How To Gain Muscle And Lose Fat
We all have an idea of how to gain muscle; we understand that the best way to bulk up is to lift ever increasing amounts of weight. However many of don’t have a clue how to gain muscle and lose fat due to the conflicting amounts of information out there.
The losing fat part is perceived to be the most difficult part due to the fact that you don’t want to lower your calories too much in case you lose muscle, and the amount of dedication and discipline it requires.
The answer how to gain muscle and lose fat therefore is to continually build up your muscle mass. This answer may seem strikingly obvious, however what we sometimes fail to realize is that muscle uses three times more energy to function than fat!
In this article we will therefore focus on three key components; building muscle, losing fat and combining the two to explode your results!
Building Muscle
To build muscle you don’t need to spend endless hours in the gym. In fact, doing so will likely lead you to over train and when you do this it means only one thing – NO MUSCLE BUILDING!
Most people don’t realize that the muscle building magic happens outside the gym. Training 3 times a week for one hour each time totals 3 hours in the gym per week. This is more than enough time for you to develop all of your muscle groups. This also leaves lots of time outside of the gym for rest and recovery. Within this rest and recovery period you will begin to build more muscle, much faster than otherwise.
The key to success in the gym is progressive resistance. This means continually increasing your workload (weights, reps) In order to build muscle.
Losing Fat
Losing fat may seem hard, although when people learn about how our bodies work they can lose fat relatively easy. Our bodies have a ratio between calories burned and calories consumed. To gain weight in the form of fat you simply eat more than you are burning. To lose fat you simply eat less than you are burning.
You must firstly work out how many calories you are naturally burning by calculating your BMR. From this figure you can then see how many calories you need to eat to go below your BMR. To burn 1 lb of fat per week you must be in a calorie deficit of 3500 calories; this means eating 500 calories per day less than your BMR.
Creating Synergy: How To Gain Muscle and Lose Fat
This is where the majority of people get stuck as they don’t want to lose all of their hard earned muscle when losing fat. Thankfully, this doesn’t occur!
To gain muscle and lose fat at the same time the best strategy is to eat just below your BMR which gives you enough calories needed to build muscle and puts you in a big enough calorie deficit in order to burn fat.
If you would like more information on how to gain muscle and lose fat we highly recommend you check out Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle. This is a program devoted specifically to losing fat and building muscle. It has sections with detailing muscle building exercises, as well as complete diet plans. This book will transform your body, but more importantly it will transform your life. Read my Review of Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle for more info.