Abs, strength training and muscle gain / fat loss

[mill99]

Hi guys,

I'm 5'9" for 148-150 lbs (175 cm and 67-68 Kg) and I have a four pack with some stubburn fact around button. I eat throughout the date and diet is clean and quite high in protein. I am not physically strong (I can do 25 push ups at once) although I am improving and aim is to tone up and have a six pack. I am playing sport three/four times a week so I am doing quite a bit of cardio but going forward I would like to start going to the gym too. Although target is also the six pack admittedly I haven't done abs exercises because in heaps of places I found that strength training will give you better definition than doing abs exercises alone which won't help at all if you fat covering your mid section.

I have some question for the experts of the forum and for whoever wants to pitch in of course They are not in any particular order

I read that to have muscle growth you need to consume more calories than normal. How does that work exactly, I mean if I eat more than daily requirement I would put on weight and therefore fat. Yes I am aware that when you exercise your muscles grow bigger and the muscle will replace the fat but I am not sure exactly how this process works.

Also I don't really understand the claim like "Taylor Lautner (the Twilight dude) put on 30 kg of muscles for the movie"

Is it possible (and if it's how) to increase the muscle gain and reduce fat loss at the same time ? I like current weight but I am keen on having more muscle. If I put on weight because of the bulking up phase then I won't be as fast in sport (which has fast turnaround and during games you usually play max 2 min and you sub off).

If I start going to the gym in the morning and in the later afternoon I have training will the latter kinda ruin the work in the gym ? Or it would be better if I go to the gym in the days that I am not doing cardio ? In this case however following day won't be a "rest day" but I would have sport in the evening.

If you stop doing strength training how long will it take for the muscle to return to "normal levels" ?

What happens to muscles if I do strength training and I don't eat daily intake of calories ?

Regarding the high intake of protein (through solid food and whey protein shakes) should it be high only during the workout days or every single day ? Like, should it be 100+g on workout days and something like 70g during cardio days or even rest days ?

When does the body use the energy from the muscles ? Whenever I feel hungry ? Will that happen when I play sport ? Or what's the best way to avoid this to happen (apart from eating throughout the day) and how can I make sure body uses current fat for energy ? Is there a macronutriet ratio I should be aiming for like low carbs but high fat so that the body knows it doesn't need to store fat ?

As you can see I have lot of questions because I don't really understand how the whole process works. If there is a guru outside please share your knowledge and feel free to add whatever I forgot to ask

Thanks everyone!!!

PS:

If you have any tips on how long I should spend on the gym and which kind of exercises I should do that would help me a lot (and reps/sets too

[Boss Man]

A lot to consider.

Muscle training with inadequate nutrition will yield poor gains, but some could be achieved.

Muscle and fat loss can initially happen side by side, because 1lb of added muscle increases calorie burning by 45-50 a day.

Muscle energy gets used throughout the day, not just during exercise. the body can breakdown glucose and the stored form Glycogen for use for other reasons and in doing so recruits phosphate energies created from things like electrons and calories, to also get used.

The body can also create glucose from Protein intake too, i think around 40% of protein gets converted to glucose via insulin. The amount of energy the body can source, depends on diet, especially carbohydrate intake, but the body uses it daily not just when exercising, though more would be used when exercising.

Prevention of this should not be seen as an need, but when the body tries to breakdown Glucose and Glycogen it can end up creating Ethanol Alcohol and Lactic Acid when there is insufficient Oxygen present, so this can be prevented in certain ways.

Reduce or abolish Caffeine intake. Caffeine and Tannic Acid in tea, block Iron, the main component in Erythrocytes, (Red Blood Cells) and Iron is also used to make Myoglobin that facilitates Oxygen storage in the muscles.

Caffeine can also Vasoconstrict Bloodvessels, affecting bloodflow.

Excessive Calcium can block Iron, though things like Capsicum and Vitamin C can boost Iron, so that will help improve the potential for Erythrocyte levels to be sizeable, or in accordance with need.

Also increasing water intake should facilitate more oxygenation of the body.

So don't see muscle energy use as a bad thing, it can be a good thing and it happens all the time.

Keep Protein constant, don't fluctuate it, because you will need the amount you eat on workout days, to help grow and repair muscle, but then you'd need it to protect muscle on non-workout days, so you don't stunt or stall muscle growth.

