How to lose fat but not muscle?

Question

How many calories should I intake per day if I am trying to lose weight? I don't want to lose my muscle though. I'm 6 feet tall and 230lbs. Also, what types of things should I eat? Lots of beans and chicken?

Answer 1

Eat about 1800- 2200 calories a day. Eat a good mixture of lean meat (grilled chicken and fish), green, orange, and red veggies and fruits, a little dairy and a little complex carbs (whole grain).

Cut your fat intake.

Eat three cups of fat free low cal yogurt a day (make sure it has live cultures in it) and fresh pineapple. This helps you break down your food.

Do 45-60 min. of aerobic exercise a day (preferably before you eat in the morning). This will attack the fat.

Do 30 min of weight training three times a week. This will build lean muscle which will in turn burn fat.

I lost 40 lbs in two months and have kept it off for two more months doing this. I also took my body fat % from 30% to 14%

Be Blessed

Answer 2

You should eat a diet like the South beach diet (which is carb watching and higher protein, but yes you can eat them..just the healthy ones). If youare on a diet that is all carbs or mostly carbs you will most definately lose muscle as well as fat. The proteins are what makes you strong , so make sure you are eating at least 130 grams each da.

As for exercise, if you are not trying to gain muscle mass , aim for 2 sets of 15 of several exercises for all of your body parts (not just arms). During these sets its imporatant that the weights are heavy enough. IF you feel like you could have done more than 15, then increase the weight!.
If you are trying to gain muscle do more sets and less repetitions. Like 3 sets of 8.

Answer 3

To lose weight, a person has to reduce the calorie intake by some amount by modifying their diet. A diet without sufficient nutrients will only increase the appetite of the person trying to lose weight. Since most people combine a diet with an exercise plan, additional nutrients are required for the growth of muscles required to increase the metabolic rate required for long term weight loss. More information available at http://tinyurl.com/jax5h

Answer 4

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.


Aloha

Answer 5

Low carbs work!
also you have to drink alot of water for your body to effeciently get rid of fat ..for your weight 100 oz per day
Beans ? NO Chicken YES
I do not like pork AT ALL and love fish ...
also increase your fiber intake as well ..
Do 45 min of cardio a day and you will see results in 3 weeks

Answer 6

It is not necessary to do extreme or intense exercise to loose fat. Your body actually burns more fat when your heart rate is within what's called "Healthy Heart Rate" - 50-60% of your maxHR.

Your Healthy Heart Rate depend on your age. Go to http://walking.about.com/cs/fitnesswalking/a/hearttraining.htm for information. And http://www.heartmonitors.com/zone_calc.htm for a online calculator.

Change of diet may also help. In general, it is a good idea to consume less than 1/3 of your total calory intake from fat. Always read the label of food you eat.

Use the online calculator, http://walking.about.com/cs/calories/l/blcalcalc.htm, to help you determine the number of daily calories that is right for you.
Best wishes.

Answer 7

The Best Exercises To Lose Weight
http://weightloss-tips-guide.blogspot.com/2006/09/best-exercises-to-lose-weight.html


Helpful Tips to lose weight
http://weightloss-tips-guide.blogspot.com/2006/09/helpful-tips-to-lose-weight.html

Answer 8

I think calories are less important than the quality of food you are eating. Try the liver doctor for some excellent information.

Answer 9

Work out, do puch ups, sit ups, running, as you go one a moderate diet. Works really well for the cross-country people XD

Answer 10

gym you gain more muscles as you lose weight.