Losing fat as fast as possible, and preparing to bulk - tell me the smart way please

[Chris Miller]

I have read so much information and everything contridicts each other. I just want to get the fat skinny (no pun intended) Here is a quick rundown of my situation, and my long term goals.

I am 24 years old, male 5'11 and 196lbs. I have no real lifting experience but I used to work out regularly 7 years ago so I have some decent muscle on most of my body. The problem is, I started eating nothing but fast food, and have been for 7 years taking in an estimated 5k calories per day. My guess is that I must have a very high metabolism because anyone else would probably be 500 lbs by now, but it seems as though I have only added any real noticable fat to my belly and chest. Body fat as measured by a caliper seems to be at about 30%.

My situation is this.... I have ditched all fast food and sweets, and started eating right and my goal is to get all this fat off me in 12 weeks time. I now have a membership to Bally's and the ambition to go every day. I love working muscles but I know cardio is key right now and from what I have read I need to concentrate on low intensity, long duration for max fat loss.

My question is, how many calories should I be taking in? I hear a lot of stuff about how I should only lose 2 lbs per week to avoid losing muscle but I honestly dont know how concerned I should be about this. I just want the weight off, and fast, so that I can start working on getting ripped. I really just want to eat next to nothing, do tons of cardio and worry about gaining muscle later but I dont want to do more harm than good.

So what should I do?

How many calories should I be eating? Different sites tell me different things.

Would it hurt to stay at a really low calorie level (say 1200) ?

Is it true that my body might go into shock now that I dropped from 5k calories down to 1800 or so and could it start storing fat? If so, to what degree? Is this really worth worrying about?

Should I continue lifting weights or just concentrate on cardio until the fat is gone?

I am ready to change my life, but I am in a unique situation with wanting fast results, and completely changing my eating and excercise habits. I just dont want to do anything that could slow down the fat loss or hender my long term goal which is bulking up.

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!

[Chris Miller]

Also, I am willing to do cardio as many times a day, and as many times a week necessary to lose this fat in the shortest time possible. I just dont want to overdo it if I will end up having the opposite results somehow.

I look forward to your replies on making the most out of the next 12 weeks. I also plan to start a journal and track my progress!

[lilmase1153]

avant labs (http://www.mindandmuscle.net/page.php?pageID=314&issueID=26) read this it may help you.. its quite similar to a psmf diet which is one of the best diets for rapid weightloss but requires much more dedication than most diets..

if you do not know what the psmf diet is. just use the search button and you will plenty of info..

good luck

[SilverSonic]

Yes, a psmf will rip that fat off you... I think psychologically its easier than a normal diet because its so much faster







Also you may want to look into HIIT, if you have had a sedentary type of life so far, this should really fire things up


An example of HIIT is this

start >> warm up

1 minute 20kph

1 minute 10kph

Repeat until 30 minutes are up



Thats an advanced level of HIIT, all you should do is turn down the intensity until you can *just* finish the last interval. Im speculating here but its better IMO to compromise the slower intervals than the faster ones... See the body composition differences between a sprinter and a marathon runner???

[SDhick]

You need to eat right, lift weights and do some HIIT for the best results just cardio is not going to give the best results, weight lifting will help you look alot better but if you starve yourself your only losing muscle mass.

[wannabe8]

I've recently read an ebook BFFM (burn the fat feed the muscle) By Tom Venuto. I believe it has great info for doing exactly what you want. Mainly heaps of cardio and still fairly heavly lifting. It apparently takes more musle to burn more fat. So i would suggest not skipping your weights

[Shao-LiN]

You should be lifting whether you are cutting or bulking. How do you expect to maintain lean body mass if you decide to stop lifting when you diet?

[Chris Miller]

Thanks for all the replies so far. I definately plan to lift some while trying to lose the fat but I just dont want to focus too much on it unless it is really necessary. I will look into the suggestions made so far, and welcome any others.

Thanks again!

[Chris Miller]

I am interested in this psmf diet but there seem to be no threads that really cover it in detail. I see a lot of mention, but no details.

Is this basically eating no carbs and bringing your body into ketosis and refeeding every couple of weeks? I had good results with a diet like this in the past, but I never had energy and it was tough eating all that protein and fat with no carbs. Plus the cravings killed me. Regardless, i'm willing to try something like this again if you all believe its the best bet.

Thanks

[EdgeCrusher]

I am interested in this psmf diet but there seem to be no threads that really cover it in detail. I see a lot of mention, but no details.

Is this basically eating no carbs and bringing your body into ketosis and refeeding every couple of weeks? I had good results with a diet like this in the past, but I never had energy and it was tough eating all that protein and fat with no carbs. Plus the cravings killed me. Regardless, i'm willing to try something like this again if you all believe its the best bet.

Thanks

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/

[Chiznarles]

lift heavy weights and you WILL burn fat.. trust me on this.. cardio only takes you so far.. you'll be lighter, but you won't look good.. get some muscle, the fat loss will come.

[Chris Miller]

Just wanted to post a quick update and to say that I decided to give the PSMF a go. Been on for 4 days now and lost approx 5 lbs of what is probably water weight.

I plan to start a journal soon.

[mikren]

update ? How's the diet going ?

[Built]

You need to eat right, lift weights and do some HIIT for the best results just cardio is not going to give the best results, weight lifting will help you look alot better but if you starve yourself your only losing muscle mass.


Agree.

Cardio is not key. DIET is key. Lifting is a necessity - not only will you be able to maintain some muscle, but having had such a long time off, you'll actually get some newbie muscle gains while it helps you drop fat to put ON this muscle.

[Atomical]

Cardio is key. I think most people here, at least I've heard it said several times, are interested in fast results. Or at least somewhat fat. I can't think of anything worse than cutting cardio out of your program. I'm on schedule to lose 3lbs+ this week.

[BigDanStud]

Hit the Weights and Cardio. Nuff said.

Big Dan

[Built]

I never said not to do any. But cardio won't fix what your diet has wrong with it. Cutting is mostly diet.

[IZich]

I never said not to do any. But cardio won't fix what your diet has wrong with it. Cutting is mostly diet.
:withstupi