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How to burn fat mass. How to Burn Fat Without Losing Muscle Mass

10.10.2019

Do your standard workout. The main danger is that during exercise you can burn not so much fat as muscle mass. This, in turn, does not allow achieving a safe and lasting weight loss effect.

What happens to muscles during cardio training?

Among those actively losing weight, there is an opinion that long-term cardio training is the key to quick and effective weight loss. Combined with the belief that strength training leads to an excessive increase in muscle mass, this becomes the reason that women and girls mainly resort to aerobic exercise in the hope of maintaining muscle tone and getting rid of extra pounds ov. However, this approach often leads to unpredictable results. Instead of a beautiful, toned body, women get weakened muscles, lose an attractive silhouette and have metabolic disorders. Why is this happening?

During the first 20 minutes of dynamic training, the body actively uses up the sugar present in the blood, namely, glycogen and glucose, which are essential during physical activity. After this time, the cells begin to require more nutrition. Then lipids, which are contained in subcutaneous fat and muscle tissue, are consumed. Optimal consumption of fat stored by the body occurs within 20-30 minutes, but after that, other substances are required to maintain strength and endurance - structural amino acids. The body does not have them in its reserves, so they are obtained through the destruction of muscle tissue cells. No matter how hard you try, this process cannot be avoided, so the recommended amount of cardio training does not exceed 45-50 minutes. Otherwise, your muscles seriously suffer, and instead of working positively on your body, you achieve complete exhaustion, which negatively affects both your well-being and your appearance.

Considering all of the above, deliberately exceeding the duration of cardio training is quite dangerous for the condition of the muscles, especially if you do not adhere to a special diet and do not observe regular exercise for a long time.

How to burn fat, not muscle

To ensure that cardio exercises bring only benefits, you should adhere to important rules. One of the main ones is an objective approach to the volume of required activities and their intensity. To do this, analyze your weight and capabilities - you cannot train beyond strength, as this involves a serious test for the heart. For obese people, this can be a critical factor and a cause of cardiovascular dysfunction. In addition, it is important to take into account the specifics of your diet - whether you eat a lot or gain weight due to an excess of carbohydrates. If you have gained weight due to large quantity fatty foods on the menu, then cardio training can become very strenuous and will do little to achieve optimal results. At the same time, for those with a sweet tooth, cardio is the best option for a positive fight against unattractive volumes.

To avoid harming muscle tissue during this fight, follow these recommendations:

don’t get carried away - 2-3 days a week for aerobic exercise is enough to keep your whole body in good shape and your mood positive;
one lesson should not exceed 30 minutes for a beginner, and no more than 50 minutes for a more experienced loser;
two hours before training, prepare yourself a protein snack: fermented milk products, dietary meat and fish are perfect - the amino acids from them will create additional protection for the muscles;
throughout your workout, drink a few sips of water every 5-10 minutes to maintain your metabolic rate and prevent dehydration;
Professional athletes advise including special protein compositions in your diet that will help keep your muscles in normal condition, but this option is only suitable for people who strictly adhere to their training regimen.

Of course, to maintain muscle elasticity and strength, it is important to eat properly, not just a couple of hours before classes. The daily menu should contain products necessary for proper nutrition of cells. Among them vegetable oils, fiber, omega-3 and omega-6 fats, which sea fish are especially rich in.

Do cardio exercises help with sustainable weight loss?

When it comes to effective weight loss, it is not enough to rely only on aerobic exercise. The fact is that they are only good for burning those calories that you consumed on the day of the lesson, and only for the moment when they are actually carried out by you. This really helps to get rid of loose fat formations, reduce the first, so-called “light” weight, after which you won’t be able to do just cardio.

In order to work out the relief well and break down the denser subcutaneous fats, which often cause the plateau effect, a more intense but. It is due to this that the muscles receive maximum nutrition, and the body begins processes of active restoration of muscle tissue, which helps to increase its elasticity and increase your physical strength and endurance.

Only cardio or only power training will not give the full effect of losing weight at the same time as increasing muscle tone. In addition, after working on weight training equipment, the fat burning effect is most activated precisely at the moment of your rest! With the optimal combination of these two types of physical activity, you provide yourself with a full workout of the whole body and activation of weight loss processes even on those days when another workout is not scheduled in your schedule.

Myths about cardio exercise

1. Cardio training burns fat better than exercise with dumbbells and special exercise machines. No! Both types work effectively in their own way, in their own area, providing high-quality weight loss with a stable result, so experts advise using aerobic and anaerobic exercise equally.

2. The more aerobics you do, the faster you will lose weight. No! It is better to conduct such classes every day for half an hour than 3-4 times a week for an hour and a half. IN the latter case the quality of muscle tissue deteriorates.

3. When combining two types of exercise, you need to start with cardio. No! Since glycogen stores are used up very quickly, it is necessary to start with strength exercises in order to transfer enough energy to the muscle fibers. After this, you can switch to aerobic exercise and strengthen the effect of the workout!

4. You can burn off the extra calories you eat by simply increasing your cardio workout time. Potentially yes. But this is not reasonable from the point of view of preserving muscles and increasing their tone, since you will have to violate the recommended norm. It is better to subtract these calories from dinner or fast the next day.

5. Intense cardio will help you lose weight without eating restrictions. No! Whatever sport you engage in, and whatever set of workouts you choose, it is very important to seriously reconsider your diet. An ideal result can only be achieved through an optimal combination of physical activity and proper nutrition.

Zinaida Rublevskaya
website for women's magazine

When using and reprinting material, active link to women's online magazine required

Losing weight without losing muscle mass is a real art. Learn how to eat and exercise right to maintain muscle and lose those extra pounds!

Preparation

First of all, we must clearly define the goal for which we will fight overweight. This goal could be 1) the desire to look good; 2) improvement of the body (lowering cholesterol levels, reducing the risk of developing cardiovascular pathologies, etc.); 3) upcoming vacation/trip to a resort; 4) the desire to test one’s strength.

