Most people have heard that you can’t lose weight and build muscle simultaneously. It is true that muscle weighs more than fat, so when you start gaining muscle, it’s common that you will also experience some weight gain. This can be frustrating if you’re trying to get down to a certain weight.
The average person wants to lose weight and tone their body at the same time. While your body will naturally get toned the more you workout, you have to be careful about lifting too many weights. As some point, you may begin to get bulky if you consistently lift heavier weights. On the other end, you don’t want to do a ton of cardio and starve yourself, because you’ll look scrawny after awhile. Here are some quick tips for learning how to lose weight and gain muscle fast with a balanced, healthy approach!
Do Some Cardio
You will lose the most weight when you incorporate some kind of cardio at least 4-6 days out of the week. Mix up your speeds and distances as you get in better shape, because you don’t want to hit a plateau where your body gets used to a certain amount of cardio.
Start out slow and do some walking or light jogging and gradually increase your speed and distance. The more cardio you do, the better your metabolism will be, and the more weight you will lose as a result.
Mix in Some Weight Training
Weight training should be done less frequently than cardio if you don’t want to get too muscular. Try doing some sort of weight training 2-3 times per week around your cardio schedule. And the actual reps and weight that you do isn’t as important as the time of day that you do your weight training.
If possible, lift weights during the afternoon or early evening so your body will still have time to burn off fat before you go to sleep. If you combine this schedule with a low-calorie and low-carb diet, then you will be less likely to put on a lot of muscle mass. Be sure to mix up your workouts by switching up between arms, legs, back and other areas. Staying too focused on one area won’t help your cause.
Eat Healthier
None of your working out will matter if you continue with your bad eating habits. Eating foods with low calories, low carbs, fruits and vegetables will help you lose weight and maximize your workouts. While it can be difficult to go to the gym every day, it can be even harder to stick to a healthy eating schedule. If you starve yourself, then you will put your health at risk and you won’t maximize your workout. Your body needs fuel so it can burn off fat and build muscle. Having a nice balance in your diet will help you achieve your goals.
Finding the Happy Medium is Key
Knowing your goals is the first step in reaching them. If you don’t have a target to shoot for, then you don’t have anything to aim at. People who don’t have goals are the people that you see at the gym that are wandering aimlessly trying a few machines before just going home. Those are also the people that will go to the gym for a couple weeks and then stop working out all together.
Once you set your weight loss and muscle-building goals, then you can set your workout regimen. Get some help from a personal trainer if you need to. But the most important thing to remember is that you have to mix in cardio with weight training if you want to lose weight and still build a little muscle. Doing too much or too little of each will leave you disappointed and frustrated with the results that you’re achieving.
Source: BodyBuilding.com
Travis Burnett
A pioneer in the flag football community, Travis helped co-found the Flag Football World Championship Tour, FlagSpin and USA Flag. Featuring 15+ years of content creation for the sport of flag football, creating and managing the largest flag football tournaments on the planet, coaching experience at the youth and adult level as well as an active player with National and World Championship level experience.
