Fat Loss/Weight Loss

[AdamP]

As well as fat loss I am trying to reduce my bodyweight from 95.5kg to around 84kg for various reasons which i won't go into. I set a target of 18 weeks to do this. In the first four weeks of 5x5 I lost 2kg but there has been no reduction since. My bodyfat has decreased by about 4.5% since I started and I am very happy with everything on 5x5 except bodyweight reduction. At the moment I can't see how my bodyweight will decrease to what I want when the weights I am lifting keep increasing which obviously increases muscle mass. After the 5x5 sessions, now that squats/deadlift weights are above bodyweight, I am too exhausted to do any cardio. Any solutions??

[kevinfar]

if you starve yourself your body will start eating muscle which is apparently what you want to do!?

[bigwhat62]

how tall are you AdamP?

[AdamP]

6ft exact

[bigwhat62]

i think keeping a clean diet will do it. keep the lifting going, dont worry about cardio, eat clean and you will shed the fat. you might keep a size close to yours right now but it will be muscle mass. it wont be round it it will be hard. i first started at about 195 lbs 7 weeks ago and now i am at 181 lbs. just pure lifting and clean eating. i dont do cardio and i get good results from the lifting and eating. i am 5"11 so close to your height. i also have increased on my lifts so muscle has gone up too.

[sifaan]

As well as fat loss I am trying to reduce my bodyweight from 95.5kg to around 84kg for various reasons which i won't go into. I set a target of 18 weeks to do this. In the first four weeks of 5x5 I lost 2kg but there has been no reduction since. My bodyfat has decreased by about 4.5% since I started and I am very happy with everything on 5x5 except bodyweight reduction. At the moment I can't see how my bodyweight will decrease to what I want when the weights I am lifting keep increasing which obviously increases muscle mass. After the 5x5 sessions, now that squats/deadlift weights are above bodyweight, I am too exhausted to do any cardio. Any solutions??

What is your current body-fat percentage? And current weight?
(I could explain what I'm trying to get at with formula's, but it would be much easier to work with the actual numbers).

[AdamP]

Current weight is 94kg and body fat is 16.5%

[sifaan]

Current weight is 94kg and body fat is 16.5%

This means fat is 94 kg * 16.5% = 15.5 kg
Lean mass = 94 kg - 15.5 kg = 78.5 kg

If you keep working out, and keep increasing weight, this lean mass is only ever going to go up.

Let's say you manage to keep your lean mass as it is, and reduce fat.
If you achieve your goal of 84 kg, then it means fat = 84 kg - 78.5 kg = 5.5 kg
Fat % = 5.5 / 84 = 6.5%

6.5% is the kind of level that body-builders achieve at competitions (they don't usually maintain that level year-round), healthy bodyfat is more closer to 10% for males.

And all this assuming that you don't gain any lean mass (which is going to make it much harder to lose fat) - if your lean mass increases, it's gonna be pretty much impossible to get down to 84 kg.

I'd say that if you value a healthy body, then reconsider your goal.

If it is absolutely essential for you to cross that 84 kg limit - then you'd pretty much have to cut lean mass... this will probably involve
1. Stop resistance training (whatever muscles you've developed will atrophy down to whe
2. Do loads of cardio
3. Go on a calorie deficit diet

I don't know if you would do all at once, or continue strength training at current weights for a while, or what... in any case, doubt if you'll find experts on the best way to lose lean mass on this forum.

NB. All of above is based on the 16.5% fat reading being accurate - If, for example, you have 25% fat, then your lean mass is only ~70kg, which means reaching 84 kg @ 10% fat involves gaining about ~5 kg of lean mass. Continuing on StrongLifts and eating healthy (may need to tweak diet - e.g. more protein, less carbs - but I wouldn't dream of giving advice on diets...) should get you there even without cardio.

BTW Reason cardio is advised after StrongLifts is because otherwise you'll be too tired from cardio to lift well... but you could do cardio before. Or you could do cardio on off days. Both options will limit/slow strength gains.
(You will actually find a lot of stuff on the net about it being better to do cardio before lifting. All really depends on what is more important)

[AdamP]

Thanks for the reply Sifaan - plenty to think about!

