1) Can I or can’t I focus on effectively building muscle and losing weight at the same time? Marc's Response: In your situation, your weight loss will come off at an increased pace. Meaning, once you start to make nutritional changes and start exercising, you might lose 5 lbs a week!
Which for most is a concern as it might be muscle.
So those guidelines don't apply in your situation. Your actual fat loss numbers could be higher than normal becuase you have more to lose.
Weight training is an integral part of burning fat. It increases your metabolism to say the least.
What was meant in that book was that choose a goal.
In your case, the goal is to burn as much fat as possible.
I’ve always heard/been taught that weight training was the most effective method for burning fat.
ABSOLUTELY correct.
That means using weights as well.
It doesn't mean going to bulking diets and hitting the weights heavy to overload your muscles. Worry about that later. For now, just use weight training as a tool to prime your muscles, build some muscle and burn fat.
The goal is: To Burn Fat That doesn't mean you can't build muscle during this time, but your emphasis won't be to maximize muscle gains.
2) At this point, I want to focus mainly on burning off all of the excess fat as my primary goal (i.e. lowering my BF%), and then I want to focus on building muscle and getting "cut" as my secondary goal. However, if I can achieve both at the same time, I’d be most interested in that route of course.
What will the optimal diet for me for weight loss while sculpting consist of? I had of course planned on following Dan’s advice for meals – lean protein, complex carb, fibrous carb, and fat. I had planned on using the ratio of 25%p/45%c/30%f. Would you alter this considering my current state? Any other special customizations you’d recommend for a person in my situation?
Marc's Response: Focus on burning fat. That is in essense, cutting. Getting ripped will come when you have an extremely low level of body fat. Your primary goal of losing fat is for health reasons at this point.
Most newbies try and do it all.
They want to:
* burn fat
* get hella ripped
* build muscle too
* have a six pack of abs
Ultimately they end up in the same place becuase they don't realize that each goal above requires different steps.
Burn Fat! You'll build some muscle. You can get ripped later.
3) What supplements should I consider for weight loss while trying to build muscle as well? I know a multi-vitamin is necessary. Anything else? I honestly do not mind putting forth some money on this if it is a solid, accepted supplement proven to give results in most cases. What about creatine? I know this will cause some weight gain as the body takes it in and gets to a certain level, but I’ve read that it will also help burn fat because it enhances the fat-burning machines (muscles).
Marc's Response: A multi-vitamin is about it at this point. Focus on real foods. You've got a lot to change and you don't need to toss money at shake or other substances that won't help you reach your goals. I'm a fan of protien shakes but I think at your stage, you need to get your protein from foods.
Shakes don't require your body to "work" to get at the caloires in them. And while that's a great thing for most of us bodybuilder types, you need to burn as many calories as possible and keep your metabolism cooking.
Hence, if possible, just avoid shakes now and let the foods boost your metabolism.
Making the nutritional changes you have to make is a massive change in itself.
While there's some decent supplements out there... focus on whole foods. No fat burning pills. No meal replacements.
4) Can someone point me to a workout routine that would be good for me as far as losing weight? I found countless workout routines posted for “gaining mass”… but obviously Im not really in that corner lol… I’d like to find a routine/plan that incorporated both weights and cardio, naturally.
Marc's Response: Check out the
Evolution of Cardio by Craig Ballantyne. His Turbulence Training workouts encourage quick workouts, supersets, and hit all the major muscle groups. But they aren't your hardcore workouts for packing on slabs of muscle. 3 days a week, 60 minutes or less.
Perfect. They are right up the alley for maximum fat burning!
Tom Venuto's
Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle is another resource for such training programs
5) I know my weight training has to be intense in order to get results, but what exactly constitutes a "max" workout to a muscle grp? Signs to look for? In working out in the past, I would often get to a point where certain muscles that were being worked would “lock up” and basically just cramp (not painfully) up completely to where I couldn’t move them for a minute or so. Is this what I should be aiming for at the end of my reps/sets? Did I go too far, or is that the point where you know you’ve reached the stopping point and to let yourself heal up?
Marc's Response: Just go for progression at this point. Don't train to failure. Each workout should be better than the last. That means tracking your workouts.
Give yourself time to get the mind to muscle link going.
Blasting your muscles to the point of failure all the time or where they cramp and lockup is not good.
Remember, it's TRAINING for stimulation. Not ripping them apart so it takes days to heal.
And it depends on the person right?
Muscle stimulation to me might be a brutal workout for you.
And Arnold's routine worked for him and it might kill me!
Focus on progressive workouts. Just get a little better each time.
6) As for the above, should I try to achieve this “max intense” workout every time I plan to work that muscle grp? If so, that would mean working out a muscle group approx. only once every 5-7 days or so, right? - since you need this time to rest and heal?
Marc's Response: Not necessarily. Training to failure every workout is not necessary for muscle growth. What you want to do is follow a professionally designed routine, about 3 days a week, for 60 minutes.
If it's a good program, you will have plenty of time for recovery.
You grow when you are out of the gym. Not while you are in the gym.
Eating whole foods, resting, stretching, moving, will all lead to increased recovery.
7) And again, as for the above, how do you know when you've waited long enough between max workouts to work that muscle group again? When the soreness is gone is it ok to go again or what?
Marc's Response: Ah soreness. That's just delayed onset muscle soreness or DOMS that some of us get. When it's not sore, it's in no way fully healed. A muscle takes anywhere between 5-7 days to fully recover.
How do you know?
A good program will have you wait about that long between workouts.
8) Nutrient partitioning agents? I read a little about them today… are the a practical solution to aiding weight loss currently? Can anyone give me some down to earth info on them?
Marc's Response: There's studies going on with them but it's all related to diet drugs. I didn't see any cold hard facts when looking this up.
Not to harp on this fact but you said...
weigh 435 lbs. I have a body fat % of about 50-52%
Don't sweat the small stuff man. Focus on nutrition and training. No pills, powders, hardcore mags, latest research hype..
All these little tweaks people use are not of value to you right now.
Just changing your diet alone and exercising is going to be massive!
9) Is working out in the a.m. always best or does it matter? I’ve always been taught that working out first thing in the morning (on an empty stomach, besides water) is best because it forces your body to burn what’s inside of it (glucose/glycogen) rather than food you’ve eaten that day. I know Dan’s thread said that this offered only a slight advantage though. So is it honestly not that big of a deal what time of day you work out?
Marc's Response: Doesn't matter. I'm going to let Craig Ballantyne take this one in his FAQ:
In general, there is no best time to workout. A guy that trains in the afternoon should get the same results as a guy that trains in the morning, all other things being equal (i.e. nutrition, workout intensity, etc.).
The two most important considerations for determining your workout time are that:
a) You are able to train with sufficient intensity
b) You are able to train consistently 10) Red meat or no? I was planning on cutting red meat out of my diet in the future because of the supposed health benefits of doing so. Is it worth doing this? Will I be hindering myself by doing this in any way? Sometimes I really wonder if the benefits of doing this actually justify doing it… thoughts?
Marc's Response: Agree with Dan. I limit my intake to 1-2 times a week with the leanest cuts I can.
Additional Resources: 1 -
Burn the Fat Feed The Muscle: If you don't have it. Get it. You said you were willing to spend money on supplements? Save your money and buy the best damn book on nutritional immediately!
2-
Rob Kottenbrock My Blog A super inspiratinational guy who lost a ton of weight. I really think he can help you as well.