Is it possible to lose weight by swinging. So you need

If you ask fans and professionals of iron sports, you will get a bunch of conflicting (and sometimes absurd) answers. Someone will say that this is impossible, the other will say on the contrary that he knows one guy who knows another guy who heard from a third that his friend is losing weight and gaining muscle at the same time, without the use of steroids and other pharmaceuticals, and the third he will confidently say that it is as easy as shelling pears, you just need to overtake fat into muscles!

Who is right and who is not? Let's find out.

muscle growth

Let's talk right away. If you want to build up your butt (make it more round/protruding/protruding, etc.) then you need to understand the process of muscle growth.

Our body is always trying to avoid changes by any means, in this regard, it is an ardent republican 😉 The body wants to be in one constant, calm state. This phenomenon is called homeostasis.
But the calmness of our body is periodically roughly violated by the external environment. They constantly interact with each other to achieve the necessary balance. But if changes occur in the external environment, the internal will also be subject to cataclysms and changes. And if such changes occur again, then the internal environment will be forced to adapt in order to maintain constancy.

For example, for the first time a person burns, as they say “out of habit”, but if the procedure is repeated for a certain time, then the body begins to adapt and melanin is produced and you no longer look like boiled cancer. That is, your body is going through a process of adaptation - adaptation of the internal environment to changes in the external one. This is how balance is maintained and habituation occurs.

The same law of balance applies when it comes to muscle growth. When you train, you begin to upset the balance between the body and the external environment. Muscle cells are destroyed, many internal systems are affected, and the body begins to feel stress. With regular repetition of such actions, your body will have no choice but to adapt by building muscle mass.

How?

How do muscles grow? In a calm state, the muscle is in balance with the external environment. You train = cause indignation from the body. At the end of the workout, you relax, and the body begins to “heal” the muscles and remove all kinds of damage. The body carefully prepares for the possibility of a repetition of stress in order to be ready for such changes in the external environment. In the process of recovery of the body, the process of hypertrophy occurs.

Hypertrophy is a medical term meaning an increase in the whole organ or part of it as a result of an increase in the volume and (or) number of cells. Muscle hypertrophy, in turn, means muscle growth and an increase in the total muscle mass of the body due to growth individual groups muscles.

There are two types of muscle hypertrophy - M iofibrillar and WITH arcoplasmic. The first gives muscle growth due to an increase in the volume of muscle fiber cells (while their number remains practically unchanged), the second - due to an increase in the nutrient fluid surrounding this fiber.
The muscles obtained as a result of different types of hypertrophy differ from each other. M-hypertrophy is characterized by "dry" and toned muscles, while C-hypertrophy is rather "puffed up" and voluminous. Different kinds loads lead to different type hypertrophy.

Studies show that the healing process of the muscle fiber begins 3-4 hours after training, and ends after 36-48 hours - which is why it is ineffective to train the same muscle group more often. The main recovery assistants are nutrition and.

You need to understand that this process is a very important point, because a significant part of the effectiveness of your physical activity. Without an understanding of this process, success and retention of results is out of the question. According to most experts, muscle growth is based on two main secrets - this is supercompensation(rest, in which the process of hypertrophy occurs) and load progression.

fat burning

The body stores the hated fat reserves in special fat cells in the form of triglyceride. And in order for this chemical to be used to meet the needs of the body, fat cells must break down triglycerides into fatty acids and glycerol. There is a name for this process - lipolysis, during which the final substances (FA and glycerol) leave the fat cell and are transported through the blood to the place of use.

The signal for the start of lipolysis is a certain hormonal background (namely, through hormones, special biologically active substances, your body controls all cellular work). Glands are responsible for the production and release of hormones. Once in the blood, hormones "travel" through all the systems and organs of your body.
So, being near the cells in which they should be involved, hormones, like the missing piece of the puzzle, contact the receptor, and the necessary command is launched. In our case, “fat splitting”.

I think it’s obvious that you can’t say “hey, boss, slow down” to the hormone of a specific problem area. The lipolysis command will be given for the whole organism, or not given at all!

After fat is released, it is transported along with the blood to the muscle . When it reaches this muscle, it burns out in the mitochondria, the "power plants" of a person.

But lipolysis(fat breakdown) is not synonymous with weight loss!
Yes, the triglyceride has left the cell and is absorbed into the blood. And now, in order to really get rid of it irrevocably, the body must "burn"(to spend on certain needs). If this does not happen, our poor triglyceride will circulate through the bloodstream, and deposited back in the same fat cells, or even on the walls of blood vessels, creating cholesterol plaques.

And that's exactly why no goji berries, turbo slims, belts, saunas, body wraps, etc. are pure divorce! body fat It's a chemical reaction!

So is it possible to combine these two processes: fat burning and muscle growth?

An important point in this matter: the synthesis and breakdown of protein is a continuous process, regardless of the type of food. Those. your body produces and destroys protein, without asking you at all.
When it comes to the muscle itself, the sum of protein synthesis and breakdown can lead to three different outcomes (Tipton & Wolfe, 2001).

  • If more protein is synthesized than is broken down, then this can lead to to the growth of "lean" muscle mass.
  • If the protein breaks down more than it is synthesized, then this can lead to to a net loss muscle tissue .
  • If protein synthesis and protein breakdown balance each other, then this leads to to balance.

