Steven Lloyd's Journal, 20 May 16

Hi Steven. I consider Northern the cutting expert, you may possibly want to ask him. Hope you and yours are well. I wish I could say I'd lost a pound... 

My advice, is keep on losing weight. The tone and muscle will show as you lose. The working, out you can do after you lose. You can do cardio, but it may make it more difficult to lose weight, and the lifting will most definitely make it more difficult, in my mind. 

where's your body fat? 

And what kind of diet are you on? The only way to lose strength and muscle is to not use them. It isn't the diet doing it. Not THAT quickly. 

I had the same problem. It's confusing all right! Good luck wish I could help. I added fat carbs and protein! Lol. I'm seeing results. My chest isn't teeny tiny and my hip bones aren't protruding and my arms look toned. The belly is slow to go but they say that so im going to really try hard this week to see if I can stick with chicken tuna shrimp and veggies oats in morning eggs on weekend :-) 

Thanks Brenda!! I'll try to get Bruce's thoughts...I know that past pounds lost I lost some muscle too but this time I felt like I could see the size change pretty dramatically and I felt weaker, mainly in the legs which is no good for me (skiing, etc)...I'm hoping to reload them and check them out again soon. 

Thanks Warren...not sure about what you mean by the lifting and cardio making the weght loss more difficult, let me know thanks! 

We might need you to post some more of those workout pics so we can properly assess the situation. 

Jimmie not sure about BF% but most all is in the midsection and a bit above the hips, Knuckles, I'm running a balanced diet about 25% protein, +/- 40% fat, +/- 35% carbs and wasn't trying to lose weight (fat) fast ...I do some resistance training every day (TRX) but no heavy lifting, HIIT cardio every week (sometimes daily depending on what's going on) and long period endurance training here and there...my legs haven't been worked as hard as usual though, now that ski season is over (in winter I ski HARD and train a lot also). 

Thanks Bill...sorry no BIA scale...agreed on the fat only loss goals...although I think that ship sailed a while back. I hear you Misty, I guess I'm just looking for the best path, I don't have a lot of fat to lose and I might be fine keeping some of it dor a short while if I could regain some muscle. 

Ha, ha Kpw...I'm about the same as the last pic just 5 pounds lighter... 

Thank you, Brenda. I think I'm the expert on 'trying' to cut. lol. I was going to suggest boosting carbs, but then I saw that you're around 35%. That should mean good glycogen stores. I keep trying to figure out how to get lower than 11%. I'm going to try calorie cycling. Unless you could see the muscle, that is, if it was previously covered by a thin layer of fat, it's very difficult to know what's really happening. If you're comparing measurements to previous measurements, that's as big a mistake as looking solely at the scale. I know you're fairly lean, but if you're comparing measurements, remember there are a lot of heavy guys out there who claim 23" biceps when they're simply covered in fat. Arnold in his hayday may have been 23" pumped. It's not muscle where there's fat covering. You just don't know exactly what is there. I'm working out 4 days with 1 day off. My new approach to try will be the three heavy days get maintenance calories (2700) and the light workout day (shoulders) gets 2200, and the rest day gets 1100 calories. I'm going to see how that goes. I'm starting to see definition and am quite pleased with the definition on the quads. Most noticable is a nice flat location between rectus femoris and vastus lateralus. I think the biggest mistake people make is skipping deads and squats. I don't think you're doing that. I just had an idea though. It could be that you're consistently below calories enough that the 35% carbs isn't loading you properly. The other thing I'd do is do the heaving lifting and skip the HIIT. I'm not convinced about HIIT. My current question is, is the fact that we lose strength while lifting in a deficit over time a way the body uses to keep us from tearing down muscle beyond what it can repair. A lot of the body is one big feedback loop. 

Nice drop!!! I'm where you are now. I would like to loose more body fat but not loose any more muscle. My legs are not as thick now so I'm trying to work them harder in hopes of recovering some mass. I'm trying to concentrate on keeping my intake of protein higher than my carbs but I find it to be work...  

Thank you Bruce...now you got me thinking....I think I know what & when the problem started...will let you know if you're right after I check a few things. Also, thanks for sharing your thoughts on the final "program", sounds very workable. 

Hey Suzy (aka Carmen), sorry my buddy... fell asleep right in the middle of catching up here on FS. Thanks for your thoughts and advice...now you're the wise one helping me out..:-) Hope your legs are feeling better, take care and have a great weekend!! 

Thanks John!! The perils of age...keeping and gaining muscle as long as possible is a high priority for me. I hear ya on the protein thing....I've been using a really clean, diabetic friendly, protein whey isolate since December...I got tired of eating chicken all the time to keep my protein % up... 

@Steve - This is the post that transformed my workouts - http://www.leangains.com/2011/09/fuckarounditis.html 

As I read, I think the working out is a bit deceptive to weight loss, and I believe if you want to look more cut, just lose more weight. Once you get in your 50's, the muscle development is of minor value, compared to losing weight to show muscle structure. That's my thinking.  

When I was watching Bill Pearl, try to be the only bodybuilder to win Mr. Universe at age 20 and 40. He was lifting to refine muscle he already had, but diet was also a great focus for him. Was he building new muscle? I think that was minimal. 

Hey Warren...agreed, diet first and foremost....I've always been active, I've had muscles and really good cardio, even when I carried an extra 40 pounds or so of fat. My goal when starting this journey has been to improve my health while maintaining my muscle mass (strength) as best I can...as well as improving my endurance...best SUSTAINABLE power to weight ratio was and is my ultimate goal and will be my final maintenance weight too. So calories burnt while I'm working out (I call it training), while a very nice side benefit, are incidental to my main training goals, which are again strength and endurance. I'm already a bit cut, but I also still have nonessential fat weight that could go away...again trying to find that peak power to weight ratio. Hope that makes sense a bit of my current dilemma....I was worried that I had bypassed my best "power to weight ratio" number inadvertently.