Building muscle requires creating a growth stimulus in the gym, and then supplying your body with the proper nutrients to rebuild muscles bigger and stronger. Losing weight requires burning more calories than you take in. At first glance, the two do not seem to go together. In fact, many trainers will tell you that you cannot burn fat and build muscle at the same time. However, this philosophy is somewhat outdated and does not take into account the fact that all calories are not created equally. Moreover, the human body is an amazing machine that partitions nutrients, which means it is capable of building muscle while burning fat. For example, during his "Size Surge" experiment, Jonathan Lawson gained 20 lbs. of muscle in 10 weeks (without steroids), and he actually lost body fat in the process. Careful attention to training techniques and dietary strategies can help you build muscle and lose weight at the same time.
Step 1
Eat "clean" to avoid gaining fat while building muscle. "Clean" nutrition means eating low-glycemic carbohydrates like oatmeal, brown rice, whole-grain bread and pasta or sweet potatoes. Protein sources should be lean meats such as chicken, turkey and fish, or whey protein. Olive oil, whole eggs, avocados and nuts and seeds should make up your dietary fats.
Step 2
Stack your carbohydrates around your workouts to avoid excess fat storage. According to "X-treme Lean" by Jonathan Lawson and Steve Holman, this strategy allows your body to use carbohydrates for fuel during workouts and for muscle recovery post-workout. Limit the consumption of starchy carbs in the evening, opting instead for lean proteins, healthy fats and fibrous vegetables.
Step 3
Drink a post-workout shake immediately following your training. Jeff Anderson, the "Muscle Nerd" and author of "Optimum Anabolics", recommends 50g of whey protein, 100g of carbohydrates and 30g of healthy fats (flaxseed oil or medium-chain triglycerides).
Step 4
Add one set of negative-accentuated reps to your workout routine for each muscle group. The negative portion of the exercise is the controlled lowering of the weight. Count a six-second cadence for the negative stroke, which causes micro-tears in muscle tissue. According to "X-treme Lean," this muscle damage takes a lot of extra calories to repair and releases growth hormone, which has natural fat-burning and anabolic properties.
Step 5
Do 30 to 60 minutes of low-intensity cardio immediately following your weight-training workout. "Combat the Fat" author Jeff Anderson call this "super cardio." Having exhausted all of your muscle glycogen or stored carbohydrate fuel, your body will burn fat almost exclusively as a source of energy. The low-intensity cardio limits the amount of muscle lost and burns fatty acids released during your workout, rather than allowing them to be restored.
Step 6
Eat a "cheat meal" once a week. This keeps your metabolism going strong during any diet, according to "X-treme Lean." In addition, the anabolic surge of nutrients from eating "dirty" will help to fuel muscle growth even during a cutting or dieting cycle. Cheating refreshes your mind, body and metabolism to begin the next week of training and dieting in an anabolic, fat-burning mode.
References
- Optimum Anabolics; Jeff Anderson; CQC LLC, 2007
- X-Treme Lean; Jonathan Lawson and Steve Holman; 2008
- The X-Traordinary Size Surge Workout; Jonathan Lawson; Homebody Productions, 2010
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