Research shows that physical exercise may increase the rate of protein synthesis. It may be about the acceleration of transport of amino acids after exercise (Biolo et all., 1995). And precisely strength training, to a greater extent can lead to an increase in muscle mass, if, of course, a sufficient supply of amino acids is ensured (Phillips et al., 2002).
The body prefers to build muscle when it is in a positive energy balance, because under these conditions, there is a sufficient amount of macronutrients and available amino acids.

There are a few exceptions, i.e. cases in which in deficiency, for some time, an increase in muscle mass is possible:

  1. in people with significant overweight (more than 25% for men, and the effect is fixed only for days or weeks), as they begin to follow a diet, coupled with training;
  2. for beginners(the effect is again fixed for days or weeks, but not indefinitely);

    What is in the first, what is in the second case, regular workouts in beginners (both strength training and cardio) improves muscle tissue sensitivity to insulin and improves nutrient absorption (strength training is probably the most powerful tool in our arsenal to improve nutrient absorption in this particular tissue type).

    In addition, “complete” beginners have a fairly large number unclaimed calories floating in the blood(due to the developed insulin resistance of tissues, their fat cells become less receptive to storing excess calories and their blood contains a large amount of glucose, triglycerides and cholesterol). By the way, with the help of sports fat people begin to improve the insulin sensitivity of tissues (muscle features) and their fat cells receive an incentive to more efficiently release excess stored energy. And the thinner you get and the longer you train, the more this effect fades away 🙁

  3. professional athletes(in one of the studies, these were athletes with total about 15 hours of training per week, with an experience of 10-15 years);
  4. when returning to strength training after a long break, provided that the person previously had a good muscular shape and a low percentage of fat, but having abandoned the training, he swam fat and became fat. So, returning to strength training, a person quickly feels the effect (the so-called "muscle memory"), which will also end quickly. He thinks that the fat is pumped into the muscles, but no, that's absurd. Read below why.

Concerning not beginners in sports and their desire to lose fat and grow meat, i.e. to provide both of these processes at the same time and in a calorie deficit (small / large / scanty / huge), then, alas, it is not feasible.


The higher the fitness and the lower the amount of fat in the body, the higher the process of adaptation to fat loss. This means that there is a significant increase in the sensitivity of tissues to insulin, especially in fat cells, which makes it difficult to ultimately lose fat, since people have a small percentage of body fat, i.e. fat cells not only have fewer accumulations, but they are becoming increasingly difficult to mobilize.

Besides, the higher the fitness, the more difficult it is, in principle, to get more muscle mass(i.e., over the years, it is more difficult to grow muscles than at the very beginning of strength training).

Our body is ill-equipped to do two things at the same time, especially when they contradict each other or require opposite conditions. For example, study after study confirms that the combination of heavy strength training with endurance training leads to significantly more modest results than training each indicator separately.

The processes of fat burning and muscle growth require completely different (and, in fact, mutually exclusive) conditions. Moreover, the specific conditions (calorie surplus at least) that allow you to grow muscle are the reason that promotes fat gain. And, in turn, the conditions necessary to burn fat is one of the reasons (along with the adaptation of the body) that you will burn muscle at the same time.

The synthesis of new tissues (whether muscle or fat) requires energy, and this energy cannot come from nowhere. The synthesis of muscle tissue is a particularly energy-intensive process, especially in comparison with the synthesis of fat.

One might idyllically believe that the calories needed for muscle growth could be magically taken from burning fat, but in reality this rarely happens, at least not without specialized pharmacological preparations.

Actually, that is why, all the proposed natural strategies that promote simultaneous weight loss with an increase in muscle mass are not very effective.
Simply put, if you do not belong to the above three groups of temporary exceptions, then you are more likely to you will not be able to lose weight and gain weight at the same time with natural schemes muscle mass.

Outcome

You can't lose weight and build muscle at the same time. These two goals require the use of different strategies and approaches. So, for example, in order to “pump up your ass”, you must consume more energy than you consume, i.e. must maintain a positive energy balance.
For the “relief press” and “split quadra”, you must consume fewer calories than you expend, i.e. must maintain a negative energy balance.

It's simple: first we lose weight - then we grow muscles.

"And here I am..."


The topic of losing weight and creating a beautiful embossed body has become very popular recently. How to lose weight and build muscle at the same time interested in many girls from all over the world. And I understand them perfectly, because lose weight and build muscle means to look not just a thin girl, but a girl with beautiful forms and athletic figure. Who doesn't want this?

More and more articles appear on this topic, and they are all completely different: some write that it is possible, others claim that this is impossible. I specifically decided to look into this difficult issue in order to finally find out which of them is right.

The first thing you need to figure out is what types of tissues are responsible for losing weight and gaining muscle mass? And the second - Can you burn fat and build muscle at the same time?

Fabric types

According to the prevailing opinion: gaining muscle mass and losing weight, that is, reducing the amount of fat in the body, are two opposite processes that cannot exist simultaneously. This is partly true, but not complete. Let's figure it out.

The process of losing weight occurs by reducing the layer of adipose tissue. That is, adipose tissue is responsible for weight loss. Got it sorted out. How about gaining muscle mass? With muscles, too, everything is very simple: muscle tissue is responsible for muscle growth. Up to this point, everything seems to be clear. Then let's move on.

