losing fat and gaining weight at the same time

Hey everybody
I'm from Santa Barbara CA. I'm 18 years old and I'm trying to burn fat and gaining weight at the same time. In octobre I started going to the gym 3/4 times a week, I weighed about 119 pounds (54 kilos ) back then I just wanted to gain weight and mass. After going to the gym for about 1 month I started to take a weight gainer shake. It lasted for, like, 1 month and a half maybe 2 months. During that time I didn't really eat good, a lot of fastfood and bread with nutella. Only for lunch I ate good, but dinner and breakfast euhm ... not so much. Since the middle of january I started eating good (at least I think so...) In the morning at 10 am oat meal with a banana, some raisins and cinnamon (not every day but usually) after 2 to 3 hours cereal with a high source of protein and fiber with non-fat milk. Usually after I have to go to school from 1 or 2 pm to 6 pm. At 7 pm I eat OR rice with ham/chicken with some vegetables mixed in the rice OR mashed potatoes with 3 sausages and tomatoes OR something like spaghetti. Mostly it's one of those 3 for dinner and mostly of all, I eat rice and tomatoes. Around 10 or 11 I eat one or sometimes 2 sandwiches with slices of cheese, beef, turkey, ham, chicken.
So now I'm trying to gain weight and mass and I'm trying to get rid of the fat on my belly and hips. I go 4/5 times per week to the gym, 3/4 times are for training mass, chest, back, ... (I decided not to do my abbs for a while because I'm trying to get rid of the fat. is this a good or a bad thing?) And the other time is for cardio. Or I go kickboxing or I just do some random cardio in the gym, like, cycling for 20 minutes, running for 20 minutes etc...
Now is this a good program or should I do something else as well? Currently I weigh a 134 pounds (61 kilos°).

You gotta eat a lot more.

With your weight its impossible to have some muscles. So get some muscles and the fatlosing will go a lot easier.

So I'm still not eating enough ? It's now evening and I'm so full

I wouldn't try to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time. It's very hard and inefficient. It's better to apply periodization. So for example you start with 12-15% body fat and build muscle for 6-9 months. After this build period you start a 'cut' and lose the fat while maintaining your build up muscle. The cut should lasts for 2,5 to 3 months.

What you need to prevent is too much fat gain during the build up period. You achieve this by eating 'clean' food. And the right macro ratios. No junkfood, no sugars, and only essential fats with a small amount of non-essential fats.

Also your training should be adequate, eating more than you use will make you fat if your training lacks.

What's your body fat %? If it's below 15% I wouldn't worry and keep eating.

Well I kinda did this periodization, I startedwith only gaining mass and muscles for about 3 months and now I say i want to lose fat. But maybe I didn't go long enough for muscles yet. But that doesn't matter now, I've read about this 'cut' but I don't completely understand it. Because in my eyes it looks so weird to build muscle first and then lose fat and maintain the muscles. How do you do this?
And I do try to gain weight so I try to eat as much as possible and according to some people you have to get to at least 2500 calories a day if you want to gain weight. And I just can't get to that number, except when I eat some MNM's and cookies after dinner.
And I have no idea what my bodyfat is but to be honoust I don't think it's very high but around 15 to 20%. It's just that my body restores all the fat on my hips or belly and I really want those abbs which I can't get now because of too much fat right?
BTW: Thank you for the comments.

Would you mind posting a picture? I can't believe you're having this idea about your belly and the fat on your hips with your lenght and bodyweight. If you have a picture to show us here, it's easier to interpret. I agree with BIG-T about his thoughts of losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time, at least not with your bodyweight.

You're training 4-5 times a week, including cardio. Step back abit, workout 3 times a week (golden rule of Mark Rippetoe), and have enough rest. This way you won't burn as much calories as you do now, and you'll easier gain more muscle mass.

Also try to write your calorie intake down on paste-its. It's important that you reach your needed calories everyday, else weight training won't have much effect.

Have you read Mark Rippetoe's book: Starting Strenght yet? It's one of my favourite books which helped me alot with my progress.

Yea you're right, I'm sorry. I think my bodyfat is about 13 to 14%. And what do you mean with paste-its? Further I do count all my calories over one whole day. From breakfast to dinner with all snacks and drinks in between. It's an average of 2500 calories. And it's like all the good nutrition I wanna use to build muscles and gain mass and weight. And if there are other stuff like maybe too much fat, then I wanna burn it with cardio. But I know there is already some fat here on my belly so I wanna burn that to.