In general, you can find a lot of reasons why people get rid of excess fat, but in any case you will have to work hard to achieve the final goal - half measures simply do not work here. Keep in mind that the body “remembers” the exact amount of fat and tries its best to maintain this amount by slowing down metabolic processes, saving fat and consuming muscle tissue. The body is smart, because it has evolved over many millennia, and no amount of trickery can force it to change overnight.

From now on, you will have to build your whole life around new goals, which should be extremely clear. You need to clearly formulate why you want to do this and decide on a date to start working on yourself. You should tell your friends and family about this, and it would also be a good idea to tell them that you are going to start implementing your plan on such and such a day. Believe me, you will need the support of your loved ones as you adapt to your new lifestyle. Getting rid of excess body fat is very difficult, and you will need one hundred percent grit and selfless dedication to your goals.

Statement of purpose

Write down on paper what goal you set for yourself. For example, “I want my fat mass to be equal to ...X...”. And be realistic - you won't achieve a 15% reduction in a few weeks.

By writing down tasks, it’s as if you are making a statement in which you formulate your goals very precisely, and in the future it will relieve you of any doubts like “But if... I wish I were...”, etc. You have already determined for yourself that you are trying to lose X kilogram in Y time. Set ambitious but realistic goals. If you don't know how far you can go in losing weight, look for examples in fitness publications. There you will probably find photos of people “Before” and “After” losing weight - cut out these photos and hang them over your bed as a source of inspiration.

So, the goals are defined and written down, and copies of the document are posted everywhere where you can see them every day - on the bathroom mirror, on the refrigerator, in the car. They will constantly remind you of what goals you are going to achieve. Know that more than once or twice you will lose your way and take a step back; most importantly, find the strength to return to the right path, because you are “striving for your goals.”

Nutrition

Banal calorie restriction does not work - the body easily turns on protective mechanisms and continues to accumulate fats in roundabout ways. The whole point is that one of worst enemies in the fight against fat storage is lipoprotein lipase, an enzyme that slows down metabolic processes and puts your fat cells last in line for energy sources. At the very beginning of this line is muscle tissue, so while you diet you will lose weight, but not the weight you really want to lose.

Muscle is 70% water, so when you look at the scale you might think you're on the right track. However, in reality, you are losing water and muscle tissue, and given that muscles are the power plants that burn excess calories, this slows down metabolic processes even more. When you stop following a diet, you will instantly gain back all the lost fats, and at the same time a few more kilograms “in reserve” in case it occurs to you to starve your body again. As a result, you now eat less, but accumulate fat tissue even more successfully.

You should eat regularly: the interval between food intake should not exceed three hours, which means that your diet will consist of six or seven meals a day. You don't need extra calories, so you should spread your daily calories evenly. In turn, this will speed up your metabolism, suppress your appetite, and reduce fluctuations in your blood sugar levels. As a result, you're energized, less hungry, easier for your digestive system to process food, and you've created a metabolic environment that promotes fat burning and muscle gain.

Serving Size

In order to get rid of excess weight, we must consume fewer calories than our body requires, thereby creating a “negative energy balance.” But let's shift the emphasis a little: instead of counting every calorie eaten, we will count the number of servings, and limit the servings to the size of the palm or clenched fist. This is the easiest way to control your diet. However, without the right products you still won't get it desired result; The key to success will be your choice of meals and training program.

Product categories

Essential fatty acids (omega-3 and omega-6)

Our health depends on the quality of the products that are present in daily diet. Scientists have identified 45 essential ingredients. We call “essential” those nutrients that are absolutely necessary for life and health, since the body is not able to extract them from other substances through endogenous synthesis. This means that we must obtain all these ingredients in their natural form from food or dietary supplements. A deficiency of even one essential nutrient leads to poor health, yet large-scale studies have shown that more than 60% of the population is deficient in one or more essential nutrients.

Of the several hundred fatty acids known to science, about twenty are constantly present in our food, and some are essential for the human body - essential fatty acids, or EFAs. It is known that many degenerative diseases and pathological conditions (cardiovascular pathology, some forms of cancer, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, osteoporosis, infertility and miscarriage, premenstrual syndrome, schizophrenia, depression) are associated with a deficiency of EFAs in the diet.

Entrecote

Lean minced meat

Low-fat cutlets

Sources of carbohydrates

Wholemeal bread

Whole grain cereals

Legumes

Vegetables

Onion

Sprouted beans

Lettuce

Remember that each meal should include a serving of protein and carbohydrates, and at least two meals should include vegetables.

Protein shakes that contain complex carbohydrates (not sugar) can also be considered a meal, but keep in mind that the body also needs dietary fiber, which comes from vegetables, fruits, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, rice and wheat.

Remember that each serving should be the size of a clenched fist or palm, and the number of meals per day is six.

Once a week (for example, on Sundays) allow yourself to relax and eat whatever you want, literally everything….

Fluid intake

Approximately 70% of muscle consists of water. For most nutrients, water is an indispensable transport system, and it plays a critical role in all intracellular processes. When the body receives little fluid, the transport of nutrients and active substances suffers, you lose strength and feel sluggish due to the accumulation of metabolic end products such as ammonia, urea and uric acid. Drinking a glass of water before and after meals will help you maintain adequate hydration throughout the day. And, of course, be sure to drink water during training, especially in the warm season.

Plan

So, all we need to achieve our goal is training and eating right? Oh, if only everything were so simple.

Workout

To change your body, you must lift weights. Aerobics alone will not help you achieve your goals; to improve the body best view physical activity is strength training - for both men and women. With weight training, you increase your metabolic rate, which directly affects the rate at which you burn fat. Strength training helps to gain muscle mass; the body requires more energy to maintain the vital activity of new muscles (fat tissue does not need energy - it only irritates us with its presence). In short, strength training has a number of advantages over aerobic exercise, since it increases the intensity of energy metabolism. You can also lose weight through aerobic exercise alone, but it won't change your body as dramatically as strength training will.

