lose fat vs. gain muscle
 

I have read that a person is unable to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time. Why? Thus, if my goal is lose fat should I just be doing cardio and no strength training? At the present time, I am doing both. Angie

Angie, it's generally accepted that you can't do both at the same time, with the following exception: Newbies to weight lifting can make impressive loses in fat and equally impressive gains in lean mass, simultaneously.

Why is it that the rest of us can't? It's all in the food you eat. Any fat loss or muscle gaining plan will be 20-30% the exercise and 70-60% the food you eat. You eat very differently for each objective. To gain mass you need to eat more calories than you burn, there needs to be a surplus. To burn fat you need to create a deficit between what you eat and what you burn on a daily basis. The two goals don't jive; unless, of course, you're new to this. THen all bets are off.

The window of opportunity lasts a few months, possibly a year, FYI.

If your goal is fat loss, then I'd suggest you pick up the weights - cardio is great for creating a caloric deficit and for working your heart, but it is nothing when compared to weight lifting when you're talking about burning fat. Resistance exercise helps build active lean tissue, which will burn fat for you even when you're sitting watching TV (or sitting on the computer ;) ). While you may notice the scale doesn't dip down as quickly as it did before you began lifting, you will notice that you're dropping sizes a lot faster.

HTH
Nat

There are only 2 other ways to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time that I know of for people who have been working out/exercising past the "newbie" stage. The first being to use anabolic steroids, which I am NOT condoning and do NOT recommend. The second, being a very strict CKD. I have been lifting for approximately 7 years nd I still seem to gain muscle and lose fat on a strict CKD. It won't be a lot of muscle gains and fat loss all at the same time, but it is possible little by little to do both.

On a side note: I would also say a strict TKD, but I have yet to try one so I cannot say for sure.

Sporto

Thanks for replys. Another question, if I stay in Ketosis, will I lose fat and keep/gain muscle if I weight train? I read about the CKT diet and I'm not sure about it. Angie

I too am interested in this topic. I have been going to Ladies Workout Express (similar to Curves) since July. I go 5 days a week and spend 1 and 1/2 hours there per day. I eat between 1300 and 1900 calories a day -- averaging 1700. I keep my carbs at 20 most days and rarely go up to 30. I also walk my dogs every day for at least 30 minutes up and down hills.

So is it possible that I am gaining muscle ... which would explain why I am not loosing weight?

Thanks for any information.

Karen