Losing weight while maintaining mass..

[LiteHedded]

my understanding is that while you're in a calorie deficit (to lose weight) you're going to lose some muscle mass as well.
but that weight training minimizes it

[cyclone]

Repetition...if you wanted to keep mass and loose weight. This is my kind of exercise. I like long extreme exercise, I always run 15 to 20 miles a day. Long quality work out. Then my sports are rock climbing and mountain hiking. Think of this, if you work out in many repetition and don't get tired then your resistance is high. Then if you can make a lot of repetition, long endurance plus resistance, you'll be able to keep the mass and loose weight. I refer mass as number of fibers in your muscle. Lean, trimmed and no or little fat.

[dludwig]

Maybe I'm having a hard time losing weight because subconciously I'm afraid of messing up my buoyancy

[mlsm72]

If you want to maintain mass and burn fat for 48 hours after your actual exercise, try HIIT(high intensity interval training) I personally do the sprint cycles(30 sec jog, 30 sec sprint) Do this from 4-7 minutes, 3 times a week or every other day and watch your washboard appear. I didnt want the muscle atrophy that comes with prolonged cardio bouts, so I stumbled across this and it works. I am 6', 240 lbs, and maintain this regimen. Another benefit for divers is increase VO2 peak, my air efficiency is incredible. My friends think I have gills....

[dludwig]

I have looked at HIIT programs unfortunately my knees won't allow sprinting anymore & barely allow the jogging portion. I am trying to adapt the technique to the Eliptical machine but haven't seen the results you do.

[namabiru]

You may be very well losing mass, but you're just not seeing it.

Here's a couple of things to keep in mind.

We put on weight in a certain order. First the belly, then the hips, then I believe your derrier, and your face last.

Okay, so you know how you can tell if someone has gained weight if their face looks chunkier? That means they truly have, since that's the last place it starts showing.

So. When you start taking off, unfortunately, you go in the opposite order. Your belly, as you see, is first to gain, last to lose. So it may be your face, arms, etc are shrinking, but the weight loss isn't hitting your midsection yet. It sucks, I know.

You might also try taking vitamin B each day. This is supposed to help increase metabolism.

Oh yes. And keeping a food diary, as anal as that sounds, does help you. While you might be mentally keeping track of what you eat, it still helps to be accountable for everything you eat.

A good strategy for money problems, incidentally. Write down every little cent you spend in a notebook and attribute it to a set budget.

[mlsm72]

I understand about the knees, they sure arent happy with me sprinting. I went to a running store and had them set me up with shoes for my specific physiological running traits. They seem to help quite a bit, but still have to ice and wrap all the time. I guess there is a positive and negative to it...