When I get "into" something, I like to read about it and research it. That's where I'm at right now with fat loss/lean muscle gain.
I've been researching IIFYM, clean eating, how to most effectively gain muscle, how to burn fat, etc. I think I'm in a state of information overload right now. Just for fun, here are a few sentences that I've read in the past few days that stand out to me:
Remember, your body is really smart and it wont burn muscle unless you do something really stupid like running 3000 miles or doing a drastic fad diet.
Drawbacks of Cardio for Muscle Building
- Burns calories that could be used for muscle growth
- “Over-training”
Cardio is good for your heart, your mental outlook and controlling your weight, but it can interfere with muscle growth if you're burning more calories that you're taking in.
4. Do INTENSE Cardiovascular Workouts 3-4 Times A Week.
Make sure that you are eating enough calories to enable you to make those improvements and show up better next time you step on stage. Though you might put on a little (note I said a little) body fat, the body fat will come off once you diet down for your next show.
As you can see, there's a plethora of information out there on the lovely interwebs to do one of two things: either motivate, educate, and encourage me to be better, or confuse the living heck out of me.
Lately, it's doing the latter.
I have enough common sense, and have my own opinions about eating. From all the reading ahd research I've been doing over the last few months, I think I'm going to work on meeting my macros from iifym with as much clean and healthy food as possible, and making sure I'm consuming enough of that food to sustain healthy muscle growth. (In the past, I haven't eaten nearly enough calories in a day as I should have been eating. That's a whole other blog post for another day.) I'm going to lift heavy, and cut cardio down to 4 days a week (right now, I do 6). I'm going to continue to drink my gallon of water a day, and give a better effort to not letting it all go to crap on the weekends, which I tend to do.
I feel like if I start doing all that stuff, I'm going to have the muscle tone I want and lose enough of the fat to let that tone show through by the time summer 2014 arrives!
What about you? Do you lift heavy?
What kind of split do you do?
I'm currently doing a 5-day split.
How much cardio do you do each week?
So I have lost 10 lbs in the last 3 months because of CrossFit. No change in diet just doing the intense workouts they provide. I'm almost down to my HS weight and that is crazy to me!
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome, Kendra! I've heard great things about CrossFit. I'm focusing on actually starting to eat MORE calories, which is a hard thing for me to wrap my head around after having cut so many in the last couple years. But I got down to below my high school weight this past summer. Insane. Now I'm working on gaining and toning. :)
DeleteHello! I found your fitness blog through your family blog. I am a runner and am slowly trying to get in weights and other type of working out. My husband is encouraging me to do it because it will help me lose the weight I want to. I have plateaued my weight loss with running. I know that diet is a big part of it so I am trying to focus on that as well. Anyway I was shown BodyRockTv on Facebook. If you "like" them they show up in your newsfeed and give you workouts to do. They are are Hiit. There is even a phone app so you can look them up on your phone. I really do not like working out (expect for running although I grumble when the alarm goes off at 5am) but you are right, you feel so much better about life afterwards! Thanks!!
ReplyDeleteHi Stephanie,
ReplyDeleteI'm just wondering your weekly exercise routine? I'm always looking for new ideas, diets, and supplements that are working for people! I'm trying new things and figuring out what I like and don't like. I'm just about to do a post on my blog of "post wedding chub challenge".. me and my husband our doing a friendly competition. He worked at a nutrition store so we have a stockpile of multiple thermogenics, branch amino acids, protein powders, etc. Just seeing what you like, when you take it, and your exercise regimen :) Have a great day!
Hi Stephanie,
ReplyDeleteI'm in the same boat as you and every since last March have been super confused on what my diet and workouts should. From what I've read for the most part you want to have 1 main goal in mind. Either loose some weight or gain some muscle. Once you reach 1 goal then go for the other and cycle back and forth. I myself have tried to do both loose weight and gain muscle. At first this was fairly easy for me since I was overweight and didn't have much muscle. Now 9 months later I'm finding that I'm not seeing the results in either area trying to do both. So my new plan is drop a few pounds by being slightly calorie deficient all while eating plenty of protein and Amino Acids in order to not loose muscle in the process. Once I reach that goal I'm going to try and eat so that I'm slightly in excess of calories and start lifting more weights, in hopes of packing on some lean muscle. We'll see how this goes...
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