More muscles, less fat: the ideal strategy for getting a sports body
Many people even have many goals. A typical objective is to minimize body fat while also increasing muscle mass in order to have an athletic body.
Does it work to reduce body fat % while increasing muscle mass? Not at all! The athletic combination is extremely possible with an appropriate diet and training.
- Regular workouts can help you improve your health, burn fat, and develop muscle.
- You simply need to know what to look out for in order for this to work.
It depends on the combination
The appropriate strategy is required to shed fat while also building muscle.
A significant calorie shortage, on the other hand, can soon become prey to muscles. The body obtains the required energy from muscle tissue rather than fat stores.
Proteins and strength exercise are essential in addition to a healthy calorie deficit to ensure that current muscle mass does not suffer from the calorie deficit and grows even greater.
The appropriate calorie deficit
A calorie deficit must be developed to lose weight in general. As a result, less calories must be consumed than the body consumes.
If you want to grow muscle, you must ensure that your deficit is not excessive.
This would just sabotage training attempts because fat loss and muscle gain would stall as a result of the reduced metabolism.
"If calories and protein are lacking, muscles do not recover and do not build up properly," explains Kristen F. Johnson, director of nutrition at the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Listening to the body rather than tracking
It is not required to rigorously calculate calories in order to give the body with optimal energy. A conscious diet of fresh and healthful foods is frequently sufficient.
If you still want to track, you should first figure out how many calories you need each day." "No more than 300 calories may be deducted from this," Liz Applegate, Director of Sports Nutrition at the University of California, adds.
What is more important than the number of calories is to listen to your body and eat when you are hungry. A tight calorie deficit is not necessarily necessary to lose body fat and develop muscle.
Protein is essential
The amount of protein ingested is far more crucial. Because the body regularly breaks down and rebuilds muscle proteins, which are responsible for muscle size and structure.
Muscle protein production is enhanced after consuming a protein-rich meal. Later, muscle growth slows and breakdown increases.
"Over the course of months, the ratio of these two processes determines whether you gain, lose, or remain the same," explains Dr. Michaela Devries-Aboud, Assistant Professor of Kinesiology.
To keep the body in muscle protein mode while consuming fewer calories, the protein intake must be increased. The increased protein need nearly compensates for the calorie deficit.
Increased protein consumption not only meets energy requirements, but also guarantees that muscles are kept and can even be developed up.
This should ideally be taken with each meal so that the body can use the protein throughout the day." "Four times a day, 20 grams of protein should be enough," Applegate says.
Fast protein intake after training
If strength exercise is planned, a protein amount of 20 to 25 grams should be consumed within 30 minutes, but no later than two hours after training.
Lean protein sources such as poultry, fatty fish, whey products, or eggs are ideal for this.
Another advantage of a protein-rich meal is that the protein saturates fast and for a long time. This makes it even easier to lose weight.
Exercise according to your heart rate
Strength training is perhaps the most crucial component for concurrently breaking down muscles and fat.
During weight lifting, the muscle fibers are injured and repaired or replaced by the surrounding cells, causing the muscle to grow larger and the basal metabolism to increase by around 100 calories per kilogram of muscle mass.
If you want to get the most out of your workout, you should also monitor your heart rate.
"The pulse should be between 60 and 85 percent of the maximum heart rate," explains Michelle Lovitt, a sports scientist."This way, you can ensure that fat is burned rather than glycogen."
Extending training to the muscle groups
Strength training is properly structured with three or four units per week, each with a particular focus: legs and buttocks, back and biceps, and chest and triceps, for example.
Squats and deadlifts are famous examples of exercises that use as many muscle strands as feasible at the same time.
The benefit of such difficult exercises is that the tremendous energy expenditure causes the heart rate to rise.
These whole-body exercises should be alternated with isolated activities that focus only on one muscle area during the session, allowing the pulse to be reduced again.
Strength training, when done effectively, may push the body in the same manner that cardio does.