Hi,

Another thread made me wonder about this. I've been focused on loosing weight, but now that I'm down to about 20% to 23% bf I'm wondering if I should be focusing more on gaining muscle.

I have gained muscle while loosing fat in my first three months of working out. But now I think that may be coming to an end. So what should I do, work at gaining muscle, or loosing fat?

Okay, first I've got to tell you, the thought of intentionally gaining any fat even if muscle comes with it is abhorrent to me.

So, once a person is at the point where they can no longer both gain muscle and loose fat at the same time, how do you make sure you are gaining more muscle than fat, or loosing more fat than muscle?

Oh, this is making my head hurt....

Arnie

Gain muscles first! You will lose fat as you gain muscles...
and it will be easier for you to lose fat when you are stronger, and in better shape.
The right approache is a diet AND weight lifting if you can stand working out while on a diet.
I am doing it for over 2 years, I lost lots of weight and have gone from no muscles at all to very strong and built..

Arnie, I would say lose the fat first. Losing fat and gaining muscle require two different ways of eating - one requires a deficit one a surplus. If you go into muscle gaining with extra body fat then some of what you add to that will be more body fat.

As for how do you do it? Science Arnie becomes the Science Experiment. You find out what your Maintenance levels of calories are and you add a few hundred more, you change your macronutrient ratios to include more carbs and less fat. You lift hard and heavy.

You might want to spend some time cruising abcbodybuilding.com as well - it's a goldmine of information!

Btw, that window as a newbie typically lasts longer than just 3 months - I wouldnt be surpized if you gained and lost this challenge!

Cheers,
Nat

Arie and Nat, thanks for your replies. It looks like I was panicking a little prematurely. I'll just stick to the plan for now and worry about it when the time comes.

Arnie