Hello, I've been working out about 6months and made some decent gains in strength. I'm basically doing a full body workout, upper body M, F, and lower Wednesday, based on the body for life workout. I'm 5'10" about 230 pounds and I want to lose about 25pounds, my BFI is 29%. I'm thinking about going the 5-meals a day, good carb and protein each meal and doing cardio three days I dont work out. My question, is this a good plan of attack or will I lose most of the strength gains i've seen at the gym loosing this much weight? Someone suggested I need to start working out heavier to keep my gains. Not sure if this involves less reps or what. Any help is greatly appreciated, i'm back from vacation and I want a fresh start . Thanks in advance.

pat

Sounds good but I am confused when you say "full body" but only work either upper or lower on a given day? Full body means both upper and lower on the same day.

Its a good idea to do cardio on your off days and keep your resistance training the same in order to maintain as much muscle mass as possible while losing the 25lbs, but you may lose a little muscle mass as its pretty hard to lose pure fat, have you looked into HIIT?

As far as your diet is concerned, the protein will help you maintain muscle and 5 meals a day will keep your metabolism going, eat 6 times if possible. I would consider cutting carbs on your cardio day though, make your body find other sources of energy (fat).

Good luck!

its a reasonable plan, but as mentioned, you're doing an upper/lower split, not a fullbody routine. either is fine for fatloss, but if you do upper/lower, it needs to alternate weekly...this week is Upper on M, F, lower W, and next week, lower is M, F and upper only on W. you've GOT to work the body evenly.

also, don't diet too hard, yes you need a little deficit of calories under your maintenance intake to shed fat, but if yhou go too low, you'll burn off muscle.

lastly: YOU CANNOT SHED FAT AND GAIN MUSCLE SIMULTANEOULSY. I add thsi because the subject of your thread seems to indicate that's your goal...I wanna stop you now and let you know its not really doable, so you don't try, and then get frustrated and give up.

just focus on shedding fat, and KEEPING your existing muscle mass...via a good, well balanced diet high in lean protein, healthy fats, and limited on starchy carbs...and heavy weight training, with fewer reps.

I did body for life, and lost lean mass...quite a bit actually, so i'm not a real fan of the program anymore. it sacrifices lean muscle in order to burn fat a little faster...and that's not a good recipe for long term success.

...and YES, if you work with higher weight you will have to drop your reps. 4-6 is the recommended amount if you are trying to keep the most muscle mass and trying to burn fat. You won't gain muscle mass, though you will probably see strength gains and will keep as much mass as possible.