Should I lose weight first and then work on muscle?

Question

Ok, I hope you can give me a real answer. I'm 6'2 250lb, I'd really ike to be 6'2 200 lbs. But I'm not fat just got that guy to work off. And you know I wanna bulk up and tone, but I'm not sure if I shoul dlose weight first. I've been doing areobics for about 20-30 min to warm up before my workout, then I do either lower body or upper body, followed by some cooling down aerobics. I do this 5 days a week. Everything I've read either focuses on either losing weight or gaining muscle mass. It doenst look like i can do both at once. I mean Im trying to lose fat why would I want to go on a 3000+ calorie diet? I'm trying to make two weeks of alternationg meal plans, but until I understand what I should be doing to reach my goal, I cant realy do that. Help.

^got that gut to work out.

OK BUT -- youre missing the point. How am i suppose to put my diet to do both. For muscle gain you have to increase calories, for weight loss you have to decrease calories.. *confused*

30% body fat. = (

Ive been working out for 3 weeks and I've ganied 4 lbs! = ( but I'm not eating crapola

Oh thanks for the helpful feedback. Really. I appreciate it.!

Answer 1

Your goal is difficult but not impossible. How I understand your question is that you want to get rid of fat, then build on more muscle mass and size! First, you have to make a choice, and that is do you want allot of muscles covered by unnecessary fat; or do you just want to be bulky and have fat? You can not do both at the same time.

In your case, the best technique is to get rid of the fat first. This does not mean you should stop lifting weights, it means that:

1. All of your exercises should be 3 Sets of 12 - 15 reps.
2. Decrease your calorie intake to 2,000 to 1,800 during the fat loss period.
3. Aerobics less than 40 minutes do very little.
4. Low carbs and a very high protein diet.

After the desired fat is gone (6 to 8 weeks) then you will build lean muscle mass:

1. Heavy weight training 4 Sets of 10/8/8/6 Reps with same weight. By keeping a heavy weight and lowering the reps, your will build lean muscles.

2. Slowly increase your calorie intake. From 1,800 to 2,200 for about 4 weeks; then 2,600 to 3,200 for another 4 weeks. Insure all food has less than 8% fat, and high in protein value. No carbs after 4 p.m. in the afternoon.

3. Increase weight every 3 to 4 weeks.

4. Go to a Mon/Wed/Fri weight lifting schedule and Tue/Thr should be cardio day intensive!

5. Don't forget the abs and waist after each workout.

Answer 2

do not listen to any bullshit. u re completely right - u can't lose weight and tone muscles at the same time. i have been doing this bodybuilding stuff for 6 years so i know what im talking about. first u have to lose weight. and stay with that lost weight for some time (if u lose weight today it doesn't mean u lost it forever, maybe u just didn't eat enough this particular day). so after your weight becomes stable for a few weeks then u start building up muscles. by doing cardio and weight lifting at the same time u might only tone your muscles which means the ones u already have will be little bit more visible. if u want to build muscles u do weight loss and building absolutely separately. good luck
ps. and about muscles burning fat - it is such a bull'''''****. do those people who re saying this even know what they re talking about? nothing burns anything except hard prolonged physical work. muscle burn such an insignificant amount of energy which can't even be taken into consideration

Answer 3

If you truly want to lose weight and gain muscle, that will be difficult unless you have a large % of fat.

Burn more calories than you take in. Do 30-45 min of moderate aerobic work a day. This will burn your fat.

Then lift heavy weights using 3 sets of 3. This will build muscle and muscle will in turn burn more fat. You may not actually lose weight but you will decrease your fat % and look and feel better.

Answer 4

I would loose the weight first and then tone up after. Obviously when you exercise to get the weight off you will build some muscle but I think you are talking about more serious muscle building. Although muscle does burn fat, if you want to thin down a bit I wouldn't recommend having the high calorie diet you will have when you are trying to build more muscle.

Answer 5

You already have the extra body fat for muscle gain. You do not need to go onto a 3000 calorie diet to gain muscle mass. Eat healthy and work out. You WILL gain muscle mass. As muscle also burns more calories, you will lose weight at the same time.

Answer 6

Muscle actually weighs more than fat. Diet is extremely important. If you diet too much, your body starts drawing on muscle. Eat portions that compose the three food groups, i.e. carbs, small meat portion, and as much veggies as you can. Then, instead of sitting on the couch or at your computer, take a 15 to 30 minute walk around the neighbourhood, It will help in getting your body to digest the food, exercise your heart and you might even find that it will help your peace of mind. You will sleep better. Reduce the workouts to every third day and increase the number of times that you do each exercise each time that you work out. This regimine worked for me. I am 5'2". I weighed 165 lbs one year ago. I am down to 128 lbs and about as fit as I was at 17. Just turned 48 years of age. It was a long haul; but, I was determined. I obtained a lot of my state of mind during my walks. Think positive. Envision what you want to look like. You can do it. But, be realistic. Be proud that you did the workouts, that you resisted that temptation of food most of time (but treat yourself once in a while--life is short), and pat yourself on the back when you start to feel better about yourself (or get a compliment).

Answer 7

Just keep up the strength training and improve the foods you eat. Call it a longterm plan and stick with it. Unless you're a chronic overeater or you don't stick with the weight training, you will eventually drop down to 200.

Start with a fat analysis, preferably in water. That way when you reassess in one year and you weigh between 200 and 250 you'll know whether you failed or if you succeeded, but didn't hit your goal because of muscle gain. Muscle weighs more than fat. Well, a pound is still a pound, but I think you know what I mean.

Don't worry about the calories, just worry about the quality of what you eat and the amount.

Answer 8

It has already been answered. The fitforlife answer is 100% correct. If you don't follow that plan, all your going to do is build big bulky muscles with allot of fat around them! A little advice, a 16 inch bicep without fat looks allot bigger and is much healthier than a 20 inch bicep with fat around it! Free advice from a Master Fitness Trainer awesome!

Answer 9

if you wanna do both at the same time, just eat more protein and exercise (DONT WEIGHT LIFT: this increases muscle) stick to aerobics. Just a thought....wrestlers have lots of muscle right? in the off season they tend to get fatter....then they pick a program like i mentioned to get rid of the excess weight, and then they start weight lifting to re-tone their bodies.....i say, gain muscle, then loose weight...the more muscle you have the faster you burn fat. hope this helps!

Answer 10

You should do weight training along with your cardio. Muscles burns fat even while you sleep. So the more muscle you have the more fat you burn even when your not working out.