How to Gain Muscle and Lose Fat at the Same Time

In bodybuilding, there is a common belief that it is impossible to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time. Many bodybuilders believe that you should only focus on one of these goals. Either lose fat by doing loads of cardio and dropping your calories by 500, or else eat 500 calories more than normal and start lifting weights to gain muscle.

However, neither of these goals is totally ideal. If you lose fat by cutting your caloric intake and doing loads of cardio, you will produce a body that is thinner than before but not visually appealing. You will simply be a smaller version of what you were in the beginning. Gaining muscle means eating more food but that often means putting on some fat, too. Lifting weights while eating like that will produce a a much more muscular frame but with puffy, bloated-looking muscles and a stocky frame that is also not what most people are looking for.

The vast majority of people who hit the gym to transform their bodies, other than the serious meatheads who want to be the next Schwarzenegger, are people who are looking to create the hot, sexy, "GQ model" look, with well-developed but reasonably-sized muscles, a six-pack and a hard, lean appearance, so that the muscles look angular and "cut", as though you were a diagram of the human musculature. This appearance is not created by following either of the pieces of advice given above for building muscle or losing fat.

The secret to creating this look is to follow a program that emphasizes three stages -

1/ Heavy training that gets you strong

2/ Muscle building work to increase size

3/ Metabolic bursting, HIIT and steady-state cardio to burn fat

Do all three of these in THAT order and you will produce that "GQ" body. Let's go into details now!

1/ Heavy training - spend at least the first month pushing and pulling some serious weight. Focus on intensity (how much weight) and volume (how many sets). I would recommend 5 sets of 5 reps at a minimum of 80% of your 1-rep max. You can do some exercises at a higher number of reps to increase size a little bit but make sure that you spend most of your time getting strong. Increase the weight by 20% each week if you can. Just do a little cardio if you must (for example, if you are seriously overweight). Focus on the traditional heavy compound exercises that train the whole body - pull-ups, push-ups, pull-downs, squats, deadlifts, bench presses, rows and lunges.

2/ Training for size - spend the second month focusing on increasing the size of your muscles. Ease off on the heavy training by reducing it to no more than 20% of your time at the gym. Increase reps to 8-12 and decrease sets to 3-4 max. Decrease weights to 60% of your 1-rep max. Super-set upper and lower body exercises to maximize efficient use of time and regard the time when you are exercising your lower body as a rest period for your upper body m(and vice versa). Minimize rest periods overall to increase the workload on the body. You can incorporate more isolation exercises into your routine, such as bicep curls, pec-dec machine and other, more "wussy" exercises. Sleep at least 8 hours a night to maximize muscle recovery and growth. Take at least 2 rest days a week. Drink plenty of water to flush out lactic acid.

3/ Cardio - in the third month, focus more on fat loss. Start circuit training by doing "heavy" exercises like pull-ups, push-ups, pull-downs, squats, deadlifts, bench presses, rows and lunges at high rep ranges with absolutely minimal rest periods with lighter weights. Do all 8 of these exercises in one circuit and focus on trying to complete at least 3 circuits in one gym session. Then hit the treadmill or stationary bike. Perform a 5-minute warm-up at 60% of your maximum intensity, then do metabolic bursting with a Tabata Protocol of 2o seconds at a minimum of 90% intensity, followed by 10 seconds at 60% intensity. Repeat this 30-second process at least 10 times (giving you 5 minutes of bursting). Follow this with High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) by performing 2 minutes at 80% intensity and 1 minute at 60% intensity. Do this 3 times (9 minutes total). Then perform steady-state cardio for 10 minutes at 60% intensity, then a 1-minute cool-down at 50%. This gives you a 25-minute cardio routine to begin with. The metabolic bursting is anaerobic, meaning that it takes place "in the absence of oxygen", which forces your body to go to its fat stores to give you the energy to complete the exercise. The HIIT, then moves the fat into the blood stream, where it is available to give constant supplies to the body during the longer high-intensity 2-min sessions. Finally, the steady-state moves the fat from the blood into the kidneys. Drink plenty of water. This will flush out the fat from the kidneys into the bladder. When you urinate, it will move out of the body and be gone! As the month continues, increase bursting to 20 times (10 minutes), HIIT to 5 times (15 minutes) but keep steady-state at 10 minutes. With a three-minute warm-up and two-minute cool-down, that gives you a 40-minutes workout to aim for by the end of the month.

Do all this and you will get the hot body of your dreams!


Oliver Chapman is an up-and-coming expert on Personal Development who specializes in Health, Wealth and Relationships. This article belongs to Health. To discover all of "Olly's Six Principles" to achieving your dream life, sign up for his five-part e-mail series and ongoing newsletter giving tips and advice by copying and pasting the link below into your web browser -

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3 Tips on How to Lose Fat Arms Fast

I am about to give you 3 very easy tips on how to lose fat arms. They are simple and anyone can do them. They will make the process of how to lose fat arms much clearer for you. If you are tired of having to much fat hanging from around your arms, then the information here will help you for sure.

