Gaining muscle / burning fat dichotomy... am I missing something?

[thirddan]

"To burn fat,
do long fatburning exercises like a slow jog. Optimal heart rate at 65-70% of max."

while this may burn fat, i think there are better and more efficient alternatives...look into HIIT type cardio, its more intense, but takes less time and burns more calories throughout the day...

[durron597]

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I am not the expert, but here is my 2c.

I just subscribed to Mens Health and am trying to do a similar thing. Lose weight and gain lean muscle mass.
I say similar, because burning fat and losing weight are not the same.
Losing weight requires net -calorie.
Burning fat does not.
In general to gain muscle,
use weights. Your body will hurt and rebuild muscle. It will be a good idea to have higher protien intake, so your body has the tools to build muscle.
To burn fat,
do long fatburning exercises like a slow jog. Optimal heart rate at 65-70% of max.

To lose weight, it is probably better to skip the gain lean muscle goal first. To me this is a psycological thing because it is MUCH harder to see your body toning up as you gain the muscle mass. You might have total weight 170.. and fat of 25% then .. a week later have the same weight but be 23% fat; (a HUGE improvement) but unless you take a body fat test every week you are not going to "see" the improvement. You are much more likely to stick with the program if you went from 170 to 168 in lbs. After you lose the weight it will be easier psycologically gain the weight as muscle .

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this whole post basically is like the opposite of almost everything i've read on this forum and t-nation

[Thremp]

You can carb cycle. I'm considering doing this possibly in winter to try to transition to a leaner look. If it doesn't work, I can just cut the old fashioned way. No clue if it works or not.

[durron597]

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most likely moderate weights for moderate reps while you get accustomed to the lifts and actually putting your body under this kind of stress...most newbs can get stronger using sets of 10-12 and you might be able to burn a bit of fat as well...as for whether to try and gain size or lose fat i would have to know more about you...

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right now i'm ~6'2", weigh ~215 lb, wear 36 waist pants (edit: comfortably, before i got started these were tight on me), bench like 115 lb; i did 3 sets of 10 reps of pullups yesterday with like 100 pounds of assist; military press with dumbbells i do like ~40 lb in each hand or so

cardio i was doing better earlier but i overworked my legs so im letting them heal a bit, staying more on elliptical on off days and HIIT on treadmill on lifting days (just started with that). though sunday i was home not at gym... i went 2.5 miles in 30 minutes with half of that being 8 min splits (broken up) and the rest walking 17 min splits uphill

[Blarg]

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its also inefficient...if you decide to try and get both at the same time most likely they will both suffer and you will have wasted a good deal of time and effort for sub optimal results...

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This is probably the most important thing. It's much nicer to get to your goals quicker.

[Blarg]

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"To burn fat,
do long fatburning exercises like a slow jog. Optimal heart rate at 65-70% of max."

while this may burn fat, i think there are better and more efficient alternatives...look into HIIT type cardio, its more intense, but takes less time and burns more calories throughout the day...

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I'm going to chirp in with what I say in every other post, which is, think about including at least one heavy, full-body exercise so you can get your hormonal system stimulated. This will have a systemic effect that will help you put on muscle and burn fat everywhere.

[durron597]

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"To burn fat,
do long fatburning exercises like a slow jog. Optimal heart rate at 65-70% of max."

while this may burn fat, i think there are better and more efficient alternatives...look into HIIT type cardio, its more intense, but takes less time and burns more calories throughout the day...

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm going to chirp in with what I say in every other post, which is, think about including at least one heavy, full-body exercise so you can get your hormonal system stimulated. This will have a systemic effect that will help you put on muscle and burn fat everywhere.

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blarg,

right now i am doing 3 days lift, 2 or 3 days cardio, 1 or 2 days rest in any given week. are you saying i should be doing at least one full body exercise on the cardio days? and/or the rest days?

[SamG]

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its also inefficient...if you decide to try and get both at the same time most likely they will both suffer and you will have wasted a good deal of time and effort for sub optimal results...

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This is probably the most important thing. It's much nicer to get to your goals quicker.

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x2. As someone who's tried to do both at once, I have to say it can be frustrating sometimes because it's hard to know if it's working.

[SamG]

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right now i'm ~6'2", weigh ~215 lb, wear 36 waist pants

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durron, if I were you, I'd probably cut. Keep lifting and doing cardio. You should still be able to see good strength gains as a novice even while cutting.

[Blarg]

No, you need your rest days. You should incorporate squats or deadlifts into one or two of your lifting days. You'll probably see better results by doing them twice a week. Three days a week may be too much for someone also wanting to get in a good amount of aerobics, and might cut into your recovery time too much.

Give yourself an adjustment period to get your body used to the exercises and learn form, a few weeks perhaps, whatever it takes so you feel safe and comfortable. Don't measure your progress fanatically during this period. This breaking in period will help get your tendons and ligaments accustomed to the demands you'll be placing on them, too. They strengthen much more slowly than muscles do. Then, start doing them heavy.

You're better off if most of your lifting is full-body stuff anyway. If you did nothing but squats or deads for lower body, benches or military presses(or even handstand push-ups against a wall) for an upper body push, and pull ups or bent-over rows for an upper body pull, you'd have an excellent full-body weight-lifting routine. If you like, supplement it with some grip work, especially helpful for holding heavy weight during deadlifts, and maybe some neck work if you're one of the guys who has trouble building up his neck.