I am in the process of building my muscles back up after three months of not doing very much (boy do you lose it fast). Before the op I was trying to lose weight, this I managed, losing over a stone last year. I read somewhere last year that you can either diet or build muscle but it is hard to do both. At the time I remember thinking well thats not right, here I am losing weight and toning up, so I don't quite agree with that.
I'm in the process of changing my mind on this now. I promised myself that for 6 months to possibly a year I am just going to maintain my weight. There are two reasons for this. 1) the body needs to heal in places I can't see and the remaining kidney needs to have as much support as possible to bed into doing the job on its own. 2) MrRfc has started cooking again, boy can that man cook up some good stuff. (This week - crispy skin Sea Bass with samphire and asparagus with a cream and cherry tomato sauce with brown rice. YUM.) I don't want to take the joy away from him of going into the kitchen and cooking up a storm while wondering how many calories are in it. Luckily he doesn't cook every day otherwise We wouldn't keep the weight off or afford it 😀😀😀.
My exercise regime is getting close to normal now. I swim, long walk or hike, run, gym and core/Pilates. My weight is stable but I am finding with maintaining my weight there is a slight difference from last year. I am building muscle faster and toning up quicker and my recovery time is less. I jump around 2-4 oz a week but I have lost an inch off my stomach, this is probably down to some very heavy core work that I have been doing over the last month but it is still a bigger result than before.
I do know that in the past training for a HM I will not lose any weight because I need to fuel my runs, and I do that as matter of course but now I'm beginning to think dieting is not the best way forward for good tone alone.
So I was wondering do any of you have any thoughts on dieting and toning. Or am I late to the party here realising that it really is one or the other.
Wishing you all a happy healthy weekend
Rfcx.
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Realfoodieclub
Graduate10
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I think the advice about not dieting while building muscles comes from the type of guys who like to hang around in gyms in their tank tops with the arm-openings way below their belly button, pumping iron for a dozen hours at a time and drinking protein shakes by the gallons.
For the more ahem normal of us, I don't see a problem in strengthening yourself while also losing some weight.
Im with Tomas on this, i guess if you are a body builder type this would be a concern because they want to build additional mass. From what I understand they then restrict their diet to loose all fat and allow the definition of their larger muscles to show through..... or something like that! But essentially you want to strengthen and tone your current body without building additional mass, so you should be ok to watch your diet.
I am convinced that the problem with us all today - is that high calorie density food and drinks are too readily available and cheap - and this is what is making us fat. I have thought about what is so different today to what it was 50 years ago when I first became an adult --- and two things really stand out to me - supermarkets and booze. When I was younger there were NO supermarkets ( which are packed with cheap high energy density processed foods) - and I can remember the very first ones here. Also the amount of booze ( especially wine) that is drunk now on a regular basis far exceeds what people drank or could even afford to drink back then. There is a third matter too - the proliferation of cafes and restaurants . I can remember a time when there was the corner Chinese restaurant and the fish and chip shop and that was about it!!! So for me, a combination of cardio exercise like running combined with weight and balance exercising plus the avoidance of high energy density food, processed food and restaurant/cafe food is about all we can do.
You don't need to "be on a diet" - you need to "have a diet" and part of that is to watch out for those things above - re the "cream and cherry tomato sauce" - sounds delicious - but a tablespoonfull, not a platefull!!!
I guess maybe I phrased the question wrong. It's not whether I should or should not diet it is that my recovery is better when not "dieting". i.e. A calorie deficit to lose weight. I always eat a good diet and never eat processed foods, I have just noticed my recovery is better when eating and not trying to lose weight. Also I am building muscle faster like I used to before endlessly trying to lose weight. The question was more about the different processes the body goes through to build muscle as oppose to lose fat.
The simple fact of the matter is that, other than in very very specific circumstances, you cannot burn fat and build muscle simultaneously. Burning fat requires you to be in caloric deficit, building muscle requires caloric surplus. It is simple law of thermodynamics stuff.
For athletes, knuckle dragging bodybuilders and aesthetically obsessed narcissists, this requires a delicate balancing act, juggling cycles on bulk/cut and endless obsessing over macros and a lot of broccoli, brown rice and chicken.
If you build muscle, you increase weight. That is a pretty obvious given. But it is a very slow process. Putting on 10lbs of muscle in a year would take hours of work consistently every day and a massive caloric surplus. Returning your muscles to their former size is going to be relatively negligible in absolute weight terms.
The other side of this is that if you are building muscle and maintaining caloric surplus to do so, it is almost impossible to do so without gaining a bit of fat. Just as it is very hard to lose weight without losing some lean mass along the way.
On the plus side though, the more lean muscle mass you gain, the higher your metabolism so the more food you can eat, and, at such point as you decide you want to lose a lb or 2 of fat, it will slip off much easier. It is the reverse of the problem most yo-yo dieters have.
It's about healthy eating, rather than being on a diet. You need some good food to fuel your activity and maintain good health. You eat to match your workload 🙂 You'll get it sorted but it takes a bit of trial and error
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