Losing Fat Not Muscle

Concerned with LOSING WEIGHT but NOT MUSCLE…

Through medical supervision I’ve been placed on a Low Cal Liquid only regime in order to loose weight.

I’m currently 273lbs and at 5.9" I would like to weigh between 190 - 210 lbs.

The meal replacement program I’m on consists of

600 calories a day
75 g protein
50 g carb
Omega 3’s

QUESTION: Keeping the calories low should I exchange the meal replacement with a higher protien/lower carb ratio…with carbs as low as under 30 or 20 grams daily?

It sounds to me like a) you’re morbidly obese and b) you’re under a doctor’s supervision.

How 'bout you listen to your doctor before you die of a heart attack or have your legs amputated from diabetes-related complications.

Ignore that Twerp.

If the doctor feels that you need to lose weight so badly as to go on a liquid diet than you should probably follow his advice.

But if it were me, I’d go ketogenic or try the Velocity diet. Shit, the V-diet is pretty much the same thing as your liquid replacement regime but with a helluva lot more protein. You’ve got to preserve muscle no matter what your state is. That’s not going to happen on a 600 cal, 75g protein diet.

What’re your workouts looking like?

[quote]unheatedgarage wrote:
Ignore that Twerp.
[/quote]

Yes. Please ignore me and the guy who has 30% bodyfat and admits he can’t stick to a diet. Instead, listen to your doctor. Anyone who tells you otherwise is ignorant and irresponsible.

How much muscle do you really have? Have you been lifting consistently for the last few years? More than likely once you get down to a certian target weight you will be able to just worry about getting muscle from then on out.

This is might be kinda long, but I hope to be of some assistance to your situation. I am a 32 y/o firefighter, 5’10", worked with weights for over 20 yrs, and I USED to weigh 255# not too long ago. Earlier this year my physician asked if I could lose 20#. According to him, all my bloodwork numbers were excellent except for my blood sugar. He suggested that a reduction in bodyweight would improve those numbers. I think he put it best when he massaged my ego and something to the effect:

“I am sure you have got more strength than most of the guys you work with, and to do your job (firefighter), but I think you can do better and more by sparing some of that strength by losing 20lbs.”

So in 2 months I dropped 40# of total bodyweight. It has been over 2 months since that loss, as I fluctuate between 215# and 220#.

What is your deep motivation? I am young and have 2 keiki. Call it Dave Tate-ish if you want, but I want to be able to work with kids as they grow and not suffer any of the crap that I witness as emergency personnel.

I’m cutting this short by posting some major points to dropping the excess fat and getting into some good habits to prevent this from happening again. The information/ideas used is as follows:

  1. Precision Nutrition/Grappler’s Nutrition Guide: The 7/10 Habits. Nuff said.

  2. Dr Berardi’s concept of G-Flux. Went from 3 hrs a week of cumulative activity to an average of 8-10 hours of activity. Exercise and NEPA. Find and do what you can in regards to your personal physique and performance goals.

  3. Sleep. Nights out at the bar with the boys or staying up late skimming over iPorn, I mean training articles on the computer doesn’t lead to a better body or health. hahaha

  4. Find competition to test your change. Be it team sport, individual sport, a water, road, or obstacle race. Something. I got my job, my kids, and some rugby field just waiting for me to step on and start learning how to play the darn sport. lol

  5. Check your blood sugar first thing upon waking, and every 2 hours after your meals. I don’t know of any other immediate way other than by glucometer. Have your physician prescribe one to you to absorb the costs.

This is just a guide I implemented to get my ass charging forward. A bit of denial of the situation got me pissed off enough to do most of this stuff. Gotta be pissed about something.

Train smarter. Know what and when to increase and back off. Tweak your nutrition as to how your body expresses itself. Simple, but hard. The compliments come, but sometimes it’s hard to accept when there’s other things in mind than looking good.

This friggin website is turning into an infomercial.

Christ.

To the OP- listen to and follow your doctor’s advice. If you don’t agree with your doctor tell him so you can discuss ways to make adjustments as necessary.

I do agree that 600 cals a day is drastic, but it’s likely he’ll up the calories as you move toward your target weight.

[quote]eengrms76 wrote:
This friggin website is turning into an infomercial.

Christ.

To the OP- listen to and follow your doctor’s advice. If you don’t agree with your doctor tell him so you can discuss ways to make adjustments as necessary.

I do agree that 600 cals a day is drastic, but it’s likely he’ll up the calories as you move toward your target weight.[/quote]

If his doctor put him on a restricted calorie diet like that, it is a given THAT THERE ARE HUGE MEDICAL REASONS FOR DOING IT. Considering the average poster on this site does not look like a bodybuilder at all, you can pretty much bet that our friend here is 270+lbs of pure excess body fat at only 5’9".

I do agree that anyone telling him to ignore his doctor is a dumbass. Apparently, dumbassery is falling on this site like rain.

[quote]eengrms76 wrote:
This friggin website is turning into an infomercial.[/quote]

There is this major urge by people who do not look like they lift weights to give advice. It’s annoying.

