I’m 20 years old and I’m a Sophomore in College. I have been very into lifting and dieting for about 18 months. I eat six meals a day and try to balance protein and carbs. However, I am in college and, although I never really go on an eating binge, I do have 2-3 nights a week where I eat (and especially drink) more than I should be. Although it’s not pizza or anything of that nature (I still manage to stay pretty disciplined), I’m still drinking a lot of beer (light) and eating late. My goal is to get pretty cut.
When I went home for the summer I saw how quickly I was able to shed the extra pounds. Now, it’s only been about 2 months back and I can already tell I’m putting on unwanted body fat even though I’m training and trying to eat the same way. First off, Is it time I focused on cardio and aerobics for a while to try to shed the pounds? (I’m at 13% body fat now, up from 11.5% this summer) If so, will I start to lose muscle mass if I stop lifting for a while? Secondly, I’ve been working out in overdrive as I try to make up for the amount of “bad” things I am taking in so I haven’t taken more than a day off in between workouts for about 2.5 months. How long should I take off before I start trying to shed the pounds?
How about not drinking so much? One beer every couple of nights isn’t going to do much damage, but if you’re having more than 3 or so at a sitting, you’re shooting yourself in the foot, then trying to fix it by rubbing your neck with aloe vera.
Other than that, try using the Tabata method in addition to 3 days a week of normal training. It’ll keep fat gain at bay pretty well, though you’re not going to stop it completely.
[quote]Michael Anspach wrote:
I’m 20 years old and I’m a Sophomore in College. I have been very into lifting and dieting for about 18 months. I eat six meals a day and try to balance protein and carbs. However, I am in college and, although I never really go on an eating binge, I do have 2-3 nights a week where I eat (and especially drink) more than I should be. Although it’s not pizza or anything of that nature (I still manage to stay pretty disciplined), I’m still drinking a lot of beer (light) and eating late. My goal is to get pretty cut.
When I went home for the summer I saw how quickly I was able to shed the extra pounds. Now, it’s only been about 2 months back and I can already tell I’m putting on unwanted body fat even though I’m training and trying to eat the same way. First off, Is it time I focused on cardio and aerobics for a while to try to shed the pounds? (I’m at 13% body fat now, up from 11.5% this summer) If so, will I start to lose muscle mass if I stop lifting for a while? Secondly, I’ve been working out in overdrive as I try to make up for the amount of “bad” things I am taking in so I haven’t taken more than a day off in between workouts for about 2.5 months. How long should I take off before I start trying to shed the pounds?[/quote]
Ehh I hate when people post asking for advice about dieting but actually don’t list their weight along with their body fat…ahh well here we go anyways…
So what your basically saying is you wanna stop lifting weights so you can use that time to do cardio? From reading your post thats what it seems that your suggesting. Lemme tell ya…if I had to choose between the two I’d stop drinking before I’d stop lifting. If indeed the drinking is the only thing that standing in your way then I guess ya got to choose. Do I want to drink or do I wanna have the physique I work so hard for day in and day out.
Have you ever thought about just lowering your overall calorie intake like 200-300 cals a day if your trying to get cut? Do you keep a food log? Do you know approximately how many calories your intaking daily? How much cardio a week do you do now?
The thing is is that you say “Its not anything bad like pizza.” I mean is 1000 calories in pizza any worse than 1000 calories in Bud Light? The thing is that no one is gonna tell ya that ya got to stop drinking. hell I go out atleast once a week and get a lil sauced but I use it as part of my cheat ritual. On the other hand going out 3 times a week and getting plastered really isn’t eating clean consistently.
The bottom line is that if you stop weight training and start doing cardio instead for any substantial amount of time you?re going to lose muscle. Especially if your dieting to lose that fat.