what can i do?

[2fat]

i've been training for about 2 years, and had decent strength gains. but i have never wanted to do cardio(surprise). i am now trying to lose weight and have since started cardio. i get on treadmill and have worked up to about 1.8 miles in 20 minutes. when i first started the weight was dropping off good but has recently stopped and i have actually gained 2lbs. i have been very good with my diet and keeping up the training. this is very disappointing to me. i have gear deca,sust,winny and was trying to lose fat before i use it. i have also been taking xenadrine to help the metabolism. my stats are 5'7 I'll bout 19% bf I want to get down to like 210-215 before gear any suggestions to get me over this hill or should I start the gear now? by the way I started at 250lbs in June.

sorry bout the long first post but I been reading this board for a while and searching the web. this looked like the best site I've seen. any help would be appreciated

 

[gymtime]

First of all, I'd say not to get frustrated about a couple of pounds. If you're working out consistently, it's not unusual to gain or lose up to five lbs in one day. That's normal.

My suggestion is to keep doing what you're doing. Keep up the cardio and stay on the diet and workout until you get to 14-15% before you start on the gear. If you've only been doing the cardio for a couple months, you will lose more if you keep it up so don't quit!

 

[fhg43]

2fat-

Sounds like you are going down the right path. I would hit the cardio hard before your hit the gear. That way you'll be pretty lean before you start the gear and you can reduce cardio. This will help keep your muscle gains. Here is a good strategy:

Find something to do like cycling, walking (hey it burns cals), running inside or out, or swimming. Shoot for 5 hours a week. If you have a heart rate monitor stay in 65-75% of your max HR (~130-160bpm) or a pace that is quick, but allows you to carry on a conversation w/someone. This is the fat burning zone-if you can't talk you are going too hard and burning more carbs (general rule of thumb). When exercising at lower intensities your body will burn fat because fat has lots of stored energy (1g of fat=9 cals, 1gm of carb=4 cals), but you need some carbs to initiate that fatburning process. As your exertion levels increase and you need energy faster, your body shifts to easier-to-burn carbs. However it stills burns some fat. Carbs=easier to burn, but less energy. Fat=hard to burn, but more energy.

Don't go on a low carb diet. Stay around 50-60% carbs, but take in a lot of protein, like 30-35%. This will help keep muscle. You need carbs for cardio. Your body will use carbs to burn fat or if you are putting out a lot of effort it will just burn carbs and a small amount of fat. Also don't drastically restrict your calories. If you starve yourself you tend to loose water, catabolize muscle, and pack on fat. Your bod will go into survival mode and store fat while burning off all availible glucose and it will start to burn protein (muscle). Protein is hard to burn and only has 4 cals/energy per gram, but your body would rather burn muscle and save fat for later in extreme cases.

Count your calories. Create a 500cal/day deficit, i.e. if you expend 5000cals (Basal Metabolic Rate + cals burned by exercise) consume 4500cals. A pound of fat is 3500cals. 500cals/day deficit x 7 days = 3500cals or 1 pound of fat. This is a conservative schedule. You could loose 2 pounds a week safely.

You can loose more, but unless you take DNP (or a similar mitochondrial uncoupler) it won't be fat. T3 would work, but you should try and loose most of your BF with cardio first. Pharmaceuticals will be most effective on taking off those last few pounds-save them for later (also you need to handle DNP and T3 carefully-save'em for those special occasions). Actually you could incorporate ECA; it will help with fat loss and appetite suppression. Crash diets usually lead to water weight loss and muscle catabolism. Low carb diets work if you really dial them in and know your body, but they will leave you drained for cardio and you can loose more fat with diligent cardio.

Hope this gives you some more detailed info. You can email me if you want more detailed info. This stuff is all pretty general. I always have to loose BF and conserve muscle in my offseason training. I haven't tried any supps (other than ECA) and can usually get below 8% easily. I'm pretty lean and do TONS of cardio for triathlon, but I also need lots of muscle. Good luck.

FHG

 

[GenetiKing]

Excellent advice and a good post, fhg.

The only thing I might add would be to stay mentally tough. Losing fat is a tough battle but the rewards are incredibly sweet and reaped only by yourself. Few things in life are as beatifully simple. You are the master of your own destiny and the choices you make are yours. Grab the reigns and take control. A life that is dictated by weak human constraints isn't worth living. Best of luck...

 

[bigmag]

I'm not sure if any one else suggestsed this but try doing some other form of cardio....I completely understand how running can get old after a while.....I used to run 2-3 miles a day and I was sick of it so I tried the stationary bike, and now I'm addicted to it. make sure your heart rate is not over 70% of the max. anything higher and your body goes into an anearobic state which means you'll either be burning muscle or building it. you can figure figure it out by this little equation:
(220-(your age))*.7

that will be your target heart rate in beats per minute.

 

[AMP 33]

i lost 10 lbs in 3 months and it was all fat, I also kept all my muscle. The things i did was cardio 4 times a week about 45 min each and diet a little. The 2 lbs. you said you gained could have been excess water weight not fat.

 

[bignate73]

an anearobic state which means you'll either be burning muscle or building it.

when in an anaerobic state, youre generally not building much of anything. stimulating, maybe, building comes when at rest or low load.

i know what you mean, but others my misconstrue it to thinking they will grow faster that way. gotta watch out for the newbies. ya get some crazy theories sometimes.

 

[sysopt]

Use variation in your cardio workout too. I believe the body can eventually adapt to cardio exercises and learn to become more efficient and in other words mean you're burning less calories. Try every type of cardio machine in the gym and try jumproping too.

 

[bigmag]

when in an anaerobic state, youre generally not building much of anything. stimulating, maybe, building comes when at rest or low load.

i know what you mean, but others my misconstrue it to thinking they will grow faster that way. gotta watch out for the newbies. ya get some crazy theories sometimes.

that's a good point....then general idea of what my point is that you shouldn't exceed your target heart rate (70%). When you do you'll be tearing down muscle.