You can always spot the idiots in threads like these. No one with a clue would say anything other than, “Follow your doctor’s advice.” So, in a sense, threads like these draw out the idiots. I wish there were an “ignore” feature, so I could just add everyone who responded with “advice.”

[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:
eengrms76 wrote:
This friggin website is turning into an infomercial.

There is this major urge by people who do not look like they lift weights to give advice. It’s annoying.

You can always spot the idiots in threads like these. No one with a clue would say anything other than, “Follow your doctor’s advice.” So, in a sense, threads like these draw out the idiots. I wish there were an “ignore” feature, so I could just add everyone who responded with “advice.”[/quote]

I am in awe that someone called you a “twerp” for telling him to follow his doctor’s advice. To then go into some spiel about the V-Diet just tells me that ignorance has flown to heights never before seen on this site before.

I would bet that 98% of the people even concerned about “The V-Diet” should be the last ones who need to be using it.

Allright allright, fair enough guys.

CaliforniaLaw’s advice was sound no doubt. I just let his mean-spirited tone piss me off.

For the record, I basically said the same thing, albeit in a nicer way. I never advised anyone to not follow their doctor’s instructions. The dude was asking for opinions and I gave mine.

'Nuff said.

[quote]unheatedgarage wrote:

CaliforniaLaw’s advice was sound no doubt. I just let his mean-spirited tone piss me off.

'Nuff said.
[/quote]

Mean spirited tone? I don’t get it.

No offense, but why would someone with over 30% bf. be giving out dieting advice?

[quote]unheatedgarage wrote:
Ignore that Twerp.

If the doctor feels that you need to lose weight so badly as to go on a liquid diet than you should probably follow his advice.

But if it were me, I’d go ketogenic or try the Velocity diet. Shit, the V-diet is pretty much the same thing as your liquid replacement regime but with a helluva lot more protein. You’ve got to preserve muscle no matter what your state is. That’s not going to happen on a 600 cal, 75g protein diet.

What’re your workouts looking like?
[/quote]

i would go with california law on this one. listen to your doctor.

[quote]Coldiron wrote:
unheatedgarage wrote:

CaliforniaLaw’s advice was sound no doubt. I just let his mean-spirited tone piss me off.

'Nuff said.

Mean spirited tone? I don’t get it.

No offense, but why would someone with over 30% bf. be giving out dieting advice?
[/quote]

isn’t that obese?

[quote]texasguy wrote:

isn’t that obese?[/quote]

Yeah! But, maybe not if asking Rosie O’Donnell.

[quote]Coldiron wrote:
texasguy wrote:

isn’t that obese?

Yeah! But, maybe not if asking Rosie O’Donnell.[/quote]

at least in matters of health we still have absolutes. i do wonder how long that will last though.

i can see people being offended at the point where obesity begins and lobbying to have it increased until they are thin.

i can also see politicians supporting the lobbyists and condemning medical practioners until they change the numbers so the politicians can win more voters.

sad.

[quote]Coldiron wrote:
unheatedgarage wrote:

CaliforniaLaw’s advice was sound no doubt. I just let his mean-spirited tone piss me off.

'Nuff said.

Mean spirited tone? I don’t get it.

No offense, but why would someone with over 30% bf. be giving out dieting advice?
[/quote]

I am mean because I do not believe everyone is equally qualified to dispense advice. I call people out for giving ill-informed (if not dangerous!) advice. Someone needs to get a rope to hang me from.

What shocked me was that same fellow posted in a recent thread that he could not stick to any diet. How can someone who can’t even stick to a diet think himself qualified to contradict a doctor’s orders?

I realize this is the Internet and all… But shouldn’t people show at least a little discretion? Or do we live in a world not only free of shame, but also of common sense and discretion?

What’s really scary is that people will ask a bunch of anonymous words on a computer screen what they should do about grave medical issues, especially in this day and age where you could stumble over some clown just articulate and devious enough to convince you to kill yourself just for kicks.

Anyone who would ask things like this online is not the greatest candidate for sound discrimination to begin with. No offense, but what else is one to conclude?

There’s no way even a fully qualified professional would or could presume to advise someone on a web forum even if he had his files in front of him nevermind with info like “I’m really overweight, should I do this”

What are we supposed to tell him?

[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:
It sounds to me like a) you’re morbidly obese and b) you’re under a doctor’s supervision.

How 'bout you listen to your doctor before you die of a heart attack or have your legs amputated from diabetes-related complications.[/quote]

You’re correct CaliforniaLaw. Still, you sound like a total jerk.

P.S: I hate you. =P

[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
What’s really scary is that people will ask a bunch of anonymous words on a computer screen what they should do about grave medical issues, especially in this day and age where you could stumble over some clown just articulate and devious enough to convince you to kill yourself just for kicks.

Anyone who would ask things like this online is not the greatest candidate for sound discrimination to begin with. No offense, but what else is one to conclude?

There’s no way even a fully qualified professional would or could presume to advise someone on a web forum even if he had his files in front of him nevermind with info like “I’m really overweight, should I do this”

What are we supposed to tell him?[/quote]

It’s worse than those guys trying to diagnose muscle imbalances off of posed photos in the picture forum…from all of their extensive medical training…that they got from reading articles.