Changing body composition

Sentry

First, I just want to say how happy I am that this thread is going to be on the same page as the French fry eating contest. Seriously two pounds of fries in four minutes? A year ago that contest would have been my bitch. Which sort of brings me to my point…
In the past two years I have lost weight. Like, a lot of weight. Like, a Backstreet Boy worth of weight. I vastly changed my lifestyle to do so, a strict diet, cardio pretty much every day of the week, riding my bike to work every day, not engaging in fry eating contests. All those things helped make me the Adonis I am today. Except, of course that my body sort of looks like a melting candle now. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t change it for anything, I’m able to do so much more than I ever could before, and I don’t get winded when I pee. But before I look into surgical options I would like to try a natural approach to tightening my body and skin up. Which is where you come in H/A.

My weight loss was pretty much done exclusively through cardio. I lifted weights here and there but nothing approaching a regimented routine and my diet was strictly low calorie… like between 1200 and 1500 a day. It was mainly high protein but since I lost the weight carbs have started creeping in a bit. I put a clamp down on that recently but I know I need help with my diet if I’m going to try and change my body comp.

Anyway, what I am looking for is suggestions on how to continue to decrease my body fat while drastically increasing my muscle mass. I need everything at this point. Diet advice, lifting advice, the whole nine yards. I belong to an awesome gym that has all the lifting apparati one could ask for. So I am up for anything. Also, here are some stats and diet:
5’8, 162 lbs

My current diet looks like this:
4:00 AM- wake up, eat a banana
6:00 AM- (post gym) 1 egg omlette with cheese, tomato, onion
10:00 AM- instant oatmeal (160 calories, 7 grams protein)
Noon- lunch (varies, typically below 300 calories approx 20 grams protein)
Mid-afternoon- almonds, slice of turkey and slice of cheese
7:00 PM- Dinner (varies, usually lean meat with rice or pasta or quinua)

Sometimes I will have a banana before bed if I’m still hungry, but I know that probably isn’t good for me considering the carbs and sugar. So, that’s pretty much it.
Help me H/A!

TLDR: used to be fat, now I’m just much less fat but still out of wack re: body fat/muscle mass, need advice

mts

you aren't going to build muscle mass unlss you start doing resistance exercises. endurance is good for shifting your muscle to burn fat better but it does not cause muscle mas increases.

Paladin

This doesn't sound great but sugar actually helps you absorb protein at several levels and prevent your muscles from being degraded via the glucose alanine cycle. If you want to bulk up really quickly you're going to have to sacrifice some fat loss. Theoretically, once you can maintain your muscles at a larger mass, you can cut down the carbs again and utilize the increased maintenance energy as well as cardio to ramp up the fat loss again.

However, it's hard to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time at the same rate. If you've got a scale that measures body fat % (not sure if those work well) experiment with increasing protein and carbs and keep track of how that affects your body fat % and your ability to lift. Then vary that if you find something unacceptable.

Usually people who reduce their body fat have to do a lot of resistance exercises - not to gain muscle but to just keep sending the signal to maintain it, while restricting calories in their diet. Like if they actually ate more calories, their muscles would get bigger due to their excess resistance training, but due to their diet their muscles scream for a whole lot of growth and only get enough to maintain bulk. You can't really do this unless you have a lot of muscle bulk and weight training already, which will make doing resistance training over long periods of time easier with less danger of burnout or injury. They also generally lose muscle mass at a slow rate despite eating lots of protein and lifting lots of weights because it's really hard to beat muscle degredation if you're not taking in enough sugar to triggle muscle growth (and fat growth).

In sum, if you feel you have enough muscle bulk and you're comfortable doing resistance exercises reguarly (you don't go to failure before you finish your sets/get too sore to work out) you can cut carbs/fat and up protein to increase your fat loss/muscle loss ratio, but on that diet muscle loss will always be a thing.

If you want to bulk up, however, you'll have to put the body fat thing on hold unless you have a few years to spare.

Demerdar

I would start doing resistance exercises like everyone else has already mentioned. Try to do a weight at which you can do about 10-15 reps for each exercise. This will help turn that fat into muscle but without becoming "bulky".

Usagi

There's a ton of good information in SE's weightlifting thread, but essentially look into Starting Strength and Mark Rippetoe and go from there.

Also, the guys in the linked thread are super nice and consistently have given fabulous advice to beginning weightlifters, so post in there and you'll likely be have a bunch of support thrown at you.

Sentry

So, if I'm understanding correctly I should probably keep focusing on fat loss, maybe till I'm below 10% body fat? Then focus on gaining muscle mass? in the meantime I should do resistance training to make sure I maintain the muscle I have?

Also thanks Usagi, I will check that out.

AlyceInWonderland

Honestly, in addition to cardio, you should be lifting weights. Alternate your cardio and weight days. It's what I've been doing, and not only have I been seeing a decent drop in weight (nearly 25 pounds in 2.5 months), but I've been getting MUCH stronger, and my soft spots are getting less...soft. Keep in mind though, that your weight loss will be slower while lifting. Muscle weighs much more than fat, but that muscle will help you burn calories quicker, and will make you look *much* better in the long run. The toning of your muscles will definitely help the loose skin, though it depends on how much you have.

Utilize your gym.

Hikkins

Sentry wrote:

So, if I'm understanding correctly I should probably keep focusing on fat loss, maybe till I'm below 10% body fat?

Don't do this. By increasing your muscle mass, you'll also increase the amount of calories your body burns in a day. Bulking up will also help you burn off fat.

