Building Muscles While Losing Fat
Some people believe that they first have to lose all their excess fat before they begin to build up their muscles. Neglecting muscle building while concentrating on just burning off fat could be harmful, though, because you could start burning off your muscles, too. This will weaken you and slow down your metabolism. It could also result in a host of health problems including hormonal imbalances and a compromised immune system. Building muscles while you are losing your excess fat will be much better for your health and, therefore, more advisable.
For fat burning, the most effective exercises are cardio workouts. The largest muscle groups are used in continuous movements to increase your heart rate to its maximum level, thereby reaching the fat burning zone. This should be maintained for not less than 12 minutes and not more than 60 minutes per session, with sessions done at least three times a week. High intensity and low intensity cardio exercises can be combined to result in shorter sessions that burn fat even more efficiently. It is important to go through a cardiac stress test done by a medical professional, though, to accurately determine your maximum heart rate.
Weight lifting or resistance training, on the other hand, are strength training workouts necessary for muscle building. By providing your body with the required physical challenge these workouts intentionally put stress on your muscles to provoke them to react. The existing muscle fibers undergo microscopic tearing inflicted by the exercises and the body is forced to repair and reinforce them with new muscles. Strength training workouts should be done only on alternate days, though, to allow for rest, muscle repair and muscle building.
It is possible to build muscles while losing fat by doing alternate days of cardio workouts and strength training workouts, with one day of the week doing light strength training. After every strength training session you can also do additional cardio sessions if there is a need to lose more fat. You then get to burn more fat as the strength training session had already used up your glycogen stores. You should never do heavy strength training more than three times a week, though. You can also make each strength training session into a fat burning session through high repetitions with low rest periods. This means 15-17 repetitions for 60 seconds with 30 to 60 second intervals.
As you combine your cardio workouts and strength training workouts to build muscles while losing fat, you should also supplement your efforts with the right diet. To lose fat you should cut out unhealthy fats and simple carbohydrates like sugar and starch while to build muscles you should eat adequate amounts of lean complete protein, high fiber complex carbohydrates and healthy fats. Only then will you have a completely balanced fat loss and muscle building regimen.
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