Strength training is suitable for all ages. It's not just for young people: I personally know people who are well into their sixties and they are still training and in great shape. The older we get, the faster we accumulate fat tissue because we tend to become less active. And since we are less active, it means we are losing muscle mass and muscle strength. Ultimately comes old age, weakness, infirmity and limited physical capabilities. But everything is reversible: strength training eliminates muscle weakness, returns proud posture and gives you excellent health.

Don't think that you have to study every day to achieve your goals. You don't have to, but you must stick to the training program. Training should be short and intense, only in this case will it be truly effective. Training should trigger adaptation processes in the body. And remember that “more” does not mean “better”. High-intensity and long training sessions are considered counterproductive.

Many people train for long periods of time and fail to achieve their goals, but it never occurs to them to reduce the duration of their training. On the contrary, they think that “maybe I’m not doing enough” and begin to study with even greater zeal, which ultimately leads to a further drop in results.

During strength training, we provoke microtraumas of the working muscles, which trigger the body's response aimed at restoring the damaged area of muscle tissue. Repair processes require energy, nutrients and structural elements such as proteins, carbohydrates, essential fatty acids, etc. But most importantly, we need rest, during which the body can fully recover, because while we are torturing ourselves in gym, regeneration is impossible. Damaged areas are only repaired during rest between training sessions, and essential nutrients help us become bigger, stronger and leaner.

Strength training involves two types of movements: concentric (lifting) and eccentric (lowering). When we lift the working weight, the muscles contract, when we lower it, the muscles stretch. Both phases of the exercise, concentric and eccentric, are of enormous importance. You have to focus on both lifting the weight and counteracting the lowering of the weight, because otherwise (if you're just throwing the weight under gravity) you're missing an important part of the exercise.

In strength training you have to constantly move forward, you can't just do certain number repetitions and throw the projectile. Here, as in life, “what goes around comes around.” I have often seen how during a workout a person does an exercise as quickly as possible, as if he wants to quickly gain the required number of repetitions. You're wasting your time with this attitude, but slow down and your muscles will be optimally challenged over a long period of time.

Training program

Intensity

Monitor your workout intensity using the rate of perceived exertion (RPE) scale, also known as the Borg scale. RPE takes into account the subjective perception of exertion, objective physiological indicators (breathing rate, heart rate) and the degree of muscle tension (how you evaluate the load on the target muscle groups). The Borg Scale will help you answer the question: “How hard is it for me to exercise?” The load intensity level ranges from 1 to 10.

Individual Perception of Load Scale

Aerobic training

Remember, first warm-up and exercises, then aerobic training, and at the end a cool-down.

The proposed scale is the standard by which you can evaluate your diligence in training. If you are a beginner, you will reach level ten much earlier than a trained athlete with excellent functional training. Level 1 is approximately equal to the load your body is “subjected to” while watching your favorite TV series. The third level can be compared to the bags you carry from the supermarket to the car, and the fifth level is carrying the same bags up several flights of stairs. The scale continues to rise until level ten, where you are working at your limit or running at full speed and are no longer able to add. We will adhere to this gradation of loads during aerobic and strength training.

People believe that low-intensity exercise and long aerobic sessions are The best way get rid of extra pounds. This is not entirely true; Moreover, such a strategy is far from ideal. Research results show that high-intensity training not only burns fat more effectively (50% more effective than low-intensity exercise), but also speeds up metabolic processes. This effect lasts for a long time, provided that you do not eat within an hour after the end of the training session.

The best time for aerobic exercise is morning. You can start the day by exercising on an exercise bike, or you can go for a run around the area. Scientists have calculated that starting the day with aerobic training, we burn fat much faster (by 300%) than when performing the same load during the daytime. All we need is 20 minutes of aerobic exercise three times a week. No more, but, of course, no less. We must make each workout as effective as possible in terms of burning fat calories. A twenty-minute exercise helps improve health, and we use the Borg scale to control the intensity.

Choose the exercises that you like: rowing, cycling, jogging, orbitrek or running on a treadmill. You can change exercises at will - at each workout or once a week, the choice is yours. We recommend starting the workout with two minutes at the fifth intensity level, after two minutes we increase the intensity to the sixth level, after one minute to the seventh, after another minute to the eighth, after another minute to the ninth, after which we return to the sixth level. We repeat this sequence three times, but during the last cycle, having reached the ninth level, we continue to increase the load and move to the tenth level. You can no longer run faster, so for a minute we simply maintain the highest possible pace, after which we return to the fifth level. This approach is called interval training, and it is the best way to get rid of excess weight. But not simple!!

Minute	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21
Level	4	4	6	6	7	8	9	6	7	8	9	6	7	8	9	6	7	8	9	10	4

In each minute of training, the intensity of work must correspond to the specified level. Don't be a hero and don't try to jump in over your head, it's counterproductive. Don’t be surprised if at first the tenth level is simple walking at a high pace - this is normal, this is your functional readiness for this moment, but you must strive to progress, moving towards increasingly higher loads.

Applying these same principles to aerobic and strength training, you will begin to progress and move on to more serious loads, which means you will stimulate muscle growth and burn more fat. The efficiency of metabolic processes will increase, the body will burn fat at an accelerated pace throughout the day: during normal routine work and even during sleep.

Strength training

When compiling this training program, we conditionally divide the body into upper and lower parts and distribute the training loads by day of the week: on the first day we work out the upper body, the second day we devote to aerobic training, the third to the lower body, the fourth to aerobic training, the fifth to the upper body. parts of the body, the sixth – aerobic training, and on the seventh day we rest!! Next week we start with the lower body and so on. We adhere to the training program for at least 12 weeks.

A week	Mon	W	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
1	Top	Cardio	Bottom	Cardio	Top	Cardio	Rest
2	Bottom	Cardio	Top	Cardio	Bottom	Cardio	Rest
3	Top	Cardio	Bottom	Cardio	Top	Cardio	Rest

Stick with this program until you reach your goal.

