Cathe or Anyone. Fat Loss Training Question

S

Stacy

Cathlete
I just finished STS for the first time. I definitely gained strength but I also gained size. My shirts in the shoulders/upper arms are much too tight. I definitely want to lose body fat but not all my hard earned muscle. I realize that I need a calorie deficit to do this. How do I effectively cut cals enough to lose body fat but still have enough energy to lift heavy enough to maintain muscle? I do not know my body fat % but I have the dreaded flabby triceps and I have a "muffin top" (sorry, I know not a pretty picture). But I can now use my 25 lb db's for chest flies and my 35 lb db's for back rows and I can bench press 80 lbs now :)

I've read to eat at 500 cals below maintenance. According to the formulas I've come across online, my maintenance cals are 1300, so my daily cals for fat loss would be 800 which of course is insane. (I'm 5'1" and an endo-meso body type)

How do I achieve my goals?? I want to decrease my muscular girth and gain definition.
 
I have read that 250 reduction is better than 500 for calorie adjustment.

Have you tried any HiiT for your cardio?
 
Yes, I've done HiiT. Have also done the LIS/XTrain rotation with no appreciable aesthetic results. If I cut cals below 1300 or even below 1500 I am too fatigued to do alot of my workouts effectively. I feel like I'm a constant state of maintenance despite doing alot of intense workouts. I do really love that I'm stronger and have more endurance, but I would love to feel more confident in my summer clothes especially with all the hard work I put in :(
 
Stacy - it does seem as thouh something is not quite right :( The calories are very low. It may be worth having more food on lifting days, and then cutting back on other days. Maybe have a week or two off weights. I always bloat when lifting heavy, and it's only when I have a bit of time off that I get 'cut' and all the hard work is revealed. 2 weeks won't cause muscle atrophy.

Also metabolic workouts give me the most defined look. I've learnt over the years to lift heavy in Winter and then change to metabolic + cardio for a 'Summer look' ;)

Best of luck,
I'm sure we'd all love to hear from Cathe on this one.
 
Also metabolic workouts give me the most defined look. I've learnt over the years to lift heavy in Winter and then change to metabolic + cardio for a 'Summer look' ;)

Interesting.......do you do any heavy lifting during the summer?
 
I had the same issue. I had followed STS with a CLX rotation and while I got much stronger and had greater endurance I also could not fit my arms into the sleeves of my sweaters and tee shirts nor my quads into my jeans. Plus heavy lifting made me hungry.
I did Tracy Anderson's Meta Omni and it slimmed everything down and cut my appetite.
I admit I no longer lift heavy and prefer lighter weights with more reps. That seems to work best for me. That said I really loved STS (not so much CLX) and would love for Cathe to make a STS2 with shorter w/o length like 30 min. I think she mentioned something about that.
 
Hi Mariposa and Momto4:
I'll try to answer both questions at once!
Yes, I do lift over the Summer, but not heavy - I keep the reps to 12+, so endurance-type lifting. It's enough to keep my muscles from atrophy.

My Summer schedule might go something like this:
Mon- Metabolic Weight training (eg Afterburn etc)
Tues - HiiT
Wed - total body weight training, mid to high reps (eg Muscle Endurance)
Thurs -Steady state cardio (I LOVE to kick box)
Friday - Metabolic
Sat - An outdoor activity - eg game of tennis, mountain biking, hill climbing etc
Sun - big pub lunch (I may walk there and back :p )

I also fit in yoga and Pilates where possible, and I walk my dogs every day.

I consider MWT to be anything where you lift weights quickly!!! By that I mean that my HR is 120-160 but I'm using weights (including body weight exercises). I don't have a list, but I include:
Bob Harper's Inside Out Method (any of them)
Cathe's Afterburn, Crossfire, Althletic Training, X10, Cardio Leg Blast etc
Jillian Michaels Burn Fat Boost Metabolism
K C-M's Circuit Burn etc

My leanest was when I used to box - but the routine was gruelling, and I was young. I also got great results from Insanity+P90X, and from Xtrain 90 day + Ultimate Yogi.

Before anyone says that I'm wrong and that you need to lift heavy to lean-out, I agree! I couldn't get lean without doing the heavy lifting over Winter. I take a body-building approach of bulking then cutting. I know we're all different though! :D

HTH
Justine
 
Thank you for all the responses! I'm getting ready to try my first Dream Body Cardio rotation, but fear there isn't enough heavy lifting, yet I want to be truly be able to see what these types of workouts will do for my body so I'm going to have to keep from myself from heavy lifting for awhile!
 
Justinef said:
Hi Mariposa and Momto4:
I'll try to answer both questions at once!
Yes, I do lift over the Summer, but not heavy - I keep the reps to 12+, so endurance-type lifting. It's enough to keep my muscles from atrophy.

My Summer schedule might go something like this:
Mon- Metabolic Weight training (eg Afterburn etc)
Tues - HiiT
Wed - total body weight training, mid to high reps (eg Muscle Endurance)
Thurs -Steady state cardio (I LOVE to kick box)
Friday - Metabolic
Sat - An outdoor activity - eg game of tennis, mountain biking, hill climbing etc
Sun - big pub lunch (I may walk there and back :p )

I also fit in yoga and Pilates where possible, and I walk my dogs every day.

I consider MWT to be anything where you lift weights quickly!!! By that I mean that my HR is 120-160 but I'm using weights (including body weight exercises). I don't have a list, but I include:
Bob Harper's Inside Out Method (any of them)
Cathe's Afterburn, Crossfire, Althletic Training, X10, Cardio Leg Blast etc
Jillian Michaels Burn Fat Boost Metabolism
K C-M's Circuit Burn etc

My leanest was when I used to box - but the routine was gruelling, and I was young. I also got great results from Insanity+P90X, and from Xtrain 90 day + Ultimate Yogi.

Before anyone says that I'm wrong and that you need to lift heavy to lean-out, I agree! I couldn't get lean without doing the heavy lifting over Winter. I take a body-building approach of bulking then cutting. I know we're all different though! :D

HTH
Justine
Click to expand...

I have the same approach except I throw in total body workouts and circuit stuff since they are good calorie burner and keep the muscle simulated.

I'm on a cut for bikini time this week schedule

High Reps
Petal Power
CrossFire
STS Total Body
ALL Out Low Impact
Lower Body Blast
 
Thank you . I was reading on Cathe page the circuits are good to burn fat, so only to change and confiuse my body to do a month of : Monday:pyramide upperbody, Tuesday pyramid lowerbody,Wednesday: any Kickbox,Thursday and Saturday: circuits,Friday: Hiit.
 
Hi Angela - I'd love to say that I considered it all very carefully and scientifically.....but I just did the Xtrain 90 day rotation in the morning and the UY 108 day rotation in the evening. Occasionally there was a clash (XTrain upper body strength + UY strength just wasn't going to happen in one day), but generally it all seemed to work out. The best combinations were those such as Xtrain CBT + UY Mountain series, or an Xtrain Strength + UY Cardio.
I always did the XTrain, and if I had to swap round UY I did so.

Through the whole rotation I didn't ever suffer DOMS, stiffness or injury. I found that yoga helped me squat lower, lunge deeper and dead-lift like a champ! I felt it in my shoulders (all those chatarungas), so took some shoulder presses cautiously.

Unbelievably, it was the yoga which was tougher! If you really mean it, the UY series is incredibly hard work.

I think it would be possible to alternate Xtrain and UY if you don't want to do doubles.

Would love to hear from others on this, and from you if you decide to go ahead.
Best of luck
 
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