You mentioned being a member of an awesome gym - since most gyms offer personal training, you should look into that. We can all sit here and offer you advice, but it's not going to be as good as that of a fitness professional who can sit down in a room with you, assess what you're trying to do, and tailor a programme specifically to your needs.

JohnnyCache

Don't worry about "becoming bulky" until it actually happens (here's a hint: If doing less then 10 reps was what it took, there would be a lot more "bulky" people around. You do not, I guarantee, having watched years of people trying to be "bulky," need to worry about becoming musclebound overnight. If you start to get bigger than you want, you'll have plenty of time to arrest the process.

Lift weights using a good program like starting strength or stronglifts. You may actually find out you need to eat more to gain weight/if you gain weight.

Peen

Demerdar wrote:

I would start doing resistance exercises like everyone else has already mentioned. Try to do a weight at which you can do about 10-15 reps for each exercise. This will help turn that fat into muscle but without becoming "bulky".

This is totally inaccurate, just fyi. You need to be doing compound barbell lifts, like in the programs that JohnnyCache linked. We've got a pretty good lifting thread over in SE, there's a lot of smart and experienced guys in there. You should stop by.

mts

Peen wrote:

Demerdar wrote:

I would start doing resistance exercises like everyone else has already mentioned. Try to do a weight at which you can do about 10-15 reps for each exercise. This will help turn that fat into muscle but without becoming "bulky".

This is totally inaccurate, just fyi. You need to be doing compound barbell lifts, like in the programs that JohnnyCache linked. We've got a pretty good lifting thread over in SE, there's a lot of smart and experienced guys in there. You should stop by.

also fat does not turn into muscle

schuss

Also, if you've lost a ton of weight, the skin basically never goes completely back to normal. My friend who lost 60-80 lbs about 12 years ago still has weird stretch marks/extra skin in some places. That said, start lifting first, as that will likely take up some of the skin.

As to bulking up - unless you specifically do exercises to bulk up and design your diet and daily routine around it, you don't have to worry about anything.

QuantumTurk

What others have said, just chiming in to re-itterate that "high reps of low weight=toning" is false. You won't get bulky by accident unless you hit a genetic jackpot in that sense. Also adding support for compound exercises and free-weights>machines. Machines are silly for most people, they reeeealllyyy isolate the muscle groups, where what most people want is general strength gains, which are better achieved by using free weights that will force you to engage more muscles as stabilizers. So yea, start a weight training program to supplement your cardio and you will fill some of the area back out in a nice way. As for actually pulling in the skin, my impression is that after really significant weight loss (which I would think a backstreet boy would qualify) surgery may be the only option. But a reliable, safe one!

Also, major congratulations are in order for losing so much/changing your health for the better! That is not an easy thing for most people, and you seem to have internalized that it is a lifestyle change rather than a temporary diet. So Kudos!

Raekreu

Sentry wrote:

So, if I'm understanding correctly I should probably keep focusing on fat loss, maybe till I'm below 10% body fat?

Cart before horse.

If you were to focus solely on adding muscle, your body fat percentage could still decrease. It's entirely possible to stay the same weight for a long stretch of lifting, say 6-8 weeks, and still end up having a better BMI than when you started.

The fact that you've lost so much weight doing cardio and changing your diet is a huge deal already. Building strength seems like the next logical step.

Djeet

Bulk/cutting cycles are not an uncommon way to go about things. Meaning you go some interval (say 6-8 weeks) where you're optimizing your lifting and diet for strength building. And then you go some interval where you optimize your diet for fat loss while trying to maintain strength gains.

If you didn't do much resistance training then your body will probably respond well to it should you add it to your regimen. Just remember it's like cardio in that your body will quickly adjust and you'll stop making significant gains unless you push yourself, either by adding weight or sets/reps. You'll probably need to eat more if you start lifting in addition to your cardio, cause if you don't you'll find yourself running out of gas more often and it's not a pleasant place to be.

Sentry

And I guess that's sort of my question. Should I be doing a bulking/cutting thing? Or is trying to do both at once feasible? I think I may just meet with a personal trainer at the gym once, to try and set up a plan. I think I just feel like I've plateaued and am losing motivation.

I should also mention I've started going to a rock gym which has been awesome, but I am really struggling with my lack of upper body strength there.

Djeet

Trying to both is difficult, since during cutting phases you want to reduce "easy" carbs as much as you can, but you kinda need that for recovery to maximize your gains when trying to build muscle. Also if you're still eating for weight reduction you may find your energy levels low and general crabbiness.

Since additional upper strength is something you're trying to pursue anyways I'd say try 6-8 weeks of resistance training and see how it goes. You'd still have some time to enter a cutting phase before summer or you could continue bulking if you're happy with the results. It's very gratifying to be able to lift more weight or more reps week after week. Eventhough you want more upper body strength, don't neglect your legs. Squats and deadlifts are likely more effective at adding lean body mass than most any other exercises, especially for novice lifters.

QuantumTurk

Keep rock climbing, and honestly bulk cutting cycles seem a bit silly for what you want. Here is an article why it is prooobably not the best idea for you. Not saying it does not work, but it is much more intended for a higher level/competition level body building. Whereas you should probably just focus on getting stronger and using good form. It sounds like the diet is already good, just make sure you get enough protein to not waste yourself away.

http://scoobysworkshop.com/bulking-and-cutting/
This site in general has what I consider level headed advice. He promotes few if any products, and boils it down to: "Work hard, have reasonable expectations, and be very suspicious of anyone trying to sell you something to help."

And my personal opinion is that bulking is likely the last thing you want to be doing. You have changed your lifestyle for the better diet wise, be careful with breaking that consistency.