Starting out - how do I increase muscle mass while burning t

[staceystamps]

I spent several hours reading through the links on this site, lots of information, but I want to be sure that I have a clear understanding of how to achieve my desired results.  Basically I am (or was) a skinny guy who developed a beer gut over the past few years.  Recently turned 30 and realized my health and strength needed attention.  I would greatly appreciate advice.
Currently I weigh 190 lbs, I have no idea what my body fat % is, but whatever it is, 100% of that body fat is likely in my stomach.  I am a relatively lean guy at 6'1" who developed a beer belly in college years ago, and hoped it would just magically go away once I stopped making keg parties a regular part of my lifestyle.  That was 8 years ago, not much has changed.
My dilemma is that not only I want to burn off the fat in my stomach, I also want to add muscle mass everywhere else.  I hear a lot of conflcting information on how to achieve this.  Many say that they are mutually exclusive goals - to lose my stomach I have to diet and do a lot of cardio, preferably HIIT.  To gain muscle mass I have to eat a lot of carbs, protein, avoid cardio, and focus on strength training.
Can you please set the record straight?
For the past 2 months I have been lifting weights consistently, not necessarily following the 5x5 program outlined here, but very close with several additional lifts, and all of course using free weights.  I have definitely seen an improvement in my strength, but I have not really put on any body weight nor have I noticed much of a dent in my stomach.  I hit the basic excercises and then some three times a week, bench, miltiary presses, alternating curls, preacher curls, barbel rows, flyes, lat pull downs, etc.  I am not doing any cardio (it is very hot where I live, hate to jog and haven't invested in a treadmill or eliptical yet), nor have I bothered with crunches just yet.
As for diet, I have not followed any formal guidelines or rules, but I have made the following changes to my diet:
-Reduced intake of soda (though I still drink about 12-20 oz of non-diet soda per day)
-Increased amount of food eaten in general (now I regularly eat breakfast for example)
-Less fast food but not completely eliminated, I do eat burgers (no condiments) and pizza each 1-2 times per week, though I dont eat french fries or other extras, get vegetables instead
-Removed alcohol, coffee and replaced with water, v8 juice, unsweetened decaf tea
-Eating on a daily basis eggs, yogurt, peanut butter on whole wheat bread, granola cereal with 1% milk
 
Basically I want to know if I can expect to lose my stomach fat through continued resistence training alone, if so are there excercies you insist I incorporate, and what recommendations you can make to my diet.  Would the anabolic diet help achieve my results?  Or instead do I need to bite the bullet and focus on cardio on awhile to burn stomach fat, then focus on adding muscle mass?

[Mehdi]

Hi welcome

• 190lbs at 6'1" is an ok weight. I doubt you have more than 20% body fat. If you do, than you have very very low muscle mass.


• Thus you don't need to really diet down, as you don't have much fat to lose to start with. And you don't want to lose too much weight, as you're ok now.


• what you want is to get rid of the fat


• best way is to get stronger. more strength is more muscle. more muscle is more calories burned. meaning less fat.


• combine that with healthy food (90% clean food) and there you are.

How to start:

• start doing stronglifts 5x5. First goal is squatting your body weight 190lbs, would take about 2-3 months. Next goal is squatting 1.5x your body-weight. Let's say 6 months. WHen you got that, fat is gone and you have muscles


• eat clean food. no need to make it complicate. Just eat healthy 90% of the time. parties, alcohol, etc is all good in the weekend.


• track body fat; use a fat caliper and track body fat weekly to check progress

No need to add cardio, no need to cut calories. get stronger, eat healthy. done.
Two links:
stronglifts.com/stronglifts-5x5-beginner-strength-training-program/
stronglifts.com/strongliftscoms-10-nutrition-rules-for-building-muscle-losing-fat-getting-stronger/

[flipper]

riddle me this: how do you tell if you have "very, very low muscle mass"?  and what, exactly, does it mean if you do?

[NorwichGrad]

stacey,
I'd like to add my two cents. Follow Mehdi's advice. I would get an accu measure from amazon.com. They are cheap and very efficient and accurate in measuring one's bodyfat. You want to focus on fat loss, and NOT weight loss. Weight loss means you are also losing water and muscle.
Your current physical condition does not warrant extreme training and dieting regimen. Just follow 5x5 and you will be just fine.
 

[jdurando]

www.accumeasurefitness.com/products/fitness3000.html

[Mehdi]

riddle me this: how do you tell if you have "very, very low muscle mass"?  and what, exactly, does it mean if you do?

Low muscle mass can be caused by undereating (body burns muscle for energy first if it doesn't get food, then only will it attack fat), lack of physical activity, etc
muscle burn calories, muscle is strength, muscle look better,

[felonyr301]

If nothing has changed then you have to make sacrifices and stop drinking soda everyday. Leave that for 1 or 2 20 oz of soda in the weekend and thats it. Limit thecarbs whatever it is to barely none in the night time basically have like one big meal low on carbs and then the snack before you go to bed low in carbs too. That has helped me alot on losing the gut. I was 180Lbs 6'1ft tall and looked really skinny but had a gut and that's about it. Been lifting doing only compound movements and now at about 200Lbs and haven't increase my gut just been slowly going away.
Also sometimes all you need is to limit the carbs and increase the fat (good fats) a bit and that will help. It helped me alot!!! Also keep the soda down to 1 or 2 drinks a week. All it is sugar and that goes straight to your belly. I was a soda freak before lifting and that was the main reason for a big belly on my skinny ass. Pizza and soda is my favorite junk food but I try to eat it like once in a blue.
Like Medhi said the best time to eat junk food is after you workout since the body is in calorie burning mode. keeping the body from getting a good amount of *good* fats will just have the body hold on to the fat.