Origineel gepost door Young guy

Yea you're right, I'm sorry. I think my bodyfat is about 13 to 14%. And what do you mean with paste-its? Further I do count all my calories over one whole day. From breakfast to dinner with all snacks and drinks in between. It's an average of 2500 calories. And it's like all the good nutrition I wanna use to build muscles and gain mass and weight. And if there are other stuff like maybe too much fat, then I wanna burn it with cardio. But I know there is already some fat here on my belly so I wanna burn that to.

This is what I mean. Some of us eat more than 4000 kcals a day. If you want to get more muscle mass (which eventually will make it easier for you to look more athletic) you have to eat more. Throw some peanuts or other nuts in your diet for example and try to reach around an average of 3100 kcals a day (based on your lenght and weight) and abit more 200-300+- on a workout day.

With paste-its i meant post-its, you know those yellow thingy's.

Ah yea ofcource I know post-its =)
Wow 4000 kcals a day ? How do you get that much? For me to get these 2500 I'm already eating a whole day long and in the evening I'm soo full ö. And I count these calories with an app on my Iphone and it also tells me how much of all the other necessary nutrition I've taken. Like; carbs, iron, calcium, ... And usually my carbs go pretty high because I try to get as much calries as possible. Actually the carbs go too high. Isn't that bad? Or doesn't it really matter if you exercise?

Origineel gepost door Young guy

Ah yea ofcource I know post-its =)
Wow 4000 kcals a day ? How do you get that much? For me to get these 2500 I'm already eating a whole day long and in the evening I'm soo full ö. And I count these calories with an app on my Iphone and it also tells me how much of all the other necessary nutrition I've taken. Like; carbs, iron, calcium, ... And usually my carbs go pretty high because I try to get as much calries as possible. Actually the carbs go too high. Isn't that bad? Or doesn't it really matter if you exercise?

It doesn't really matter on workout-days. But I prefer a higher fat intake on rest days. Do you drink milk everyday? I drink about 2 liters or at least half a gallon of milk a day (1.5% fat milk), everyday for the whole month. Milk is an excellent source of protein and easy to digest carbs all in one. If you can't reach the 3.000+ kcal. try to add milk to your diet.

I don't drink so much milk, sometimes with my 2 bowls of cereal or with my sandwich 2 glasses. Cause I've read that milk makes the skin thicker which makes it more difficult to see the muscle. Isn't that true? I do drink milk but not so much.
And do you mean a higher fat intake than higher carbs? But how do you do that? What kind of food has that?

It is true to some degree, but think about the benefits: cheap, good protein, easy, doesn't taste bad... Besides, in winter it doesn't matter as much if your skin is a bit thicker since you're in clothes most of the time anyway, and it keeps you warm.

Origineel gepost door Young guy

do you mean a higher fat intake than higher carbs? But how do you do that? What kind of food has that?

I didn't mean to say that your fat intake has to be higher than carbs intake on restdays. I wouldn't advice that. It's just normal to me that I eat more fatty products (like peanuts, peanutbutter, olive oil etc.) on rest days and products that contain alot of carbs on workout days (like cereals, rice, bread etc.)

---------- Post toegevoegd Thu 9 Feb 2012 om 18:13 ----------

Seen apart from Protein intake ofcourse.

Yea you are right Big T, I will start drinking a little bit more milk then. And ophethof do u have maybe know some more products with more fat besides peanuts, peanutbutter, etc?
Because peanuts and peanutbutter is really disgusting to me. And further I want to ask something. Since the beginning of february I really start counting my calories, the last couple of days it was always 2500 to 3000 and for the moment I only do the kickboxing as cardio on thursday. But still am I losing weight! How is that possible? In the beginning I weighed about 133 pounds (60 kg) then I started eating and eating and then it became 134,5 pounds (61kg) and yesterday I checked again and it was 132 pounds (+-60 kg).

Origineel gepost door Young guy

Yea you are right Big T, I will start drinking a little bit more milk then. And ophethof do u have maybe know some more products with more fat besides peanuts, peanutbutter, etc?
Because peanuts and peanutbutter is really disgusting to me. And further I want to ask something. Since the beginning of february I really start counting my calories, the last couple of days it was always 2500 to 3000 and for the moment I only do the kickboxing as cardio on thursday. But still am I losing weight! How is that possible? In the beginning I weighed about 133 pounds (60 kg) then I started eating and eating and then it became 134,5 pounds (61kg) and yesterday I checked again and it was 132 pounds (+-60 kg).

Fat fish and meat, milk products like cheese etc. Search the web for more of these products.
You're still losing weight because you don't eat as much calories as you should eat.

Even though I'm eating about 2500 to 3000 kcal a day? So how much kcal you think I should get in 1 day?

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