it very difficult to drop significant amounts of fat.

If you periodize your program effectively from a training as well as nutritional standpoint you will make far better gains in both lean muscle building as well as body fat reduction in a years time if you split them up into cycles rather than trying to train for everything at once. Can you make gains that way? Yes of course you can. However, it will not be nearly as effective as taking a systematic approach and training those things separately.

I would encourage you to seek out a qualified professional to help you, much the way you would for any other form of training. PM me if you are interested and I can help find someone near you depending on where you live.

Cheers,

[bjw182005]

It's not really possible to bulk train AND cut fat at the same time. A bulk training regimen requires that you take in many many time more calories to ensure that your muscles are receiving all the nutrients they need to grow to maximum potential. In order to get really lean, your diet has to be cut by almost 1/4 to 1/2. You want to make sure that you are still getting a good caloric intake, but you want to be more picky about what youre eating. Cardio is king during this time. It's generally much harder to cut down than it is to bulk up. The transition from eat everything in sight, to almost starving yourself is sometimes too much for most people to deal with. It takes a complete commitment of time to acheive the results you really want.

[QuickStrike]

1. My plan is to jog on incline for 30-45 minutes 1st thing in the morning to burn calories/cardio

2. Protein shake right after to maintain muscle mass

3. Lift at the gym a few hours later

4. Protein shake again

This will stay the same for my bulking or slimming months, because I still need cardio for mma + sprinting and doing bag work, etc.

I'll just eat reasonably clean and up the calories a lot, while still avoiding excessive fat during bulking.

And eat super clean, with way less calories when slimming down.

Lifting and protein intake will probably stay about the same...

[Azul]

Does the mantra "you cant slim and bulk up at the same time" mean that people who are trying to lose weight should not do some sort of resistance training, such as weight lifting in addition to cardio?

You can talk to one person and say, weight lifting will help you burn fat because adding muscle mass increases the base amount of calories your body uses per dayal.

You can talk to another person and they will say "cardio, cardio, cardio!" and they will reason that you cannot expect to build muscle without increasing caloric intake, which is counterintuitive to caloric restriction diets.

[BushmasterFanBoy]

Does the mantra "you cant slim and bulk up at the same time" mean that people who are trying to lose weight should not do some sort of resistance training, such as weight lifting in addition to cardio?

You can talk to one person and say, weight lifting will help you burn fat because adding muscle mass increases the base amount of calories your body uses per dayal.

You can talk to another person and they will say "cardio, cardio, cardio!" and they will reason that you cannot expect to build muscle without increasing caloric intake, which is counterintuitive to caloric restriction diets.

I'm pretty curious about this as well. I still have about 40lbs of weight loss or so to go til I hit my goal for weight loss, but I'm quite eager to start a lifting regimen. Does this mean I need to focus solely on cardio?

[QuickStrike]

I'm pretty curious about this as well. I still have about 40lbs of weight loss or so to go til I hit my goal for weight loss, but I'm quite eager to start a lifting regimen. Does this mean I need to focus solely on cardio?

A beginning lifter will see relatively HUGE gains in muscle in the first year or two, and this increase in muscle will in turn help burn more calories overall, so it's win/win for you IMO.

You are doing good.

Just add a reasonable lifting routine + treadmill work, and you're set.

Oh, and you don't even really have to run much for burning calories. Just set the treadmill at a reasonable incline and power-walk at a brish speed that you can maintain for about 45 minutes.

Wear good shoes!

Fake edit: Also, you will be gaining muscle, which I think weighs more than fat... You might not get to your desired weight quickly because of this...

But SCREW THE SCALE! IMO I think gauging yourself in the mirror and in your actual level of performance, is a better way to measure progress than some set number.

Just IMO.

[Azul]

But SCREW THE SCALE! IMO I think gauging yourself in the mirror and in your actual level of performance, is a better way to measure progress than some set number.

Count the pants sizes lost. Muscle Mass is much more dense than the fat its "replacing".

[spankaveli]

I did, for about a year and a half, way more weight lifting than cardio and i lost 118bs in about 12 months. you definitely get stronger but that could be more cardiovascular than actual muscle gain.

of course, i've gained 60% of that back but i'm working on getting back down and further. it's purely mental and if you can make yourself eat correctly you can do it.