Losing Fat and Gaining Muscle: What You Need To Know

Losing Fat While Gaining Muscle Is Achievable

People work out for many reasons, some of them for shedding a few pounds, some for gaining muscles, some for maintaining their nearly perfect waist-size, while some for just cleansing their mind.

Also, many of us have multiple goals, and you’ll be delighted to know they go hand in hand. What we’d be focusing on is muscle gain and fat loss at the same time. You may think about how it is possible when the former implies gaining to build up your body, and the latter implies getting rid of excess body mass.

Well, to surprise you, we would say you can gain muscles while losing fat. In fact, if you’ll work on both things at the same time, it will enhance the results. Many exercises are beneficial to lose fat at the same time, gaining muscles.

But of course, your concern is valid; it does take an effective strategy. To attain both the goals at the same time, you need to plan your diet and training really well. Here, we are trying to help you with some really useful tips.

Here’s what you need to know about losing fat and muscle growth 

1.     Lose weight slowly –  While most of the people are driven by this thought that losing too much altogether could be really beneficial, we say it’s not when you’re trying to gain muscle as well. This is because, when you lose weight drastically, you lose muscles along with fat. Your goal should be losing around 2 pounds per week. But remember not only to work out, you need to focus on your diet too.
2.     Boost your protein intake – You should not think twice while bumping up your protein consumption. If you get enough protein throughout the day, it prevents the muscle from breakdown. But also, you need to distribute the protein intake evenly throughout the day. Moreover, the high content of protein in your diet has shown excellent results in the calories you burn throughout the day. You can take 20 to 30 grams of protein in every meal.
3.     Cut down Carbs – You already knew this would certainly come sooner or later. Right? Well, yes, cutting back carbohydrates can help you achieve your goals. By cutting down, we don’t mean boycotting them.

You should know when to take the carbs so that they benefit you. It’s advisable to take them at least 2 hours before and right after your workout session.  You can take the rest of your carbs in the form of vegetables, which boosts the energy in you and also keeps you full.

4.     Check out the Fat – Too many individuals commit this mistake of slashing every bit of fat from diet to lose weight. It’s vital to understand that fat plays a crucial role in maintaining cell structure and supporting a muscle-building environment. You should consume a limited amount of fat throughout the day. Focus on including a variety of fat in your diet like monounsaturated and omega – 3s and 6s. We advise you to take walnuts, avocado, olive oil, salmon, egg yolks, and coconut oil as healthy fat options.
5.     Strength Training – A lot of people try cardio to reduce weight. This is indeed beneficial but not at the cost of strength training.  You should perform strength training at least three times a week to gain more muscles. Strength training, such as bodyweight exercise, weightlifting can improve muscle strength and increase muscle size and function. Strength training can increase how many calories you burn per day and can boost your metabolism.
6.     Plan your Cardio – Many of us follow the wrong path when we think that we can burn fat from performing lengthy cardio sessions. We’re not saying this doesn’t work. Well, it does burn calories, but performing cardio for more than enough time can cause you a calorie deficit.  In this state, your body loses muscle tissue over fat. You should plan your cardio well to avoid this. 

You can perform High-Intensity Interval Training as your cardio training. In this,  after warm-up for a few minutes, let’s say 3-4 minutes, you have to perform your first interval for 60 seconds. After this, back off and allow your heart rate to recover. This will hardly take 2 or 3 minutes. After this, you’re ready to go again. Remember to make this a success, go with full force on your work intervals, and never perform it daily, you can perform not more than 3 sessions per week.

7.     Ways to reduce fat stores – With increasing protein and cutting down the carbs, you can follow these tried and tested method of reducing fat:
8.    Cut back processed foods – Frequently eating fast foods, processed foods, meat is associated with unintentional weight gain, and it may hinder your weight loss efforts. Convenience foods are typically low in essential nutrients and high in calories. Cutting down convenience foods and replacing them with nutritious food is a smart way to lose weight.
9.    Limit the added sugars – We unknowingly consume a lot of added sugars through the things we don’t notice. Surprise! Your favorite tomato ketchup and salad dressing also has added sugars. Never thought of it this way, right? To limit these added sugars, you can read the ingredients label of any particular item before consuming it.
10.     Let your muscles take a break – We often think we need to work out more to grow muscles faster. This isn’t the way our muscles like it. They need rest to build. You must listen to your body and should take rest accordingly. It’s better to give your muscles rest before doing the same type of strength training with them. To say, you’ve done training with your upper body on Tuesday, then wait at least till Thursday to perform the upper-body workout. According to the experts, it is better to give rest to a given muscle group before working it out again through strength training.

Now that you know the tips to follow to gain muscles here are a few things you should avoid in the whole process:

•  Eating less than required –  You can’t grow muscles while eating too little for healthy muscle growth, you should take an adequate amount of protein and carbs to keep the size.
• Not fueling correctly – If you don’t give fuel to your body for a longer time, the hormone cortisol starts to break down the muscles into glucose. Make sure you eat in small portions at the right time to prevent the cortisol from performing the harmful task.
• Insufficient weight training – When you lose fat, the only way to keep your muscles from going down is sufficient weight training. You can go with heavier weights and a smaller number of reps or lighter weights with more number of reps.
• Skipping Cardio – Cardio helps you to burn off those extra calories. Cardio at a moderate pace or short bursts of high-intensity intervals will get you in good shape.

Wrapping Up

What you’ve just read here could be really difficult to follow. Be patient. Yes, you heard it right. You should understand that you can’t get results overnight, and it takes time. Some people may notice changes faster in comparison to others. This is simply because everyone has a different body type and lifestyle. If you’re finding it difficult to get results, you should not hesitate to consult a trainer or nutritionist.

The most important thing we would say is that your happiness matters more than how your body looks. So always set realistic goals for yourself and never get disappointed.