Burning body fat and gaining muscle at the same time is possible if you target your nutrition and training to your goal. The timing of your carbohydrates, meals and training sessions can have a big impact on your overall results. Many trainees get confused as to which techniques to use and what kinds of foods they should eat when to promote both muscle building and fat loss. Follow some basic guidelines to achieve your fitness goals fast.
Step 1
Engage in resistance training workouts three to five days per week. If your primary goal is fat burning, you may choose to workout Monday through Friday to increase the total number of calories burned each week. However, you can still get great results working out every other day with a three-day approach.
Step 2
Train as heavy as you can in the eight to 12-repetition range, which is also known as the hypertrophy or muscle growth range. Compound movements such as squats, bench presses and barbell curls give you the best muscle growth stimulus, according to "3-D Muscle Building" by Jonathan Lawson and Steve Holman.
Step 3
Do one NA or negative-accentuated set for each muscle group, following your heavier work. Take a weight that you can control and lower it to a six-second count on every rep. Lawson and Holman assert that this slow-negative approach creates micro-tears in muscle tissue that cause your body to burn extra fat and calories for up to 72 hours, while promoting muscle building.
Step 4
Add some drop-sets to the end of your training session for each muscle group. This technique works great with isolation exercises such as leg extensions, leg curls, standing calf raises, chest flyes, straight-arm pull-downs for back, lateral raises for shoulders, triceps pushdowns and biceps concentration curls. Take a weight you can do for eight reps, then immediately grab a slightly lower weight and do another set of five or six reps with no rest between them. Do double or triple drop-sets by decreasing the weight further and adding more sets.
Step 5
Do your cardiovascular training immediately after your weights workout for 30 to 60 minutes. "Combat the Fat" author Jeff Anderson explains that this forces the body to burn fatty acids in the bloodstream that are released during your resistance training.
Step 6
Do HIIT or high-intensity interval training one or two days per week, preferably on days that you do not lift weights. Interval training means doing 20 to 30 minutes of total cardio, but you alternate between high-intensity sprints and lower intensity work. For example, you could jog on the treadmill and do 30 to 60 second runs every two minutes.
Step 7
Get proper nutrition by taking in five or six smaller meals throughout the day. Target your carbohydrate intake to provide energy in the morning or before or after your workouts. Take in approximately one gram of protein per pound of your body weight to encourage muscle building and fat burning. Do not skimp on healthy fats such as omega-3, flax seed oil and olive oil, which may help you get to your goals, according to Anderson.
References
- "3-D Muscle Building"; Jonathan Lawson and Steve Holman; 2006
- "Combat the Fat"; Jeff Anderson; 2008
- "The Abs Diet"; David Zinczenko; 2004
- Muscle & Performance; "Lean In Less Time"; Eric Velazquez, February 2010
- "Xtreme Lean"; Jonathan Lawson and Steve Holman; 2005
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