Prioritizing Fat Loss w/ Bodybuilding

Ted said:

When I was in my late teens and early twentys I was very much into
bodybuilding. Now just about a decade has past of almost no training
or anything and I've become, well, chubby. To make matters worse,
I've lost pretty much all of my major muscle mass. The thing I hate
the most, however, is the extra fat so that is what I want to attack
first: shedding the extra blubber, about 20lbs. of it.

My question is if I am solely concerned, at least initially, about
shedding excess fat, how much real "bodybuilding" training should I
focus on? I was thinking that anything more than a couple of full

You're overthinking this by a long shot. When you start out, you will enjoy
"rapid beginner gains". That means you will both get a lot stronger, and
lose body fat. Just get enough protein, don't eat too much junk food, lift,
and get some cardio exercise.

Cheers,
--
Donovan Rebbechi
http://pegasus.rutgers.edu/~elflord/

"Ted" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

When I was in my late teens and early twentys I was very much into
bodybuilding. Now just about a decade has past of almost no training
or anything and I've become, well, chubby. To make matters worse,
I've lost pretty much all of my major muscle mass. The thing I hate
the most, however, is the extra fat so that is what I want to attack
first: shedding the extra blubber, about 20lbs. of it.

My question is if I am solely concerned, at least initially, about
shedding excess fat, how much real "bodybuilding" training should I
focus on? I was thinking that anything more than a couple of full
body workouts a week might be more than I recover from, given that my
diet will be low in calories. I know one of my goals should be to
preserve what muscle mass I do have, but how much training does it
take to maintain muscle mass, and how much is just unnecessary, or
even counterproductive given the low calorie diet? I'd rather just do
other activities as a means of burning excess calories if a more
comprehensive split program of bodybuilding would just have me
spinning my wheels, as I doubt I could gain any real muscle while
dieting to lose fat anyway.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Just getting back into things, focus on form, and fairly high rep stuff
(that is the 15 -10 rep range--hold off on going heavy for a few months) to
allow you get the groove and build connective tissue.
I love the full body workout 3X week YMMV
After a few months, you may want to get into this:
http://www.hypertrophy-specific.com/hst_index.html
--
Dr. Dickie
Skepticult member in good standing #394-00596-438
Poking kooks with a pointy stick.
"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new
discoveries,
is not 'Eureka!' ('I found it!'😉, but rather 'hmm....that's funny...'"
- Isaac Asimov

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

When I was in my late teens and early twentys I was very much into
bodybuilding. Now just about a decade has past of almost no training
or anything and I've become, well, chubby. To make matters worse,
I've lost pretty much all of my major muscle mass. The thing I hate
the most, however, is the extra fat so that is what I want to attack
first: shedding the extra blubber, about 20lbs. of it.

My question is if I am solely concerned, at least initially, about
shedding excess fat, how much real "bodybuilding" training should I
focus on? I was thinking that anything more than a couple of full
body workouts a week might be more than I recover from, given that my
diet will be low in calories. I know one of my goals should be to
preserve what muscle mass I do have, but how much training does it
take to maintain muscle mass, and how much is just unnecessary, or
even counterproductive given the low calorie diet?

IMO, one of your goals should be to increase your muscle mass, not just
maintain it because every pound of mucscle you add burns 40 extra
calories per day AT REST. Add a few pounds of muscle and you will be
burning an extra 1000 calories a week. This is why programs like Body
For Life work so well compared to the standard low calorie diet. A low
calorie diet (supplemented with cardio), will produce quicker results on
the scale but is more prone to plataeu and re-gain (due to a slower
ending metabolism) and the body you end up with will have a higher body
fat percentage than a program where the fat loss is caused by an
increased metabolism due to added muscle. You just need to have a
little more patience doing it this way because in the first month or two
as you trade fat for muscle, the results may not show up on the scale
but you're building the foundation for a more permanent solution.

Quoted message said:

I'd rather just do
other activities as a means of burning excess calories if a more
comprehensive split program of bodybuilding would just have me
spinning my wheels, as I doubt I could gain any real muscle while
dieting to lose fat anyway.

Thanks for any suggestions.