Advice for building muscle AND losing fat while on low calorie diet

Hi Everyone,

I'm 3 weeks out from Lap Band and feeling pretty well. I've been exercising every day since my 2nd post op day and eating only 1000 calories, as advised by my nutritionist. And yes, I'm actually losing weight, yay. But I am concerned about losing muscle instead of fat and would love to know what's worked for you when you're on limited calories but pretty active and wanting to build or maintain muscle.

I have been tracking all of my food since I started soft foods about a week ago and though I'm trying to focus on protein, my records show that I'm averaging out close to 40/40/20 in my protein/carbs/fat ratio. This is actually pretty ideal from what I've seen on plans I've done before. It is what I would consider a balanced diet at least on the protein/carb/fat front...am I wrong? I do feel sometimes like I should be more at 50% calories from protein or higher but my nutritionist has not given any specific guidelines except to start with protein and go from there. Overall, as long as I'm satisfied and sticking to 1000 calories, I'm not worrying about that stuff on a day to day basis, but that's why I'm here asking the question.


I am also making sure to exercise every day, even if it's just 30 minutes of cardio. Ideally it's an hour of cardio and some weights, or at least weights a few times a week.

I imagine that if I were to eat higher protein and less carbs that would be ideal for building muscle while losing fat? The thing is, most of my carbs each day come from something like beans or vegetables and a few saltine crackers. It's not like I'm eating bread or pasta or anything.

Just hoping for some advice on how I might best take advantage of the situation because I REALLY want to lose fat and not muscle, REALLY want to have energy for my workouts, and REALLY want to build or at least maintain the muscle I do have (I'm pretty muscular already.)

So...any advice would be great! Increase the protein/decrease the carbs? Increase the carbs right before a workout? What's worked for you?

Not sure I can give you advice, more than tell you what I did.  My surgery was last August, and I am down around 140 pounds, and ran my first half marathon, so I guess my program worked for me.

For the first 6 months or so, I also stayed under 1k calories absolutely.  I did this using 2-3 high protein, low carb shakes a day and a low carb meal (like some lean meat and a small veggie).  No cheating.  

I lifted 3 times a week as soon as I got clearance.  The first few months this consisted mainly of basic dumbbell full body work, gradually moving to working a different major muscle group each day.  The first 4-5 months I also walked or did the elliptical machine (slowly) every day for 30 minutes working up to 45. Then I moved to running and also turning the elliptical all the way up in incline and pushing it harder and harder.  Throughout the journey I made improvements in strength and endurance every week. 

I used and use protein shakes religiously.  Around 3-4 months ago I raised my calories to be based on net, not gross, and I try to keep a deficit of 500 calories only (thus I track everything and my workouts closely) .  I also started adding in good carbs.  Obviously, my weight loss has slowed a lot, but I am at a point where I am comfortable even if I don't lose another pound. I do a pre and post shake usually, and then I will use casein at night if I feel I didn't get enough calories in the day (and particularly if I lifted heavy).  

Some band folks don't believe in shakes except after fills because they say you need solid protein to feel full, but I never had a problem, and I think they are an important part of my regimen.  I feel supplying enough protein to the body, while doing lots of strength training in addition to the cardio and calorie deficit, is the key.

Thanks so much for the advice. I don't really care to run any marathons but it sounds like you managed to end up in amazing shape and lose a ridiculous amount of weight for the band, by any measure. Are you saying surgery was in Aug '09? Jeeeze! I don't have as much to lose as you did but it sounds like your exercise routine really worked. I was going to say the thing about protein shakes and fullness. I'm fine with them if I don't have that problem but I sort of expect to not be able to achieve and fullness on them.

Right now I am actually working with 1000 net calories. Not sure I could function and do what I do on 100 gross as there are days where my tracking app tells me I've burned 700+

All I know is that I have continued to lose weight for the last 3 weeks, even though I freaked over a 3 day plateau lol.

So thanks again for telling me what worked for you. I may not be able to go for it quite to that extent but I'll keep it as a model of what I should aim for!

A good starting point is cardio 2x a week and strength training 2x a week for about 45 min per session.

Thanks. I'm already doing more than that but good to know that even that little will help