If you are to successfully lose fat and gain muscle, there is one crucially important element of how your body works which you need to know: it is impossible for you to do both simultaneously, and trying to do so will see you fail miserably.
You need to decide what is a priority for you; but for the sake of following the title of this article, I’m going to assume fat loss is your priority.
Lose Fat
Here are a few pointers you absolutely must understand and follow if you are to be successful in losing fat:
- The single most important thing you need to do in order to lose fat is to consistently eat below your calorie maintenance level: Your maintenance level is the amount of calories you eat in order to stay at the same weight you currently are, and as a rule of thumb is around 15 calories per lb of bodyweight.
- Never starve yourself: The single biggest mistake you could ever make when eating below your calorie maintenance level is to eat so little that you effectively starve yourself; what will happen here is your body will go into starvation mode and fight tooth and nail to conserve fat, and you’ll be lucky if you can lose an ounce. Avoid this pitfall at all costs, and try to shoot for something like 500 calories less per day.
- Cut out sugary foods: The problem with sugar is, it is simple carbohydrates which are digested and stored very quickly. What are they stored as, if they aren’t burned? That’s right – fat. And it happens quickly.
- Use cardio to speed up your fat loss: It’s well known that by performing some cardio exercise regularly you speed up your bodies metabolism. Now, the secret here is to perform cardio only on an empty stomach. That way, rather than your body burning food for energy, it begins to burn the stored fat instead – which is precisely what you want.
- For an extra push at fat loss, make use of negative calorie foods: Negative calorie foods are foods which are so low in calories, and contain certain ingredients which aren’t easily digested, and the amount of energy it takes to digest the foods is usually greater than the energy gotten from the foods, putting the calories in a negative balance. (For a list of these foods, see my article on fat burning foods.)
Exercise may not be needed at all, but generally for the average adult, in order to really get the last stubborn remnants of fat, some cardio will be needed. (For information on this, see my article on the best cardio workout.)
Gain Muscle
Now you are looking to gain muscle, what you need to do comes under the umbrella of a few key elements – and all must be in place for you to succeed:
- Progressive Resistance Training
- Rest
- Eat
Let me elaborate on each of these.
Progressive Resistance Training
This is just a neat and fancy way of saying, lift weights – but increase the poundage regularly. If you lifted the same poundage forever, you’d only grow to a certain point, but if you can continue to lift heavier, you’ll continue to stimulate muscle growth.
The best muscle building programs are ones which incorporate compound exercises, such as squats, dead lifts, bench presses, etc.
A well structured program should allow you to hit different muscle groups in different sessions, and keeping the usage of any previously worked muscles to an absolute minimum.
Rest
First of all, if you have a good program, stick to it. Do not be tempted to hit the same muscles day in day out – that won’t make them grow any faster or bigger, and you’ll do nothing but stand still, and eventually go backwards in your training through overtraining.
On your rest days, you don’t have to take this to extremes and lay in bed all day, but, if you go tearing around playing sports or doing cardio constantly on your days off from lifting, you’ll never grow any serious muscle mass, for 2 reasons.
- Firstly, your muscles need to repair and grow, and they can only do this if they are being rested adequately.
- Secondly, you need calories to grow, and by doing other strenuous activities, you’ll be constantly burning the calories your muscles need to repair themselves.
Eat
Your muscles need a calorie surplus to grow, and the amount is roughly calculated by your bodyweight, but is ultimately determined by your metabolism. You’ll need to do some testing yourself to find out the precise amount. As a rule of thumb, it is around 15 calories per lb of bodyweight, with 500 more added on top.
The calories should come from good whole foods, and have a nutrient breakdown of roughly 40% protein, 40% complex carbohydrates, and 20% good fats (such as fish oil).
There are other articles on the site which deal with what you should be eating in more detail.
You will need to stick to your calorie target every day, and on training days maybe even eat a little more.
That’s it: a brief explanation of what you need to do to lose fat and gain muscle.