To Gain Muscle Or Lose Fat?
I have had a lovely week off from weight training this last week and it is with tomorrow – and the start of a new eight week training period in mind – that I ponder this question, should I be aiming to gain muscle or lose fat?
You see, I’ve been doing weights fairly hard for the last few months and have no doubt increased my muscle mass, though not so noticeably that someone in the street would think “Wow, he’s huge!”, but enough that anyone who knows me would think, “Hmm, you been working out?”.
But in adding muscle mass, I’ve also in the process lost some fat at first, then gained it all again over the last few months by getting my carbohydrate (or more accurately overall calories) intake wrong. My head tells me I should perservere with the process of adding muscle, but my heart is struggling with the fact that I still have a little bit of belly fat and a slightly chubby face, even though I’ve been training hard since mid November 2008. And what’s more, I feel my cardiovascular fitness hasn’t improved that much over this time, which is difficult to stomach too.
I’ve also been enjoying my sprint interval training, which I’ve been out and done three sessions of so far, each time running down a one mile stretch of farmers track nearby, sprinting for 15 seconds, then jogging/walking for 60 seconds to recover. I’ve been doing some research about this, and it is proven to be six times more effective at fat-burning than steady state cardio, as well as releasing much greater levels of testosterone and hgh into the body, thus giving your body and anobolic boost without doing weight training.
My thinking is that for the next eight week training period I am going to concentrate on doing compound movements in the gym, training with weights three times a week. I’m going to go against a lot of bodybuilding common knowledge and train more than once a week – shock, horror!
What I aim to do is train back/chest on Monday, legs/shoulders on Wednesday, then on Friday do back and chest again. The following week, I will start on Monday with legs/shoulders, then do back/chest on Wednesday and back to legs/shoulders on Friday, alternating the split each week. So in essence each major bodypart (back, chest, legs, shoulders) will get a workout every four/five days.
I aim to combine this with four cardio sessions each week, which will be split between two sprint interval sessions and two medium intensity interval sessions. My aim will be to use the cardio sessions to trim the fat, and the weights sessions to keep the muscle that I’ve already built and perhaps if possible gain a little more. By the end of this coming training period, I hope to have trimmed off 10kg of fat, which should see my bodyfat percentage come down to about 15%. I may even buy a bodyfat reader and keep a track of it over the next couple of months.
As far as diet goes for the next eight weeks, I’m also going to throw out a lot of bodybuilding convention and change my eating habits to be three meals a day, with a small protein shake post-workout and a small bedtime shake, both of which will include 5 grams of l-glutamine powder, which should ensure that muscle is not broken down for fuel.
4 Responses to “To Gain Muscle Or Lose Fat?”
May 11th, 2009 saat: 3:24 am
[...] To Gain Muscle Or Lose Fat?Tristan says: [...]
May 11th, 2009 saat: 9:36 am
Interesting, Tris! I totally agree with you though. It is no fun to be muscle/mass building when you are unhappy with your belly! I’m exactly the same. Ideally we want to be building muscle at a rate that doesn’t make you fat too. It seems counter-productive to have to compromise on your image, even though it may mean you get bigger in the long run. There must be a happy medium where you can build muscle but not put on fat. I’ve seen plenty of guys who seem to have balanced this so it’s possible.
I am actually on a fat burning period now for similar reasons to you. I just want to lose these infernal 4-5kgs or so that have annoyed me for ages! Not much at all really so shouldn’t take me too long.
I’ve got two obvious questions/points for you on your above post:
1) What about biceps/triceps? I assume you think these will be trained through the compound movements.
2) I must say I strongly disagree with you just having three meals a day. One thing I’ve learned through years of dieting and nutrition reading is that it’s very important to eat smaller but less frequently. This helps speed up your metabolism and burn more calories! I’ve never read or heard that it’s better to eat fewer meals. Even if you just had a banana or muesli bar as a ‘meal’ it would be better than skipping.
You know what, I’ll just post my results and scheme for my current plan rather than just put it in this comment box.
You can tell summer is coming with us both on the fat burn!! I get married in August so that’s my deadline and motivation.
More to come . . .
May 11th, 2009 saat: 10:39 am
To be fair, I was getting a bit obsessed with eating six times a day, which is why I’m going to eat just three normal meals a day and have a casein shake with glutamine at bedtime.
As for biceps and triceps, I’ll assume they are getting enough of a workout during back/chest/shoulder workouts.
Also, I’m doing sprint interval training twice a week which is really good for your general physique so I’m not too worried about that.
I reackon once I lose a few kilos of fat, I’ll actually look pretty awesome, will post some pics when I’m looking good - need to get into shape so I’m ready for when my divorce comes through!!! And also want to look good in your wedding photos :-)
May 11th, 2009 saat: 10:42 am
Ha ha, I like your optimism! I look forward to seeing you looking ‘awesome’ then. Good luck.
I’ll be doing hiit again soon, when I’ve recovered from the Bristol 10k! That was good but really proved that I shouldn’t push the running. My knees are not comfortable today! Annoying as fitness wise I could do a half marathon I think but my knees/hams are not up to it.
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