Wha'ts a good long term strategy for losing fat and gaining muscle mass for beginners?

Question

Yeah i got some pudge, but I'm solid. Though I don't have very good endurance or energy = ( I want to be fit, toned, energetic with good endurance ultimately. If you have a good plan, or something thats worked for you please share.

Naturally I have a large frame, like a football player. 6'2 240lbs

Please share some practical ideas, that I might be able to try on my own. I have a gym at my apartments, and I don't eat a lot junk food. I'm just naturally a big guy.

Answer 1

There is no site specific way of losing fat... the old myth about working your abs to burn belly fat isn't true. To get rid of love handles, you need to lose overall fat. That happens with exercise and watching your diet. More on that below.

The most effective way to lose fat is aerobic exercise in the "moderate" fat-burning range, ideally first thing in the morning before you eat. When you wake your body is ready to burn fat and your levels of growth hormone are highest at that time. Later in the day it can take up to 30 minutes just to put your body into a fat-burning mode.

Another overlooked way to burn fat is by lifting weights. Skeletal muscle has very high caloric needs... almost twice that of adipose (fat) tissue. Put on a little muscle and you will burn calories all day even at rest. Be aware that skeletal muscle weighs more, so with this approach you may see your weight increasing while your body fat is melting away. Not realizing this often stresses folks who think they should be losing weight as a measure of fitness. Forget the scale, look in the mirror and you will be happy.

For diet, keep a diary for a couple of weeks counting calories, grams of protein, and grams of fat intake. It is easy with online sources of nutritional information (type the name of the food and calories into the Google search engine) and packaging labels. That will let you quickly figure out where the fat is coming from in your diet.

Fat gives you 9 calories per gram. So take the number of grams of fat, multiply by 9, then calculate what percentage the fat calories are of your total daily calories. Restricting the calories from fat to about 20% of your total intake is ideal for a maintenance diet... that isn't overly restrictive. Of note, you need some fat in your diet. For instance, the body uses fat to produce hormones. Once you have a picture of how to modify your diet, you can drop the diary and just go back to it occasionally if you are wanting to tweek things further.

There is a subset of questions that goes further and asks about "How to get a six-pack?" The answer is the same. Six-packs are 20% abdominal exercise and 80% diet. There is one caveat... abdominal muscles will form in the position that you exercise them, so be certain to pull them tightly toward your spine while doing crunches, etc. Also, during most lifting, the "core is active" which means that you should be stabilizing with contracted abs then too. Fail to do this and the abs will form, but bulging outward and the result is not attractive.

If you are trying to build muscle as a way to lose fat, then you may need to increase total calories and specifically your protein intake. I target about 0.8 g of protein per pound of body weight each day when actively building. That is far more protein than most people need in their diets.

Hope this is helpful to someone.

Aloha

Answer 2

I'm 6 feet 200, 44 years old. A few extra pounds but I have a 48 inch chest and 35 inch waist.

I've been fighting the bulge most of my life, but I'm more fit than I have been in 15 years.

My diet plan is high protein (meats, fish, soy, beans), moderate fats, very low sugar....only complex carbs, and very high fiber breads, etc. When I do slack and eat sugar, breads, chips, etc. I find my energy plummets.

I walk 2 miles every other day and do sit ups, push ups, squats and pullups 2-3 times a week. The exercises is not crazy....for example we walk a mile to eat a salad, then wait a while and walk home. Saves gas and keeps the wife and I fit. If I miss the exercises, I feel my energy falling too.

Many dishes you love can be modified to be healthier. Learn the basics and go from there. I love chile.....Salsa is my favorite vegetable! So boring is not an option.....I grill meat and veggie on the grill a lot. Use dry spices rather than sauces with fats and sugars.

You can really do wonders by cutting out the junk and walking, biking or swimming some every week. Good luck!

Answer 3

Taebo with the resistance bands is awesome because it will thin you out and give you lean muscle. So once you burn off all the fat you'll be ripped with lean long muscles rather than big bulky ones.

Answer 4

u could go 2 a gym and ask them or buy stuff 4 a home gym do lots of stretches before working out take karate,do push ups,situps,pull ups,squats,walk in the morning and after dinner and most importantly buy a treadmill or use 1 @ the gym. u can eat right like no more junk food except 1 a month.or become semi vegetarian worked 4 my dad he looks great!Hope this helps~!!!!!

Answer 5

What worked for me was a mixture of working out and cardio together. This helped with the energy and the weights, nothing really heavy helped with the toning.

Answer 6

I am low-carbing and have really great tone without weight training.

(I do a lot of physical work in my yard, but really nothing else.)

Answer 7

cardio plus weights