How To Burn Fat And Gain Muscle

Like most bodybuilders, you probably possess just one single goal: a ripped physique with great definition.

It probably long ago became apparent to you that you would need to both burn fat and gain muscle simultaneously to get that ripped look.

With the motivation of achieving this "ideal body", most people begin their workout programs with great zeal. They want to quickly bunrn fat and gain muslce while doing the least amount of work necessary. Most people would like to get larger muscles, but they want to accomplish this without adding body fat.

Let me explain this in simple terms…

There are no shortcuts to this goal. You will not gain substantial muscle to your frame quickly without gaining some body fat.

This is basic human physiology, and you must learn to accept this if you are dedicated to building muscle.

To stimulate protein synthesis and muscle growth, you must eat an excess of calories. However, your body cannot dedicate all of your extra calories to muscle gains. Attempting to burn fat and gain muscle simultaneously will not be successful because the body will always store a portion of extra calories as fat.

It is better to first try to build muscle and then burn fat opposed to attempting to burn fat and gain muscle at the same time.

Once you gain a substantial amount of muscle tissue, you will increase your body's basal metabolic rate. This means that once you get bigger it will become easier to lose body fat.

This is why the best method is to begin by bulking up and then working to lower to reduce fat. In other words, you will never succeed if you try to burn fat and gain muscle at the same time, so do not worry about burning fat until you have gained significant muscle.

If you keep in mind what we've discussed to this point, you understand that the bulking phase will be simple, just gain as much muscle as possible with keeping fat gains in check. You will not succeed in trying to burn body fat while you are gaining muscle, so you just focus on minimizing how much fat you gain.

These are the 3 steps you can take to realize your bodybuilding goal…

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1) Don’t go overboard on calories.

Work towards a program of “optimal nutrition” instead of looking for a quick-fix “super nutrition” program. Although you do need a caloric surplus to fuel increased muscle growth, if you just start shoving more food down your throat that has nothing to do with building up muscle tissue, you will simply gain more fat.

If you focus on getting only 15-20% more calories than what you would typically take in to keep yourself at your current weight, you will support muscle growth and not gain extra fat. It will not help muscle growth if go any higher than this range when designing your diet.

2) Keep a close watch on your specific food sources.

You should eat high quality, lean proteins, natural/full fiber carbs, and unsaturated/healthy fats.

Instead of eating every bit of junk food in sight, be sure to stick to lean protein sources, keep your blood sugar at a steady level through good carbohydrate choices, and stay away from large amounts of saturated fats.

The great thing about this diet is that you can limit the body fat you accumulate; that way it’ll take your focus off wanting to burn fat and gain muscle at the same time.

3) Perform cardio a couple times a week.

During a bulking cycle, you might want to add 2-3 cardio sessions to increase your body’s ability to restrict fat gains, but don’t make this a main focus of your workout. Long duration cardio can cause you to lose muscle, so stick to high intensity/low duration bouts of cardio that only last about 10-20 minutes.

After you’ve achieved your muscle mass goal then switch your workout to a program that focuses on stripping off body fat while maintaining muscle size.

Trying to burn fat and gain muscle at the same time never works, so just remember that although a gain in body fat is unavoidable when building muscle mass, it’s not impossible to minimize the fat gain.

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