Gain or lose ?

D

Dpilkington

New member
Hi for the past 5 months i have been on a diet. Even though i only weight 11 stone 12 below my stomach is a curtain wich i think is still fat, it cant be loose skin. So basically my body fat % must be high.

My question is do i still need to loose more weight an continue or should i buy some creatine and bulk up, will bulking up instead of trying to lose weight help my body fat percentage come down.

I will still do excercises and i will still diet an eat less than 1300 calories aday but will trying to add muscle weight help ??


If i start bulking up now and if i start eating more foods with protein in im worried i'll put weight on, im not in the healthy BMI range yet it's somewhere around 28 or 27..

Should i get down to 25.0 bmi then start to bulk up ?

Also is creatine the best protein supplement to take ?

Please reply, thanks in advance !

All replys are greatly appreciated !
 
Well, first, you don't need to buy creatine to 'bulk'. It's not really a protein supplement, although supposedly it works for some but not others. It also leads to gaining water weight.

Also, it will be almost impossible to add much muscle while eating 1300 calories a day.

Personally what I do is diet down as much as I can stand to, and then when I need a break from dieting, eat more freely and make sure I do plenty of lifting (three full body workouts a week with weights) and eat plenty of protein.

Also, eating protein while dieting won't cause you to gain weight unless you're upping your calories as well. If you replace some of what you're eating with lean meats then you shouldn't gain. In fact, with a BMI of 28 you shouldn't gain even if you added an extra 200 calories of protein a day. (I'm guessing anyway, since I don't know your height/weight)

Hope this helps!
 
Jeanette401 said:
Well, first, you don't need to buy creatine to 'bulk'. It's not really a protein supplement, although supposedly it works for some but not others. It also leads to gaining water weight.

Also, it will be almost impossible to add much muscle while eating 1300 calories a day.

Personally what I do is diet down as much as I can stand to, and then when I need a break from dieting, eat more freely and make sure I do plenty of lifting (three full body workouts a week with weights) and eat plenty of protein.

Also, eating protein while dieting won't cause you to gain weight unless you're upping your calories as well. If you replace some of what you're eating with lean meats then you shouldn't gain. In fact, with a BMI of 28 you shouldn't gain even if you added an extra 200 calories of protein a day. (I'm guessing anyway, since I don't know your height/weight)

Hope this helps!
Click to expand...

Im
5 foot 5
i weight 167 pounds

I eat less than 1300 calories everyday, sometimes less than 1000..

I eat healthy, i never eat anything fattening and my main meal is usually less than 400 calories...

This is what i had today :

Breakfast : Special K
Dinner : Nutrition drink 400 calories it's like a protein shake but you buy it ready made
Tea/Lunch : Weight watchers meal 295 calories with a small can of tuna plus a protein shake 200 calories
After workout and before bed : Protein shake 200 calories and a tangerine
Snacks and drinks : Glass of milk, water and fruits

Is this healthy and can i still lose weight by only excercising a little and doing the weights more ?

Thank you for replying !
 
Last edited:
Yeah, even with 1500 calories a day you shouldn't gain weight at that point (I'm assuming you're pretty accurate with your counting - if you're off by 10% that's pretty significant!)

I'm at 5'4" and weigh 157 or so, and can lose at 1500. So adding in the extra protein wouldn't hurt.

The advice is I've seen is to cut down to about 15% bodyfat for a male, or 22% for a female before bulking. (I'm pulling these numbers from memory so they may be off a little) I personally make it more about sanity than body fat, though.

Another option would be to eat big meals with lots of protein (say 2500 calories in a day) the same day you're doing heavy lifting, and eat most of the food after you're lifting. It's not as efficient as cutting and then bulking, but you may build up some muscle in the middle, and again it might be easier on your sanity.

If you are getting less than 1000 calories a day then you should definitely pay attention to how much protein you're getting. In fact, <1000 calories, most of your calories should be coming from lean protein and fibrous veggies, with enough fat etc. to keep your system going. That few calories and you have to be really careful you're getting enough vitamins, minerals etc.
 
Oh yeah, and now I actually read your meal ;)

That doesn't look too bad, although it probably wouldn't hurt to add more fibrous veggies. You don't really have portion sizes for what you're eating, so that makes it a little tricky to gauge. Tuna is good, the fruits are good, the ww meals are probably fine - although I'm biased against highly processed foods ;) Steel cut oats might be better than the Special K, or something to add a bit more protein to breakfast - having a hard boiled egg wouldn't be too bad, or scrambled egg whites w/fat free cheese or something along with the cereal... It's easy to underestimate the calories in cereal since the portion sizes seem to be pretty small.

But you still ought to be able to lose weight doing this.

I personally believe that it's healthier to eat less processed food and more 'whole' food, and there's at least been evidence to back up processed meats being worse for you than unprocessed, but I don't know it's that big of a deal, especially since it looks like you're getting some variety in there and not just having protein shakes and twinkies to make up your calories ;)

Hope this helps!
 
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