Do You Want to Burn Fat or Grow Muscle? Part 1
Do You Want to Burn Fat or Grow Muscle? If your answer is, "I want to do both!", then you are not alone. For most people the goal is to both burn fat and grow muscle. But what I am really asking is, what is more important to you? Is it more important to burn fat or grow muscle? The answer to that question may make accomplishing both easier but the methods for doing both may contradict each other. It is possible to do both at the same time but you have to remember that to burn fat you need to be causing a calorie deficit but to gain muscles you need to be taking in more calories to cause muscle growth. In this and the next post, we will be comparing these two ideas, what it takes to burn fat and what it takes to grow muscle, and see how they can work together.
When one loses weight there is a chance that while most of that loss is going to be from fat there is going to be some muscle loss. Striving for balance is what you need to do. The balance is going to be more heavily weighted in one way or the other. For those wanting to burn fat they are going to have to have more of a caloric deficit. Those who are more interested in growing muscle you are going to have to concentrate more on having a higher level of calories. When you are just starting off you are most likely going to be able to do both depending on, of course, the amount of food you allow yourself to eat and the amount of work you do. For anyone willing to work enough and who does an appropriate job of monitoring their daily caloric intake there is going to be some success.
First, we will look at the diet. There are many who will say that you need to cut out carbs but for those wanting to gain muscle, you need to be using those carbs as your primary source of energy. Also, your muscles, if they are going to be growing at any significant rate, are going to need every bit of protein they can get. Remember that your muscles can only grow if they have protein. Make sure to eat meals that are 3 parts carbohydrates and 2 parts protein. Also make sure that you have as little fat as possible and let that be where you take out the major part of your calories if you want to cut back. Make sure you eat 5 or more times a day, spreading out the amount that you need to be eating in a day among those meals. Many find it easier to eat 5 small meals and 1 larger meal at the end of the day.
If your priority is to burn fat then subtract two calories for every pound (nearly half a kg) you weigh. For example, if you weigh 200 pounds (91kgs) and you want to burn fat then decrease the amount of calories you consume by 400. Just make sure that you don’t cut back on the amount of protein, make most of the calories you cut come from fat. You will want to do this 5 days a week and then for the other 2 days you will want to increase your amount of calories by 2 for every pound. The reason you will be doing this is to make sure that you are getting what your body needs to build that lean muscle.
If your priority is to grow muscle then add two calories for every pound (half a kg) you weigh. If you weigh 200 pounds (91kgs) (and that is a healthy weight for you) and you want to grow muscle then eat 400 more calories per day. Have the increase come from mainly protein and some complex carbohydrates (don’t increase your amount of fat). You will want to do this for 5 days of the week and then on the other two days you will want to decrease the amount of calories you take in by 2 for every pound (half kg) you weigh. You will do this to ensure that you are removing excess fat.
As you get closer to the amount of muscle and fat you think is right for you, start to balance the two. Tomorrow we take a look at a workout routine to help you burn fat and grow muscle.
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