How To Lose Weight And Gain Muscle
For most people just getting started in bodybuilding they are often trying to lose weight and gain muscle at the same time. This causes a bit of a conundrum as normally becoming more muscular involves weight gain. The good news though is that it is possible, it is just a case of combining three specific elements together.
The first of these elements is of course to lift very heavy weights. Make no mistake about it, if you want to gain muscle then you have to be overloading your muscles with the maximum weight that they can handle, this is the only way that your body is going to trigger the chemical reactions needed to stimulate muscle growth. After lifting those heavy weights though make sure you allow plenty of rest time for your body to recuperate and grow that muscle.
Next you need to get your diet right. First of all you want to ensure you are having good levels of protein in your diet as this is the muscle fuel that you need. Lean cuts of meat such as chicken, turkey, fish and eggs are all superb sources of protein and you can also use supplements such as whey protein shakes to help top your intake up.
In addition to protein you also need carbohydrates, but they have to be the right ones. Firstly you want to totally avoid food products containing sugar and refined white flour as your body will burn these off instead of fats. The carbs you need are complex carbs that are found in foods like brown rice, oatmeal and wholemeal plus the natural sugars and carbohydrates found in fruit and vegetables.
The last part of the equation in how to lose weight and gain muscle is your cardio work. The good news about doing cardio is that as well as helping you lose weight it will help boost your overall fitness levels. However, you have to get the cardio right otherwise it will hamper your weight loss efforts. From my research the best forms of cardio are cycling or jogging for about half an hour or so at a steady pace. The pace that you want to go for is such that you can do it again the following day: if you set a pace where the next day you are stiff and sore then you have gone at it too hard and should not train. If you go at the slower pace it means you can raise your metabolism every single day which will aid weight loss without needing recovery time and more importantly this will not affect your body building efforts.
So, there is a simple 3 step strategy to lose weight and gain muscle, lift heavy weights, eat the right foods and keep your cardio to a steady pace and you will notice the difference.
