Help! Confused re: Diet & Lifting for fat loss

[el dano]

28 yrs old
6'
250lbs
~27% bf

i just finished 12 weeks of TT and my weight is exactly the same.

is the only difference between cutting and bulking caloric intake? can you do the same routine and get different results simply by eating more or eating less? up until now i was a big believer in the power of lifting to lose fat, but now i'm not so sure. i held onto the belief that you lift one way to gain muscle and lift another way to lose fat. in light of my recent experience, i'm prepared to throw all of that out the window. what do you guys say?

the only time in my life that i've lost weight was when i was on Adams Diet, but i didn't lift or do cardio. i'm at an all-time high scale wise, so i plan on hitting my diet hard over the next couple of months. i just feel lost as far as the gym component goes. any advice is appreciated. thanks!

[Lost Dog]

Yes. A calorie deficit will have you losing weight/fat and a caloric surplus will have you gaining. This is a generality, but true almost all of the time.

There are occasions when you can lose fat and gain muscle at the same timie, just like you can gain fat and lose muscle... But, in general, it's safe to assume that you've got to take in less to lose fat.

There are different styles of lifting that can effect how fast you lose, but you still have to eat less to lose. TT is an excellent program, but if you eat poorly, you'll likely have results that aren't what you want.

If Adam's Diet worked with NO exercise, imagine how well it's going to work tomorrow, when you eat that way and start up the next TT routine!

[BFG]

average calorie burn from a weights routine 380
average calorie burn from CV 400 cals

sitting on your a*** eating a deficit of 500 calories priceless

somethings in life money cant buy

Diet dictates weight loss or weight gain

[TITAN]

But you can also cut too many calories and go into starvation mode. So, you need to hit the sweet spot where you come up a few hundred calories short every day.
Too many calories = weight gain
Not enough calories = muscle loss = %BF goes up

Its not "losing weight" its losing body fat that you are after. If I have abs at 250 pounds, thats fine with me. Forget "weight" it does not measure what you want to track. Set yourself up with a mild calorie deficit every day and you will lose the fat.

[el dano]

Originally Posted by TITAN

Its not "losing weight" its losing body fat that you are after. If I have abs at 250 pounds, thats fine with me. Forget "weight" it does not measure what you want to track. Set yourself up with a mild calorie deficit every day and you will lose the fat.

i'm well past the point of learning that weight is (almost) insignificant and that BF and body composition are what really matter. it upsets me when infomercials, tv shows and trainers talk about "weight" loss. what we all want to lose is fat. same thing goes for "toning." i hate it when people list it as a goal.

in my case, my BF is so high that it translates to roughly 67lbs of fat. when i said losing weight i was referring to this weight.

any more thoughts on my original post? is the only difference between "cutting" and "bulking" the calories? i've seen lots of articles lately that promote compound lifts and 8 or less reps for fat loss, and previously i think most sources listed compound lifts and low reps as the way to add size.

[Lisa~]

There's a very similar thread going on in the training forum.

What Makes Fat Loss Occur - Diet/Workout Questions