The first tip is knowing that your arms, much like the rest of the body, cannot lose fat while the rest of your body contains excess fat. What that means is, you cannot just simply work out your arms and lose weight there while you have excess fat in your stomach and legs. Losing weight just does not happen that way.

What you can do is make a plan to lose weight overall and focus on your arms. By doing this you insure that your arms will be thin and firm after weight loss. So make a weight loss plan and stick to it. Remember to work out your arms regularly during the plan however.

The second tip on how to lose fat arms is all about food. If you want to lose fat arms, you are not going to be able to eat fast food everyday. Really, there is no need to, there are many healthy foods that are delicious. Try eating tuna fish. Many people enjoy eating tuna fish and it is very healthy. You have to cut down on fats and carbs.

You do not however, want to get rid of fats and carbs all together. They are important for energy. Just make sure you cut back to an acceptable level.

The third and final tip on how to lose fat arms is having a good cardio workout. Try walking or running. Not to much in the beginning. Just enough to feel like you had a good workout. Increase your distance slightly over time. You should have at least 3 cardio workouts a week.


You would be amazed at how easy it to lose weight if you stick to these concepts. It really is as easy as that. If you really want to lose weight and work hard, there is absolutely nothing stopping you. It is your life and you deserve to live it the way you want to.

I hope this article helped you learn how to lose fat arms. The whole point of weight loss is to help you enjoy your life as much as possible. You can find a great weight loss resource here: How To Lose Fat Arms. I hope you reach your goals and find success in your plans. Thank you for reading and good luck!

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How Do I Lose Fat From My Arms? - 3 Tips to Drop Arm Fat and Get Your Lean & Sexy Arms Back

There are a lot of people who believe and eventually tell you that it is impossible to lose those bingo wings (fat on your arms). Many people will tell you that you can't isolate one area and lose fat in that area only.

If you hear someone call your arms bingo wings, there is no need to fret because you are going to lose it in no time. You could always go for the solution of losing the stubborn fat from your arms.

Body Weight Workouts

Hindu push-ups are ideal exercise that belongs to the category of body weight workouts. It is not like the ordinary or typical push-up that you can see. The difference that you can see with this exercise with the classic push-up is the arching of the back as you go back up. Unlike in the classic exercise, you keep your body straight. Do one set of 30 repetitions daily can make you burn more fats imaginable.

Eat a Balanced Diet and Nutrition

As you probably will hear every time, your diet should contain protein and other complex carbohydrates. Do you know the reason why this is supposed to be done this way? It is because proteins and complex carbohydrates are the hardest to digest, which means that your body needs to double the effort of metabolism just to break down those elements. This will furthermore make you burn more calories.

Regular Massage

Try to get regular massages in a week so that your body will be aided in eliminating toxins out from your body. You may want to focus more on your arms so that the area will release more toxins.


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Lose Fat, Gain Muscle: Diet Tips From Scholarly Research

How to lose fat - where do I start?

There is so much conflicting advice and tips about how to lose fat and gain muscle. It can be difficult to know who to listen to. However, when it comes to losing fat and gaining muscle, the scientific research about diets and dietary intake doesn't lie. If you want to know how to lose fat and gain muscle, there are some great diet tips for success that can be found in scholarly research investigations. Successfully losing fat and gaining muscle may just be the most rewarding thing you do to feel good and look great.

How to lose fat - Fad diets aren't the solution

Fad diets are a dime a dozen on the web, but I'm afraid they usually do not lead to sustained fat loss. The severe restrictions on the amount of calories you can eat are difficult to sustain and legitimate concerns have been raised about the safety of some fad diets.(1) Some forms of dieting, particularly those with extremely low calories can reduce your metabolism (the amount of energy your body burns to maintain itself). This is terrible if you want sustained fat loss.

How to lose fat - Don't ruin your metabolism

To lose fat, you will need dietary intake that meets your body's nutrient requirements for good health (vitamins, minerals, protein etc.). However, you will need to consume less calories than your body uses in a way that does not decrease your metabolism. In other words, you want to eat less calories than you burn... without your body making adaptations to reduce the amount of energy it burns. A good tip is to spread your meals into 5 or 6 small meals rather than 3 large meals (breakfast lunch tea). This is a good approach to maintain a fast metabolism. Just make sure you don't end up eating more calories than you burn.

Low Carb, Low Protein or Low Fat diets?