The ongoing processes in the tissues

Now to understand Is it possible to lose weight and build muscle at the same time?, let's move on to a more difficult moment: the processes taking place in our tissues at the time of losing weight or gaining muscle mass.

Think about whether something can be both catabolic (the process of destruction) and anabolic (the process of creation) state? In our case, can muscles grow and break down at the same time? Or is fat burned and accumulated at the same time? I think the answer is obvious - of course NO! After all, one type of tissue, for example, muscle, cannot be in two states at the same time, just like fatty tissue.

But here are two DIFFERENT fabrics CAN! Muscle and fat are two different tissues! So this is the conclusion: you can lose weight and gain weight at the same time, but taking into account several important points! We will talk about them a little later, but first we will find out under what conditions fat burns and muscle grows.

Conditions for muscle growth and fat burning

In order to muscles grew, need to anabolism processes in muscle tissue were at a constant high level . This is achieved in several ways:

- creating favorable conditions for the production of the anabolic hormone samatotropin;

- an increase in calorie intake and an increase in energy expenditure (calories consumed less than expended).

For reverse weight loss process need to most of the time in the body catabolic processes predominated in adipose tissue. This is achieved in several ways:

- creating favorable conditions for burning fat;

- a decrease in the daily calorie content of the diet and an increase in energy consumption (calories consumed less than expended).

Here, of course, you will have a question: so How can you lose weight and build muscle at the same time? if they require completely different conditions? Believe it or not, it's POSSIBLE! You just need to divide the training into two different components: gaining muscle mass and burning fat. Now I will tell you how this can be done.

Little tricks to help you lose weight and build muscle at the same time

When we usually talk about weight gain (muscle + fat) and "drying", then there is a cyclical nature of these two different processes, which does not suit those who want to lose weight and gain weight at the same time, that is, everyone reading this article. There are 2 stages here: at the first stage, there is a mass gain, when, along with muscle mass, fat also grows; and on the second, fat burning takes place directly, or as this stage is also called - the “drying” of the body occurs.

To avoid such a long process, which is mainly used professional athletes in bodybuilding or representatives women's sports fitness bikini, there is a shortcut for you.

Nutrition

In order for the calorie content of your diet to be ideal for both the process of losing weight and gaining muscle mass, you need to include more protein foods in your diet. An increase in protein products and a decrease in the consumption of fats and carbohydrates will be perceived by the body as a general decrease in daily caloric content. And since proteins are the most important building material for your muscles, it will serve their good growth without deposition. excess fat, since you have reduced fatty and carbohydrate-rich foods to a safe minimum for your body.

Rest

But even with such seemingly ideal conditions, has its pitfalls: without sufficient carbohydrate intake, you will feel a lack of energy, especially in training. Therefore, it is imperative to replenish energy reserves from other sources and give your muscles and body as a whole good rest and good sleep.

Workout

Can you build muscle and lose weight at the same time? without a compiled training program, but simply by thoughtless "rape" of all the simulators in a row? I think everyone knows that the answer is NO. In this process, the approach to the training process is very important. If you want to lose weight and gain weight at the same time, then your workouts should be clearly divided: one day you have strength training with large weights for muscle growth, and the second day - or. Such a distinction by day is necessary in order for the processes to proceed better. muscle growth and weight loss processes. The first day you work on mass, the second - on fat burning and weight loss.

But if you want to know my opinion, then I would advise girls to engage in a slightly different scheme. You can build muscle and lose weight at the same time, but is that the result you really mean by these words? For a girl who wants to look fit and with a small muscle relief, you do not need to do the same as a professional athlete performing on stage and setting herself the goal of winning an international bodybuilding championship. Weight training is quite difficult and not everyone understands how to properly perform them and what weights to work with.

Now let's sum up a little:

I hope now you understand such a difficult and controversial issue: how to lose weight and build muscle at the same time? This is possible if you understand what types of tissue you are dealing with when talking about muscle growth and weight loss. And also understand that lose weight and get fit possible only with proper construction training process and well-established power supply system.

Your coach, Janelia Skrypnyk, was with you!

One of the most popular questions is - is it possible to lose weight and build muscle at the same time? Let's find out 😉

According to Alan Aragon's Research Review (AARR), November 2008: Aragon AA. Culking, part 1: great expectations, maximum possible increase in lean muscle mass For natural athletes with proper nutrition and effective types of training aimed at increasing MM:

Newbie- 1-1.5% increase in lean muscle mass of total body weight per month;

Average level- 0.5-1% increase in lean muscle mass of total body weight per month;

Advanced level- 0.25-0.5% increase in lean muscle mass of total body weight per month.

That is, there is a dynamics of a decrease in the rate of gaining muscle mass with time approaching the "genetic limit" of the athlete.

We know that for muscle growth us need a calorie surplus, but what should this surplus be?

Muscle tissue is 70% water, 22% protein, and the rest is fat, carbohydrates, and minerals. The exact value of the amount of energy required for the synthesis of 1 gram of muscle is unknown. According to various studies, from 5 to 8 kcal accounts for the creation of 1 gram of muscle mass.

