Fat loss, then possible fat gain?
 

My goal was to go straight into law enforcement. However, bc of the economy, all the agencies I was going through the hiring processes for have canceled all hiring. So, after some deep soul searching and much deliberating, I have decided to revert to my old goal to join the US Air Force. Right now, I have 30 pounds to lose to be eligible. Ive been working out using heavy lifting, sprints, metabolic conditioning (sleds, sandbags, and stuff), and swimming since I know those will be the best way to help me lose weight much better than running endless miles, plus it will make me look better nekid.

However, at least a few months before I go, Id like to switch to a program with more endurance based workouts similar to what Ill be required to do in basic. This will have the added benefit of being able to do my workout anywhere since I wont need a gym and this is good because me and my friend joining with me already have plans to do a lot of stuff and go a lot of places before we go to basic and wont be able to.

Also, even if I keep my current program until I ship out, I wont be doing anything like my current program once Im in.

Heres my question. I have a fear that once I switch to long runs and huge sets of pushups, pullups, and situps a lot of muscle that wont be needed anymore will disapeer. Not to bad in and of itself, but my fear continues into believing that muscle will become fat. Is any part of that fear accurate? Or will I lose the muscle but since Ill still be keeping active it will just burn off as energy? I dont look like a gorilla or anything, nor would I want to be that big, but I dont want to end up looking like a flabby little marathon runner either...

One idea I had was that once I reach goal weight, drop the barbells and do nothing but sleds, sandbags, cals, and rope work along with maybe cycling sprints and longer runs.

Nope.

If you have the muscle you will keep it unless you don't eat enough to keep it.

Unless you're sedentary... in which case you can eat for the muscle and still not keep it.

Like Steven said, you don't magically synthesize muscle into fat or vice versa.

Consider some sort of a blend though of conditioning and lifting, maybe sub maximal, but still heavy enough to encourage maintenance of what you've worked for.

Unless you need to lose muscle for any reason (endurance tests could be a factor depending on how much you're carrying).

You can't out train a bad diet.

Ditch the sugar, wheat, corn, soy, rice, potatoes and vegetable oil. Eat real food. Avoid packaged junk. If the weight doesn't start coming off satisfactorily, do a weeks food log and post it or PM it and we'll ferret out the offending fatteners.

Out of curiosity Ben, what is your strategy for restoring glycogen if all of the above foods are cut out? (no argument for the exclusion of sugar and wheat)

Choco milk. :p

Sweet potatoes are not consider potatoes btw.

Glycogen is overrated. Get keto-adapted and burn ketones like an Inuit. The Inuit regularly crossed astonishing distances in the Arctic on an almost zero carb diet. The first two weeks of keto-adaptation aren't fun. But after that, you're cruising.

Your body will rip apart proteins for the few absolutely essential tasks it needs glucose for.

See Westman, et al:
Low-carbohydrate nutrition and metabolism
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/reprint/86/2/276

How much time do you have until Basic?

For the military, as you probably know, the training is mostly aerobic. In order to meet these demands, you need to hypertrophy your slow twitch fibers and make your fast twitch fibers more oxidative. You also need to work on your cardiovascular system, like your heart.

Focusing on conditioning doesn't make your muscles go away. You want to keep your fast twitch muscles and just make them more oxidative. Depending on your abilities and time left, you can continue to strength train while working on conditioning or you can put your strength work in maintenance by lifting just once a week.

Unfortunately, not everyone responds well to ketogenic diets..... just like not everyone responds well to high carb.

Highly dependent on the person's ability to adapt which is why it's a good idea for people to experiment and see which works best for them.

Indeed. But he said he's got to drop 30 pounds just to be ELIGIBLE. That means he probably needs to lose closer to 50 pounds of fat to get to a good healthy BF%.

With high carb, he's far more likely to lose a lot of lean mass he'll miss when he needs it most. A ketogenic diet will let him train hard (after he's keto-adapted) while he strips off the fat fast and doesn't feel like he's starving the whole time like he probably would on the equivalent high carb diet.

Then, when he's close to goal weight, he can either lighten up and add back a few carb calories or switch back to whatever style of eating suits him for feeling his best long term.

You're right, keto-adapting feels terrible for some folks and they never feel 100% while they're in ketosis. But it is protein sparing and strips fat like there's no tomorrow. Good for fast adjustments like he's talking about.