How hard is it to convert fat to muscle

[MournSanity]

So I have decided to finally get off my fat ass and turn it into a lean, muscular one. I am about 30 pounds overweight and most of it is concentrated in my upper body. Now, realize that I am a 17 year old without a car or any type of gym equipment (Well I do have a basketball hoop, if that counts). How hard would it be for me to turn my fat into muscle? What types of exercises should I do? I want to lose all of my weight by this fall. Is this goal possible? I already play basketball 20 minutes a day but I am thinking about bumping that to an hour a day. I'm also going to be cutting out all of the fatty foods from my diet. I'm already a lacto-vegetarian and I am considering temporarily going Vegan, but I'm afraid it would have more negative consequences than than positive.

I know most of you will just link me to geekfitness...

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Jog a lot, eat healthy and not less to an extent

get a pullup bar to put on your doorway, i have one and absolutely love it

 

[Supertastic Fool]

run, if you have weights at your school use them, get someone to teach you, if not at school at a friends house. Yes you can do it in 3 months if you work hard (I did it).

 

[gordiflan]

It's actually impossible to turn your fat into muscle. What you can do, however, is burn the fat to aid the process of building muscle.

 

[BlueWeasel]

A weight loss of 2 lbs per week is reasonable if you work at it. It could be more, but 2 lbs. per week is considered healthy.

2 lbs x 12 weeks = 24 lbs lost

 

[CPA]

You need to pick up a good book or two about fitness, because you have a lot to learn. I will help a little though.

First and foremost fat CAN NOT be converted into muscle.

Second, you will gain no to very, very little muscle by going vegan and having no weights. Most aerobic exercise will net you very little muscle.

Third, you will be hard pressed to lose 30 pounds in 3 months. A very good and strict regimen will lose about 2 pounds a week. any more than this and you are hurting yourself.

Seriously, get a good fitness book and sit down and educate yourself about general fitness.

 

[MournSanity]

Thanks for the replies and the encouragement. I'm sick of being over-weight and want to get this load off my chest (literally) now. Hopefully I'll be able to do this

 

[TechBoyJK]

Originally posted by: gordiflan
It's actually impossible to turn your fat into muscle. What you can do, however, is burn the fat to aid the process of building muscle.

ditto.

 

[MournSanity]

Originally posted by: TechBoyJK

Originally posted by: gordiflan
It's actually impossible to turn your fat into muscle. What you can do, however, is burn the fat to aid the process of building muscle.

ditto.

Whatever guys. You know what I mean. Ok, fine, I'll word it better.

How hard is it to replace fat with muscle?

There, happy?

 

[0roo0roo]

exersize. do not drink calories

 

[GasX]

eat less

exercise more

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

I lost a little over 20 lbs on Atkins in under 2 months, being moderately strict about it after induction. I stopped after that because I dropped the weight I wanted to drop and went back to eating as I did before (I still eat less junk food and avoid sugars/white breads though). I'm sure I could have made it to 30 lbs but that wasn't my goal.

FWIW, I've since put on about 8 lbs (total ~ 12-13 lbs lost), but my weight is not fluctuating any more so I figure that's the water weight I dropped + a couple of pounds from the sugar-fest I had the first couple of days after I let up Atkins. Atkins isn't something I'd do on the long term but it works well to drop a few pounds pretty quickly, especially if you've got some aerobic excercise in the mix.

 

[spacejamz]

if you really want to lose the fat, you need to determine your target heart range, get a decent heart rate monitor, and do any type of cardio workout (cycling, jogging, swimming - anything that gets your heart rate into your target heart range) for at least 30 minutes three times a week. If you do this, you should start noticing a difference in a few weeks. When this happens, you need to increase the intensity of your cardio workout so you stay in your target range.

Figure your Target Heart Range

If you get a heart rate monitor, you should calculate your heart rate in beats per minute (instead of beats per 10 seconds, etc)...

There are also alot of good articles in the Fitness section of msn.com

MSN Fitness

click on the MORE ARTICLES link...

There are a few good articles about weight training (exercising different muscle groups in the proper order, stretching, etc) here that you should follow as well...

good luck...

 

[vegetation]

Try to pick up road biking, it's easier on the body. If you haven't ran much in your life and suddenly start to do it too much too fast, you risk injuries like on the knee or shin splints.

 

[chrisms]

I am not a health expert, but I noticed that with swimming I can go on forever without feeling the complete exhaustion I would running or riding a bike. Then the next day I'll wake up and every muscle is incredibly sore, which I've been told is a good sign. Maybe a loophole in the system/

 

[Gurck]

To lose weight, you have to eat fewer calories than you burn. To gain weight, more. You can't really build muscle while losing fat, although lifting while on a 'cutting' (weight-loss) diet does have benefits. To aid in losing it you should do cardiovascular exercise. Not much more to it, here's a good post on the subject as it relates to basal metabolic rate: Link

Edit: if you want to build real muscle, you'll have to lift freeweights. There are many books & websites on the subject with good informtaion on it - the site I linked to above is just one of them. I won't go into it here.

 

[gtsukada]

run run run cardio will be your friend

 

[Paulson]

I went from 220lbs to 185 in about 1 & 1/2 months... (5 weeks)...

I worked out every day (ran 2 & 1/2 miles and did about an hour on an eliptical machine, 40 minutes on an exercise bike, and then walked for 20 minutes... I weightlifted different muscles every day (so that muscles would be worked on every other day)... I cut back on my diet to only healthy foods... unfortunately it all fell apart once I had my wisdom teeth out and i got out of my routine... I'm starting it up again though...

 

[Mo0o]

Yeah, just keep in mind weight lifting alone wont help you lose fat. You have to do cardio.

 

[db]

2 seperate parts:

- eat less than you burn, and you will lose weight.

- exercise and you will firm up muscles.

 

[rezinn]

1) Don't fall for the atkins fad, you will just gain it back and you wont be losing fat anyway. Any fat loss is unrelated to cutting carbs, unless you don't replace them. A healthy diet has ~55% of energy from carbs, they are easy to digest and a good source of energy.

2) Excercise. 20 minutes a day of cardio is good, but an hour is better. Two hours is even better. You can split your days doing weighs or cardio if you want.

3) As said above, don't drink calories. Don't drink soda. Drink lots of water. You'd be surprised how big of a difference this can make.

4) Eat healthy. No instant noodles, microwave dinners, cheetos. Eating fresh is a good way to eat healthy. Don't snack on things throughout the day.

 

[SludgeFactory]

Eat less

1500-2000 calories per day should do the trick. High protein and high fiber keep you feeling full, refined sugars make you prematurely hungry. Sugar waters are an abomination and should be the first thing to go.


Move more

Get a summer job digging ditches or slinging boxes at UPS. Take up walking/biking through the neighborhood with MP3 player for an hour or more every evening instead of vegging out indoors in front of an electronic box. Throw in some heart-elevating cardio and some weight training, each 3-4X per week.

 

[freegeeks]

go to johnstonefitness.com

they have very active forums about weight loss, weight training etc. and there is plenty of info about everything you want to know

 

[jagec]

And whatever you do, once you lose your weight do NOT go back to your old eating and exercise habits.

If you want to lose weight, you have to change you eating habits FOREVER, not just for a few months.

 

[Mo0o]

It's times like these im grateful for my fast metabolism