A little confused....

[dapperdaveia]

Ok...So I've been working on trying to loose some fat around my midsection and put some muscle on in my upper body.

I have a regular diet of 3 meals and three protein shakes, one in between each meal. My work out routine consists of Monday Wednesday Friday. Weight training and Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday cardio. I got this work out and diet program from the "Body for Life" book. Which shows pictures of people that used to be severely out of shape and turn themselves into buff under models.

From reading some other threads in this forum I've heard that you can't build muscle while trying to burn fat. You have to choose. Either to build muscle and have fat or trim fat and loose muscle.

How do the people in the pictures go from being overweight to Buff while on the same diet plan?

If I do change my routine to loose fat, will I put it right back on if I then try and change it back to building muscles back up?

I've heard that if you have too much protein intake the excess protein your body doesn't use is turned in to fat instead of helping to build muscle, and that you need to take 1g of Protein for every 1lbs of body weight you have. Is that true?

Also in the book they try and tell me I need to buy a certain type of protein for my shakes. Myoplex. While looking at it in the store, it looks great. But the price is not so great. 60 plus dollars for a half month supply, where I see a different brand at Walmart that looks very similar for 12-15 dollars for a half months supply. I know the author of the book is getting a kick back from the company for pimping it's wears but, does it really matter what kind of protein you take?

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. I've been working hard and not seeing much difference.

If this is under the Subject forum or if I'm putting too many questions in one post, feel free to direct me let me know. This is my first post here. :/

 

[malkore]

first of all, Body for LIFE is a huge marketing scheme. second, they only show photos of people who had ABSOLUTELY PHENOMENAL results. third, if you look closely, you can tell those people didn't really put on much muscle..they had it already and simply shed a lot of bodyfat, thus showing off the muscle instead of hiding it.

brand new trainees can put on some muscle while shedding fat, because all the new exercise and change in diet is a shock to the system. But within a few weeks, the body normalizes...and then you have to pick your goal of either gaining muscle or shedding fat. Otherwise you make VERY slow progress trying to gain muscle and lose fat simultaneously. So slow, most people give up because they don't see results anymore...really they don't see results quickly and then assume its not working, and they fall off the wagon.


I wouldn't have more than 2 protein shakes a day. WHOLE food is best for the body, shakes just help you boost your protein level if you can't get it thru food, of if you need something convenient.
Body for LIFE was written by Bill Phillips, who owns EAS Nutrition...who makes Myoplex (see the marketing tie-in here? he's not just pimping for a kick-back...he's pimping the book to drive sales for his company!).
back when I did Body for LIFE, EAS/Myoplex was just suggested. But now, its REQUIRED that you use a certain amount of their supps, or you get disqualified from the national BFL challenge.

BFL isnt' bad, but its not that great. it makes no distinction between starchy/sugary carbs, and fiber/veggie carbs...major flaw IMO.