Cardio to lose fat and lifting to gain muscle, is there a scale?!

[WickedMood]

Hey,

This is obviously my first post, i have been looking around for couple weeks and the site is very informative so i though i would ask for some help myself!

Well, i am 21yr guy, i have lost a lot of weight before couple years, now i am mostly fit beside my lower half, i have fat thighs/butt, feels like my body stores most of the weight that way unfortunately..

I am back in the gym for 10 days already, i do 15mins of treadmill, body lifting for the chest/shoulders/biceps/triceps/stomach, squatting and end up with 15mins on the elliptical machine, also i have been eating healthier and lost the fast food for the most part.

My main goal to tone my lower half, i won't deny it, but wider shoulders and more defined stomach is definitely a plus, i do my best on lifting.

Now, is this cardio good enough? i have heard that some machines or certain resistance on the elliptical could make my thighs even wider by increasing muscle, how true is this?

Any help is appreciated!

 

[eClenbuterol]

Congrats on getting fit,unfortunately the area you mentioned (the spare tire area) is the most stubborn fat to have and no matter how hard you train it will be the last to leave, it took yrs to get it so expect not to get rid of it overnight, morning cardio on an empty stomach is a great way of attackig the problem.

 

[NJL52]

Hey,

This is obviously my first post, i have been looking around for couple weeks and the site is very informative so i though i would ask for some help myself!

Well, i am 21yr guy, i have lost a lot of weight before couple years, now i am mostly fit beside my lower half, i have fat thighs/butt, feels like my body stores most of the weight that way unfortunately..

I am back in the gym for 10 days already, i do 15mins of treadmill, body lifting for the chest/shoulders/biceps/triceps/stomach, squatting and end up with 15mins on the elliptical machine, also i have been eating healthier and lost the fast food for the most part.

My main goal to tone my lower half, i won't deny it, but wider shoulders and more defined stomach is definitely a plus, i do my best on lifting.

Now, is this cardio good enough? i have heard that some machines or certain resistance on the elliptical could make my thighs even wider by increasing muscle, how true is this?

Any help is appreciated!

Fat is fat. It goes when you are lean and stays when you are fat. Isolating any one area will never make you leaner in that area.

However, increasing muscle mass relative to fat mass creates a visual that you are leaner.

First off, pick a goal. Do you want to get bigger and stronger or leaner?

While it is possible to gain muscle while losing fat during the same time period, it is a pain in the ass to balance your workouts/diet that strictly. It is physically impossible to lose fat while putting on muscle at any given moment because the metabolic processes are opposites. But you can cycle days.

My suggestion is to chose leaner or bigger. Sounds like your top worry is ridding of fat. So cut. Eat 2300 or so calories a day. 6 meals of 400ish calories every 3 hours starting at breakfast. I prefer low carb diets.

And keep physical activity to a max. Burning more calories and eating more is vastly superior to burning less and eating less.

Lastly, Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle is the best nutrition book I have read and Starting Strength is the best beginner weight training book I have read. Pick them both up and study.

 

[ramnares]

15 mins on the treadmill and elliptical just aren't enough if you're looking to cut. You should really look into running longer times/distances and some HIIT. Like the other posters said, it's going to take a while for the changes to happen since you want to maintain or gain muscle mass while cutting at the same time :/

 

[WickedMood]

Thanks for the responses.

I have already been going on the same workout i explained and honestly i am really confused about this whole thing.

I am not doing any diets, not eating anything special for muscle building or fat losing, just simply eating more frequently, with less amounts, less carbs, more proteins, lots of vegetables and fruit, work out on almost empty stomach (cup of milk and a green apple).

I can see and feel the muscle, which is a good feeling, i have been doing great on the workout, but not much progress on my lower half fat, as expected from the posters.

Are you guys suggesting that i do treadmill, cycling,elliptical for the whole time at the gym and ignore the body building machines?

The thing is that i do run on the treadmill for 15mins on high speed and a decent incline, i do sweat a lot and i also work on decent resistance on the elliptical machine, i sweat...i though i was doing good amount of cardio by all that.

Please be patient with me, i am reading topics everywhere, starting to feel very lost.

 

[ramnares]

I would not recommend doing cardio machines only and ignoring weight lifting. This will quickly result in muscle loss and you'll be set back quite a bit. I would focus on splitting your time at the gym between HIIT cardio sessions coupled with a weight lifting workout as well. Also, you can get some cardio benefit from your weight lifting workout if you take very short rests in between sets, so you might seriously consider that as well.

 

[V-Opolis]

exercise for lengthy periods of time increases the amount of fat energy you burn. During the first 45-60 minutes of exercise you are burning mostly 80-90% carbohydrate energy(glycogen) which doesnt lose you any weight becuase as soon as you eat again you put that fast acting energy back into your system/muscles. exercise after 45-60 mins starts to increase the amount of fat energy you burn as your carb supplies run low. turning that 80-90% carb into 60-70% carb and slowly keep falling the longer you exercise. Althought weight lifting will indirectly increase your cal burning rate with the increase in muscle tissue which burns energy to have instead of storing like fat. So if you plan on doin both, you need to eat like a monster.

 

[enjoey]

fasted cardio really great! buddy of mine list 20 pounds over the period of several months by simply introducing fasted cardio into his routine. try it for a month and post your result! im serious, it works!

 

[WickedMood]

Hi guys, i just wanted to keep you updated, i did what ramnares and the trainer suggested which is keeping on cardio and weight lifting and i am really happy with what i am doing:

- 30min of running on the treadmill with (1) at the incline and increasing speed by a level every 5mins.
- same weight lifting workout on the machines.
- 30min on the elliptical machine and increasing level by (1) every 5 mins.

Drink a lot of water, i sweat A LOT by the time i am out of the gym, i feel like i am doing my best, not sure if you guys agree with me?

Since i am eating less, not eating too much fat or protein, i have been told that i won't build much muscles, but i will increase my fitness and get rid of the unwanted fat..although my arms are getting bigger, shoulders getting wider, ect..

Notes::

+ I take 10 seconds MAX of rest sometimes during cardio, to drink some water, is that bad?
+ If anyone want me to adjust my cardio by anyway, please do and i am willing to try it out!

Any additional help and advice is SO appreciated.

 

[ramnares]

Your cardio sounds great. It's very similar to the cardio routines I did when I got into this. You might want to look into increasing your incline levels on the treadmill once you feel that you're not being challenged enough. Remember if you're trying to lose weight you want to cut calories but not by massive amounts so be careful with your diet. Generally for maintaining you should eat your weight in kgs in protein. I weight 89 kgs so I would eat 89 grams of protein. However, if you're looking to build you would want to eat between 1.5 - 1.8 times your body weight in kgs.

Anyway, sounds like you're doing a great job so far, let's know about your progress.