I would have thought losing the fat later on would be easier with more muscle ?
When Dad died in December 2017 I started lifting weights in January 2018 as I had 3 months no exercise: I went from 115kg (255 pounds) to 119kg (264 pounds) in 4 months through weight training 60-75 minutes and swimming 15-25 minutes 3x a week. But I was only 70-80% as strong as I was when I was 90kg.
So I thought I'd get to 80-90kg before lifting weights
2019,2021 I have been swimming 30-50 minutes 3x a week
2020 I was walking almost 4 miles 5-6x a week
2022-present I've been swimming 4-5x a week for 20-30 minutes with 15-20 minutes steam/sauna
I got down to 102kg end of 2021 but now I'm 254 pounds again
Our body is mostly water. Fat and muscle interact with our body water in different ways. Fat is similar to oil and creates a surface tension affect with our body water. Females tend to have more body fat, with the global surface tension creating the more curved figure. Muscle has lower surface tension with the body's water. Fats tend to repel from the water to lower surface tension; fat deposits. This repulsion is useful for long term storage.
What was discovered is burning body fat is like trying to burn a log in a camp fire. A log will not catch fire very easy, unless you start with some kindling, to build up coals, so the log can heat up and catch. In the case of the human body, the best kindling for fat log burning, are sugars, which are water soluble and fat soluble. This can alter the water and fat surface tension and help can get the log burning.
Typically it may take 30 minutes to get the coals hot enough to burn the fat log; second wind. Eat an energy bar or two before you train. I tended to sweat most during the warm up stage, thereby lowering my body water. The extra calories gets the fire going and the loss of body water appears appeared to shifted the surface tension. There is a tendency to drink too much water. I used to train like a camel and do the opposite. The body learns to retain water. I could not even put on fat or body weight.
As far as strength conditioning, weight lifting is anaerobic. One will easily use up the oxygen in your muscles causing muscle fatigue. If you purposely train under anaerobic conditions; super set, your muscles will build up a chemical called creatine phosphate which can burn without oxygen. Super setting is where you rest only 30 seconds between exercises, so your blood oxygen cannot keep up. The body compensates under the stress with creatine phosphate. This non oxygen requiring energy source, gives you that extra strength, especially when the blood is oxygenated; sprinter from the starting blocks.
There is a tendency, today, to do aerobic training and depend on building up higher blood oxygen. But sometimes this does not allow one to create the need in the body, to build up significant creatine phosphate. When I was younger I liked being fit at all levels, and saw how too much distance running made me weaker. I was more of a sprinter, which was based on anaerobic and strength training. But during summers, I would do more aerobic and take it easier. It would more anaerobic the rest of the year.
