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Jun 9

Secrets To Losing Weight And Building Muscles At The Same Time – Medical Daily

How to lose weight safely Comments Off on Secrets To Losing Weight And Building Muscles At The Same Time – Medical Daily

You may not necessarily be overweight, but it helps to have a better body shape, not only to look good, but also to live a longer, eventful life. The best ways to achieve that goal are by losing unwanted weight and building some muscle. Of course, since each have their own downsides, it may seem prudent to focus on one goal first before proceeding with the other. Balanced diet and intense physical training both help while doing either, but what if you want to shed pounds and gain muscle simultaneously?

Fortunately, three experts recently told Insider the following secrets to losing weight and building muscles at the same time:

Focus On Fat Loss

Losing weight makes you lose both fat and muscle but does not alter your body shape. This makes it hard for you to get the athletic "toned" physique many desire -- a result of having muscle definition. That is why it is wise to chase not weight loss, but fat loss.

The real challenge is how to lose fat while holding on to or building muscle. As a rule of thumb, fat loss requires a calorie deficit and muscle building involves a calorie surplus, making both seem incompatible. However, it's not necessarily the case.

Personal trainer and strength-and-conditioning coach Ben Carpenter told Insider that although many people claim that it cannot be done, it is possible to build muscle and lose fat at the same time -- a process often referred to as "recomping."

"Part of the confusion is that people understand you need a surplus of calories to gain weight and a calorie deficit to lose weight, so these two concepts sound completely opposing," he said. "However, this refers to total body weight as one. You can lose body fat and gain lean body mass at the same time."

Carpenter cited a study that found that men eating in a 40 percent energy deficit for four weeks while performing resistance training, doing high intensity interval training (HIIT) and practicing a high-protein diet managed to increase their lean body mass. Another study found that women engaging in resistance training and eating a high-protein diet simultaneously lost fat and built muscles.

Eat Loads Of Protein

Your body fat levels determine how much to eat. Carpenter suggested continuing a calorie maintenance diet if you have little fat to lose. If it's the opposite, a slight calorie deficit might help.

However, if you lower your calorie levels too much, it will be harder for you to hold on to or build muscles. As personal trainer Emily Servante told Insider, "you're likely to lose muscle tissue, feel run down, and potentially fall off the bandwagon."

As the above-mentioned studies suggested, eating enough protein aids in body recomposition.

Servante said that this is key for retaining and building lean muscle, which is fueled when dieting, adding that "more lean tissue also prevents negative adaptations such as lowered metabolism."

There is no accepted and exact figure yet for how much protein to eat, but, supported by research, Carpenter recommended 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight daily as "a good protein target for maximizing resistance-training adaptations" -- a fancy way of saying to increase muscle mass.

How much of fat and carbs you eat is less important, but ensure that you eat enough of each to keep your health and energy going.

Servante suggested prioritizing "whole, unprocessed single-ingredient foods, including lots of green vegetables and fiber," which improve satiety and cravings.

Resistance Training

Staying active is good, but incorporating heavy weights to your workout routine helps as well. Resistance training is essential for recomping. Servante said that training hard with heavy weights would help gain (and retain if you are in a calorie deficit) muscle.

However, strength training alone is not enough. That is where a concept called progressive overload comes in. Progressive overload involves gradually increasing what you are lifting, either in repetitions or in weight.

"Focus on improving in the gym, such as increasing the weight you lift or increasing the number of reps you can perform with the same weight," Carpenter said. "One reason resistance-training programs might not deliver expected results is the lack of progressive overload. Your body adapts to stimulus, so it makes sense to give it something to adapt to rather than performing the same number of reps on the same exercises with the same weights."

If you are new to resistance training, you will get to enjoy what is called "newbie gains," the rapid muscle growth that occurs when one starts lifting weights for the first time.

"You will increase muscle tissue purely through neurological adaptations to this new stimulus," Servante explained. "The more advanced you are, the harder you need to train to gain muscle."

Similarly, according to Carpenter, those with a higher body fat percentage and new to training might be able to make quicker progress, adding that if someone is highly trained and very lean already, training is much more difficult.

Lessen Cardio Exercises

No need to do a lot of jogging, cycling and other cardio exercises to reach your fitness goals.

If you are in a cardio deficit, Servante said doing lots of cardio increases the likelihood of losing lean tissue. Instead, she recommended walking rather than running or doing HIIT classes as a way of keeping yourself active.

"First, we know that fat is used as a fuel source in low-intensity exercise like walking," Servante said. "Second, running and strenuous cardio place stress on the body, which interferes with recovery, can cause water retention, and, anecdotally, increases appetite. So running isn't necessarily bad, but it's probably not the best option for your physique goals."

High-Intensity Strength Training

Doing less cardio does not mean not doing it at all. In fact, a healthy heart rate increase helps you get lean while you build muscle.

With that in mind, celebrity personal trainer and transformation coach Ngo Okafor recommends following a workout program combining high-intensity strength training circuits using light weights and high repetitions with cardio bursts mixed in.

Okafor told Insider that while weightlifting or strength training builds muscles, "your heart rate is not as elevated as it would be if you were doing cardiovascular activity."

However, "the process of breaking down muscle and rebuilding them continues long after the activity ends. Strength training actually burns calories for several hours after the workout had ended,"he said.

On the other hand. cardio may clear out calories while doing it, but Okafor added that this burn "slows down immensely when the cardiovascular activity ends."

"Combining cardio and strength training elevates the heart rate and keeps it elevated throughout the workout, thereby causing a higher calorie burn during the workout. Because strength training builds muscle and the body requires energy to rebuild muscle, the calorie burn will continue for several hours after the workout has been completed."

Strength movements such as squats and deadlifts and cardio bursts like 60-second high knees are some examples of lower-body workouts that would fit Okafor's training style.

Skip The Weighing Scale

Body recomposition requires patience and measuring your progress in ways that do not involve the weighing scale.

"Progress may feel slow because, unlike a dedicated weight-loss or weight-gain phase, you won't be able to rely on the scales to help monitor progress," Carpenter said. "You may train for a month and see no change in actual scale weight."

Though measuring body recomposition without expensive equipment is tricky, some options include keeping waist measurements or using a tight-fitting pants to see whether they start to feel tighter as you get muscle and loosen as you shed fat.

"Understand that the scales won't be able to tell you much about your progress, and other ways to measure body composition may be valuable, if you are the kind of person who enjoys tracking progress like that," Carpenter said.

Take It Slow

Recomping is a long journey so know that this will take some time. Fat is not shed overnight and muscle gain takes even longer so do not rush it.

"Unlike weight loss that can be very rapid, building muscle is a notoriously slow process, and, therefore recomping is no different," Carpenter said.

Rather than waiting for outward results to keep you motivated, set a training goal to go toward, such as doing an unassisted pull-up.

"Implementing some performance-based gym goals may be good for a motivational perspective, as physique changes are likely going to be slower changes that are harder to monitor," Carpenter said.

When done correctly, bodybuilding can be very beneficial to your overall health. Photo Courtesy of Pixabay

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Secrets To Losing Weight And Building Muscles At The Same Time - Medical Daily

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