General advice needed about muscle gain + fat loss!

[che0013]

Hi all,

I'm wanting to reduce my body fat. I think its around 20%. But I store most of it in my bum/top of thighs.

I would also like to increase muscle to fill me out and just to make me look better basically!

I don't know where to start.......should I be increasing my calories and trying to focus of building some muscle first? And then later on focus on fat reduction?

At the moment I am lightly active, so I have a calorie maintenance of around 1800 - 1900 cal/day.

Can anyone please give me some tips on how I should go about achieving my goals??

 

[Fitbyfifty]

The best resource I have found for changing body composition is the e-book Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle. Just Google it. The book is written by a professional body builder, not a nutritionist. He gives clear and concise advice on both losing fat and feeding muscle. The long and short of it is if you want to lose fat you need to restrict calories, to gain muscle you need to eat more, especially protein. In his Holy Grail book he talks about doing both simultaneously, basically it is all about managing your micro nutrients and doing the exact mix of heavy weight lifting and cardio. It takes a lot of diligence to do this, more than I have. Therefore, I am doing one at a time. I am starting with fat loss and later I will concentrate on gaining muscle. Look at Janiejoey thread, she is 61 years young and has done this, lost a lot of weight and is now building muscle.