Fitness and sports

When exercising vigorously, it's important to strike a balance between what and how much you eat and how intense you make your standard workout. The main danger is that during exercise you can burn not so much fat as muscle mass. This, in turn, does not allow achieving a safe and lasting weight loss effect.

Among those actively losing weight, there is an opinion that long-term cardio training is the key to quick and effective weight loss. Combined with the belief that strength training leads to an excessive increase in muscle mass, this becomes the reason that women and girls mainly resort to aerobic exercise in the hope of maintaining muscle tone and getting rid of extra pounds. However, this approach often leads to unpredictable results. Instead of a beautiful, toned body, women get weakened muscles, lose an attractive silhouette and have metabolic disorders. Why is this happening?

During the first 20 minutes of dynamic training, the body actively uses up the sugar in the blood, namely glycogen and glucose, which are the main suppliers of energy during physical activity. After this time, the cells begin to require more nutrition. Then lipids, which are contained in subcutaneous fat and muscle tissue, are consumed. Optimal consumption of fats stored by the body occurs within 20-30 minutes, but after that, to maintain strength and endurance, other substances are required - structural amino acids. The body does not have them in its reserves, so they are obtained through the destruction of muscle tissue cells. No matter how hard you try, this process cannot be avoided, so the recommended amount of cardio training does not exceed 45-50 minutes. Otherwise, your muscles seriously suffer, and instead of working positively on your body, you achieve complete exhaustion, which negatively affects both your well-being and your appearance.

In order for cardio exercises to bring only benefits, you should adhere to important rules. One of the main ones is an objective approach to the volume of required activities and their intensity. To do this, analyze your weight and capabilities - you cannot train beyond strength, as this involves a serious test for the heart. For obese people, this can be a critical factor and a cause of cardiovascular dysfunction. In addition, it is important to take into account the specifics of your diet - whether you eat a lot of protein or gain weight due to an excess of carbohydrates. If you have gained weight due to the large amount of fatty foods on the menu, then cardio training can become very strenuous and will do little to achieve optimal results. At the same time, for those with a sweet tooth, cardio is the best option for a positive fight against unattractive volumes.

To avoid harming muscle tissue during this fight, follow these recommendations:

don’t get carried away - 2-3 days a week for aerobic exercise is enough to keep your whole body in good shape and your mood positive; one lesson should not exceed 30 minutes for a beginner, and no more than 50 minutes for a more experienced loser; two hours before training, prepare yourself a protein snack: fermented milk products, dietary meat and fish are perfect - the amino acids from them will create additional protection for the muscles; throughout your workout, drink a few sips of water every 5-10 minutes to maintain your metabolic rate and prevent dehydration; Professional athletes advise including special protein compounds in your diet that will help keep your muscles in normal condition, but this option is only suitable for people who strictly adhere to their training regimen.

Of course, to maintain muscle elasticity and strength, it is important to eat properly, not just a couple of hours before classes. The daily menu should contain products necessary for proper nutrition of cells. These include vegetable oils, fiber, omega-3 and omega-6 fats, which sea fish are especially rich in.

In order to work out the relief well and break down denser subcutaneous fats, which often cause the plateau effect, a more intense, but forceful load is required. It is due to this that the muscles receive maximum nutrition, and the body begins processes of active restoration of muscle tissue, which helps to increase its elasticity and increase your physical strength and endurance.

Cardio alone or strength training alone will not give the full effect of losing weight at the same time as increasing muscle tone. In addition, after working on weight training equipment, the fat burning effect is most activated precisely at the moment of your rest! With the optimal combination of these two types of physical activity, you provide yourself with a full workout of the whole body and activation of weight loss processes even on those days when another workout is not scheduled in your schedule.

2. The more aerobics you do, the faster you will lose weight. No! It is better to conduct such classes every day for half an hour than 3-4 times a week for an hour and a half. In the latter case, the quality of muscle tissue deteriorates.

Zinaida Rublevskaya
for women's magazine InFlora.ru

When using or reprinting material, an active link to the women's online magazine InFlora.ru is required

Everyone has muscles, and although it may be assumed that you do not consider them that much value, it is worth preserving them. Even if you are planning to lose weight in 6 weeks or do something similar and equally tempting in terms of quick results. Well, we all know - a seven-day diet, a sports fast with 20 g of carbohydrates and with the obligatory parsley as a treat, and so on. Let's talk about how to maintain muscle while losing weight, and even if you don't care right now, it's better to try losing weight this way.

Have you ever seen photographs of women over 40 who have lost weight? strict diet? If you have seen it, it is an unforgettable sight. And if not, all your “flabby hanging” and “problem area” are complete nonsense compared to the situation when the whole body is one big problem area. And at the same time, the weight is small, fits into the “table” values, and shapewear becomes your best friend.

But appearance is not the saddest thing in a situation where, when losing weight, the percentage of muscle loss is too high. The sad thing is that your diet will now be something like 1700 kcal per day. And this is not to lose weight, but to avoid gaining it. Moreover, it will be possible to get out of this bottom into the realm of normal values only through... gaining muscle mass, with which most sufferers on lifelong diets have well-founded problems.

Therefore, if you have not yet started doing something that will cause similar problems in the future, it is better to start with acceptable values.

Usually a simple proposal to count calories, contact a proper nutritionist with a wealth of knowledge about how to eat when doing fitness, and keep a food diary for several months (about 3-4 to start with) is met with a barrage of counterarguments:

I don’t have time, everyone loses weight by simply reducing the amount of food they eat, and why am I worse; anyway, calories are not absorbed as it is written on the Internet and on food packaging, so why bother counting them, anyway, the error is something like 500 kcal/day; You can lose weight without gaining protein or carbohydrates, and in general, generations have become slimmer on a low-fat diet

In reality, keeping a food diary with calculations takes about 4 minutes for each meal if you enter the values into a smartphone app. Let you have the canonical 5 meals and spend 20 minutes a day. Count how many minutes are spent on a highly intellectual game of marbles, or on viewing motivational and humiliating photos from the Internet, and you will get 20 minutes.

