The common wisdom is you cannot burn fat and gain muscle at the same time. To lose fat, you have to eat fewer calories than you need for energy, and to gain muscle, you have to eat more calories than you need for energy. This may be true if your goal is to gain a lot of muscle mass. However, a nutrient-dense nutritional plan without excess calories, supported with a carefully structured workout program, can help you gain lean muscle tissue and burn fat at the same time.
Guidelines
To build muscle, focus on multi-joint compound exercises such as dead-lifts, squats, bent over rows, bench presses and overhead presses.These exercises work your major muscle groups. Use heavy weights for six to 12 repetitions. Do short, intense cardiovascular workouts to burn fat. Do a four way split workout program encompassing both muscle building and cardio routines. A four way split program involves working out four days a week. Do specific exercises and work specific muscle groups each workout day. Each workout should be intense and last for 45 to 60 minutes.
Muscle Building
Do dead-lifts, bent over rows and pull-ups on Mondays. Deadlifts work your legs, hips, lower back, trapezius and forearms. Bent-over rows and pull-ups target your upper back or lats. Do barbell bench presses, incline dumbbell presses, close-grip bench presses and triceps pushdowns on Tuesdays. The bench press and dumbbell press target your chest, close-grip bench presses and triceps pushdowns target the triceps. Wednesday is a rest day. Do squats, leg extensions, leg curls and calf raises for your legs on Thursdays. Do overhead presses, dumbbell presses and lateral raises for your shoulders, and barbell curls and preacher curls for biceps on Fridays.
Fat- Burning
Start each workout with a short high intensity cardiovascular workout. For example, warm up with a three minute jog on the treadmill, sprint for 60 seconds, then brisk walk for 120 seconds. Repeat the sprint and brisk-walk pattern five times for an intense 15 minute cardio routine, which will blast your metabolism into a post exercise fat burning mode. The demands placed on your body by your intense muscle building routine will also boost your metabolism post-exercise. Your metabolism will also rise as you gain muscle tissue. Reduce your cardio routine to two or three days if you lose too much weight or if you want to accelerate your muscle gain.
Nutrition
Eat five to six meals a day. Eat protein such as lean meat, poultry, fish, whole eggs, beans and legumes. Carbohydrates should consist of oatmeal, yams, sweet potatoes, potatoes, quinoa, whole grain rice and spelt flour products. Eat omega-3 fats from flax seed and hemp seed oil to help your body metabolize fat. Do not eat refined carbs such as breakfast cereals, cookies and muffins, which cause your body to retain fat. Accelerate fat loss by eating complex carbs only twice a day on non-workout days. Eat plenty of nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables, particularly as carb replacements on non-workout days.
Post-Workout
Adequate post-workout nutrition will help you recover from your intense muscle-gaining and fat-burning workouts and enhance your potential for muscle gain. Eat some protein and quickly assimilated carbohydrates within 60 minutes of finishing your workout. For example, whey protein mixed with almond or rice milk and blended with a handful of blueberries and a banana will provide your nutrient-depleted muscles with amino acids and carbohydrates. Eat a proper meal with protein, complex carbs, fats and vegetables within two hours.
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