Muscle Growth and Fat Loss

[Champ300]

Whats the best way to lose fat and gain muscle without roids and substances? I'm 5'6", have a gut, slight case of moobs, and pencil arms...
Woo!! Lol..So yeah not too content with the bod at the moment.

I weigh 150..I was at 130 a year ago and still had a gut but somehow looked way too skinny at the same time. My body proportions are all over the place. I felt like a chubby scrawnster (If that makes any sense). So at 150 I like looking bigger but I don't really want to look bigger via fat.
I heard that too much cardio and lifting can actually eat your muscles rather than build them. Is that true? Because I'd really like to gain muscles and lose fat at the same time naturally.

Anyways any suggestions would be greatly appreciated...

[BigSteve6ft3]

Originally Posted by Champ300

Whats the best way to lose fat and gain muscle without roids and substances?

Lifting weights is the best way to change your body composition from fat to muscle. Period. Lifting weights stimulates muscle growth. Even without doing cardio work, the extra muscle gained will increase your metabolism and help burn fat.

Lift heavy with low reps to gain muscle mass, lighter and high reps to warm up and for toning. Cardio for fat loss. It's pretty standard, but all true.

Go to a gym. Get some advice from an experienced lifter or trainer, or buy a book describing what exercises to do. The major compound lifts will get you a long way: bench press for chest and triceps, overhead military press for shoulders, squats (and/or machine leg presses) for legs and glutes, bent-over rows and pull-ups or machine pull-downs for back, deadlift for legs and lower back, etc.

Use proper form. For each exercise, warm up with light weights you can easily do many repetitions with (say 20 or so). Warming up stretches your muscles, tendons and ligaments, gets them into the proper positions, lubricates your joints, and thus helps prevent injury. After warming up, move up to a weight you can only lift 6-10 times before you can't do another repetition. Rest, then repeat. Rest, then repeat a third time. Then on to the next exercise. Train each body part once, or maybe twice, per week, waiting for the soreness to subside before training that body part again.

Eat healthy. Cut out junk food. Up your protein intake -- lean red meat, chicken, fish. Eat lots of fruits and veggies for general health. Cut down on the fat. Cut down on simple carbs (white bread, sugars) and replace with complex carbs (whole grains, vegetables)

Get plenty of sleep.

Get more active in general -- spend more time hiking, biking, playing tennis or frisbee or whatever, less time in front of the TV or the computer or the computer game.

And that is about it. Do this diligently for several months, don't quit, don't wimp out, and your body WILL change. No roids or other "substances" required. Keep it up for years, and your body will continue to improve.

Originally Posted by Champ300

I heard that too much cardio and lifting can actually eat your muscles rather than build them. Is that true?

For all practical purposes, for someone like yourself, no that's not true. It might happen for certain extreme exercise-obsessed types, but for 99% of industrialized humanity, particularly Americans, too much exercise is not going to be the problem. Bodybuilders may suffer from "over-training," where further growth is hampered by working out too frequently or too intensely, without allowing adequate time for recovery, but this is an extreme you are unlikely to encounter unless you push yourself ridiculously hard. Too much cardio will prevent one from gaining much muscle mass, but it will definitely burn fat in the process. And again, unless you're doing cardio at the marathon-runner level, this will not likely be a problem for you.

[Mdlftr]

Big Steve has basically said it all. He's right on point.

The important thing is to not sabotage yourself by taking in a bunch of worthless excess calories {"fruit juice"that is mostly high sugar corn syrup, for instance -- stick to water. It doesn't have to be sparkling, mineral, 'boosted' or Vitamen. Just "tap" will do for the hydration.]

Good luck. It's not exciting, and you won't dramatically wake up tomorrow with 8% body fat. It takes time (2-3 months) but it WILL happen.

Mdlftr

[Stoneman]

Originally Posted by Mdlftr

It takes time (2-3 months)
Mdlftr

2-3 months??? What am I doing wrong? lol

[Ender]

The thing you don't want to do is go on an extreme calorie reduction program!

Starving yourself to lose weight will burn muscle, making you retain even more fat and lower your metabolism making it harder to lose fat and easier to gain it.

What you want to do is concentrate on building lean muscle and don't even think about your weight... watch the mirror and take a series of progress photos every few weeks if you eat clean and workout consistantly the fat will go away on its own and the muscle will come...

Ender

[Frankly]

Bigsteve said just about everything.

You need to make these changes into a lifestyle. Know that you will not see results instantaneously and must keep at it like it is part of your life, which it should be.

As for fat loss and muscle growth, it is difficult to do both at the same time, as muscle growth typically takes place when you have an excess of calories that are mostly protein and you are working out hard, while fat loss takes place mostly in caloric deficit.

That said, an excellent option that is known to cut fat while maintaining muscle the best is known as a cyclical ketogenic diet. or ckd. google it or look for it on bodybuilding.com. They have tons of info and it has worked very well for me in the past.