My Qs, Hoping for the As

[kgreen06]

those are not weightlifting shoes... get the .5" do-wins from Rogue Fitness. Or if those are out if stock and you just can't wait, pick up a pair of the Adidas powerlift Trainers

And that belt sucks... I made the mistake of getting one of those from Amazon early on as well. Get a belt from Best Belts and you will be happy.

[Sean Herbison]

Nope, Fat Loss seems easy... Muscle gain does not seem easy. IMO Muscle > Fat Loss.

Then 1400 calories and 100g of protein is way too little. If you haven't already, you'll lose a substantial amount of muscle with that diet.

Currently what I decided on:
Squat Shoes
and
Belt

If you're going to spend $120 on shoes, you can get some good weighlifting shoes with a solid raised heel.

Get a different belt, too. By definition, a belt that is wider in back is not properly made. It should be the same width all around, like this: http://www.amazon.com/Leather-Power-...551085&sr=8-10, or a Best Belt, as discussed here: http://startingstrength.com/resource...t=27295&page=1

[MAD-DUKE]

Im not sure how to stop muscle loss completely, even if I ate more wouldn't I just be slowing the process down? How do I gain muscle while losing weight? :-P

Thanks both of you.
I carted that belt PEBCAK recommended.
.60 adidas lifter? However I thought I didn't want heels for squats? Im new so I'll go with this.. Still gonna be about a week or two because I can get these items.

Thanks again !!

[kgreen06]

That is the Adidas I was referring to but these are, IMO, a better quality shoe and a better weightlifting shoe:
http://www.roguefitness.com/rogue-we...s-1-2-heel.php

And they're in stock right now so you're lucky...

I own both btw

[veryhrm]

...
Nope, Fat Loss seems easy... Muscle gain does not seem easy. IMO Muscle > Fat Loss. Im sure I could come up with a compromise between the two. Or what i'm aiming for is to reap the benefits of a novice and finish fat loss later if not combined.
...

board's bad influence: +1
veryhrm: +0

But i certainly 2nd posting in Jordan's forum. He's actually one of the few strong and lean individuals around here!

Hold off on buying a leather belt. One thing to note is that belts have a relatively limited adjustment range ( maybe +/-3"). At what i assume is your size, if you buy a belt that fits you now it'll probably be too big by the time you actually need it. (assuming you continue losing weight).

(oh. and BMI is just weight / height / height. The omeron is just telling you that because you're telling it how tall you are and how much you weigh :-)
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines/...MI/bmicalc.htm BMI is a rough metric at best. Especially once you get back to lifting you're better off ignoring it.)

...

This is just to satisfy my curiosity, but what's your bf% like? More specifically have you previously been high bf (say... >30%) for some time and then achieved and maintained low bf (say <20%) for some time?

I keep hearing about how easy it is to lose fat... yet i've encountered rather few such people on this board.

[Sean Herbison]

Im not sure how to stop muscle loss completely, even if I ate more wouldn't I just be slowing the process down? How do I gain muscle while losing weight?

Primarily by lifting. You'll often hear people say you absolutely can't gain muscle while you're in a caloric deficit. This is just false, and bad science. You can't gain weight while you're in a caloric deficit, but you can gain muscle. It's not ideal, but it is possible. Especially if you're overweight.

However I thought I didn't want heels for squats?

Rip explains this much better than I can, and it's in SSBBT and possibly PPST. However, even if you choose a shoe without a raised heel, it's still worth it in order to get the noncompressible heel. Louis Simmons likes Chuck Taylors, and those things are tough.

Personally, I have VS Athletics shoes, which have quite a bit of a heel. Too much, actually, for most shorter people. I wear them for everything except deadlifts.

[Sean Herbison]

This is just to satisfy my curiosity, but what's your bf% like? More specifically have you previously been high bf (say... >30%) for some time and then achieved and maintained low bf (say <20%) for some time?

I keep hearing about how easy it is to lose fat... yet i've encountered rather few such people on this board.

Well, I've never been >30%, but I did get up to 25% at one point. In 2012, I went from 25% in March to a bit under 15% in May, as measured by DEXA. According to a bodpod, I was 16% as of last month.

I've been as low as ~8%, but eating to maintain that wasn't very condusive for training, so I didn't stay there. But, while keeping in mind that I'm young and male, it wasn't really that hard to get there. Just keep your calories low and add in a bunch of cardio. I did keto, but that's more out of simplicity than something magical about keto.

[veryhrm]

Well, I've never been >30%, but I did get up to 25% at one point. In 2012, I went from 25% in March to a bit under 15% in May, as measured by DEXA. According to a bodpod, I was 16% as of last month.
...

25% to < 15% in 2 months ?! That's not too shabby. Let's see. assuming an LBM of 140 (no idea how tall you are or what you weigh) that would be 186 -> 164. ~2.75lbs/week. at LBM 160... that would be 213-> 188 or ~3.1lbs/week. Pretty nice. Were you in the fat state for any length of time?

---
@Milo... curiosity got the better of me and i went snooping in the archives. I hope you take the following observations in the humorous spirit in which they are offered:

You at one point said: " 193 pounds (up from 165 when I started) at 5’11, BF has gone from 11-12% to 16-17%... Also, had my fat measured again today - it's crept up to ~19%. "

Several months later (and actually just several weeks ago) you said, in praise of Jordan's advice:
"I'm back to hitting PRs on my lifts (nothing impressive, trust me) after a hiatus, but this time I'm about 10 pounds lighter and much less sloppy-looking than I was during my first run on SS. "

Given your expectations of your own weight and body composition, are you SURE you want to confidently tell a guy the same height as you but who weighs 278lbs (down from a lot more) that he should increase his calories ?

[Sean Herbison]

25% to < 15% in 2 months ?! That's not too shabby. Let's see. assuming an LBM of 140 (no idea how tall you are or what you weigh) that would be 186 -> 164. ~2.75lbs/week. at LBM 160... that would be 213-> 188 or ~3.1lbs/week. Pretty nice. Were you in the fat state for any length of time?

6'5," and I was around 240 at the start of that. According to the DEXA, I lost 11kg of fat and gained 1.5kg of lbm. I was over 20% for a while, moving to 25% over a few months.

[Sean Herbison]

Given your expectations of your own weight and body composition, are you SURE you want to confidently tell a guy the same height as you but who weighs 278lbs (down from a lot more) that he should increase his calories ?

And I realize this wasn't directed at me, but I'll address it anyway. I wouldn't recommend a huge increase in calories, nothing around an overall surplus, because I think at this point he could do with losing more weight. But I would recommend bumping them up to the neighborhood of 2000. Obviously, this depends highly on the individual, but in general, I think 1400 is far too low for someone, especially male, who will be weight training.