chicken or the egg...?

H

Hoolie

0
I originally put this up on the weight loss sub-forum, but thought this was a better place to put it. Apologies for the mix up.

Hi,
I've just joined the forums after readin plenty last night. I liked the atmosphere on the forums, and so decided to throw up a post which has been bugging me for a while now.

I used to lay a lot of sport,mainly rugby. I've had a few years out where I have sat on my bum for far to long, and now I'm forty I've just started gettin back to working out. I'm taking it easy now, doing 30 minutes of cardio and 30-45 minutes of mixed freeweights and machines 3 times a week. I'm concentrating on doing bigger compound moves like squats bench presses etc.

I've also got a pot belly to remove.

So my question is If I want o both lose fat and gain muscle mass then which should I concentrate on first?

I ask as I assume that you cannot do both at the same time due to the differences in calorie intake required between the two. i.e more calories especially extra protein for muscle growth and keeping a calorie deficit for losing weight.

So having made the assumption that they are mutually exclusive (something Im happy to be corrected on!), then which would you guys recommend to do first?

My final objective is not to be a body builder, but to look muscular like I used to in my rugby days.

Any tips, comments feedback is appreciated!
 
Not knowing all of your details, I would say that as a 40-year-old, your risk of cardiovascular, pulmonary and metabolic diseases caused by lifestyle factors and obesity are definitely increased, so from a health perspective, it's probably more important to lose the excess fat than to build muscle immediately. The good news is that having been inactive for a few years, your body may well respond to exercise as a beginner, so you might be able to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time rather efficiently. But even so, I would still be more focused on fat loss than muscle gain at this point. One big reason is that it'll reduce the risk of hypertension, which would be problematic in strength training. The overview given of the program you're doing sounds like it will probably be good for you.
 
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