Do you want to know How To Gain Muscle And Lose Fat At The Same Time
There are too questions people always ask when it comes to exercise, and fitness:
- How can I gain muscle and lose fat at the same time?
- How do I get six pack abs?
Things get confusing, as are all kinds of opinions relating to those questions. They're even some contradicting solutions from people calling themselves experts in the field.
This puts you in a bad spot, if the so-called experts duke it out are you supposed to know what to do. All you really want to know is it really possible to lose fat and build muscle simultaneously?
Short answer: Yes, you can gain muscle and lose fat at the “same time.”
Long answer: It’s difficult and it’s complicated. Continue to read and find out how
First we have the issue of whether you really lose fat and gain muscle at the “same time.”
Well, yes, if your definition of the “same time” is say, a month or 12 weeks. But in that case, you’re probably not gaining muscle at the “same time” literally speaking, as in, right now this very moment you are reading this, or 7 days a week, 24 hours a day for months in a row.
The best explanation for what’s really happening is that you alternate between periods of caloric surplus or, anabolism, and caloric deficit, or catabolism, and the net result is a gain in muscle and a loss in body fat.
You see, if you stay in a calorie surplus, it’s the body’s natural tendency for body fat and lean body mass to go up together. And if you stay in a calorie deficit, it’s your body’s natural tendency for body fat and lean body mass to go down together.
There may be exceptions, but the general rule is that it is very difficult to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time - the mechanisms are mostly antagonistic to one another. When it does happen, it’s almost always the result of “unusual conditions” - I call them X factors.
The 4 X-Factors1. The
first X-factor is
training experience, or age. Ever hear of “newbie gains?” The less trained your body is and the further you are from your genetic potential, the easier it is to gain muscle. The reverse is also true - an advanced bodybuilder with 20 years experience hopes to gain at most 5 pounds of lean muscle in a year!
2. The
second x factor is
muscle memory. It’s easier to regain muscle you’ve lost than it is to gain new muscle in the first place. Example... the fat out of shape semi retired bodybuilder who starts training again and blows up and gets ripped in what seems like overnight.
3. The
third X factor is
genetics, or somatotype. Ever heard of a “genetic freak?” That’s the dude who looks at a weight and pacts on muscle, and never gains an ounce of fat. This lucky guy can even be seen eating pizza and ice cream. He just had the right parents.
4. The
fourth X factor is
drugs. It would stun, or sadden you if you knew how many people take performance and physique-enhancing drugs. I’m not just talking about pro bodybuilders, I’m talking about “Joe six pack” in the gym - not to mention those fitness models you idolize in the magazines. How did they get large muscle gains with concurrent fat loss? Chemicals.
Without a doubt in 99% of the cases of large muscle gains with concurrent large fat losses, at least one if not more of these x factors were present.
That’s not all! There are actually 5 more X factors related to your body composition and diet status referred to as, the X2 factors. But more on those later.
So you’re not a beginner, you don’t take roids, you’re not a genetic freak and you have no muscle memory to take advantage of. Are you S.O.L? Well, I do want you to be realistic about your goals, but…
There IS a way for the average person to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time.
The Secret: You have to change your “
temporal perspective!”
For the most part nutritionists and fitness pros typically look at calorie balance within a 24 hour period. What that means is every night before you go to bed you add up all the cars you digest it and subtract all the calories you expend. If that number is a negative you lose weight, and the number is positive that represents a weight gain.
Now think of this, your body has different demands throughout the day. At certain points you to be highly anabolic state, an example of the after your workout. There will be other times within the day your calorie demands aren't as high.
How you take advantage of this to burn fat and gain muscle would be to eat a higher calorie higher carb meal immediately after you work out. While your body is an anabolic state you'd be feeding the muscles. You may only gain a small amount of muscle but the rest of the day you could be burning fat.
Per day this isn't a lot but give it time the gains and losses will add up over time of weeks and months.
Step back for a moment and take a look at the week as a whole. What if most days of the week you were in a constantly in a deficit. Then on other days you would allow yourself to be in surplus. Over the course of the week as long as your surplus wasn't too much to have a small gain of muscle and a decrease of body fat.
These within-day and within-week phases are called microcycles and mesocycles. If you also had a primary goal with a longer term focus of several months, say 12 weeks or 16 weeks, that would be a macrocycle.
What I’ve just described is nutritional periodization. Some people call it cyclical dieting. it’s where you manipulate your calories, primarily by fluctuating carbohydrate intake, or carb cycling in order to intentionally zig zag your way through periods of surplus and deficit and create specific hormonal responses.
The end result:
muscle gain and
fat loss during the same time period!
I know that someone out there is having a hissy fit because I’ve only talked about calories: deficits and surpluses. Rightfully so. Calories matter but there’s more to it than calories - most importantly, hormones and “nutrient partitioning.”
If you’re in a calorie deficit you are going to pull energy from your body.The question is: From WHERE? If your hormones are out of whack and you’re eating crap, you could lose more muscle than fat in a deficit and gain almost pure fat, not muscle, in a surplus!
But WHAT IF you could manipulate within day energy balance, use nutritional periodization AND control your hormones with food and lifestyle strategies?
AHA! NOW you can see how concurrent muscle gain and fat loss are starting to look possible!
Make no mistake - concurrent muscle gain and fat loss is a difficult goal to achieve. The good news: difficult does not mean impossible. Or as George Santayana said, “The difficult is that which can be done immediately, the impossible, that which takes a little longer.”
The Holy Grail Body Transformation Program:How to Gain Muscle and Lose Fat at The Same TimeClick bellow to Get THE HOLY GRAIL!
Click here -->
THE HOLY GRAIL You can learn more about gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time in Tom Venuto's new e-book called, "The Holy Grail Body Transformation System."
You’ll learn all about nutritional periodization, cyclical dieting, hormonal manipulation, within day energy balance, nutrient partitioning, AND the all the X factors, including the 5 “X2-Factors” - which are the keys to gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time.
Click bellow to Get THE HOLY GRAIL!
Click here -->
THE HOLY GRAIL
About the Author
Posts