Calories (or energy) in food come primarily come from three macronutrients, Carbohydrates (carbs), Protein and Fat. Carbs and protein both contain approximately 4 calories per gram, whereas fat contains approximately 9 calories per gram. The amount of calories you consume is dependent on the amount of carbs, protein and fat you consume in your diet (remember this includes your drinks). Although some people may find it easier to maintain lower calorie intake when they stick to a certain type of diet (often low fat, or low carb), a systematic review of many studies found evidence that fat loss is dependent on the amount of calories you consume, but it didn't matter what proportion of carb, protein or fat made up their diet.(2)

How to lose fat and gain muscle - Diet summary

So your dietary intake of calories must be less than your body burns (in order for you to lose fat), but the evidence does not suggest that either low fat or low carb will result in more fat loss than the other.(3) However, if you are looking to build muscle, a low protein diet would not be advisable. Your body needs protein to build muscle. It's worth noting though that the amount of muscle you build is more dependent on the exercise you do, than the food you eat. Nonetheless both diet and exercise play central roles in helping you to lose fat and build muscle.


Dr. Michael McPhail is a clinical researcher with a fervent dislike of health and fitness scams and bad health advice. He is interested in promoting better health and wellbeing. He writes reviews for websites reviewing health, fitness and weight loss related programs that are available online. If you are primarily interested in weight loss, check out his reviews here. If are primarily interested in gaining muscle you can check out his reviewshere.

References

1. Baldwin EJ. Fad diets in diabetes. Br J Diabetes Vasc DIs 2004;4:333-7.

2. Sacks FM, Bray GA, Carey VJ et al. Comparison of weight-loss diets with different compositions of fat, protein, and carbohydrates. N Engl J Med 2009;360:859-73.

3. Day C, Bailey C. Which weight loss diet? Br J Diabetes Vasc DIs 2009,9:43

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Exercises for Fat Loss - What Is the Fastest Way to Safely Lose Fat and What Should You Avoid?

If you watch programs like The Biggest Loser, you'll regularly see contestants lose 5 pounds a week if not 10 pounds a week or more. How do they do it? And more importantly, how can you lose weight fast by working out at home? In this article, you will learn the secret to effective exercises for fat loss and how you can start your workout plan today.

Here are three of the most common mistakes people make when they begin exercises for fat loss, and some ways to change your workout plan for the better. By avoiding these bad practices and replacing them with positive alternatives, you will have much greater success. You'll be able to quickly and safely lose fat.

Mistake #1 - Thinking that weight loss is the goal. Worrying about how much weight you have yet to lose or regularly checking your progress on your scale means you're focused on the wrong thing, and you're destined to be discouraged at some point. The better and more successful focus is to concentrate on fat loss. As you do fat burning exercises, you will lose weight, but the amount of weight you lose during the process is irrelevant. The number of pounds does not matter at all as long as you're body fat percentage is moving steadily downward and you're looking leaner and your clothes are fitting better.

Mistake #2 - Doing long workouts in order to burn calories. There are actually two problems here. First, burning calories should not be your goal. Calories and fat are not necessarily related. Your main goal again is exercising for fat loss. You do that by building lean muscle. Why? Because muscles are the fat burning furnace in your body. The more lean muscle you have the more fat you will burn, even long after your workout is over. Don't worry, you're not going to become a body builder, you're becoming lean, fit, and toned. Second, long moderate cardio will NOT build overall lean muscle, but instead will cause your body to lose muscle tone in non-active muscle groups. In other words, you're not engaging your whole body in the fat loss process. All you're doing is burning up the energy stores in your body. It's not until way after 60 to 90 minutes of sustained cardio that your body uses up the stored energy and starts to utilize fat stores as fuel. So that 30 minutes on your elliptical machine? Pointless for fat loss.

Mistake #3 - Doing isolated workouts such as crunches to get a flat stomach. Believe it ir not, all the crunches in the world will never give you a visible 6-pack unless you reduce belly fat. And as a side note, crunches are a terrible exercise for your back. Here's the deal, you can have super strong abs but still not be able to show them off because your belly fat covers them up.The better workout plan is to use full- body exercises for fat loss. By engaging all muscle groups together in intense, explosive workouts, you optimize the fat burning and achieve better results. When you lose the layers of fat on your body, all of that lean muscle you've built can now be seen. Want to get a solid 6-pack you'll be proud to show? Lose the fat.

These three simple shifts in your thinking followed by a change in your workout plan will get the results your looking for in you fat loss journey. If you need to lose 10 pounds, or need to lose 20 pounds, or if even if you need to lose 35 pounds or more, you will succeed by following these strategies. For optimum results, couple these fat loss exercises with a solid fat loss diet, or as I like to say, fat loss eating plan.


For full workout plans and exercises for fat loss that Jeff E Williams endorses, see http://www.MaxWorkoutsOnline.com.

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