Calculations

Let's compare the data above and get the following values:

A beginner weighing 50 kg per month can gain - 0.5-0.75 kg of lean muscle mass under ideal nutrition and training conditions. Then the level of surplus kcal from its daily norm for the synthesis of this muscle mass should be 2,500 - 3,750 or 4,000 - 6,000 kcal per month, or an additional 83 - 125 or 133 - 200 kcal per day. That, in general, are “ridiculous” numbers, but with the correct calculation of your daily kcal norm, and most importantly, confirmation of this norm in practice (that is, a constant value of body weight for 2-3 weekly or monthly measurements), this small surplus of kcal (in combination with the right workouts) gives an increase in muscle mass (MM).

About macronutrients (BJU)

Let me remind you just in case...

1 gram of proteins = 4 kcal;

1 gram of fat = 9 kcal;

1 gram of carbohydrates = 4 kcal.

It turns out that the norm of kcal for a set of MM = the norm of kcal, at which the weight is stable + a small surplus of kcal for the synthesis of MM. Naturally, with a lack of protein, MM synthesis is impossible, therefore, there are recommendations to consume about 2 grams of protein per 1 kg of body weight, values ​​below reduce muscle mass synthesis, values ​​above do not make sense from the point of view of increasing synthesis. Fats at least 1 gram per kg, since it is very important for natural athletes to maintain a normal hormonal background, with values ​​​​lower, there is a risk of problems with the general hormonal background. The rest of the calories come from carbohydrates.

So, with a set of muscle mass, more or less figured out, but what about Losing weight and gaining muscle mass at the same time?

Losing fat mass and gaining muscle mass are essentially 2 opposite processes, one requires a deficit, and the other requires a surplus. But still there are exceptions when these two processes are not mutually exclusive:

1) An increase in MM is possible with a deficiency of kcal in people with high body fat (more than 25%). In this case, protein synthesis is stimulated by training, and the calorie deficit is covered by your own fat reserves. However, this option has a short-term effect, since the efficiency of protein synthesis decreases with weight loss, a decrease in fat reserves.

2) An increase in MM is possible with a shortage of kcal in beginners. Strength training becomes a powerful source of stress, which leads to a good hormonal response, improved insulin sensitivity of muscle tissue, improved nutrient absorption, increased protein synthesis, but again this has a short-term effect.

A combination of options 1 and 2 is possible. But the higher the fitness of an athlete and the lower the percentage of fat in his body, the less effective training with a calorie deficit, in the long run. we will talk not about the growth of MM, but about the possibility of maintaining it with a shortage of kcal.

I told some details about losing weight and gaining MM in this video below.

I often hear the following phrases: I have been eating right for 2 months now, working out with a trainer, but ...» « butt doesn't grow», « no press" or simply " I don't see the result"How to be? It's an expectation-reality problem. The key word in this phrase is "2 months". This too few, I wrote above that, subject to all the rules and regulations in nutrition and training, a beginner can gain up to 500 grams of dry muscle mass per month - and that's good! But this Not 500 grams in the buttocks, or arms ... These grams are “smeared” all over the body, and the longer we train, the less and less this increase becomes.

We all want to get the maximum, especially putting in great effort, limiting ourselves in something, spending time on training, but big muscles don't come right away. It takes a lot of effort and time before the result is really noticeable.

So here are some tips:

- If you are a beginner, then try not to think about gaining muscle in the early stages. It is important for you to understand correct technique, with each repetition you improve the neuromuscular connection (the relationship between the brain and muscles), while the weight, and accordingly your strength, can grow only thanks to this, and only then, having reached a certain limit, will adaptation to loads occur due to muscle growth ( remember the rule of load progression);

- If you have excess fat, then it is better to lose weight first, and only then build muscle. We focus on low-intensity cardio, such as running on a fat burning pulse (this is an aerobic type of exercise that allows you to use fat as energy for muscles). Strength training is necessary to maintain the current MM. In nutrition, we create a small deficit of kcal, monitor the amount of proteins and fats, mainly limit carbohydrates;

- If your fat percentage is normal, then when gaining MM, do not “load” with a huge amount of calories, a small surplus and the correct distribution of BJU are enough. Focus on strength training;

- We are not trying to specifically combine a set of MM and weight loss. As I wrote, this option is possible in certain cases, but it is much more efficient to act in one direction. For example, first lose weight, and then grow lean muscle mass with the help of training and a small calorie surplus in the diet.

Body recomposition is a long process of restructuring the body, which is based on the desire to simultaneously gain muscle mass and burn fat. It is impossible to recompose the body without the right approach to nutrition and training. The question arises, is it possible to turn fat into muscle? Such a process is not possible. But gaining muscle mass and burning fat at the same time is quite real, although this is contrary to your energy needs. Building muscle requires a calorie surplus, while burning fat requires a calorie deficit.

How to turn fat into muscle? How does it actually work? Who is able to succeed in this, and who is not, and why? Read on to find out how to build muscle and burn fat...

Nothing motivates people to come to the gym and take supplements more than the desire to build muscle and burn fat, that is, to achieve body recomposition, as experts like to call this process.

Body recomposition is a very long and difficult process of restructuring the body, which is based on the desire to simultaneously increase the amount of muscle mass in the body and reduce fat, which often cannot be done without observing strict rules in calculating calories and the number of workouts.

