Am I kicking my own ass as efficiently as I could be?

Factual Questions
1

Okay, so here’s my dilemma. I recently weighed in at 12 and a half stone. As possessor of a naturally lithe, wiry frame measuring 5ft 10in I found this unacceptable. I resolved to lose some excess flab by going on a diet and have achieved some measure of success, my last clash with the bathroom scales having indicated that I’d dropped to 11 stone 10 lbs.

So far so good, right? Well, not quite. Although I’ve lost 11 lbs. in quite a short time, my abdomen remains dismally ill defined. While, to my friends, I respond to inquiries into the motives behind my diet with the old saw about good cardiovascular health and stamina I, like every man who has ever dieted ever since the dawn of time sub[/sub] conceal the same ulterior motive: I just wanna look good naked.

I assumed, perhaps naively, that as a result of my diet I would lose my excess fat leaving a rippling set of washboard abs so ripped that they secrete their own baby oil. However, since a fair bit of fat is still hanging around my gut like a semi-deflated swimming aid, in spite of the fact that I’ve already dropped nearly a stone from my already ectomorphic frame, I’ve come to question whether dieting is really the best way to shed fat. Here, for your solving pleasure, are my questions:

  1. When you diet (ie. when you burn more calories than you consume on a daily basis) what, precisely, is being shed? Is it fat? Muscle tissue? A combination of both?

  2. Is there any truth to the statement “The only way to burn fat is to take regular cardiovascular exercise. Dieting alone will not cause you to burn any fat.”

  3. If the Silver Surfer were to take on Batman in a fight to the death, who wouldn’t not, not, fail not to lose?

  4. While I am aware that fat loss is facilitated by taking regular aerobic exercise, will I be able to achieve a decent set of abs without going down that road (so to speak)? In other words, will I be able to get my body fat percentage down to 10% (apparently the body fat percentage required before ones abs become visible) through dieting alone?
    Any and all assistance in this matter is greatly appreciated and will be duly repaid with copious amounts of beer/liquor/crystal meth should we ever meet at a Dopefest.

Regards,

griffen2.

2

I’m no expert, but I’ll share with you what I’ve learned over the years – some of it by watching my friends go through similar experiences.

First of all, are you certain the excess is fat, or possibly loose skin? Keep in mind that while you might loose fat quite rapidly, the skin which used to cover it does not disappear at the same rate i.e. don’t assume you aren’t being successful in dropping the fat!

It depends very much on what you’re eating. Simplistically: the primary source of energy for your body is carbohydrates (starches & sugars). If you don’t get “enough” of these to support your activity level, your body turns to its fat stores, if any, which is the second-most efficient source of energy. When it runs out of fat stores, it will start using muscle tissue. The low-carb diets which are all the rage (at least here in the USA) basically starve the body of carbs and force it to burn fat reserves while maintaining (presumably) muscle via adequate protein consumption.

Which leads to another point: you can exercise all you want, but if you don’t eat enough protein, you won’t build muscle.

Overall, I’d have to say, yes this is so: you may cut down on your body’s caloric intake, but unless you drastically alter your activity level – thus requiring more calories, from whatever source – you aren’t going to burn much fat. Plus, in dieting alone you are just teaching your body how to cope with starvation (after a fashion); you are not altering your overall metabolism.

I cannot speak to the issue of %age of body fat. But dieting alone will not produce the so-called “washboard abs”. All dieting will do is strip away the fat overlaying your muscles; the shape and definition of those muscles depends entirely on how you use them i.e. exercise which targets them.

This is sort of the reverse fallacy that plagues some exercising dieters: they expect to burn fat in specific places on their bodies by doing exercises which target those areas. But all they’re really doing is developing the muscles underneath the fat. In order to burn fat best, you need to engage in whole-body exercise – you cannot target fat loss in specific areas with specific exercises.

Unlikely, but a fine Rioja or a Stoli Cosmo will do nicely! Best of luck to you – what you’re doing requires a level of self-control which I’m not sure I could maintain.

And I hope this helps in some way.

Jerevan

3

Sounds bogus to me. If you take in fewer calories than your body needs – for whatever reason – it will start to burn the fat stores. That’s what they’re for. I’ve lost almost 25 pounds in the last three months primarily through diet, and I know I haven’t been doing enough exercise to shed all that.

Errr… Norrin Radd in two rounds. Bat-gadgets are no match for the Power Cosmic.

4

When you diet, you lose BOTH fat and muscle, unfortunately. Which leads me to…

If you only diet, you will indeed lose fat but also muscle. (see above). If you haven’t been exercising as well, this net muscle loss will not be cancelled out by a cardio and weight-training induced muscle gain, which in the end means that when you finish the diet and go back to eating normally, you’ll have LESS muscle than you had before. This is bad, because it means that your metabolism will be slower and your bodyfat percentage will be higher than before you dieted. You have to fight against this muscle-loss by doing weights and cardio.

Yes…but it’ll be bloody hard. Think about it this way: if you exercise and lift weights, you will proportionally increase your lean muscle-mass. This means your bodyfat will proportionally decrease. So it will be much easier to achieve 10% bodyfat if you build up your muscles and your cardiovascular fitness.
Good luck!

5

If you increase muscle mass (and I’m not talking Charles Atlas, here) your body will use more calories all the time, even when you’re just sitting around.

As far as the batman, I know nothing of cricket. Sorry.