Hi,

Probably it's a recurrent question, sorry.

Actually I do resistance training (combination of pushups, pullups, chinups, squats, bodylastics... depends on the week) 3 times a week. And Tabata HIIT another 2 or 3 times a week.

My goal is to lose fat and gain muscle. I chose "Active" as the activity factor, and currently I'm eating 17 blocks daily: 16,4 base + 1 for the muscle.

I'm not hungry, and apparently I recover well from the exercise.

Here are my questions:

- Am I eating enough blocks? How do I know? What's my activity factor based on the previous routine?

- What are the effects of eating too much blocks? You gain fat or simply you don't lose fat?

Thank you very much.

I'm just curious, what is tabata?

Hi maureen,

It's a form of HIIT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-i...l_training

Tabata is the hardest and meanest trick ever played on the human race. I love it! Actually, you should google it. In a nut shell its HIIT. Example: Body squats. Do squats for 20 seconds as fast as you can- leave nothing on the table! Then rest for 10 seconds. Then do it again. Repeat 8 times and LEAVE NOTHING ON THE TABLE during each 20 second interval- this is key.

Jeff

Hi Jeff, http://www.drsears.com/ZoneResource...fault.aspx Copy & Past, this is how you determine your blocks, there is an activity factor as part of this calculator.

Carlos, not hungry and good recovery are good indications. If you are not losing LBM, 17 blocks is most likely appropriate for you.


I know a couple people in the Zone who train in a way very similar to you. In addition they do a little aerobic training (minimal) several days a week. They use Very Active, and they double the amount of monounsaturated fat that is usually added to Zone meals. Eating extra monounsaturated fat provides additional energy and is not limited to only doubling the usual amount; it's a Zone recommendation for athletes as well as others in the Zone, for various reasons.

When you eat too many blocks you will gain body fat. Here are some things to think about. Dietary protein beyond the amount your body requires will be stored as body fat. Eating too many calories for your needs, even if they are eaten in "Zone balanced" proportions, increases your glucose levels, which elevates your insulin level to a point where you'll go out of the Zone.

Good luck to you!

Thank you for the replies.

Apparently I haven't lost LBM in this 4 weeks, and I'm losing fat!

But one of my goals was to gain muscle, hence the extra block, from 16 to 17.

With the Very Active factor, the number of blocks increases to 18 (19).

Sue, what will you do in my case?

As I said, I want to gain some muscle, but also lose fat (from 12% to 8-10%), and if 19 blocks is too many for me... I'll gain fat.

Maybe the only way to know is trying, but I don't know what to look at.

Thank you very much.

Like I said, with no hunger and good recovery, and now to add to it not losing any LBM on 16 blocks), I think 17 is probably appropriate for you to increase muscle. Like the saying goes, if it's not broken don't try to fix it. Keep in touch. I'm happy to try to help.

Hi, In the last weeks I've been having stiffness (not too much) and lack of energy at certains moments. The difficulty of the weight exercises has increased, and I changed the Tabata session of tuesday for another type of HIIT: running 1 minute at 90-100%, rest 2 minutes, multiple rounds. Apart from that, I do 45-60 min of "aerobic running" on thursdays, but I live in a mountain town, so it's really hard with all that steep stopes. I haven't doubled the amount of fat, but I'm very generous. Again, I'm not having cravings, but maybe it's because I eat every 2-3 hours. I can't say nothing about the LBM because I don't now :-/ Questions: - It is time to increase the number of blocks? - If I'm eating less blocks than necessary, apart from losing LBM... will I continue to lose fat or that will stop? - If you double the amount of fat, you lose fat? Thank you very much and sorry for my poor english!! PS: sorry, something happened with the formatting and editing the post doesn't help.

You can put your stats into the calculator (refer to Tech Support's post in this thread) to see if yoru block recommendation has changed.  Your activity level would probably be either active or very active based on the info you've given but also depending on the amount of exercise sessions per week.

Yes, eating less blovcks than you require can prevent fat loss as well as cause loss of LBM.

Yes, you should continue to lose stored fat when doubling your monounsaturated fat blocks.

Good Luck!

Thank you, Sue :-) The amount of sessions is the same that I said in the previous posts: 3 times a week weight training, 1 day of long HIIT, 1 day of aerobic and sometimes another day of Tabata. The last time you said 17 blocks (active factor) was okay for me because of the good recovery, not losing LBM and no hunger. At that time it was okay, but now I don't know if I should chose the very active factor or not, based on my actual symptoms. To be clear: it is possible that the stiffness comes from eating few blocks? Tomorrow I will try to measure my weight and LBM again. PS: grrr, formatting problems again. In the edit view mode, I see the paragraphs okay :/

You're welcome Carlos.  I haven't heard of stiffness from not eating enough blocks.  You would probably be a better judge of how your activity compares to the activity level descriptions in the calculator.  Since you're measuring and weighing, I'd suggest saving your calculator results for future comparison of LBM.  It's important to make sure you eat enough protein to maintain (or increase) your LBM.