The main thing to know is that muscle building and burning are two opposite processes, in terms of the energy of our body. Building muscle requires a calorie surplus, while burning fat requires a calorie deficit. Without the right approach, trying to carry out these actions at the same time can lead to undesirable consequences.

Everyone says, “To get rid of fat, you need to do certain exercises, eat right and take supplements,” right? You can burn fat while maintaining muscle mass, right?

Can you build muscle and lose fat at the same time?

Well, I have news, good and bad.

  • The Good: Yes, it is possible to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time.
  • The bad news is that this is only possible under certain conditions.
  • Very bad: most of the advice on how to lose weight so that fat goes away and not muscle is no good.

Yes, those "gurus" who swear Those who know the secret to gaining muscle mass are almost always talking nonsense. And I can prove it.

In this article, we'll talk about how the body actually builds muscle and loses fat, and then we'll see what needs to be done to achieve this.

Let's start with gaining muscle mass.

Is it possible to gain muscle mass and burn fat at the same time!?

Physiology of Muscle Growth

Every day, two vital processes take place in your muscles - protein synthesis And protein breakdown.

  1. Breaking down proteins means breaking them down into smaller components: peptides and amino acids.
  1. The synthesis of proteins means their new creation, as well as their smaller components.

When you are healthy and your diet is in order, muscle tissue remains in a fairly stable state. That is, the level of synthesis and breakdown is more or less balanced, and you do not lose or gain a significant amount of muscle in Everyday life. (Strictly speaking, you lose muscle mass as you age, but you get the idea.)

In order for muscle to grow over time, the level of protein synthesis must exceed the level of protein breakdown.

This means that the body must produce more protein than it loses, and then muscle growth is slightly increased.

Then what should be done so that the rate of protein synthesis exceeds the rate of decay?

You must take certain actions in order to start and maintain this process. The muscles undergo a fairly active metabolism (metabolism), requiring quite a lot of energy to maintain it. Without it, muscles will not grow.

And the main thing that you have to do here is, of course, to train your muscles. Strength training damages muscle cells, which signals the body to increase protein synthesis to repair muscle tissue.

Although this does not mean that by restoring the muscles, the body brings them back to their previous state. It seeks to adapt to new stimuli - training - and produces new muscle cells, increasing muscle size and strength.

Research shows that progressive overload is the main condition for muscle growth.

“What is progressive overload?” you ask? This is a gradual increase in the level of tension muscle fibers. When you systematically give the muscles more and more stress, they constantly adapt to it, becoming larger and stronger.

Like a real weightlifter, you must get stronger if you want to get bigger.

Of course the muscles may become stronger without increasing in size (due to increased neuromuscular activity), but there will come a time when more muscle fibers are needed to reach your training goals.

Pumping is great and can be included in a training program, but high rep ranges and exhausting sets should never be the focus. Such training significantly increases metabolic stress, which promotes muscle growth, but not as much as progressive overload does.

That's why the biggest lifters in the gym are usually also the strongest, and that's why those who chase the pump, doing supersets, drop sets, giant sets, etc., don't have the same physique.

Your main goal in training should be the constant increase in working weight.

If you don't, you won't get the benefits of progressive overload and gain little muscle mass, no matter what else you've done (well, unless you're using chemistry, of course).

Hard training and progressive overload do not guarantee muscle growth because you also have to eat right.

You have probably heard that you need to eat a lot to get bigger, and there is some truth in this.

You need to consume enough protein to create the foundation for muscle growth, and also consume enough calories to ensure that protein synthesis is as efficient as possible.

However, before we talk about diet, let's look at the other side of body recomposition, namely fat burning.

Physiology of fat burning

How to make the body burn fat? Getting rid of fat is easier than you think.

  • Don't get hung up on the diet.
  • No need to avoid carbohydrates, and, in fact, any other food.
  • Should not be eaten strictly a certain amount of portions of food per day according to the schedule.
  • Do not try to manipulate hormones.

In order to avoid mistakes when losing weight, you need to properly understand the mechanics of this process - how to burn fat correctly.

The first and most important mechanism is energy balance.

This means the relationship between the energy that you give to the body through food and the energy that is spent on cellular and physical activity. This ratio is often measured in kilocalories.

As weight loss tests over the past 100 years have shown, the truth is this: you have to expend more energy than you consume.

You may have heard all this before, and if you're frustrated, then let me explain how to properly burn fat, not muscle.

When you eat food, you give the body a relatively large amount of energy in a short amount of time. It burns some of this energy, and stores some as fat for later use.

Scientifically, this process of absorption of nutrients is called "postprandial". " Fast' means 'after', and ' prandial"- "Related to food." In this postprandial state, fat burning does not occur because the body is in fat storage mode.

The reason for this is simple: why would the body burn fat for energy if you provided it with the required amount and even more?

As a result, the body completes the digestion and absorption of food, which takes several hours, and then enters a state that scientists call "post-absorptive."

The energy received from food is over, but the functioning of the body must continue. What can the body do to meet its energy needs?

That's right - it can burn fat. The body must now go into "fat burning mode" to work while it waits for the next meal.

Every day, your body goes from postprandial to postabsorptive and back again, storing and burning fat.

Here is a simple graph that clearly demonstrates this:

The lighter parts of the graph show what happens when you eat: insulin levels rise to help absorb nutrients, and fat burning stops.

