Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Lose Body Fat Not Muscle - How To Lose Body Fat Without Losing Muscle


4 Tips To Reduce Body Fat Without Losing Muscle

Like many people that work out, you probably have a bit more excess fat stored on your body than you would like. Lots of guys who are in gyms lift hard during the year to gain mass, but they also have gained some fat during this period of time.

If you want to get an attractive body, you will need to bring your body fat percentage to a really low level.



Reduce Body Fat Without Losing Muscle Tip 1: Continue to Lift Heavy During This Dieting Period

One common thing people do wrong is that they want to lift at high reps to achieve muscle tone. Muscle tone is mainly brought about by having a low body fat level, not the type of lifting you are performing.

The reason you want to continue lifting heavy and gain strength is because you need to make sure you don't lose that muscle you've worked hard to earn. If you lift light at high reps, your body would not have a reason to keep that muscle mass.

Reduce Body Fat Without Losing Muscle Tip 2: Reduce Body Fat at A Slow Rate

You need to give yourself sufficient time to get lean. Many people try to get into shape 2 months before summer or a vacation. I recommend preparing at least 3-4 months, if you want to get ultra-lean without losing your muscle mass.

The slower you reduce body fat, the less likely you will lose muscle. This makes sense because in order to lose body fat you need to consume less calories than what you use up and you need to perform a significant amount of cardio.

In order to drop fat quickly, you have to go too low in calories to maintain the current amount of muscle you have. You will lose muscle mass. If you create a slight calorie deficit and lose only 1 to 2 pounds a week, you are much better off.

Reduce Body Fat Without Losing Muscle Tip 3: Perform High Intensity Interval Training

High Intensity Interval Training is the best form of cardio to burn off body fat without losing muscle mass. To confirm this, let's compare these 2 different types of cardio in a real life setting.

Sprinters have much more muscle than marathon runners. Sprinters perform a quick burst of effort, followed by a period of resting. Marathon runners train using the "slow and steady cardio" that is recommended by most trainers. I don't know about you, but I would rather look like a sprinter.

When you hit cardio, alternate intense sprinting type efforts for 30 seconds followed by a minute or so of a less intense effort. Continue this pattern for 15 minutes. You will burn body fat while keeping that hard earned muscle.

Reduce Body Fat Without Losing Muscle Tip 4: Eat a "Realistic" Strict Diet

If your diet plan is too strict, you would not be able to stick to that diet for very long. My rule of thumb is this.

I try to make sure that at least 75% of my meals are really clean and low calorie. If I decide to eat a bit of junk, I will try to make sure I do so after a long and hard workout. Also, I will eat low carbs during the day before my workout, to maximize the amount of fat burned in my workout. If you have too much carbs in your system while working out, your body will burn carbs instead of the fat off your body.

This really makes a big difference in your quest to reduce body fat.

Note: These tips can help in your effort to lose fat without losing muscle. But if you want a full program to get ultra-lean while maintaining muscle mass you should seriously consider Visual Impact Cardio - it's a top fat loss program online and includes High Intensity Interval Training.


Article by R. Moore - an avid fitness trainer that have perfected the right methods to help people get high quality results when building muscle and losing fat. His popular fitness programs are VI For MenVI For Women and VI Cardio.

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