In fact, the notorious diaries and nutritionists are needed so that you not only reduce the “inflow” of energy, but also so that you begin to maintain the optimal proportion of nutrients necessary to preserve muscles.

Let us remind you that most health organizations believe that you should eat protein from 0.5 g per 1 kg to 1.5 g per 1 kg of body weight. And all this is absolutely not suitable for those who engage in strength fitness. And if you are going to lose weight in a modern fitness club, and visit the gym there, you have gathered and are already losing weight, and this is not suitable for you either

Alan Aragon and Eric Helms (http://www.jissn.com/content/11/1/20) write that the optimal ratio for a person involved in serious strength training would be the following ratio of proteins, fats and carbohydrates. Proteins are calculated at the rate of 2, 3 to 3 g per 1 kg of body weight. The current one, and not the one we want to get as a result of losing weight. Fats – occupy 15-30% of daily calories. Let us remember that it should be the body’s energy requirement minus 10%. In total, for most girls we get from 38 to 70 g of fat. Carbohydrates “take away” everything else, that is, rarely does a person, in principle, need to lose weight on less than the approximate 180 g of carbohydrates per day.

The data in context is taken from an article about training “natural” bodybuilders. Unfortunately, “advanced weight-loss fitnessists” have not yet been studied, but it is the heroes of the scene who are closer to our situation than those with morbid obesity

All this is great, but in real conditions, endless conversations begin about kidneys planted by someone from such a diet, gall bladders removed, and reluctance to eat sports nutrition.

Category:

In most cases, when a person comes to the gym, he wants to gain muscle mass or burn subcutaneous fat (cutting). As a rule, to get maximum effect, you need to concentrate your attention on one goal. But, there are people who want to get everything at once. It is for such athletes that I will talk about today. Which should be diet for muscle growth and fat burning. At all, Is it possible to lose weight and gain muscle at the same time??

It is generally accepted that you cannot build muscle and lose weight at the same time. It’s impossible, because to gain you need an excess of calories, and to lose weight you need a shortage. Yes, this is true, but not everyone understands that their body already has some calories in the form of fat that just need to be sold. This is why most people can build muscle and lose weight at the same time.

This process is very complex and requires perfect adherence to the regime. If we analyze this issue in detail, I would divide all people into three groups. The first are those who can easily gain muscle and lose fat at the same time. The second are those who can also do this, but this process will be difficult for them. The third are those people who most likely will not be able to do it or their progress will be minimal, which is not worth the effort. At the moment, the conversation is only about natural athletes who do not use steroids and growth hormone.

The first group that can easily build muscle and at the same time lose weight are beginners who came to the gym for the first time and who have excess fat deposits. Their body is not at all adapted to stress loads, and if you choose the right training program and nutrition plan, you can say that the result will be 100%.

The second group is more or less experienced athletes who have excess fat deposits. Such people can also simultaneously gain muscle mass and get lean (burn fat), but it will be much more difficult for them, since the body is already accustomed to various loads. Also, the % of subcutaneous fat plays an important role here. The more fat you have in your body, the easier it will be for you to work both ways.

The third group is experienced athletes who have little subcutaneous fat. Of course, you can try to do this, but it will be very difficult and very long. Also, here you will have to adhere to the strictest regime, which concerns nutrition, training and rest. In principle, this regime should also be followed by group No. 2. Only the first group can sometimes allow themselves to slack off and this will not have a particularly negative impact on progress.

I'm sure a lot of people will say that burning fat and gaining muscle mass at the same time– these are not compatible processes. But this is my personal opinion, and all my words have been confirmed in practice many times, in the process of personal training. To provide you with at least some evidence other than words, see the photo below. This is one of my clients who initially worked in 2 directions - bulking and cutting at the same time. At that time, his level was something between the first and second groups + quite good genetics. Who is interested in personal training online, click on the link ->

As you can see, with a strong desire you can do amazing things. But, if you are not ready to follow the strictest regime (It is very difficult), then it’s best to spend some of your time gaining muscle mass, and a little more time burning fat. It will be easier this way, because the strictest diet needs to be followed only when drying, but when eating weights you can sometimes eat tasty treats. If you decide to combine weight and cutting, then even minor violations can negatively affect progress.

Okay, now let's look at specific recommendations on how to burn fat and gain muscle mass at the same time. Let's start, perhaps, with diets, as this is the main key to success.

Nutrition for muscle growth and fat burning

The first thing you need to do is choose the optimal amount of calories. You have to find a starting point and create a small calorie deficit. To find your starting point, you need to multiply your body weight by 30 (for guys) or 25 (for girls). After this, you need to survive on the resulting caloric intake without breakdowns for 7 days (after taking measurements first). After 7 days, take control measurements again and evaluate the result. If nothing has changed, then subtract 100 calories from carbohydrates and get to work.

These 100 calories are your small deficit. These calories will be realized precisely due to fat. Accordingly, you have enough resources for muscle growth (although not for intensive growth, but still growing) and there is a deficit for burning fat. Work in this mode until you stop losing fat. As soon as fat burning stops, cut your diet by another 100 calories. Also, in addition to cutting back on your diet, you can increase your physical activity. (for example, add 10 – 15 minutes of low-intensity cardio daily). The main thing is that this happens smoothly. You need to move slowly so that the body does not receive excess stress and can lose and gain weight at the same time.

The second thing to do is to choose the optimal ratio of proteins, fats and carbohydrates. Protein will play a particularly important role, since it is the main construction material for our muscles. Fats and carbohydrates should be kept in reasonable proportions.

