Lose weight and build muscle – when you can do 2 things at the same time
- I want to lose a little weight and gain muscle … After such an introduction, the instructor begins to explain that it is impossible to meet these two conditions at the same time. But we say to all beginners – do not believe! Since you are a beginner, physiology gives you a bonus and allows you to do what no experienced athlete is capable of. Burn fat and build muscle at the same time!
More often you hear a similar dialogue between a beginner at the gym and a trainer: - What do you want to achieve, what are your goals?
- I want to lose weight and build muscle…
After such an introduction, the instructor begins to explain that it is impossible to meet these two conditions at the same time. No wonder professional bodybuilders first gain weight and then work on relieving it – they lose weight. The situation is repeated on forums on the Internet, where veterans in 95% of cases advise novice athletes to choose any goal. But we say to all beginners – do not believe! Since you are a beginner, physiology gives you a bonus and allows you to do what no experienced athlete is capable of. Burn fat and build muscle at the same time.
When it’s better to be inexperienced
Is all the information on the internet wrong? And you can no longer listen to the advice of experienced trainers … because they all say that the body can only do one thing at a time – lose weight or gain weight.
In most cases this statement is true.
When the body adapts to physical activity, it is no longer able to handle two tasks at the same time. At least without the support of anabolic steroids, growth hormones and other pharmacological drugs.
But even though every physical activity is new, the body responds to it twice as efficiently. Muscle begins to grow even in conditions with a calorie deficit, which is necessary to destroy subcutaneous fat. Perhaps this is for people with a significant excess of fat with a minimum of muscle mass.
The conditions for such a result must be as follows:
- 20% reduction in caloric intake below maintenance level
- Sufficient amount of protein food for muscle growth
- Low-intensity physical activity
- Short phase of such results
The most important thing is no extreme diets! All possible options for kefir or buckwheat there, or even a complete hunger for water alone will not work. In such conditions, even for a beginner, the muscles will not be able to grow. The diet should only slightly lower the barrier to caloric intake that the body needs to maintain its weight.
It is not necessary to calculate exactly 20%, but of course you need to limit yourself when eating.
More protein
There are fairly satisfying protein diets that do the job well. Muscles have enough building material for growth, and fats and carbohydrates are kept to a minimum.
We strongly recommend that you also take casein protein. Research from Boston University has shown the benefits of this type of protein compared to whey protein while losing fat and gaining muscle mass in beginners.
Be moderate in your training
No fanaticism in the gym! Exercise no more than three times a week for about an hour. Fill up on free weights and compound exercises (bench press, deadlifts, squats) and focus on large muscle groups.
Don’t focus on abs, arms or running! Muscles don’t grow out of them, they just take energy from you.
Duration of the technique
It is difficult to calculate a single expression – for each person it is individual. But studies give hope for the simultaneous loss of fat tissue in a beginner and gaining muscle mass within 2-3 months.
Similar successes await people after long breaks in sports (over a year), which are similar to those of beginners.
Conclusions
What can you expect in these 3 months of a successful launch? The research found the following:
For a control group of beginners on a soft diet + taking casein protein daily + exercising three times a week, the average results were as follows:
- Body fat percentage has dropped from 26% to 18%
- Muscle mass increased by 4 kg
Let’s make a caveat that if exercise and diet were aimed at a specific ball (gain muscle or loss of fat), the results in the chosen direction would be more evident. But the fact remains – muscle building and simultaneous weight loss are quite realistic for a beginner.