The dark areas show what happens when the energy from food runs out: insulin levels drop, which signals the body to start burning fat.

What happens if these two parts of the graph are more or less balanced? That's right - the level of fat will remain the same. The body will burn approximately the same amount of fat as it stores.

What happens if the light parts exceed the dark ones? Then the reserves of fat will exceed the volume of its burning, and body fat will increase.

And what happens if the dark parts collectively exceed the light ones? You burn more fat than you store, which means less overall fat mass.

That's why getting rid of significant stores of fat requires expending more energy than you get.

It doesn't matter how many "unclean" foods you eat or when. Your metabolism works according to the first law of thermodynamics, which means that fat stores (energy) cannot be increased without providing excess energy and cannot be reduced without limiting energy intake, thus creating an energy deficit.

  • This is why studies show that low-calorie diets result in clinically significant weight loss, no matter what macronutrients they are based on.
  • Therefore, Professor Mark Haub was able to lose 12 kg while on a diet of protein shakes, cakes, cookies, chips and pastries.

When it comes to shedding extra pounds, calories are still calories. The body uses a certain amount of energy, and if you give it less than it needs, then it has no choice but to continue to burn fat to maintain life.

What if your goal is not just to drop weight? What if you want to get rid of fat, but not from muscle mass? In this case, calories are no longer just calories. Some types of calories become more important than others here.

I have already written about this in detail in my books and articles, so I will briefly state the essence.

When you're cutting calories to lose fat, make sure you're getting enough protein.

Studies show that high-protein diets are more effective in reducing body fat when reducing calories, and these diets also help preserve muscle and increase satiety.

How much protein should be consumed?

Instead, I prefer to follow the advice of Oxford University scientists. Here is the conclusion they came to:

“The protein requirement for athletes involved in strength training and those on a diet will be approximately 2.3-3.1 gr. per kg. body mass without body fat and will increase depending on the severity of the diet and the increase in muscle mass.

If you have a lot of body fat (20%+ male or 30%+ female), then you can drop this amount to 0.8 grams and you should be fine.

So now you know how the body builds muscle and stores and burns fat. Let's see what happens when these 2 processes run at the same time.

How to build muscle and burn fat at the same time

There is a lot of talk about building muscle mass and burning fat at the same time.

People sell pills, powders, programs based on top-secret technologies. Skeptics say it's not possible at all. The truth, however, is somewhere in between. Some may achieve recomposition, some may not. How to lose weight so that fat and not muscle go away?

The main determining factors are the level of training and experience of the athlete. Here are 2 general principles:

  • If you're new to strength training or re-starting after a break, you shouldn't have any trouble gaining muscle mass and burning fat at the same time.
  • If you've been training for at least 6-8 months without big breaks, you probably won't be able to achieve recomposition.

The exception to point 2 are those who have been training for a certain amount of time, but have not emphasized compound exercises with heavy weights. They are likely to progress quickly in the beginning, like beginners, including muscle growth while on a calorie deficit.

“Why such rules?”, you ask. “Why can’t anyone achieve success in body recomposition, no matter the circumstances?”

Because from the point of view of physiology, there is an irreconcilable discrepancy between getting rid of fat and muscle growth. Their mutual incompatibility stems from their relationship to the energy balance of the body.

When the body is in a negative energy balance (calorie deficit), it reduces fat mass, but also appears unwanted by-effect: Reduced ability of the body to synthesize proteins.

You lose muscle mass when you are on a fat burning diet. The body is not able to synthesize enough protein to balance the processes of its formation and decay.

So if your goal is to maximize muscle growth, make sure you're not in a calorie deficit. And since it is impossible to accurately determine the daily energy expenditure, athletes who want to gain muscle mass deliberately overestimate the energy needs of the body, thus maintaining a small excess of energy.

This is the scientific basis for the claim that you should eat more to get bigger. Although it would be more accurate to say that you have to consume a little more energy than you expend in order to become bigger. This creates the basis for muscle growth.

That's why it's so hard to burn fat and gain muscle at the same time. You restrict calories and lose fat, but at the same time limit the body's ability to build and repair muscle tissue.

As you probably already understood, building muscle mass in a calorie deficit requires Very high level protein synthesis (or Very low level of its decay, or both at the same time). In short, anything you can do to increase your body's ability to synthesize protein and decrease its breakdown rate will greatly help you in your quest for recomposition.

That's why beginners or those who resume training can be so successful in shedding fat and building muscle. Their bodies are "hyper-responsive" to training, and this outweighs the restrictions on protein synthesis that a calorie deficit imposes.

Over time, these "privileges" of the beginner fade away, however, the restrictions on synthesis become more and more until, finally, they become insurmountable. You simply cannot stimulate synthesis and inhibit breakdown while maintaining the balance necessary for muscle growth. That's why the goal of experienced weightlifters is to maintaining muscle and strength while burning fat, not increasing them.

So, we have completely covered the theory of body recomposition, now let's move on to practice and talk about what you should do to achieve it.

Maintain a moderate calorie deficit

This is the basis of body recomposition. How to lose weight so that fat and not muscle go away? You must Be in a calorie deficit to get rid of fat, but don't eat so little as to accelerate muscle loss.

