Losing weight while maintaining mass..

[freediver]

I will tell you what has worked for me personally. I have lost over 40 pounds over the past 6 months but i have been looking for that something to increase my muscle mass and strength. My diet consists primarily of Tuna Fish. I am sure many would frown on supplements being used but I have had phenomenal success with Nano-Vapor and Methyl 1-D XL. I am currently 6'5" & 220 lbs. Strangely though, after being on these supplements for a three week period I am still at 220 lbs but have made great gains in muscle mass. I see this visually but also see that I have lost 5% body fat in that period! I have seen benefit from the use of these supplements.

[Mtrewyn]

Belly fat is the hardest to loose, I'm pretty solid but still have a little left around the middle, I have always had a issues with this, the only thing that has ever worked for me was to really , I mean REALLY, watch your diet, cut out all extra fat, eat well balanced small meals 5-6 times a day, every 2-3 hrs, and keep my work outs the same, and I still have problems.

Some people just carry the weight there.

[highdesert]

An easy tip I heard about diet change (away from simple carbs) is to avoid everthing made from flour. Sure, I know you can argue about exceptions, but in general, it's a pretty simple rule.

[Ash0r]

It looks like you already have a bunch of great suggestions...My only piece of advice is this...Make sure and change up your cardio once in awile. The human body adapts very well and if you continually use the same movement for your cardio day after day, you will begin to burn less calories from it. Find new ways to stress your body.

[Mtrewyn]

Originally Posted by Ash0r

It looks like you already have a bunch of great suggestions...My only piece of advice is this...Make sure and change up your cardio once in awile. The human body adapts very well and if you continually use the same movement for your cardio day after day, you will begin to burn less calories from it. Find new ways to stress your body.

That is very true, it takes a little while but it does happen.

I think that is one reason interval training works so well!

[Scubastud16]

I love going to the gym. It's a great stress relief, and I love the way I look. Muscle training does very little for cardio though, so my way to motivate myself to run is to run to the gym and back. I get my heart rate up, and I lift, all in one session!

Avoiding carbs is another way to lose that type of fat. The problem with that is, you will notice a definitive lack of energy. My father is on the Atkins diet, and it has done wonders for him. It's a lifestyle change though, it's not 6-months and done unfortunately.

Danny

[Mtrewyn]

Ive seen a couple people wined up in the hospital, by eliminating one type of food from their diet, fat, carbs or what ever, the big one was the carbs, she went around 3 months with little or no carbs, than one day pow, she had a breath mint and down she went, two days in for shock, she was fine but every one was standing around going "What happened", so I'm very leary of cutting any one type of food out of my diet, cut it back, or down to very little, yes, but not out, that just does not feel right.

[Iceman]

Good point!

The most successful people I've known have been those who looked on food and exercise as a life style.

The goal is to be healthy and vital 30 years from now; not just lose weight today.

Life Style; Not Diet. Quality; Not Quantity

[Scubastud16]

Originally Posted by Mtrewyn

Ive seen a couple people wined up in the hospital, by eliminating one type of food from their diet, fat, carbs or what ever, the big one was the carbs, she went around 3 months with little or no carbs, than one day pow, she had a breath mint and down she went, two days in for shock, she was fine but every one was standing around going "What happened", so I'm very leary of cutting any one type of food out of my diet, cut it back, or down to very little, yes, but not out, that just does not feel right.

Well the key to Atkins is a small amount of carbs. When you start, you go down next to none, and slowly work the number back up.

[cmufieldhockey8]

Don't be discouraged by losing 1-2 pounds a week.. thats exactly the pace you should be losing it. You're not supposed to shoot to lose more then 10 percent of your body weight in 6 months too.

As far as your diet goes, anything eaten in excess is stored as fat.. excess carbs and excess protein becomes the same thing - fat! Now you can eat a whole lot more carrots and feel full without consuming so many calories consumed then you would eating Twinkies, but they're still both carbs. Veges are just more nutritiously dense. If you aim for eating the high fiber stuff that'll keep you eating healthy and nutritiously dense foods.

Another thing that is HUGE in losing weight is taking how much you would eat in a day and breaking it down into 6 small meals. The more often you eat the more consistent you keep your glycogen levels which keeps your metabolism up so when you eat you store less food as fat. I've got a handout (geared toward athletes) that explains a lot of good basic stuff about how the body reacts to what you eat when you eating/don't eat and how that all effects how you lose or gain weight.