How to Lose Weight and Build Muscle at the Same Time

It is possible to lose weight and build muscle at the same time, although knowledge of the principles behind the biological processes involved will be needed for it to be achieved effectively. There is more to losing weight and building muscle tissue than simply dieting or exercising, but it is necessary to eat the right diet and to carry out the right exercise.

First, one or two truths: if you want to lose weight and build muscle they can both be done at the same time - in fact should be done at the same time. Secondly, it is impossible to change fat into muscle - you may as well try to change lead into gold. They are totally difference biological substances, and one cannot be changed into another no matter if you had read it 'somewhere' or been told by 'somebody'.

These facts having been established, how exactly do you go about losing weight and building muscle simultaneously?

The Importance of a Calorie Deficit

If you eat fewer calories or burn more calories you will reach a stage where your body is in what is referred to as 'calorie deficit'. That is, you have to burn more calories than you are eating. You are exercising, yet there are insufficient calories in your diet to provide enough energy for both your metabolic needs and your exercise. Your 'metabolic needs' or 'metabolic rate' refers to the calories needed to provide the energy for your heartbeat, breathing, central nervous system, digestion and so on. Bodily processes that must take place for you to live, and they all need energy.

If you jog on a treadmill, do 'aerobics', cycle, swim or participate in any other form of exercise or sport that makes you breathe a lot and your heart beat a lot, then you use up a lot of calories. When you lift weights you use up a lot of calories and you also build muscle tissue that speeds up your metabolism that in turn burns even more calories!

Can You Lose Fat and Build Muscle Simultaneously?

You may have read somewhere that you cannot lose fat and build muscle, but can lose weight and build muscle? Why the difference? In some ways it is true that it can be difficult to lose fat and build muscle, but that only applies if you are a regular bodybuilder or weightlifter. If you were, you wouldn't be reading this, so you can lose both.

A lot has got to do with muscle density and how much muscle bulk you can build on top of what you have already. The vast majority of those reading this will have lots of scope of building on top of what they already have. Here's how.

To lose weight or burn fat you need a calorie deficit as explained. If you eat highly calorific foods such as potatoes, bread, sugars, ice cream, fats and so on, then you will have to carry out a lot of exercise to create a calorie deficit, and you will struggle to lose weight or fat. You will also have very little chance of adding muscle fiber. For that you need protein

If you replace most of your carbs with protein, but still include some fat in your diet because you need fats or oils for your health (fat makes you feel less hungry, helps generate endorphins, and carried the fat soluble vitamins A, E and K), then your food will still be satisfying and nutritious but will contain a lower calorific value. You could even add some high protein supplement.

The Importance of Protein

Eat protein supplements or chicken - chicken is full of protein and nutrition. Your digestive system will break down the protein into carbohydrate for energy and amino acids needed to build muscle fibers. Exercise using a combination of aerobic and anaerobic exercises. The exercise will get the blood flowing through your muscles and carry the amino acids to where they must be for muscle development.

Anaerobic exercise is an inefficient way of using glucose from the protein carbohydrates, so you need even more protein for the same amount of energy as aerobic exercise will provide. That means even more amino acids to build up muscle tissue. Aerobics will enable you to rapidly burn fat, converting it to carbohydrates and reducing the fat content of your body, and anaerobics will work certain muscle groups hard, use up more fats and more protein for the same amount of energy, and rapidly build muscle tissue.

The muscle tissue then increases your metabolic rate which in turn burns more fat. That is how to lose weight and build muscle at the same time. It is a combination of a carefully thought out diet, making use of the carbohydrate and amino acids contained in protein, and of the capacity of aerobic exercise to burn fats and anaerobic exercise to build muscles. Ultimately you will gain weight as your muscles grow, but initially you will lose it as your fat disappears.

Visit: www.sixpackshortcut.com