My target for bodyfat is about 12%. When I started 5x5 I was at 21% bodyfat which has now come down to 16.5%. In only 7 weeks my waist has reduced from 38.5 to nearly 36 inches which obviously I'm very pleased about. I have been consuming about 2300 calories everyday since I started 5x5 and have created a calorie deficit. Everything is going well except actual weight loss. I am squatting 1xbw and this is working my abs big time as do the other exercises which is reducing waist/midrift areas. I don't want to change from 5x5 but do want to lose weight. Would lowering weight and increasing reps do anything on this front?

[sifaan]

I am squatting 1xbw and this is working my abs big time as do the other exercises which is reducing waist/midrift areas. I don't want to change from 5x5 but do want to lose weight. Would lowering weight and increasing reps do anything on this front?

just a note that the amount of work done by your abs (in squats, or anything else) does not correlate to how much you are reducing in your waist/midriff (I trust you know that spot reduction is a myth?)

If you lower weight and increase reps to 8-12 range, you are going to get bigger than what you are now (because this is the muscle hypertrophy range); If you increase reps to 15+ range, you will not get bigger (endurance range), probably will look leaner than now (notice how thin the marathon runners look).
I don't know how either of these affect weight though.

not all calories are equal, so you may have better results tweaking your diet (esp. more calories on workout days, less calories on rest days; changing protein/fat/carb ratios, etc) - but, like I said before, this advice you'd have to get from someone else!

btw do you need to weight 84 kg or less at a particular instant (in which case you can resort to tricks like what boxers use before meets) or throughout?

[AdamP]

My comment about the abs was meant that my abs etc are being worked on the program and I don't need to change anything on that front or introduce specific abs exercises. My target for waist is 34inches. I'm going to stick with 5x5 for at least another month by which time I should be on 1.5xbw on the squats which is where I want to get to. If my weight still doesn't go down I'll re-evaluate then. I want to get to 84kg permanaently.

[alzheik]

Like sifaan said, you'd have to drop your body fat to 6.5% to reach that goal with your current lean mass, which is very difficult to get to, and even more difficult/unhealthy to maintain. If your target bodyfat is 12%, then you'll have to drop some lean mass.

84kg * 12% = 10.08kg bodyfat
84kg - 10.08kg = 73.92kg lean mass

According to sifaan's calculations, you have 78.5kg lean mass right now, so you'd have to lose 4.58kg of lean mass. If that's your goal, then drop the resistance training and focus on cardio/endurance work.

I hope you have really good reasons for needing to get to that bodyweight, because losing lean mass is generally the last thing any decent trainer would make you do (unless you need to be in a certain weight category for a sport). If your goals are aesthetic, remember that bodyweight by itself is not a good measure of physical attractiveness/good looks. It may be that at your height and build, you would look better with more lean mass (and thus a higher total bodyweight). Good luck with your goals, and keep checking in with your progress.

[Hardcore]

Hello everybody!

What do you think about high intensity training twice per week for about 40-60 minutes. For example squats. 80% of your maximum weight for 20 reps.
Of course reducing your kcal per day and a little cardio on your leisure days.

What do you think about that training scheme? Isn't it perfect training scheme for weight loss (fat loss)?

[bigwhat62]

Hello everybody!

What do you think about high intensity training twice per week for about 40-60 minutes. For example squats. 80% of your maximum weight for 20 reps.
Of course reducing your kcal per day and a little cardio on your leisure days.

What do you think about that training scheme? Isn't it perfect training scheme for weight loss (fat loss)?

do you mean 40-60 min of high intensity for the whole week or did you mean 40-60 min twice a week? i those kinds of sessions would be short timed. have you though about tabata training? that high intensity and take about 4 minutes.

[Hardcore]

40-60 minutes of training. so it would be ~110 min per week of high intensity hard training with big weights. I don't know what is tabata training. But tell me would be my scheme perfect fot weight losing?