Re: Gaining muscle but not losing fat
gaining muscle is a good thing, since it burns more calories than fat! but like others have said, you can't lose fat and gain muscle at the same time. do you know that you're not losing fat? are you measuring your fat and muscle weight?
here's what i would suggest so you can accurately assess your diet and exercise. first, buy a set of fat calipers or a scale that will measure your body fat%. from this, calculate your lean body mass (LBM). this is really easy to do with some simple math. if you weigh 200 lbs and you measured your body fat as 30%, your fat weight is: 200(0.35)=70lbs. the other 130 lbs (200-70) is your LBM.
each week, measure your body fat % and calculate your fat lbs and LBM, then compare them to the values you go the week before. ideally, you want to keep or increase LBM while losing fat. since you can't lose fat and increase LBM at the same time, work on losing fat first by following these suggestions depending on the changes in your LBM and lbs of fat:
if there is no change in LBM or body fat, increase your cardio LEVEL (don't workout longer, but workout harder), and decrease your calories by 100-200.
if LBM is the same, but body fat increases you're eating too many calories. therefore, you should increase the frequency and duration of cardio and decrease caloric intake by 100-200.
if LBM and body fat decrease, you will see a reduction in weight on the scale, but you're losing muscle! you want to eat 100-200 calories more so you don't lose more LBM in the next week. try to make these calories lean proteins. remember, more muscle actually increases your metabolism since it burns calories just by being there.
if LBM increases but your body fat stays the same, you're just gaining muscle. to lose more fat in the following week, increase your cardio.
lastly, if your LBM is the same and your body fat decreases, you're doing something right for your body. don't change your workout/eating habits as you're successfully losing fat without losing any muscle.
in the end, you'll probably end up eating more calories than you thought in order to keep a lean body, which is great. you don't want to kill your metabolism by working out too much and eating too little in your quest to lose weight. in most healthy, naturally thin people, you'll notice that they can eat a lot and stay thin without being in the gym for hours a day. with these suggestions, you should be able to achieve similar results. good luck!
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