I am about 205 or 210 right now, I want to loose the "gut"---it's not real big, but I would like a six pack again. I have started the crunches, leg lifts and such, but I don't want to start hitting the cardio too much because I like the weight that I am at and I don't want to loose any muscle. I have been hitting the squats bench and pullups hard, hoping that will give me a little more muscle mass to compensate for the fat loss----anybody help?

Weight train.  Incorporate weights into a heavy cardio regiment. Muscle is heavier than Fat.

True dat.  Do upper body weight training with high reps, low weight to start.  I do "Giants" for weight loss.  That is, I do an entire circuit of a weight machine, 10 reps each exercize, making sure to warm up and group muscle group exercizes together (chest, back) and then do a set of sit ups without a rest period between exercizes.

Weight training, combined with light aerobic exercizes like walking, three times a week, will solve most cosmetic weight loss issues.  Aerobic exercizes tend to just make me more hungry, so I gain weight in the long run.

Either build muscle mass or loose body fat one at a time.  Try do both at once and you will see some small changes at first then you will fail.

If you have a "gut" that implies borderline obesity.  probably 20% BF and you need to drop a minimum of half the body fat or 20 lbs or so.  No way in hell you will build 20 lbs of muscle in the same time fram you can loose 20lbs of fat.  Even the use of massive amounts of anabolic steroids would make this difficult.  Get lean then build mass.  This eliminates the excuses you will be trying to make for your failure to loose the bodyfat.  Mass gains will be slow and you should accept that reality.  You will grow like a weed after you quit dieting.

the workout route is the way to go. My wife works for a large vitamin company (with letters in the name) and most of the diet pills will just make you nervous and jittery, or sadly have no other effect than to make your wallet less heavy.

Like it has been said above, losing weight means losing fat and muscle.  Dr. Squat does have a plan to retain your mucle called the zig zag diet, but you'll have to stick to the plan.

Strength train.  Building muscle automatically burns fat... keep to a sensible diet.  About three months ago, I started going to the gym, it lasted about 1 month (more like 2, but it was really one month due to my procrastination) due to a new job I got.  I worked out 3-4 times a week (give or take again, due to procrastination), for about 1 hour each time.  In that time, I gained 10 pounds of muscle mass, and lost 10 pounds of body fat.  Overall I lost 5 pounds, from internal muscle or something like that.  Also, drink lots of water and cut back on the salt, it makes your body retain extra water, therefore extra uneeded weight.

When I started, I was 16yo 5foot 11" and 245 lbs.  After working out, I finished being 17yo 5foot 11" and 240lbs.  I lost 10 pounds of fat, and gained 10 pounds of muscle.    

Did about 5 minutes of cardio at start of routine, and 5 to end with, and walked up a large hill and then ran back down about once a week.  So, if you weight train, you will stay close to your current weight, give or take a few pounds, but your Lean muscle mass will be greater than before.

Simonz

If you are restricting your caloric intake and working to reduce body fat, it isn`t really possible to not lose some muscle. However, you can weight train and keep your protien level up to keep as much muscle as possible. Don`t worry about losing some muscle, concentrate of stripping the fat, then you can build your muscle back without the fat, by leveling out your calories, keeping your diet clean and weight training.

w/o getting into alot of detail....muscle burns more fat then fat does. Thus you can start weight training and keep a high protien intake and not loose that much muscle while doing your cardio. To hlep with cardio and fat loss, do the cardio first thing in the morning on an empty stomach...you havnet eaten and your body is going to need energy so it utalizes the fat stores for this energy..thus you burn fat. The key is to keep your protein intake high engough so that your body does not ravage muscle for its required protein. Do not expect to gain alot  of muscle and loose fat at the same time. Unless you have extreme genetics or access to some very serious drugs its very difficlut to do.
Also invest in some supps...
whey protein or a blend..
glutamine
VPX redline to aid in the fatloss
goodluck

Sounds like you need to lean out your diet.  Im on the same path.  Read in Mens Health that at this point its 90% diet

Quoted: Sounds like you need to lean out your diet.  Im on the same path.  Read in Mens Health that at this point its 90% diet

I'd have to agree with this post, although some detail is lacking.

I did not stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, but I am a doctor. And I am into fitness. Brief story.

I began doing body weight exercise with some running in Nov. 2003 at a weight of 182, height 5-8. And after two months, I weighed the same, getting stronger, firmer, but no weight loss. So in Jan. 2004  I began to incorporate dietary restrictions. By March, after being dedicated to both diet and exercise, guess what I weighed? 178. Four or five friggin lbs. is all that came off. Again, felt stronger, firmer, but NO sig weight loss. But physiologically I knew I was doing the right stuff. By the first week in April 2004, guess the weight? 159! It melted off that month. My goal had been 165! From a medical standpoint the only explanation I could come up with was that my body was simply being rebuilt. I was burning fat and muscle and rebuilding that muscle structure. Once the anabolic phase of the program was completed, my muscles could handle the workout, and, I believe, simply began to preferentially burn the fat.

So, what's my point? There are several.
1. Diet and exercise are integrally tied in a healthy fitness program.
2. It takes TIME to rebuild your body.
3. Persevere!
4. Set intermediate goals for both body weight and exercise tolerance, although the two are linked, they simply might NOT be on a perfectly correlated schedule.
5. Make it part of your lifestyle, not a chore.


Since then I've been more on maintenance. Everybody and their mom told me I was too thin and I got tired of hearing it, despite how good I felt (don't let them sabotage you!). So as an answer I have slacked off on the dietary restrictions some. I have settled in at 170...its whats on my driver's license anyway! I'd rather be thinner, but I have maintained my muscle mass pretty well with the exercising.

So, what diet? Low carbs. I recommend South Beach Diet or Sugarbusters to my patients. Buy the book. Read it and UNDERSTAND the principles. The only reasons to fail on these diets is noncompliance. They work, and they are healthy. Some folks bitch that 'I'd need a full time chef to do that diet.' BS! If you understand the PRINCIPLES, all it takes is some label reading to achieve your goal. You DO NOT have to word for word, line for line follow the 'diet plan' at the back of the book. You CAN do that! But those plans are mainly illustrative to me.

The workouts:
Scott Helvenston's (RIP in Fallujah) Navy SEAL workouts. I have all of them, but I have culled out the best of the muscle group isolation workouts from his tapes/DVDs and work those. Each muscle group takes 15 minutes. Usually I do chest/shoulders and abs 3x/week, back/bis and running (3 mi.) 2-3/week. I usually skip one random day per week. Usually work in some leg iso workouts once a week or a longer run or even one of Scott's longer workouts, just to mix it up. I try to spend no more than 45 minutes working out daily. I simply don't have time for more. Equipment? Pull up bar (they still kill me, I'm weak!) and maybe dumbells. That's it.


From early 04

I'd like to get rid of what I feel is the last bit of flesh on my lower abdomen (my wife says she can't see it, but I fear it would take a dedication to some longer, slower runs with more dietary sacrifice, and I'm simply not willing to go there at present.