Should I lose fat or increase lean mass?

[Dominique]

Hi!

I'm 53, 174 cm (5' 8½"), male. Been using Fitbit since April 2013 (One) and June 2013 (Aria). I weigh 65.6 kg (145 lbs), 54.9 kg of which is lean mass and 10.7 kg is body fat (16.3%), as per my Fitbit Aria. Let's say I'd want to lower my body fat to 15.0%. Which of the following approaches would be optimal:

1) keep lean mass unchanged (54.9 kg) and lower body fat to 9.7 kg (15%), for a total weight of 64.6 kg (-1.0 kg) / BMI: 21.3

2) keep total weight unchanged (65.6 kg, BMI: 21.7), increase lean mass to 55.8 kg (+ 0.9 kg) and lower body fat to 9.8 kg (- 0.9 kg)

3) keep body fat unchanged (10.7 kg) and increase lean mass to 60.6 kg (+ 5.7 kg), for a total weight of 71.3 kg (+ 5.7 kg) / BMI: 23.6

I suppose 1) and 2) could be achieved mostly by adjustments to what I eat, while 3) would require significant changes to my workouts, right?

Some background about my current eating and workout habits: I don't follow any particular diet, though I do try to eat sensibly (lots of vegetables, meat only about once a week, I only drink water). However, I don't restrict my food intake (if anything, I eat more since Fitbit has made me much more active) and I don't count calories in. I do eat a lot of carbs (pasta, rice, dark bread, but not too many sugary things) and full-fat cheese (my weak point). My activity consists mostly of power walking and running (about 20,000 steps and 90 minutes of VAMs per day in average).

Thanks in advance!

[Umoya]

Hi, what is it you are trying to achieve? What don't you want do? Are you fussed by what the scale says? Are you going on your measurements for body fat or have you had a calliper test? What kind of training do you do now?

[Dominique]

I'm pretty happy with the way things are right now, but I'd prefer to set myself a challenging target rather than stay stuck where I am. Fitbit has worked very well for me as a motivator and I intend to keep it that way. I'm not questioning the body fat % returned by the Aria scale: I don't care whether it's accurate in absolute terms, I'm mostly interested in trends. So if it says I'm 16.5% fat now, it could as well be 18.5% or 14.5%, I don't care. Bringing it down by 1.5 percentage point would make a good new year resolution, I'd just like to know what would be the smartest way to achieve it. As to the training I currently do, as I said, I'm mostly power walking and running outdoors, about 1.5 to 2 hours per day. I don't have a gym close to where I live and I'm not into weight lifting anyway. I've started doing TRX at home, mostly for my upper body.

[Umoya]

Hi, you already have a really good bodyfat percentage, that is more than likely due to the amount of endurance you do and good DNA!  The more lean tissue you have the more bodyfat you will burn at rest.  As you don't have a gym near you and by the looks only eat meat once a week, building  lots of muscle is probably not the best way to go.  I do think, if you want a challenge is increase your muscle mass slightly, you can easily do that with the TRX and by incorporating sprint and hill drills into your running.  

There are loads of workout videos on you tube for the TRX.  It is a great work out tool, and you can take it with you into a park and do your sprints and then on the TRX for a body weight workout.

An idea of a days work out could be, run to your local park for a warm up.  Set up the TRX, do a Tabata of sprints (20 seconds sprint, 10 second rest for 8 rounds).  Rest a minute, then onto the TRX for rows 3 sets of 15, press ups (with feet in the TRX) 3 sets of max reps. Rest for 3 minutes and then do this again.  You can mix up the exercises as you please.  Use tabata on the TRX with jump squats, mountain climbers.  The options are limitless.  Do keep your endurance going as you seem to enjoy it.

I would suggest you increase you protein intake if you are going to this kind of training, you don't have to eat red meat, fish is a perfect source of protein and then there are eggs!  Quinoa is a good vegetable protein source too.

I hope this helps.  Having new goals and ones that challenge you are amazing.  Good luck and let me know how you go.