question about gaining muscle, losing fat

[ck2006]

New to this all and really been wondering.... my trainer said I have to build some muscle for my bodybuilding competition. I understand that but I am very curious as too how this all takes place. Will I be burning fat at the same time or is that at the end when I go on the strict diet? Everybody is saying that I am going to gain huge amounts of weight...not that they have ever competed.
My trainer told me the most I will gain right now should be about 5 pounds and for the competition she said I will be around 105, competing in light weight. The reason I ask is I am 139 and 5'5 with 24% body fat. Will I be able to start seeing definition or will I still have the fat around the muscle? Don't laugh to hard at my question, be nice, this is all new to me, ha ha.
Thanks

 

[Sassy69]

Holy shit. 105 at 5'5"? I'm 5'7" and I have always competed between 130 & 139 around 7-8%. I'm gonna just guess here - if this is your first BB competition - you maybe don't have a really solid muscle base yet? So you'll have to dump some bodyfat just to get "started" - optimally you want ot be around 16-18% at 16 weeks out. If you are at the part of prep (further out than 16 weeks I hope) where you are focused on building muscle mass you won't necesarily be gettign "fatter" - but rather your ratio of muscle to fat will increase - for that you should see a drop in the bodyfat measure. The bodyfat part will start to look "better" because of the muscle increase. People forget that that measure of bodyfat isn't all "fat" - you can increase your muscle, maybe not do that much w/ the fat part and make the fat you have look a lot better because it isnt' just hanging on your bones (e.g. marathon runners, skinnyfat women). During your 'bulking' phase you are probably goign to eat more to support the muscle building - you will be amazed at your strength increases when you eat to build muscle. Here the goal may be not so much to lose bodyfat as to build muscle.

Some people, when they first start training (in general) can get some of the build muscle + burn fat at the same time, but generally these are two seperate processes dependign on how you are eating. If you cut your protein intake to lower and your carbs to lower levels, you simply won't have the fuel & muscle building components to really grow.

Another aspect you are probably dealing w/ is that when you say you are going to compete in BB, people outside the sport immediately assume you are going to get all jacked up and look like Ronnie Coleman. My mom said the same thign - "OMG DONT GET BIG!!!!" And then I lost 30 lbs. ONly at the top national & pro levels are you goign to see that crazy size increase.

As you start cutting you will definitely see more shape to your muscles - this can be a really slow process (ref: Aries13's recent journal entries) but as you get down to the last 2-4 week you should see mindblowing amazing ripped-up cutting results!

 

[treilin]

New to this all and really been wondering.... my trainer said I have to build some muscle for my bodybuilding competition. I understand that but I am very curious as too how this all takes place. Will I be burning fat at the same time or is that at the end when I go on the strict diet? Everybody is saying that I am going to gain huge amounts of weight...not that they have ever competed.
My trainer told me the most I will gain right now should be about 5 pounds and for the competition she said I will be around 105, competing in light weight. The reason I ask is I am 139 and 5'5 with 24% body fat. Will I be able to start seeing definition or will I still have the fat around the muscle? Don't laugh to hard at my question, be nice, this is all new to me, ha ha.
Thanks

I am with Sassy on this! 105 POUND?!? I'm 5'7" also and NOWAYYYYyy My trainer guess's I'll be coming in around 125 for my comp at 10% Don't let her numbers freak you out. It's not about how much weight necessarily you will lose, but how much body fat that you need to take off in order to make your 'individual' shape look good on you!

 

[Miss24k]

She wants you at 105 and you're 5'5 for a bodybuilding comp??? That is about my weight at competition and I'm only 5ft tall.

When is your show?

Sassy always has the best advice!

 

[ck2006]

My show is in November, yeah, I kinda laughed when she said 105.

I read Aries log last night to get a sense of things, it really helped.

As for the bodyfat, yup gotta shed mostly on the thighs and stomach (three kids) I hope the lose skin will go, otherwise their is always duct tape I can use to tape it to the behind to give it more cushion, ha ha. I lost 20 pounds on my own. You can start seeing muscle on my legs but their is still a lot of fat that needs to be worked off. Same with my tummy I have lines down the sides but a big pouch still. My upper body isn't bad, just needs to get a litte bigger. So I guess you could say I am one of those (skinnyfat chicks with a little muscle) I don't care how much I weigh if I only have 16-18% bodyfat.

Can and do you stay at that level after competition?

Thank you Sassy, Trellin for the info, I always read your threads for information!

 

[Sassy69]

Just keep plugging away at it.

You don't maintain competition bodyfat & weight levels after competition tho - the whole process is about getting your body to look a certain way at a certain time of day on your target competition day. You will probably rebound back to around 15+% bf as long as you ease very slowly back into a normal diet. That's why I posted up that sticky of me w/ Arnold & the night before competition - that's a 12% bf & 25 lb difference. But dont' get upset about it - you diet down to extreme small and have to expect to rebound to a more doable level. Its just the way it is. you don't have to get fat again but don't expect to maintain the look you have on stage.

 

[ck2006]

As long as I am below 20% after the competition I am good with that! thanks for the info. Just got my nutrition today, protein and carbs and supplement away!

 

[Sassy69]

The biggest thing I can tell you is dont' set yourself up for this massive post show pig out. Go ahead and eat what you want the next day, but generally watch your water intake - since I'm assuming you are doing a water depletion, don't bomb yourself w/ water - you will blow up so fast your legs will feel like water balloons. Don't eat a pile of stuff you haven't eaten in a long time - again - you will blow up -- I'm talking like 15 - 30 lb of water weight so fast you won't know what hit. Just take it very easy coming back into a normal diet that firist week post show. Take a week or two off if you need to - I had trouble NOT training after my show - its such an empty, anti-climactical feeling after all the months of tight focus to have nothign to do. Not heavy training, but just keepign the schedule. And then as you go just keep your diet relatively clean. Its no fun goign back to higher bodyfat. If you can, also dont' just stop training - I sort of ended up doing that due to extenuating circumstance around my trainer & my job. But just as I've mentioned before, just keep the extremes to minimum - keep an even keel & moderation in everything and you will keep your gains from the show and not just go back to where you started. You won't be as lean as on show day because that part of the prep is NOT meant to be maintainable. But outside of the general rebound bloat, you should be able to stay around 18% easily.

 

[ck2006]

thank you for the info, sooooo very helpful, eat sleep and dream about it with so many questions, and I am finally relaxing knowing all of this. Next question, I just bought glutamin (spelling is off) anyway, does it really work? and when should I take my whey protein shakes during the day?