Losing fat / Cutting

Secret_Window

Secret_Window

Secret_Window

Soldato
Joined
10 Aug 2006
Posts
5,207
For the past few months I have been doing some weights, some cardio and eating a strict diet. By strict I mean no junk at all - no fizzy drinks, cakes, chocolate, sweets, crisps, doughnuts, chips etc. I've replaced all the junk with lean protein meats like chicken and fish, and my carbs such as chips etc with new potatos and my thirst for sugar through fruit.

I weigh in at around 165lbs and I'm 5'10" in height.

My meal plan is 6 small meals per day every 2-3 hours.

The problem is, although I can see and feel I have gained some muscle, I've gain more fat round the mid-section as well - I had fat there before. I took someones advice and applied some cardio to my workouts in the hope the fat would gradually fall off, but it hasn't. It's so frustrating, trying to figure out what will work. I've been ploughing through the net trying to find answers and tried a few things for a couple of weeks just to see if they would work. I don't expect big results, just small ones will do. But at this point in time, I'm not getting any in regards to losing fat. I can feel my abs through the fat on my stomach, but I can't see them. :(

I hope you guys can point me in the right direction. ;)
 
If you could be more precise about your routine etc that would help in terms of receiving a correct response.
 
try fitday.com to log the foods you eat. greater control over what goes in your mouth = results. There's no secret to cutting down the fat, it sounds like you've been doing fantastic so far anyway. In terms of cutting it really is all about diet, no denying it. Make sure you're eating at your maintenence or below it. The way i see it theres 2 ways to do things:

1) Reduce your daily intake from maintenence of above it to 500kcals below that level, slowly bringing it down, not a sudden jump from 3000kcals to 2000. Keep on with your weights and monitor closely. If you're losing a little bit, great, keep at it, slow and steady is a lot better than sudden loss as its likely to include some muscle which is much harder to build than to lose fat.

2) Eat at maintence of slightly below and use additional work to shred more fat. This way there's less risk to muscle but you still chip away at the fat reserves.

I prefer a hybrid of the two, eating 250kcals or so below maintenence and using more and more cardio when fat loss has stalled or invest in a new supplement, trying different training methods. fat loss can be stubborn but anyone can lose fat if they desire to, its just about attitude, consistency and intensity.

Good luck dude
 
In general but not always, men will simply find losing adipose fat stores very difficult, they are often the last to go and the hardest to shift. Adipose tissue has alpha 2 receptors in that severly limit the lipolysis of adipose tissue. In english, adipose fat stores(stomach, man boobs mostly) essentially resist the body trying to use the fat for energy which is a pain.

Alpha 2 receptor blockers do work, lots of top body builders losing the last few pounds use them, (Yohimbine creams mostly) and they do make the fat more available. Then some people have high to very high estrogen levels due to adipose fat essentially generating estradiols which is the main estrogen hormone in humans(you need it in males too) but estrogen is also something that helps the body resist losing fat. If you really want you could get to the doc's and ask them for blood tests on hormone levels, there are estrogen blockers which combined with a alpha 2 receptor blocker can significantly increase the rate at which you lose adipose tissue. But taking an estrogen blocker, without knowing you have a high estrogen level is retarded. Though there are two levels of estrogen blockers, and an anti aromatase inhibitor is safer as it functions to bind the inbetween chemicals that adipose tissues create before they turn into estrogen where as an estrogen blocker will flat out try and bind to estrogen which is rather more dangerous- you need estrogen to live.

ANyway, the end of the day, adipose stores always will be the hardest to shift, the last to go, the most obvious sign that you're overweight, the motivational killing part of any diet is getting rid of it. The message is, don't get disheartened over lack of inch lose around the waist/chest everyone has the same issue, try and measure your weight lose by keeping an eye on BF% and things like the size of thigh, ankle's neck, bicep as those should change much more obviously when losing weight.

Other tips, your body tends to make the chemicals your body uses to produce ATP from fat(energy out of fat) at a maintainance level, supplementing those can help burn more fat as sometimes you simply run out of the required ingredients to burn fat when your body wants to, Co10 enyzme, l-carnitine, WATER WATER WATER and more WATER :p all good, fairly damn cheap and effective and very safe.

Remember that as you lose weight, your body gets use to it, exercise is one way to keep it up, but if you hit a wall, do silly amount of cardio for a week while eating MORE food, get your body used to burning a little more fuel again then get back to lower calories, the hardest thing is your body getting used to the amount of fuel it gets.

Depending on what you like to eat ketosis diets work pretty damn well, or there are many takes on it, essentially keeping carbs as low as possible and fat's much higher, fats are far healthier for you than carbs, the more fat you burn the better your body is at burning fat, the easier it will use body fat basically. Lots of people stick to a ketogenic diet but sink a load of carbs pre/post workouts so you have energy for them, or have some carbs in the morning but try to keep away from carbs in evening meals. Carb up days every 3-4 days or every week or two work for some people.
The other plus point being, carbs don't fill you up much, and protein and fat do, dramatically more so, they stunt hunger and are both required by the body. The downside is, there are some days I have so little in the way of appetite that eating every few hours becomes a chore and its hard to get food down.
 
You don't need any supplements or any tricks just hard work - it'll happen but it'll take time.

I'd give some HIIT a go first thing in the morning if you can, and keep up your regular weight lifting program. The fat just won't fall off, but it will reduce in time. Fat deposits around the love handles is a result of insulin, below the belly button is mainly cortisol and thigs/arse/moobs are good ol favourite of oestrogen imbalance believe it or not - though that mainly applies to women ofc.
 
