Can you help me get my calorie consumption right to build muscle and lose fat?

"You can't have your cake and lose fat too"

In other words, you have to either focus your efforts on losing fat (and at the same time maintaining as much muscle as possible) or gaining muscle.

This is because to gain, you have to eat more calories than you burn off and there will always be some excess that will be stored as fat.

To lose, you have to eat fewer calories so that the body accesses its stored body fat for fuel and this results in fat loss and this won't happen unless calories are low enough to cause weight loss.

If you are just starting training or just upping the intensity of your training, you may be able to build muscle and burn fat at the same time but once you've followed an effective training program for about 18 months or more, unless you have very fortunate genetics, you cannot build muscle and burn fat at the same time. This would be like the equivalent of going out and partying every night at university and expecting to get A+ grades - it will only happen if you are one of those very fortunate individuals who has a photographic memory and unusually high IQ!

General caloric recommendations for most adults is approximately 2,000 cal/day. If you're looking for specific recommendations, I would recommend that you seek out a registered dietitian who can prescribe a specific diet based on your current body weight and goals. I recommend that people seek out working with an RD, someone who usually has graduate level training in nutrition and has done a clinical internship in nutrition.

Carrying weight around your belly significantly increases your risk of developing chronic disease such as diabetes and heart disease. I would suggest that you first aim for achieving a waist measurement
The catch is that there is no such thing as spot reducing (i.e. you can't just do abdominal exercises to reduce your belly fat). You'll lose weight first wherever your body decides that it wants to lose weight first. Weight loss is best achieved by combining healthy diet choices with regular exercise (research now shows that accumulating AT LEAST 150 min/week results in significant health benefits). If you continue to exercise while aiming to make healthy diet changes, you'll not only help improve your health, but you'll start to notice all of that muscle that has been hiding underneath fat stores. And you should start to see that six-pack that's hiding underneath your belly soon!

I hope this was helpful!

Thank`s Mark, so would you still suggest a low fat + carb diet and high protein

Thanks Lauren, so would you still suggest a low fat + carb diet and high protein

Hi,

There was an article in New England Journal of Medicine Feb 2010, I think, that compared individuals on all different diets (ie Atkins, South Beach, etc) and they found that no matter what diet the subjects were on, they lost weight when they decreased the number of calories they ate. The study was very well done and it basically ended the discussion on what kind of diet is best for weight loss.

The moral of the story is make healthy diet choices more often than not and that simple changes like substituting sodas and juices for diet options or water will go a long way.

Keep up your exercise and you should start to see things moving in the right direction.

I'm looking at this on my phone and for an unknown reason the info I mentioned about waist circumference got cut off. It is recommended that men aim for a waist circumference less than 102 cm/40 in. Remember waist circumference is measured at the navel around to the top of the hips.

Best of luck!!

Thanks Lauren... will keep you informed

Hi All,

A few comments...

yes, an RD (Registered Dietician) is assured to have excellent credentials and several years of academic (and usually practical) training in nutritional science. However, from my experience, many of them don't follow the scientific research on fat loss or building muscle.

I have a 4-year degree in nutrition and have studied exercise physiology but didn't pursue "RD" status. I also have almost two decades of working with elite bodybuilders and athletes though...and those guys don't get paid unless they outperform their competition!

That brings me to the study that compared various diets. There are many facts that are in dispute in the dietetic community but the balance of the evidence CLEARLY favours substituting carbohydrates with protein. Even the head of the World Health Organization Obesity Forum has finally come out and concluded that higher-protein diets decrease hunger, increase metabolic rate and lead to better weight loss...so bodybuilders have had it right all along!