Instead, you need to maintain a moderate (20-25%) calorie deficit, which will allow you to lose fat quickly while maintaining muscle mass.

If you don't know how to do this, here's the simple formula I give in my books to maintain a daily calorie deficit of around 20% if you train 4-6 hours per week.

  • 2.4 gr. protein per kilogram of body weight per day;
  • 2 gr. carbohydrates per kilogram of body weight per day;
  • 0.4 gr. fat per kilogram of body weight per day.

This is a good starting point for most people, but it can be adjusted if you train more than 4-6 hours per week, or if you are a fairly thin woman (you may need to cut carbs to 1.5g/kg and increase fat up to 0.5 g/kg).

Once you have determined these numbers for yourself, create your daily nutrition program.

Focus on core exercises

The idea that with isolation exercises and a high rep range you will achieve the maximum possible effect is a myth that is promoted by many athletes.

Get rid of fat deposits, and you will look embossed. One training style does not provide more definition than another.

When you are in a calorie deficit, you should do the exact opposite of what many people say: you need to focus on heavy basic exercises. Especially if you want to gain muscle mass and burn fat.

You must do squats deadlift, army press and bench press every week, and should also do most of the work with a weight that is 80-85% of your 1RM (for 4-6 or 5-7 reps).

This is a key type of training for natural athletes who want to increase muscle mass and strength. The main “secret” to the effectiveness of high rep range and high volume training that fitness models talk about is the use of chemistry. And point.

If you, as a natural bodybuilder, go this route, you will not achieve your goals.

Do HIIT Workouts Instead of Regular Cardio

You don't have to do cardio if you want to bulk up, but at some point, you'll have no choice but to incorporate cardio into your program. In the end, you'll just need to expend more energy every week to keep burning fat, as you can only do a certain amount of strength training or you won't avoid overtraining.

When this moment comes, you should not start doing regular low-intensity cardio workouts for 1-2 hours 5-7 days a week. Of course, this expends energy and helps to get rid of fat, but it also reduces muscle mass.

Instead, do 1-2 hours of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) once a week. Yes, you heard it right: you can work on relief by doing no more than 2 hours of cardio. in Week.

Don't believe? Here is the "summer version" of my body that I achieve and maintain by doing strength training for 4-5 hours a week and HIIT training for 2 hours a week.

I believe short (20-25 minutes) HIIT workouts burn more fat and retain muscle and strength better than long, low-intensity cardio workouts.

There are not many shortcuts to health and wellness. physical form, but HIIT training seems to be specifically designed for burning fat. Use it.

get enough sleep

This point is often overlooked, but it is extremely important for gaining muscle mass and burning fat.

If you do not get enough sleep for a week, then this will be enough to reduce the level of testosterone, growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor - 1 (IGF-1), which play an important role in gaining and maintaining muscle mass and burning fat.

The amount of sleep a person needs varies, but the National Sleep Foundation (USA) recommends that an adult get 7-9 hours of sleep a night to avoid the effects of sleep deprivation.

Take the Right Fat Burning Supplements

I'm talking about supplements last, because taking them only makes sense if you're dieting, exercising, and getting enough sleep.

And I will say for clarity: you Not needed supplements to achieve body recomposition, but they will help you achieve it if you choose them correctly.

Specifically, you should achieve 3 things with supplements:

  1. you must maintain the intensity of training, which will help maintain muscle and strength;
  1. you must improve the body's ability to maintain and build muscle mass and strength;
  1. you must burn fat as quickly as possible, which minimizes the amount of time spent in a calorie deficit.

Luckily, there are several safe, natural supplements available to help you achieve each of these goals. You will find information about them below.

#1 Body Recomposition Supplement

The first thing you need is a post-workout recovery supplement that contains 2 ingredients to help achieve body recomposition:

Creatine

Creatine is a compound of 2 amino acids. Creatine is synthesized in the human body, and food also serves as its source.

It's the world's most studied supplement sports nutrition, and the evidence for its effectiveness is clear: it helps build muscle and strength even when in a calorie deficit, and it also reduces muscle damage and inflammation that occurs after exercise.

Conclusion: If you're into strength training, you should be taking creatine.

Carnitine

Carnitine is a substance consisting of the amino acids lysine and methionine and is involved in the production of cellular energy.

Studies show that creatine supplementation reduces muscle damage and soreness that occurs after exercise, and improves muscle recovery.

Supplement #2 for body recomposition

  • dramatically increases the metabolic rate;
  • enhances the effect of fat-burning substances formed in the body;
  • enhances the feeling of satiety.

This is achieved with effective dosages of synephrine, naringin, hesperidin, forskolin, epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), hordein, salacia, and 5-HTP (hydroxytryptophan).

Plus, the caffeine-free formula means you can continue drinking coffee and your favorite caffeinated pre-workout drinks.

The conclusion is obvious: in combination with proper nutrition fat burning supplement will help you get rid of fat faster.

Supplement #3 for body recomposition

A pre-workout drink containing a clinically effective dosage of 7 ingredients that work to increase energy levels, improve attention, and increase performance.

The better you can maintain training intensity while dieting, the easier it will be to maintain muscle and strength. Everything is very simple.

In addition, it is worth noting that caffeine directly helps burn more fat, and also enhances the fat burning effect.