As for proteins, it is usually recommended to consume 2g per 1kg of body weight for guys and 1.5g per 1kg of body weight for girls. But, if we have such a goal, then I recommend eating a little more protein food than necessary. For guys it is 2.5g per 1kg of body weight, and for girls it is 2g per 1kg of body weight. Let it be better to have a little more than a shortage. As protein foods you can use: meat, poultry, cottage cheese, chicken eggs, fish, seafood and protein.

You need to keep fats in the region of 0.5 - 0.7 g per 1 kg of body weight. To lose weight and gain weight, fatty acids must be present in your menu. Moreover, there should be both saturated (1/3 part) and unsaturated (2/3 part) fats. From saturated meats you can use medium-fat meat, and from unsaturated ones you can use oils. (olive, flaxseed, etc.), nuts, seeds, fatty fish, avocado.

For carbohydrates, there is no specific number that will suit everyone. Carbohydrates are an individual indicator. To understand how much you need, you should calculate daily norm proteins and fats, and then calculate carbohydrates for the remaining calories. Your menu should consist of at least 70% complex carbohydrates (cereals, durum wheat pasta, brown bread, potatoes). You can use honey, fruits, berries as simple carbohydrates. When fat burning stops, cut simple carbohydrates first.

The third thing to do is drink enough water. Water plays a very important function in the life of our body. Without enough water, the body cannot function normally, let alone lose fat and gain muscle at the same time. About beneficial features I already wrote about water and its role in a separate article, so I won’t go into too much detail here. For those interested, find it on the website in the “site map” section. I will only say that on average you need to drink 30 ml of water per 1 kg of body weight. That is, if your body weight is 60 kg, then 30 ml * 60 kg = 1.8 liters per day.

And the last thing you need to know when building correct menu is the use fractional meals. Burn fat and gain muscle mass at the same time cannot occur effectively without a properly structured menu. I recommend abandoning the standard 2-3 meals a day and switching to 4-5 meals a day. This principle will have a positive effect on the functioning of your stomach and will allow you to nourish your body with all the necessary substances on a constant basis, every 3 to 5 hours.

Approximate diet (nutrition) for muscle growth and fat burning might look like this:

Meal 1: oatmeal + honey + chicken egg omelet

Meal 2: buckwheat + chicken + vegetables

Meal 3: buckwheat + fish + vegetables

Meal 4: beef + vegetable salad + flaxseed oil

Meal 5: cottage cheese + nuts

If you are a very busy person and you don’t have time for a full meal, then you can make the following menu:

Meal 1: oatmeal + honey + chicken egg omelet

Meal 2: whey protein + crispbread

Meal 3: buckwheat + chicken + vegetables

Meal 4: Whey Protein + Nuts

Meal 5: beef + vegetable salad + flaxseed oil

If you are unable to choose your own menu with the right ratio proteins, fats and carbohydrates under your own body weight, then I can help you with this. If you want me to select an individual menu for you (calculate everything by grams and time), then contact me through this page ->

How to lose weight and build muscle at the same time through training? Training is what creates the necessary stress for muscle growth. In order for muscle growth and fat burning to occur at the same time, you need to correctly match physical activity in order to receive the necessary stress without excess (excess stress can lead to overtraining).

The first thing you need to do is include basic exercises in your program. (the bigger, the better). It is the basic exercises that force the body to burn the most calories and provoke a large release of anabolic hormones, which will ultimately allow us to move towards the specified goal.

The next thing is to use progressive loads. Your program should constantly change so that the muscles do not have time to get used to one load and constantly adapt through muscle growth. If you do not progress in any way, then accordingly you will not be able to change externally. The easiest way is to constantly increase the working weights. You can choose a specific program for yourself and work on it as long as your working weights increase. As soon as you cannot increase the working weight for 3 weeks in a row, then change the program or try to create a progression in another way (add an extra set, reduce rest between sets, do a negative on the last set, etc.).

Third is the correct rep range. Here, in principle, you need to select individually, but I will say that the range of 5 – 8 repetitions is suitable for most people. If you don't know where to start, start with 5 – 8 repetitions. Then test 10 – 12 repetitions and see where the growth was better. It may be that individual muscles will respond differently to repetition. For example, you may notice that your arms grow better with 10 repetitions, and your back with 6 repetitions. This is normal, this can happen. Experiment and find the most optimal rep range.

The fourth is rest between sets and duration of training. As for rest, I would recommend staying at 1.5 - 2 minutes for guys and 1 - 1.5 minutes for girls (this is in basic exercises). In isolated areas, you can reduce the rest to 1 - 1.5 minutes for guys and 60 seconds for girls. As for the duration of the training, then again everything is individual. I recommend keeping the duration around 50 – 90 minutes (no longer needed, since for this purpose it will be too much).

And the last point is low-intensity cardio. This is exactly the one exercise stress, which specifically burns fat. But during work, intramuscular fat is burned, and during recovery, subcutaneous fat replenishes muscle reserves and thus fat burning occurs. Cardio can be present in your program, but it should not be too much.

Initially, you can build your program like this:

Monday – strength training (50 minutes)

Tuesday – low intensity cardio (15 minutes)

Wednesday – strength training (50 minutes)

Thursday – low intensity cardio (15 minutes)

Friday – strength training (50 minutes)

Saturday + Sunday- rest

Then, as the body adapts, gradually complicate your program. Increase your time under load. But, do this only when you see that there is no result at all. At the most advanced level, your training regimen might look like this:

Monday – strength training (90 minutes)

Tuesday – strength training (90 minutes)

Wednesday – low intensity cardio (60 minutes)

Thursday – strength training (90 minutes)

Friday – strength training (90 minutes)

Saturday – low intensity cardio (60 minutes)

Sunday – rest

As you can see, burning fat and gaining muscle mass at the same time– this is a very real process. In this article I tried to give all the necessary recommendations that will help you lose weight and build muscle at the same time. Special attention Focus on dieting for muscle growth and fat loss as this is the main key to success. Listen to your body and everything will work out for you!

