Q&A for: 3-Aug-06
1708. Q:
I’m male, 6 foot 2 inches, 13 stone 4 pounds and a little way over 30. What I would like to know is how many calories a day I need roughly. I exercise every day a mixture of weight training(3 times a week) and cardio(the other 4 days). I would therefore describe myself as fairly active and fairly fit. I reckon I eat about 2000 calories a day and have done so for a long time and maintained a constant weight. I have been trying to lose body fat and seem to be losing a pound or so a week at the moment. I cannot eat less than what I eat daily because I feel hungry and faint, however I wonder if I should be eating more to make me more energetic – I sometimes feel a little tired. The thing is I do not want gain weight and I want to keep losing bodyfat(I’m at around 17% at the minute). I would like to be at my natural weight and do feel that many people – probably including me – weigh what they do because their bodies have got used to either receiving too little food or in western countries too much food so that either they maintain (using exercise)a slight physique or a beefy one.
A:
At your height, weight, age, and activity level you should certainly be eating a lot more than just 2000 calories per day! You're completely right that what happens is your body eventually 'gets used' to whatever calorie level (as long as it's not completely ridiculously low or high) and maintains constant weight at that level.
So your goal should be to slowly ramp our calories and shake your metabolism out of its slumber. You should be capable to maintain your present weight at around 3000 calories daily and you should be losing weight with 2500-2700 calories daily or possibly even higher.
Read my nutrition article if you haven't already to learn the basics of good nutrition, then structure your diet accordingly maintaining about the same total calories as you're eating now (2000 daily). Then for the next several weeks increase the total calories by 100-200 per week till you get to eating around 3000 calories daily. You should be able to accomplish this with little or no new fat gain (your actual weight might go up a bit because more food means more 'water weight' retained in your system -- but remember it's not actual fat!)
Once you're at 3000 or so you should feel much more energetic. If you notice that you got to 3000 and haven't gained any fat, then by all means keep increasing it even more! When you finally decide to stop increasing calories stay at whatever calorie level you end up at for a few weeks. Then cut calories by about 500 and and stay at that level to lose both weight and fat.
So to summarize... Start at 2000 with healthy diet -> slowly increase by 100-200 calories per week till you're at 3000+ -> cut 500 calories and stay at that level losing weight.
1709. Q:
Mike, from reading your articles I have found that it is difficult to gain muscle mass AND lose fat with one program. I am currently doing a modified version of your push/pull 4 day workout, with about 10-15 min of HIIT training every other day. The part that seems hard is to do enough cardio to burn fat, but not too much that you are burning muscle too. Another hard part I find is eating enough to keep the muscles rebuilding, but not too much that I am gaining unwanted weight. I know there isn't one perfect answer, but some good suggestions would be a great help.
A:
Unofortunately it simply comes down to the fact that you would make fastest progress by sacrificing one or the other -- gaining muscle or burning fat. If you're a beginner and are starting in subpar shape, then you'll be able to accomplish both simultaneously for awhile. But if you're in already pretty decent shape, then you'd do best to bite the bullet and focus on one or the other.
Go on a bulking diet for a few months to gain some weight and muscle. By eating healthy and making sure your weight gain is as slow as possible you'll minimize new fat gains, though you'd be unlikely to avoid them completely. Once you've gained, say, 10 pounds of mostly muscle, switch gears to a cutting diet and slowly lose some weight, perhaps down to your original weight. The net result of it all will be the gain of couple of pounds of muscle and the loss of couple of pounds of fat in the span of 6-8 months. It may seem like slow progress -- and it is -- but that's the most efficient approach for most people who are already in good shape. Hope that helps.
1710. Q:
I currently have about 2 inches of 'pinchable' fat around my stomach as well as other areas and am hoping to cut it without sacrificing too much muscle. How frequently should a person be switching from weight training to fat loss (cardio) training? Is it sufficient to switch every week? Every month? And how long should I fat burn before going back to the weights?
A:
I definitely feel that you should stay in the bulking mode for a couple of months and gain at least 4-5 pounds. You have to give your body time to rev up its metabolism and go into muscle-building. When cutting you might be able to lose 4-5 pounds in a single month. But switching back and forth at much shorter intervals that that will likely amount to no progress at all.
Personally I'd just go by the My-pants-don't-fit indicator for stopping the bulk and by I-stopped-losing-weight-even-though-I'm-not-eating-much-at-all indicator for stopping the cut.
1711. Q:
You had mentioned in question 64 that one should focus on the compound exercises and leave ones like the bicep curl for dessert. The way I look at it is that on my 'pull' days, most of my exercises work my biceps, so I like to do bicep curls first. That way, when I move onto other exercises like pulldowns I feel like I am working other muscles more and my biceps less. Any input?
A:
I wouldn't recommend doing that. Another basic rule, to go along with 'focus on compound exercises', is: do compound exercises first! By doing biceps first you're tiring yourself out and preventing yourself from giving the maximum effort on those important compound exercises.
Because, as you mentioned, all those pull exercises will actually work your biceps anyway it's not crazy to drop dedicated bicep work altogether! Most people wouldn't like that and doing some direct bicep work won't hurt and might help. But keep it towards the end of the workout. I definitely would not do the curls first ahead of all the compound exercises.
|
