Quick question on switching from mass-gain to fat-loss efficiently.
As a new years resolution I started going to the gym in 2013. I've been keeping it up, though not following a particular program, just did exercises I was familiar with and tried to hit all the major groups. In December a friend of mine wanted to do this 16-week muscle-building program (mensworkoutguide.com), as he in turn knew a bunch of guys who'd had great success adding mass using it. It's been 4 workouts per week, 2 upper body, 2 lower. This is in addition to 2x90m martial arts practice I do regardless (i.e. cardio).
So I've been doing that since (had to take a few weeks off due to the flu just now, though), and while my mass isn't exactly skyrocketing, I have noticed definite improvements (currently at week 9), and for most of the exercises I'm steadily progressing and increasing weights/reps. My vegetarianism isn't exactly helping with the protein intake, though.
Anyway, as I approach the end of this program, I figure that while I have made some progress, what I really want is just to get a bit of definition going into summer. Throughout my adult life I've always been in the "skinny-fat" body type, and I figure I don't have to lose more than maybe 6-8lb of fat to get where I want to be. This time around, then focus on building mass starting in August again.
First I figured I'd just switch the 4 sets into cardio instead of the weight training (or perhaps 2 or 3 longer sessions), running, biking, rowing, elliptical and punching bag. But I'm worried about losing muscle mass where I've built it up if I remove the weight training.
Would going with some combo of straight cardio and moving the weight training into lower-weight, high-rep, high-tempo versions of my a regular weight-regime work? Or would that just break it down further?
Also: just in case someone follows the link to my current regime, I am aware that it's far from balanced, but I'm getting results I'm happy with for the moment, so I'm gonna see it through.