Muscle atrophy rates, are not something I could tell you about, however muscles have a membrane around them called a fascia. It stretches when you create hypertrophy of muscles, but little to no shrinkage occurs when you get atrophy, so the muscle can grow back quicker, because that fascia provides no resistance like before, until the muscle grows back to pre-atrophied levels, then the resistance will be there if you try to promote additional hypertrophy.

Eating more calories than a daily requirement, would only make you fat if you didn't exercise and ate the wrong foods, or consumed significantly more calories. If you were exercising, then additional consumption of calories, providing you didn't massively bump up your calories, would allow you more nutrition to build and to protect the muscle.

You need to get in the Gym and start doing basics.

It's working each muscle group 2 sets, 1 exercise, 8-10 reps. Usual things like Squats, deadlifts, Chins, Bench Press etc, as example exercises.

3 sessions a week ever other week. Cardio could be mixed in so you'd do something liek this.

Day 1. Weights

Day 2. Cardio

Day 3. Weights

Day 4. Day off

Day 5. Cardio

Day 6. Weights

Day 7. Day off.

Then after 4-6 weeks of getting your body used to the biomechanics of weightlifting, you'd be ready to step it up a notch.

You'd do the cardio for about 30 minutes at a time.

An instructor would be able to set you up with something, similar to what I posted above.

Hopefully that all makes sense .

[mill99]

Hi Boss Man,

Many thanks for your comprehensive reply. I probably need a doctorate to understand everything you wrote but I got the gist of it

I 'd like to ask you a couple of other questions if you don't mind

You wrote:

- Keep Protein constant, don't fluctuate it, because you will need the amount you eat on workout days, to help grow and repair muscle, but then you'd need it to protect muscle on non-workout days, so you don't stunt or stall muscle growth.

The daily requirement for an average person is 55g of protein per day. I easily exceed this amount but I am wondering if you don't need enough protein the muscle will not grow as it should ?

- If you were exercising, then additional consumption of calories, providing you didn't massively bump up your calories, would allow you more nutrition to build and to protect the muscle.

You mean more nutrition as a whole or you were referring just to protein ?

I take soem supplements in the form of whey protein powder. I have a scoop daily (10 g of protein) with cereals and before exercising (and after if I had done strength training) do you think it's worth their buck ? I am asking because some doctors said that taking vitamin supplements is like having an expensive urine because basically they will be flashed out without real benefits for the body. On the bright side I couldn't find similar claims for whey protein powder.

Thanks again

[Boss Man]

- Keep Protein constant, don't fluctuate it, because you will need the amount you eat on workout days, to help grow and repair muscle, but then you'd need it to protect muscle on non-workout days, so you don't stunt or stall muscle growth.

The daily requirement for an average person is 55g of protein per day. I easily exceed this amount but I am wondering if you don't need enough protein the muscle will not grow as it should ?

(Yes, if you keep the protein requirement solid the muscle will repair and grow better. The Aminos, Leucine, Valine and Iso-leucine are essentials and have anabolic properties that help to permit growth, so it's important to feed with desirable amounts of Protein, so that's around 1g per lb of bodyweight, if you're quite lean, 1.5g max.)


- If you were exercising, then additional consumption of calories, providing you didn't massively bump up your calories, would allow you more nutrition to build and to protect the muscle.

You mean more nutrition as a whole or you were referring just to protein ?

(Yes as a whole)

I take soem supplements in the form of whey protein powder. I have a scoop daily (10 g of protein) with cereals and before exercising (and after if I had done strength training) do you think it's worth their buck ? I am asking because some doctors said that taking vitamin supplements is like having an expensive urine because basically they will be flashed out without real benefits for the body. On the bright side I couldn't find similar claims for whey protein powder.

(Protein powders are fine. The best thing is avoid all the pricey hype ones. A basic one with Carbs and 2 or 3 additional ingredients. Expensive ones are just that and unless they could help you gain 40lbs of lean muscle in a year, they aren't worth it. Get results with cheaper ones, even if it takes a little longer. Don't forget, big bodybuilders got big in the olden days with just hard graft and lots of calories. They didn't have something full of minerals, vitamins and 10 or more other ingredients, so Protein powders are not a passport to previously inpossible growth levels.)