TLBaller

Im sure this topic has been beaten to death but I have worked out for a few years now. I gradually got big but being big only looks impressive with a tight shirt on. Being big is one thing but having a defined arm, ripped abs, and such is what I want. I can't explain it but you get the idea.

What I'm thinking to solve this problem is to decrease my body fat, is this right?? How do you stay big while loosing body fat?? I drank muscle milk and got big off of that mainly b/c its high in carbs. I cut back and have used ON 100% Whey Protein and now I don't get big anymore compared to when I was drinking Muscle Milk.

Doc.Booty

You have it right - lower bodfat == better definition. It's all covered in the stickies. In short, eat less, lift hard, eat lots of protein.

TLBaller

eat less, lift hard, eat lots of protein can't be done if i want to stay big and be cut, am i wrong?

FastAcura

So you wanna be like a bodybuilder? Keep lifting for the next 10 years and consume lots of protein.

Otherwise, follow Abreece's advice. Stay big and "be cut" is kind of an oxymoron. Are you big and cut now, or are you just big? Sounds like you gotta get rid of some unwanted weight, so again, follow Abreece's advice.

Doc.Booty

You are. You're on the right track with being worried about losing muscle mass. However it's perfectly possible to keep all of it while losing bodyfat.

Read the stickies for more info

PixelHarmony

Diet, diet, diet... You don't even need all the supplements. Just eat smart, eat right. If you read any men's health or fitness magazine on how to be fit, strong, healthy... it's about the diet first. they'll tell you what to eat too for someone with your BMI.

Once you can eat right a right blalance of intense cardio fitness and conditioning exercises must be in place for you to maintain your "cutness"

I guess it's not that helpful in directly answering your question, but just read up on it.

cM3go

lots of cardio to burn the fat, and lifting to maintain the muscle

Doc.Booty

Beware of most fitness magazines (and especially Men's Health). I see a lot of myths and innacuracies printed in them.

No need for cardio. In fact lots of cardio can lead to burning muscle. Lots of lifting is correct though.

phinthesky

dont eat breakfast, eat salad for lunch, no dressing. then eat some steamed veggies and chicken breast for dinner. Do this for 3 months, only drink water.
Do cardio for 45 - 1 hour a day.
That is how I did it.

phinthesky

drinking black coffee helps too.

FastAcura

Please sticky this. This is the worst advice ever!

It's not how much you eat, but what you eat and when you eat it. Skipping breakfast, and eating barely 2 meals a day might get you there, but it's not healthy. Plus he's trying to maintani the muscle, not just lose fat. Eating just salad and a chicken breast a day will not get him where he wants to be.

Doc.Booty

It is both. You can't lose weight (weight in general, not specifically fat) without eating less than your body uses. What you eat and when is important for keeping your muscle mass.



3 squares a day is fine. Lots of people preach the 6 meals a day thing because it'll increase your metabolism. That effect is greatly overrated. It's more helpful for keeping yourself feel full - although this can vary from person to person - than it is for helping you burn more calories.

TLBaller

this is so confusing. So I should do more cardio (i do cardio once or twice a week but not intense) but not too much cardio b/c that will decrease my muscle mass?

So bottom line is moderate cardio and lift heavier weights?

Doc.Booty

The bottom bottom line is eat less than your body burns. That is very doable without cardio. A little won't hurt, but excessive amounts can.

Get lots of protein and keep the weights heavy (none of that 20 rep per set bullshit) to prevent muscle loss.

cM3go

I still think cardio will get him there quicker... true that weight lifting is best, but cardio will catalyze the process, lifting will maintain or increase his muscle size, he won't lose that much doing cardio

RMATIC09

Diet, and lifting.
Too much cardio will make you lose weight fast. The faster you lose it, more chance you have of burning muscle.

The key is to gradually cut down. bump the cardio up more then what you have, but not to crazy, lift hard and heavy to maintain your musclemass, and make sure you have enough protein intake.

Do not starve yourself just becuase you are Cutting.

Also, change up what you eat compared to what your used to. If you notice theres some things in your diet that you woudlent normally eat while trying to get "cut" , then substitute it with something healthier.