Sincerely,

Cardio training is the best way to burn fat, but if done incorrectly, it will burn not only fat, but also muscle. Below you will learn how to burn fat, not muscle, with cardio training.

Most people trying to lose weight use stupid diets and exercise systems that do not allow them to burn fat and maintain muscle. This makes them look worse, after which all the fat returns back in a larger volume.
Intensified cardio exercises with the use of special supplements really protect your muscles. The only way. Without drugs there will be no effect.
If you're doing cardio to burn fat, use 45-60 minute light workouts or 15-minute hard workouts.
Ignoring carbohydrates between workouts or in the post-workout period is the worst thing you can do to your body.

“Cardio does not burn fat. Muscle burns fat" - John Meadows

How to force your body to burn fat rather than muscle

Every time people set out to lose weight, they start doing all kinds of stupid activities that completely prevent muscle growth. They lose weight due to both fat and muscle mass. In this way, they get rid of not only fatness, but also the slimness and fit of their own body. It’s not that they become slimmer, they shrink proportionally, without qualitatively improving their body. Their body begins to take up less “space”, the scale says that the weight is really coming off, and the doctor is congratulated for their success in achieving a “healthy” weight. But in fact, in most cases, such people do not look better. This is exactly the moment that no one pays attention to.

The main priority when losing excess weight should be maintaining muscle mass. Loss of muscle mass is unacceptable. Loss of muscles threatens unaesthetic appearance after losing weight and, moreover, the lack of developed muscles will interfere with further loss of fat mass, because muscles are responsible for burning fat. 5 kilograms of muscle burns 50 kcal every day, even if you are at rest. So, if you lose 5 kilograms of muscle, you will easily lose the ability to get rid of your daily 50 kcal per day and 350 kcal per week. If the goal is really important to you, then even such a small loss can affect the result.

There is also such a thing as insulin sensitivity. If you have developed muscles, then your sensitivity to insulin will be smoothed out thanks to the muscles. Developed muscles have more insulin receptors - it is the muscles that are most sensitive to insulin. That is, everything you eat will be processed in the muscles and will no longer be able to be stored as fat. The more muscle mass you have, the harder you can train, and the more calories you will burn during your workout.

From this it becomes clear that during a diet you must take care of the condition of your muscle mass, this is vitally important! Next we will look at the most typical mistakes those who are trying to lose weight.

1. Intensified cardio workouts

This is exactly what everyone starts with in the morning and what was popular in the early years of bodybuilding around the world. And this only works if you use drugs that enhance your body's performance. Such drugs help maintain muscle mass and help in getting rid of fat. But for someone who denies such drugs, increased cardio is a direct road to muscle loss. First of all, cortisol levels are increased in the morning (the supply of cortisol is what gives your body the strength to wake up in the morning and start the work day energetically). If you don't eat, your cortisol levels may even increase slightly. And if you also start doing cardio, your cortisol levels will skyrocket. And this is a direct path to muscle loss. In addition, after such a workout on an empty stomach, you will get such a stable level of cortisol that it will be very difficult to lower it throughout the day (especially in a calorie deficit diet). This way you will lose muscle all day long.

It's not that I'm for or against cardio. For some, this is a way to become super slim. But for most this method does not work. Well, on top of everything else, increased cardio exercises only worsen the situation. The ideal period for truly effective cardio training is the post-absorption state. This is when you are not hungry, but not when you are digesting the food you just ate. This is the period of time when nutrients are in the bloodstream, which triggers fat breakdown and calorie burning.

Think about it, if you do cardio on an empty stomach, then fat breakdown over the next 24 hours will be at an extremely low level. This is due to the fact that metabolism during the day stays at high level– this causes fatigue during the day, especially if you are on a diet. Your activity level instinctively decreases throughout the day. Increased cardio loads provoke catabolic processes in muscle mass.

Cardio on a full stomach is also not the best idea. This leads to a slowdown in the breakdown of fats and increases the oxidation of glucose, not to mention the fact that the majority of people have difficulty coping with vigorous exercise during the digestion process. Best time for cardio exercise, this is the period when the body completely absorbs nutrients before starting exercise. Unfortunately, with solid foods the digestion process is delayed for a much longer period. And each person digests solid food differently, depending on weight, age, type of food and time of day.

This is where liquid nutritional supplements and medications come to the rescue. You can drink them and immediately start cardio exercises, without thinking about the negative effects and getting the maximum positive result from cardio exercises. Such drugs also increase the level of metabolism in the body, helping to become slimmer and improve results. One serving of this cocktail 20 minutes before the start of your workout will be enough.

Bottom line: avoid intense cardio exercise if you want to lose fat and not lose muscle. The only harmonious way is to use liquid nutritional supplements to maintain muscle tone. The effect of this drug will continue over the next 24 hours and after training.

2. Using light weights for more sets

To avoid losing muscle mass, you need to constantly maintain or constantly increase your strength level. If you can hold more and more weight, then you have truly succeeded in forcing your body to maintain its power. Your body will see a vital need for more power if you regularly push it to cope with greater challenges. As soon as you reduce the weight you lift, the body will immediately feel that there is little point in developing further and will gradually begin to reduce muscle mass. It's just that muscles need tons of calories to fuel them.

Mistake number two is increasing the number of repetitions in one approach. Many people believe that this will make the muscles more defined. True, they do not know that with this approach this is basically impossible. To get more defined muscles, you must first lose fat while maintaining muscle tone. Therefore, the less weight you lift, the less benefit it brings to your muscles. You will, of course, lose calories as you increase the number of repetitions, but this approach only concentrates on fat loss and not on the development of muscle mass.

Increasing the number of repetitions in an exercise is only justified if you have just trained thoroughly with heavy weights. However, at the same time, you can slightly reduce muscle mass - when you change the weight of the equipment from heavy to light in exercises, you significantly weaken the recovery process. And with reduced calorie intake, muscle recovery does not occur as it should. Regression during training leads to regression in muscle development. Moral of the story? During the diet, it is worth maintaining a diet that will support the growth of your muscles. And stop “pulling” light loads. Focus on the tedious but rewarding process of good old pumping, adding more and more weight.