Conclusion

Now you know everything about building muscle and burning fat at the same time.

It is not as mysterious and complicated as many "experts" tell you. And there are no tricks or tricks to achieve this.

Maintain a moderate calorie deficit, eat plenty of protein, train hard, do HIIT workouts, take the right supplements, and you'll see results.

And even if you have too great experience training to successfully achieve recomposition, however, you can use everything written in this article to maximize fat burning and minimize muscle loss.

Those who want to remove excess from the hips, waist or arms should be more careful when compiling a fitness program: there are many exercises due to which the volume of problem areas can only increase, and getting rid of excess muscle mass will become a real problem.

At first glance, this may seem like nonsense: how can you get better by jumping, crouching, sweating and otherwise burning calories in the gym? As my own experience shows, it is very possible. And lifting dumbbells, drinking protein shakes and doing bodybuilding is not necessary at all.

Eight years of growth

On personal experience I can say that first of all it touched my legs and hips: eight years of choreography, variety dancing and regular smooth squats (“demi-plié”) at the barre made them too voluminous and pumped. Plus, a break in classes contributed to the loss of elasticity. The first thing I started to do on the resumed workouts was to give an active load to the hips and buttocks in order to bring them into a decent shape. After three months of constant training, based on all the same exercises from the choreography, the muscles tightened up, became embossed again, but the leg circumference increased by three centimeters. That is, visually it was a real nightmare: if the front of the hips looked slender, then the side seemed thicker than the waist. But it turned out to be very possible to fight with your own body. Below I give a selection of simple rules for competently compiling a fitness program that will help you achieve your ideal.

Hips

Most of the exercises from the standard set of "fitness for beautiful buttocks”, they may turn your ass into a hard nut, but they won’t make your legs thin and slender. In any case, it depends on your structure and figure, so recommendations for “dangerous” exercises on the hips will be useful mainly for those girls who have excess deposits at the bottom. If your problem is the stomach, then feel free to swing your legs. Without fanaticism and dumbbells, of course, but the owners of the “rectangle” and “triangle” figures are large and wide hips in any case, they do not threaten - unlike the "hourglass".

Black list: All types of squats, slow leg raises (from a standing or lying position - it doesn’t matter), as well as small steps and lifts on toes are sent to the black list. Running is also not the best option to reduce the volume of the thighs. Athletics pumps the calf muscles and helps to increase the large adductor (behind) and lateral wide (front) muscles of the thighs. Here, for sure, many will object and will be indignant - they say, running has always helped to lose weight. And here it’s hard to disagree - he really burns calories, but if your goal is Thin legs, so you don't have to worry too much about them.

A priority: All strength exercises it is better to replace it with a stretch. We warm up with the help of dances, if we raise our legs up - we make fast, sharp swings. Jumping is also good as a warm-up, you can jump with pretensions or do "scissors", just avoid jumping from a low squat position.

Hands

Beautiful and at the same time feminine hands with taut muscles - business card many stars and models, for example, who often chooses open strapless dresses on red carpets. But in an attempt to achieve the ideal result, there is always a danger of pumping up the muscles of the arms, like those, and end up with sinewy, embossed biceps. They will look perfect with a studded leather rock vest, but not with romantic dresses. As in the case of the legs, you need to be more careful here: in order not to pump your arms and shoulders, you should combine several types of load.

Black list: Those who are afraid of excessive relief of the shoulders should be extremely careful about push-ups and exercises with dumbbells (even the smallest ones). It is better to exclude exercises with a simulator that works on the principle of “squeezing” an obstacle by bringing your hands to your chest.

A priority: Pull-ups, like push-ups, are best avoided, but just hanging on the horizontal bar is very useful. For deltoid and shoulder muscle circle swings with arms from a standing position are also useful, and biceps and triceps can be strengthened by doing yoga: moving from the downward dog pose to the “bar” and “cobra”.

Waist

Everyone probably knows that pumping the press when there are folds on the stomach and waist is not a good idea: internal muscles will be strengthened, but the fat will remain in place. Therefore, before pumping the press, warm up well, run, jump, do tilts and turns, as well as other exercises from the list. effective techniques remove the sides and make the waist, which we wrote about earlier.

Black list: There are simply no exercises that will increase the waist and increase the number of folds. Either they will contribute to weight loss, or simply will not be effective. Therefore, in this case, no taboos are provided, except to stop leaning on flour. But this advice is effective in the case of the sides, and in a situation with too full legs.

A priority: Most effective exercises For thin waist- these are inclinations towards all types. You can and should supplement the program with a press swing, as well as twisting yoga asanas.

Stop, volume

In addition to all the above recommendations, in pursuit of slender legs, hands or waist, you need to remember some rules that are effective in each case:

In training, jump, dance and run more (again, if we are not talking about legs), that is, give the body general type load, and not focus on specific parts of the body.

Get in the habit of doing self-massage daily problem areas with body butter. First of all, this applies to the legs, but the stomach with the hands also needs to be kneaded. In a month and a half, the result will really be amazing - I was convinced from my own experience. The main thing is not to be lazy - even a week break will return the body to its usual flabby state.

Try not to eat after your workout. Maximum - water, various cocktails, smoothies, vegetables, fruits, low-fat or cottage cheese.