Even small changes like that make all the difference!

TLBaller

thank you all for your input! If I choose to do cardio, when should I do it? I lift 3 days a week (I work on all of my body in 1 day). On my off days when I don't hit the weights, should I do cardio? Should I do cardio AFTER weights? I heard doing it before will prevent me from getting big and at the same time, i get thinner.. As I said, I want to be big or "maintain" my size while loosing body fat percentage.

I read in men's fitness about on how to get "cut" and stay big without steroids or suppliments and they said to eat stuff high in fiber and cut back on sweets. Give me examples of what is high in fiber (besides cereal and granola bars).

Doc.Booty

Do cardio whenever you want. I prefer it on days i'm not lifting weights, and if you're really exerting yourself in the gym, you will too That "do it after lifting to keep from getting big" is bullshit. It's not voodoo: eat more than you burn you get bigger, eat less than you burn you get smaller. Lift big weights while eating big to gain muscle, lift big weights while eating small to keep muscle. You can't add muscle and lose fat unless you're getting the noobie gains, or using steroids.

99.9999% of what has been published in men's fitness is junk, or close enough to being junk that it doesn't matter.

You've got to stay below the total number of calories your body burns in a day to lose fat. You've only got so much room for food in there. You need to keep protein intake high to help keep your muscle mass. That only leaves so much room in your diet for anything else. You can eat 2000 calories in snickers bars and still feel hungry. Some good lean chicken and wild rice might make you feel full after just 500 calories.

Count calories and figure out what you can and cannot eat yourself, it's not that hard, and very much worth it.

Legendman

Really? please explain this.. I've never heard of that.

waTSX

^^^The idea is that, since caffeine is a stimulant, ingesting it boosts your metabolism, thereby resulting in more calories spent.

massr1

Lifting heavy weights with low reps is going to bulk you up, and thats not what you want.

Eat less calories than you burn in a day, about 500 less.

Do high repetition (10-12) exercises, with lighter than normal weight. You want to bring the weight down very slowly on each rep (when the muscle relaxes) and bring it up fairly quickly (when the muscle contracts). You will feel an extreme burning sensation, and this is what you want.

If you want, get a thermogenic supplement, I recommend Lipo 6 its one of the best. Im on it now with ephedra and it works quite well.

Doc.Booty

FUCKING CHRIST, NO IT WILL NOT!

A solid suggestion.

I wouldn't consider 10 or 12 a high number of reps. Anything over 12 would be, IMO.

Quick on the up, slow on the down is the way to do it - no cheating and letting the weight just fall, you're wasting your time if you do that. In general that holds true no matter what you're trying to do (gain weight, lose weight, whatever).

I recommend ephedra only after you get your diet squared away. It can be very helpful if you use it properly, but always be aware of the health risks.

massr1

I'm going by what my friend has told me; he's a kenisiology major student and a very dedicated fitness guru. But again, different things work for different people. What's important to note is that you should be using lighter weight only because it will allow you to sustain longer reps. If you use really heavyweight, chances are you will barely make 8 reps, especially if you are using proper form and going down slow on each rep. Each set should feel relatively easy at the beginning, and you should be really feeling the burn near the end of the set, but not to a point of failure.

Doc.Booty

That is a horrible, horrible myth that is perpetuated everywhere in the fitness community, and i have no idea why.

There's nothing wrong with only making 8 reps. In fact, many people i know shoot to max out at just 5.

massr1

I don't know where your're getting your info from, but I have to say you are wrong on this one. I'm going to try to explain this scientifically.

When you weight train, the muscle produces very tiny tears in the fibre. The more weight you use, the larger the tears. These tears cause protein synthesis to occur here, and the levels of testosterone and growth hormone increase. So if you are doing low reps and high weight, your're going to grow more muscle. This is good if you are looking to put on mass, but not so good if you want to tone. Fast twitch muscles are used in this technique; they are powerful but fatigue quickly.