Thanks, some really interesting replies. Looks like I've got to be a bit harder and more intense on myself to get the results. I currently don't use any supplements.

For those who asked what my workout routine is this (borrowed/stolen from other people and slightly modified to suit my schedule but there you go :p):

Monday:
Chest -
Bench Press: 5x 8-12
Bench Flies 5x 8-12
Incline Press 5x 8-12

Triceps -
Dumbbell kickbacks 5x 8-12
Dumbbell One arm Triceps extension 5x 8-12
Barbell Lying Triceps extension 5x 8-12
Triceps dip 1x 15

Cardio -
Running
Exercise bike
Star jumps

Abs -
Crunches until failure

Wednesday:
Back -
Pull-ups until failure
Barbell pull-over 3x 8-12 (I'm extremely weak doing this so only 3 sets for now)
dumbbell bent-over row 5x 8-12
barbell bent-over row 5x 8-12
barbell shrug 5x 8-12

biceps-
dumbbell one-arm curls 5x 8-12
barbell curls 5x 8-12
dumbbell concentration curls 5x 8-12

Cardio -
Exercise Bike
Star jumps
Running

Abs-
Crunches until failure

Friday:
Legs -
Dumbbell lunges 5x 8-12
Dumbbell squats 5x 8-12
barbell squats 3x 8-12
leg curls 5x 8-12

Calves -
one leg standing calf raises 5x 12
both leg standing calf raises 5x 12

Shoulders -
Seated dumbbell presses 5x 8-12
arnold press 5x 8-12
one arm lateral raies 5x 8-12
one arm upright row 5x 8-12

Abs -
crunches until failure

Saturday:
Cardio -
Star jumps
Running
Exercise bike
 
5*8-12 reps?
You will be in the gym ages unless you cut the rest times down a lot.

try 3x10-12.
 
99% of what you have put is 8-12 reps :p

5 is too much, you arent using enough weight if you are getting 5 sets with that many reps :p

A few other things:

*seated DB press AND arnold presses?? 1 or the other will be fine.
*bench flies - drop and add dips instead
*way too many tricep exercises. they get worked a lot during chest, if you can do all you have written down then you are not working the chest enough.
for tris: CGBP, skullcrushers / vbar(or rope) pushdowns
*abs - crunches till failure? do weighted ab work and keep to the same rep range as other exercises.
*pullups to failure? if you are doing more than 10 then add weight so that you can only do 10.
*BB pullover - forget it
*BB shrugs - shrugs are generally done during shoulders. if you want to do * no deadlifts or other lower back work: deadlifts / power cleans or similar should be done, especially as you are working the abs a lot it seems.
Back: deadlift/power(or hang) cleans, chins/pullups, bent over rows, tbars.
*biceps - you havent worked the back enough if you can do all that bicep work after a good back session. do more intense back session, it will work the bi's a lot, then you will only need a few sets of bi specific exercises.
*legs - no ham work. lunges/squats = good. no need to do both DB and BB squats. get some SLDLs / RDLs or ham curls added.
*lat raises and upright rows? both work same area. you have no shoulder exercises working the rear delts.

Ok, a bit more than i thought! :p

Day 1: Chest and Bis
dips
incline DB
decline BB
BB / EZ curls
db hammer curls

Day 2: Back and tri's
deadlift / powercleans
chins/pullups
BB bent over row
tbar row / seated cable row / DB rows
CGBP
skullcrushers (ez bar) / vbar pushdowns

Day 3: shoulders and legs
BB squats
RDLs / SLDLs
Lunges
calf raises
hang clean 2 push press / BB press
upright row / lat raises
rear lat raises
shrugs

add abs as you see fit.
 
thanks morba, glad you could help.

It's usually 2/3x 12 reps and then for the last 2/3 8 reps.

My routine is mostly taken from various places and just thrown together. The reason for some exercises are done twice for the same area is because I do warm up sets, also the reason for the 5x sets on others. 3x like you have already mentioned are the heavy ones - first two are just to get me going. Sounds strange, I know, but it definitely helps my form.

You are right about the hamstrings I totally forgot about those, and I forgot to put my forearm exercises to the list - the hammer curls are a great ones like you already mentioned.

The crunches are done until failure, based on how tired I am from all the other exercises. Typically I do around 100 or so. Plus I don't think weighted ab work is a good idea at the moment when I have a bulge of fat over the top, it will just make that bulge bigger. :p

Do you think I should keep cardio after my weights or should I move it before or maybe even a seperate day?

Thanks
 
a couple of warmup sets for the whole muscle group is a good thing, but not for each specific exercise ;]

you wont suddenly grow massive abs by doing weighted crunches, that will come from your diet ;]

if you are doing 100 then you are doing it for cardio rather than anything else. you will not lose more fat around the belly just because you do lots of crunches ;]
 
Secret_Window said:
yeah I know I won't lose fat around my belly from doing crunches (that would be pointless), but it can help tone my stomach somewhat, and build lower back strength.
Click to expand...

Do you do fresh air shoulder press? Body weight squats? Why treat your abs any differently?
 
I do body weight squats recently in the evening at home. position myself as if im going to do a front squat then just squat away. Building up to 50, will then start doing something for single leg body weight squats :D
 
Morba said:
I do body weight squats recently in the evening at home. position myself as if im going to do a front squat then just squat away. Building up to 50, will then start doing something for single leg body weight squats :D
Click to expand...

With the greatest of respect, your body weight is slightly more than the "average" ;)
 
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