Training & Nutrition - Lose fat, gain muscle, lose weight... all at the same time?

Is it possible? The big guys at the gym say you have to eat to gain. I know you have to eat carbs to lose fat. Low carbing it makes you lose muscle along with weight so that's out.

In early January I was 154 and 19% according to my Tanita.

Last few days I've been consistently 151 and 18% according to my Tanita.

So if my Tanita is correct, I used to be 154 with 29.26 lbs of fat.

Now I'm 151 with 27.18 lbs of fat.

That means I've lost 2.08 lbs of fat and .92 lbs of... what? Muscle? Bone? Brain?

Is it possible? The big guys at the gym say you have to eat to gain. I know you have to eat carbs to lose fat. Low carbing it makes you lose muscle along with weight so that's out.

In early January I was 154 and 19% according to my Tanita.

Last few days I've been consistently 151 and 18% according to my Tanita.

So if my Tanita is correct, I used to be 154 with 29.26 lbs of fat.

Now I'm 151 with 27.18 lbs of fat.

That means I've lost 2.08 lbs of fat and .92 lbs of... what? Muscle? Bone? Brain?
you are so far over analyzing it :D let us assume your Tanita Bonita is NOT accurate. the margin of error on bioimpedence far excedes that 0.92 pounds of brain matter you might have lost.

keep up the good work!

to answer your question...yes it is very much possible.

Muscle. It is really nearly impossible lose fat, and build muscle at the same time. You need to be constantly walking the knifes edge, calorically. Also keep in mind that those Tanita scales are really inaccurate, and not very reliable. If you want to add a lot of muscle, you need to really lift, and eat like a horse, all the while adding a lot of fatweight. Then you cut down the fat while trying to keep as much muscle as possible.
How tall are you?

I swear some days I obsess too much. On some days that Tanita is the best $50 I ever spent, on others...

I'm 5' 6" tall. Lately my workouts have been almost all pure intervals, XC skiing not biking. Doing natural intervals which take me to Level 4 and sometimes L5 for a few seconds for up to a minute and then settling down to L2-3 for a minute or so, with a few extended L3+/L4- periods thrown in, about 3-4 mins at a time.

pretty much the only time this is possible is the so called "honeymoon" stage of training. If you've been sedentary your entire life, and start working out hard, lifting hard, eating a lot, then yes, you can lose fat and gain muscle and lose weight at the same time. Once you've become fairly well conditioned however, that goes out the window and you have to decide which goal you want to work for.

It's possible, but you have to monitor your workouts and food carefully. The highest weight-loss I've been able to achieve without losing muscle is 1-lb/week. This is with a 500-calorie deficit per day and I make sure I eat right after a workout.

Gaining muscle has been a secondary goal to losing fat. But I can gain muscle by just thinking about it, so I'll just do 1-2 weight workouts a week in the gym and that's enough to put on about 3-5 lbs of muscle over the winter. I'm moving into sprints & intervals on the bike now, so there's another 1-2 lbs of muscle coming on.

How does water weight figure into this equation? I was at a steady fit weight of 167.5 till I broke my hand 4 months ago. I completely vegged out for the next 6 weeks--didn't do a damn thing but watch DVDs, hang with my girl (at home), and go to the doctor. Stayed in the house 80% of the time. Ate a lot of nighttime snacks and ramped up my regular meals bigtime. Just pigged out.

So 2.5 mo. ago, cast removed, I was at 174lb. Got back on the bike, started back with my kayak training 1.5 to 2.5 hrs a day, 5 to 6 days a week. Intervals once a week. Cut way back in my caloric intake, and split lunch into 3 carbo oriented snacks as opposed to the usual big fat 'n grease fest. I am leaner now than I have been in a long time. Weighed myself a few days ago--162.5 to 164lb.

How can you tell what is lost, and what is gained?

I swear some days I obsess too much. On some days that Tanita is the best $50 I ever spent, on others...


tanita's can be fun, but don't take them too seriously. if you really want better measurements, locate the Exercise Science/ kinesiology Dept at your local university and inquire about body fat analysis that they might offer. it would be money going to a good cause. they might have a plethysmography means of measurement. DEXA is the best, but have fun trying to get that.

then, however far down the road, get retested. but don't Tanitalyze yourself daily

boy, that phrase nike uses 'just do it' has never rung more true than right now.

Get really anal; use your bathtub and measure water displacement. Eureka, Eureka!

- i'm on the two-year plan: building muscle and losing weight (along with slowly incorporating diet change) to the tune of 1-2 lbs. per month...

- and at 11 months i'm on track!

:-)