[staceystamps]

Thank you for the advice so far.  As a result I will bite the bullet and cut out my reliance on soda.  I also ordered a fat caliper, though not the one linked (had already purchased immediately after Medhi's reply).  It should arrive shortly, I will start tracking that as well.
I am grateful to hear I shouldn't need to add cardio, but I am still not clear on whether I can expect to gain weight while losing tummy fat.
As a skinny guy, all the advice I see "out there" is saying I should be eating 6 "clean" meals a day, consuming 200-350g of protein per day, pre and post shakes, etc.  The high intake of food I am told is essential to add muscle mass for skinny guys like myself, and that seems logical.
But I am not clear if I should be eating a lot more just yet... I want muscle mass but want my gut to go away, afraid if I increase my food consumption it will not only go towards muscle but either reduce the speed of my waistline reduction or worse yet, add to it.
So bottom line, should I keep food intake constant or increase to achieve my goals?
 

[Mehdi]

You don't need to eat more calories, as you don't need to gain weight. You just need to gain muscle. Weight is ok, just get protein (200g is enough, 1g/lbs protein) and make sure it's healthy food. Muscle will come as you get stronger, so focus on getting squat up to 200lbs first, then to 300lbs. Waist will take care of itself as you get stronger.

[twiztedfactotum]

OK, so what I say may go against what many believe here, but it's just an option and my opinion.
If you REALLY want to lose the fat FIRST, cardio is your best friend.  Find something that you can enjoy and start raising your heart rate and burning calories.  Strength training is also important, but if you really want to get rid of that fat then cardio should be your primary focus. 
Over time if you just focus on building muscle you will eventually lose the fat.  If you maintain your food intake but increase muscle mass you are telling your body that you NEED muscle (constant stress on your body).  The increase in muscle will require more calories, and your body will turn to your fat stores for this. 
But, if you really want to cut the fat quicker, you need to incorporate some sort of cardio.  Take it from me: I went from 230 .lbs to 170 .lbs in just under 8 months.  I changed my diet, did simple strength training, and CARDIO.  I now weigh 162 and I'm doing the 5x5 Strength Training along with cardio.   Just this past month I went from 165 to 162 and I'm REALLY starting to see my muscle mass.
Perhaps you could do the 5x5 program and add some cardio.  If it has been a while, start slow.  One time a week for 15 minutes or even less if that's all you can do.  Increase how many times a week you do cardio, then increase the duration.  As your body becomes more fit, hopefully over time you'll find that your body will crave cardio.  Once you can do cardio at 20-30 minutes about 3 times a week you'll definitely start seeing results, if not before that.
Keep in mind that this will stunt your muscle growth potential compared to if you were only doing the 5x5 without cardio.  It will slow the progress of your weight increase on the bar as well.  So it's really up to you which is more important.
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[twiztedfactotum]

I don't want to edit my last post, just wanted to add something additional.
I was extremely out of shape before when I weighed 230 .lbs since I am 5'6".  That's another reason why I focused on cardio.  At 6'1" and 190 .lbs, you're starting off with less fat than I.  You could always do the 5x5 for a while and see how you like the results.  I still feel that cardio will help you either way... it's up to you.
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[staceystamps]

Thank you for the insight.  I will not add anymore cardio, I already walk a few miles a week with my dog and am devoting a lot time to weight lifting already.  I will just alter my diet a bit, stick with weight lifting, and start measuring body fat to note any improvements over the next few months.  If I don't like my results in 6 months maybe then I will re-evaluate.
Now I have a separate question, it has to do with my routine.  It is quite different than the 5x5 routine and I can't really change it at the time so I would like an evaluation on it as-is and let me know the issues you see with it.  Note that all exercises are done with 4 sets, 5 reps working up to 7-8 reps then adding weight to get back to 5, etc.
Bench Press
Incline Bench Press
Dumbell Flyes
Bent-over barbell rows
Sqauts
Seated overhead press (behind the head instead of in front)
Shrugs
Upright Rows
Tricep Extensions
Seated alternating dumbell curls
Preacher curls
Max chin-ups
This routine is done 3x per week.  The absense of leg exercises is temporary, they will be added shortly.  I do this routine and not 5x5 because this is the routine my neighbor does.  He has offered to let me work out in his home gym alongside him.  I am not going to suggest to him a change as that would be disrespectful, and considering he has some impressive results with his own routine and I am a "newbie" to working out he would just laugh me off.  Now of course I could go buy a gym membership but that would cost time, money, and a spotting partner I am comfortable with.  I am overseas until July, when I return I will build my own home gym and probably switch to 5x5, but for the interim I appreciate your thoughts on this routine.

[Mehdi]

• 3 exercises for chest, only 2 execises for the back


• only 1 exercise for the legs, 2 exercises for arms


• upright rows potentially dangerous on shoulder joint


• shrugs often cause bad posture


• 12 exercises in one workout. If you really work hard, you don't need more than 4-5 exercise/workout

Even if you would do bodybuilding, this is still a bad routine.