When doing high rep low weight, the muscle is in an endurance mode, and the slow twitch muscles become active. They are not as powerful as fast twitch, but can sustain the long duration of this technique because they are able to fatigue slower. The tears are much smaller in the muscle fibres. This technique will give the definition, without the bulk.

A good clear example to show the differences, is too compare a marathon runner to a sprinter. Look at the legs. The sprinter has large powerful legs mostly made up of fast twitch muscle fibres, that allow him to run extremely fast in a very short distance and in a short period of time. The marathon runner has more defined legs that are less bulky mostly made up slow twitch muscle fibres, that allow him to run a slower pace in a very long distance and for a long period of time.

So to break it down,

MASS: High Weight, Low Rep

DEFINITION/TONE: Low weight, High Rep

When I say low weight I don't mean use 50 lbs. less than what you normally use. Just enough to sustain the 10-12 reps.

SpeedyV6

But wouldn't you say the sprinter is typically the more "cut" of the two? Sure they have more muscle mass or "bulk" but they have superior muscle definition because they are lean and have larger muscles.

Adam_Schwartz

Geez, if you want to get cut, eat super clean, eat 6-7 times a day and do lots of cardio. Lifting high weight/low rep or low weight/high reps is going to be lower on the totem pole than diet and cardio are. Just my take.

And on a side note, I hate the word "tone". What does that truly mean? Either you are lean or not, have defintion or don't. Tone merely implies more definition, which means being leaner. I am being totally serious, I never know what to think when I see the word "tone"

Adam_Schwartz

I'd say the sprinter is more "cut" because they have different muscle mass than the marathon runner than really creates more muscle separation, such as between the bis and tri or the delt heads. Both are lean, but are built for different sports. As lean as a marathon runner may be, they'd never be in a bodybuilding content because they lack the mass, which is a major part of being "cut".

massr1

All good points here; I can't say for sure which would be better for muscle definition, but i'm sticking to what I said only because of real world results I've seen. My main argument is however that low rep high weight exercises will put on much more muscle mass, and I think many of us agree on this.

Adam_Schwartz

I don't disagree with what you stated about low rep/high weight vs high weight/low rep - that all makes sense to me. The former is for adding mass and the latter for endurance, generally speaking.

I think the problem is that we are trying to give advice on getting "cut", which could mean 10 things to 10 people. For instance, is someone who is malnurished and has little body fat considered "cut"? Probably not. When I hear someone say they want to be cut, I assume they want to be lean and have good muscle mass to allow for good muscle separation.

massr1

i agree

massr1

I've been thinking really hard about this, and after reading some other articles, i've changed my stance on this topic. High weight low reps with proper form is the way to go, and reducing the body fat is what's gonna give the definition. Period.

Adam_Schwartz

I have read that mixing in some low weight/high rep sets is not a bad idea, just for the sake of keeping your body from adapting to the 6-10 reps/set program. One issue that *can* arise when doing high rep sets is that one's form may begin to deteriorate toward the end of the set, which is when injuries occur. I generally won't do more than 12 reps/set for most lifts, with abs and calves being the main exceptions.

virtualbong

If it hasn't been said...one line...one address... www.bodybuilding.com

Adam_Schwartz

Regardless of what articles someone reads, they are going to learn much more by doing, recording information and making necessary variations to improve. One thing I see very little of in the gym is people writing down their workouts. How can you possible remember everything, such as changes in lifting order, set/rep combos and other factors?? Fitness is about knowing yourself and what works for YOU, which requires keeping a log.

There is never ONE best way to do anything when it comes to fitness. But of course, that site has tons of great info.

massr1

bodybuildin.com has a lot of useful info, however many of the articles are contradicting

Adam_Schwartz

Probably because you have Person A saying something works great because THEY saw results and then Person B says they saw results using a completely different system. That's why I again say it's more important for people to start with keeping it simple and write down what they do and slowly incorporate more sophisticated techniques as they plateau. People would be amazed at the gains they could make just doing squats, bench, deadlifts, etc and eating well, rather than worrying about crazy rep/set combos or what supps to take.

Doc.Booty

Eg-fuckin-zactly.