Fitness Bodybuilding

Lose Fat by Building Muscle-How Does it Work

Initially, let's expose one fantasy of some body-builders: to lose fat, building muscle is all you require. By not changing eating habits or cardio activity, an individual trying to lose fat will only see minimal losses by building muscle. It is true, however, that building lean muscle will yield other ways of helping to lose fat, by itself don't expect significant amounts of help.

To examine this further, you will find claims that every pound of resting lean muscle burns 50 calories a day. Sorry, but that number is way overstated. Resting muscle is like an idling car; it burns some fuel, but not a great deal. Doing nothing, those muscle tissues burn roughly 13 calories a day. If a person were to gain ten pounds just building lean muscle, he would burn 910 calories in a week. To lose fat at this pace, it would take him around 27 days to lose one pound of body fat. That obviously does not take into account all the other variables, like gaining any extra body fat while building lean muscle. When you are building muscle, you are going to need extra calories to support this new growth. To believe that none will go into body fat would be really optimistic.

That believed, is building lean muscle while we are trying to lose fat not possible when trying to accomplish our long-term goals? We take the attitude that building muscle is an important part of the battle to lose fat, but it is just one leg in a three-leg stool. One of the additional vital legs to lose fat is aerobic activity, and if our muscles are on the increase and actively calling for additional nutrients, our body will feel lively and energetic, making us more liable to perform the necessary cardio activity. Additionally, the third leg of the stool is diet. Just as all fats are not created equal, all calories are not all created equal. There are actually good calories and bad calories, and the type of foods you choose will have a great influence on the type of body mass you may attain.

While building muscle, you will be building mini metabolism machines which are constantly running. To sustain this activity, they need additional nutrients in order to keep going. To lose fat, we have always been told that we need to cut back on calories. Here's where good diet kicks in. By eating high fat foods, such as cheeseburgers or foods high in Tran's fats and processed foods, more of those calories are going to be transformed to fat than muscle. The ploy is to eat only enough calories to maintain building lean muscle, but only those foods that are clean, whole foods that the body will burn for fuel and growth. By cutting out junk foods, sugars and all processed foods, and replace them with whole foods like lean protein, fibrous carbohydrates and clean fats, building muscle and losing fat will turn out to be a breeze and you should start to notice the change in two or three weeks.

One concluding word on building lean muscle: During your first period of training, many individuals experience fat loss no matter what they eat, but to their surprise it doesn't maintain. As testosterone levels are increasing, your body is using everything, including saved fat to build muscle. But this only happens for a certain period of time before your body needs more food to maintain strength levels. Yet again, the fuel you feed your system will determine if you will lose fat while building muscle.