Is It Possible To Build Muscle And Lose Fat
When a personal trainer first asks a new gym attendee what their goals are, they most often hear replies such as: “Build muscle lose fat”, “build muscle then lose“, “burn fat build muscle”, ”build muscle and burn fat”. is it appears that the majority of people would like to increase their muscle mass whilst also reduce their body fat. In this article I ask is it possible to do this or is it just a myth sold to you by marketing gurus and slick advertisements?
Is it possible to build muscle and lose fat at the same time?
The short answer is ‘yes’ however not without a great deal of difficulty, calculating calories and discipline but it can be done! To build muscle mass you have to eat more calories than you use up throughout each day leaving a decent amount left to build muscle but not so many that they get stored as fat tissue. Without excess calories you will not build muscle, with too many excess calories you may build muscle but also add some extra body fat as you do so. The thing you have to do is to take on board enough calories so that you are able to increase you muscle mass but not so many that you build fat tissue. There are
If you wish to avoid adding fat at the same time as building muscle then you really have to work out your exact calorie requirements and then stick to them. to work out your calorie requirements then use the following simple equation that provides an approximate answer:
Find out your body weight and you percentage body fat e.g. 10% bod fat at 200 pounds in weight.
Figure out what your body’s lean mass is.g. 200 pounds – 10% equals 190.
Times you lean body mass by 19 e.g. 190 multiplied by 19 equals = 3610
This is then the amount of calories you approximately need to eat to gain muscle mass provided you are doing effective workouts too. Whilst this is a rough figure if you consumed 500-1000 more calories then you would certainly increase your muscle gains and put on some body fat. This calculation is approximate as well and it would also be rather difficult to track exactly how many calories you are eating too.
So I am guessing you are not overly excited at the prospect of the above methods, if so what are the alternatives available to you. Well most bodybuilders of course opt for the second option which is highly recommended. First you build muscle then you lose weight. This is sometimes known as a bulking up phase followed afterwards by a cutting phase. This is much simpler to do as in the first phase you basically eat as much quality food as you like. All you need ensure is that you consume more calories than the above figure. This bulking phase which should last 3-6 months will see you put on a few kilos in body fat but mainly you will gain muscle mass. Now you begin to eat less calories and increase the aerobic workouts so that you use up more calories each day than you consume.
during these few montsh you will be able to focus on burning off the excess fat accumulated and maintaing your muscle mass. So a year on the results will in deed have built muscle and burnt fat but you will have done so in two very distinct phases. The final long term outcome is the same only you will have gotten there in two seperate distinct steps.
Therefore if your goal is indeed to build muscle and burn fat then I suggest that try to do so in two stages, build muscle then lose fat. Expert author Tom Venuto has the entire process and more broken down into simple steps for you, read the ‘Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle E-book’ Review here for more information on how to build muscle then lose fat.