3. Moderate intensity, monotonous, non-developing cardio exercises

If you nevertheless included cardio exercises in your weight loss schedule, then you have two radically opposite options: low load (walking) or serious, intense load (sprints, interval cardio training). The first type of exercise that most people like to use when losing weight causes a spike in cortisol levels in the blood. This type of activity only stimulates the release of cortisol and keeps it at this level all day long.

Low-intensity cardio - an hour's walk in the park or something similar - won't be nearly as intense as to stimulate cortisol production, so it doesn't even count. Such walks have a relaxing effect, in which cortisol levels do not increase and even drop slightly. High-intensity cardio can lead to an explosion of cortisol in the blood. But even if the intense load is not long in duration, then there will be no such effect.

Conclusion - the ideal would be either 45-60 minutes of light exercise, or high-intensity exercise lasting 15 minutes or less. This is the advantage of adding weights when performing exercises - five minutes and the intense exercise is completed! This activity will even help you build some muscle!

4. Abrupt start and abrupt end

Losing fat and changing your body are emotional matters. After all, we want to have the body of our dreams and we want it right now! This kind of thinking leads to our fourth mistake: starting too abruptly. I have seen many people start their diet with less than 50 grams of carbohydrates and fats per day for a 1200 calorie per day goal. Add to this, 90 minutes of cardio a day (and sometimes all 120) with a certain training system in the gym. Here is the “ideal” fat burning formula.

Just great! But how long can anyone even endure this? What's more important is how long will it take your body to adapt? My experience is that the body will adapt to this level of deprivation and activity level over 4 to 6 weeks, and the fat loss will still eventually come to a standstill... So what if you can tolerate all this for 4- 6 weeks! You will feel depressed and tormented by unbearable hunger pangs with zero energy for work and normal life activities. Plus, loss of muscle mass.

How can you restore the fat loss process with this approach? There is absolutely nothing to cut out of your diet, and no matter how much you exercise, you will not be able to make the exercises more difficult, simply because you will not have enough energy to do so. With this approach, you can be said to be doomed. You will still lose some fat, but the progress will be so slow that no other means will help you achieve this goal.

Avoid any "overkill" from the very beginning. Don’t go too far - use diets and a cardio exercise system so that the fat goes away at an acceptable speed, and so that you have enough strength for training. You need to increase your strength daily. The more conservative you are in your approach to losing weight, the more problems you will have when the fat stops coming off.

5. Intensify training and increase the number of exercises

When someone wants to get ripped muscles, they naturally maximize their workout with all possible exercises. As if this makes it possible to “polish” the muscles, working on them from all imaginable and inconceivable sides and angles. But keep one thing in mind - you cannot shape muscles. Muscles become either larger or smaller. So don’t rush off the bat - try to develop a competent strategy.

Will muscle gain increase with the addition of new exercises? The answer is yes. True, provided that there is an EXCESS of calories in your body, and not a DEFICIT of calories. Calories are needed to continually maintain muscle growth. If you are not a supporter of all kinds of stimulant drugs, then by sitting on a strict diet, you are unlikely to be able to “polish” and increase your muscle mass. More exercise will require more fuel. And after exercise, a person on a low-calorie diet will have problems with post-workout recovery. All this interferes with maintaining muscle mass.

Many people claim that after intensive, varied exercises, their muscles look larger and more prominent. Only they don’t realize that this “effect” is caused by swelling from the inflammatory process of muscle tissue, and by the next time you go to the gym, that peak moment may come when you simply cannot lift more weight or simply fully perform the planned exercise. If, again, we add a diet and calorie restriction to this, then the muscles will simply have nowhere to get energy for recovery. So, your weight loss process comes to a standstill again.

6. Avoiding Nutrient Carbohydrate Supplements

This is probably the most common problem. Even I fell for it at one time! For a long time, carbohydrates were considered the cause of difficulties in losing weight, especially during the crazy fashion for a no-carb diet. But among all the carbohydrate-phobes, I was probably the most important. I just didn't eat any carbohydrates at all before, during, or after the workout.

Carbohydrate products, as well as sports carbohydrate nutritional supplements and cocktails, contain a huge amount of peptides and natural mineral substances that preserve or even increase muscle mass. Even during a diet, you should not neglect carbohydrates. If, while following a diet, you completely abandon carbohydrates, then fat loss is, of course, guaranteed. But you can forget about restoring and forming beautiful muscles in the post-workout period.

Don't be afraid to consume carbohydrates post-workout. They will not be deposited anywhere and will not worsen your weight loss statistics. They will only enhance fat loss because they will saturate your muscles with more energy to perform exercises and increase the load.

7. Cardio before bed

A common mistake that also deserves special mention. She used to be popular in bodybuilding circles. But again, do not forget that this type of training has positive influence only when taking hormonal drugs and steroids. Without them, you will not be able to change your physiology and achieve at least some positive result. The more androgens/steroids you have in your blood, the less affected you are by your cortisol levels.

High levels of cortisol before bed will prevent you from falling asleep and will disturb your sleep until the morning. It will support the destructive processes of catabolism in the muscles throughout the night. To optimize the post-workout recovery process, simply forget about the habit of loading yourself with cardio exercises at night.

How to burn fat and maintain muscle - it's simple...

Don't scale everything down when strength training;
Don't try to add more and more new exercises;
Don't try to burn more calories by lifting weights;
If you decide to do cardio, then let it be short-term intense loads or long-term non-intensive loads in the post-absorption period;
Do not try to adjust the shape of your muscles during a calorie deficit - the best thing you can do is either increase or decrease their volume;
Don't ruin your quality workouts with a lack of carbohydrates! On the contrary, increase their consumption in the post-workout period;
Be conservative and don't go to extremes in either diet or exercise. You won't last long like this anyway.