Hey all. I'm new here, but I've found a lot of informative posts and have been lurking for quite some time. First some history on me...I started working out January. I was 5'11" 200 lb, and was down to 165 lb by late March. I was working at the gym every other day, then somewhere in there I figured that going every day would be twice as good, adding in nightly 1-mile runs. Well, after about 6 weeks of my weight being stable I figured I was overworking my muscles wayyyyy too much. Now I'm weightlifting twice a week, about 30 min each session (I do the 2 set per muscle routine, first set as a warmup, second set do about 10-20 reps until failure, then move to next muscle). I also play tennis 2 days out of the week, about an hour and 30 minutes. My question, however, is nutrition. I've gained some muscle around my body lately but I still have about a half inch layer of fat around my abs and elsewhere. I can tell I have some ab muscle underneath, but its not tone. Most of my body isn't tone, and that's the problem. I think what confuses a lot of us is what diet we need to have to gain muscle and lose fat, since for gaining muscle you need to eat a LOT and for losing fat you need to eat minimally. Right now I eat about 3000 calories per day and I'm putting all my faith into my body to use those into building muscle, not more fat. I don't want to be skinny, I want to be bulky and tone. I eat plenty of protien, carbs, fruits, veggies, etc., you name it. I'm also eating those protien bars, 1 per day now. How do you know when your body is using the calories for muscle building and not storing fat?
I'm wary of doing more cardio because i don't want to lose the precious muscle I've gained by overworking them. I'm also weary of eating less "fatty" foods because those foods are the ones with insane amounts of protien. Should I just keep faith in what I'm doing now? I'm only 1 week into this plan but I'd like to be toned and muscular by mid september. That gives me like 14 weeks. I just wanna be like those tennis players I see here at school who play without their shirts and are hella toned.
Thanks for any help!
I'm wary of doing more cardio because i don't want to lose the precious muscle I've gained by overworking them. I'm also weary of eating less "fatty" foods because those foods are the ones with insane amounts of protien. Should I just keep faith in what I'm doing now? I'm only 1 week into this plan but I'd like to be toned and muscular by mid september. That gives me like 14 weeks. I just wanna be like those tennis players I see here at school who play without their shirts and are hella toned.
Thanks for any help!