Lose Fat Gain Muscle
By ALGetsBig
| "How can I gain muscle and lose fat at the same time?" |
This is a common question asked by people interested in mass gain. Is it possible to both lose fat and gain muscle at the same time? No, it is NOT possible. I will tell you why…
Bulking vs Cutting
To lose fat, you have to do cardio, eat a low calorie diet, and you have to lift weights. To gain muscle, you want to do little or no cardio, eat a high calorie-high protein-high carb-higher fat diet, and again, lift weights. Notice that these two things are complete opposites. Trying to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time would be like trying to sit and stand at the same time. It just can’t be done. This is why most people who try to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time see no results and eventually give up.
So, to gain muscle and lose fat, you need to do each at different times, in phases. These phases are called the bulking phase and the cutting phase.
The muscle gaining, weight gaining, size and strength gaining phase is called the bulking phase. During the bulking phase, your diet should consist of a calorie intake higher than your basal metabolic rate, which is the calorie level you need to maintain your current weight.
To roughly determine your daily calorie goal for bulking, multiply 24 times your bodyweight in pounds.
Bulking Calorie Intake for 150-Pounder:
24 X 150 = 3,600 calories/day
You need to take in those calories in the form of carbohydrates, protein, and healthy fats, and in the proper ratio!
I recommend that your bulking calorie ratios be as follows:
30% Protein, 40% Carbs, and 30% Fat
Weightlifting is a MUST when you seek to gain muscle! There is no debate on this fact – you must lift weights to build muscle. Weight train 3 days a week, no more, no less. Train with free weights, not machines (Read why). Use heavy weights & low rep-sets. This means aim for no more than 8 reps in a set – if you can do more than 8 reps, the weight is too light. Do 4 sets per exercise and increase the weight by about 5-10 pounds with each set. First, warm up with 2 LIGHT (not to failure at all) 10-rep sets. Your regular sets will be to virtual failure. After the warm-up sets, perform your first set of 8 reps, then rest for 3 minutes. The 2nd set should be no more than 6 reps, then rest again. Always rest for 3-5 minutes after each set. The 3rd set should be 3-4 reps, and the 4th and final set of that exercise should be 1-2 reps.
Stick to basic compound exercises. These are squats, deadlifts, bench press, bent-over rows, chin ups, lat pulldowns, and barbell curls. Isolation exercises (flyes, concentration curls, leg curls, leg extensions, leg raises) are not important when it comes to bulking so stay away from them.
Read the muscle building weight training routine.
When bulking, DO NOT do any form of cardiovascular/aerobic exercise! This will counteract your weight gaining efforts. To reach your goals quickly, you just concentrate on just gaining muscle. You will concentrate on fat loss later. During the bulking phase, your goal is to gain all of the strength, muscle and size that you possibly can before its time to switch to the cutting phase.
Weight Gainers will help you get those extra calories that you need to Get Big Fast!
| Person A | Person B |
|
Bulking: Big, but not yet ripped… |
Bulking + Cutting: Big AND Ripped! |
| To be perfectly clear, you MUST become Person A before you can become Person B! Millions of gymgoers are trying to skip right to the final version of huge muscles and low bodyfat. That's impossible through natural means! BULK first, then CUT. |
|
Get big and ripped, not just big. Your mass gain diet will have you packing on some serious pounds. At a certain point in your mass gain phase, you will need to address the excess fat that comes along with all muscle gain. Bigger is good, but bigger & ripped is key. Choose for yourself when to start thinking about switching to the fat loss phase. I recommend to switch to cutting after you reach 10 pounds heavier than your final desired weight – then you can cut down to that weight by losing fat.
Track your weight gain progress by taking your bodyfat and body measurements at least once a week in your bulking phase. When your bodyfat reaches a certain high point, maybe 25% bodyfat for males, that may be the time to begin the cutting phase. The longer that you wait to diet, the harder it will be to lose the fat. But don't worry; with your high hardgainer metabolism you'll be able to lose the fat in a few weeks if you follow what is next in the cutting phase.
The phase in which your goal is to lose fat is called the cutting phase. Once you reach your desired weight, you will probably want to lose some of the excess body fat you gained, which is completely normal. Your bulking program is designed to minimize fat gain, but anyone on a high calorie diet will gain some body fat along with the muscle; there's no avoiding that. You will aim to lose your bodyfat during the cutting phase in order to look ripped and to be able to see your abs. To see their abs, men usually have to get their body fat below 8%, while women have to be under 12%.
To roughly determine your daily calorie goal for bulking, multiply 24 times your bodyweight in pounds.
Cutting Calorie Intake for 150-Pounder:
14 X 150 = 2,100 calories/day
(10-14) multiplied by your Bodyweight in Pounds: Adjust this number based on how fast you are losing weight. You want to lose only 1% of your bodyweight per week, no more! Any more means you are likely losing muscle mass! Your goal is to lose fat and to keep as much muscle as possible.
In the cutting phase, you will need to restrict your food intake significantly. Continue to follow the nutrition rules such as eating every 3 hours, drinking a gallon of water per day, and eating protein with every meal.
NEVER eat CARBS alone in the cutting phase. Always be sure to eat them with protein.
I recommend that your cutting calorie ratios be as follows:
30% Protein, 40% Carbs, and 30% Fat
The Highly Popular "Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle" Training Program
Diet in the cutting phase. Your diet in the cutting phase will be far more strict than in the bulking phase. During this period, you need to be on a very low calorie, low fat diet. Eat 10-14 times your body weight in calories. The fat loss diet contains 45% protein, 40% carbs and 15% fat. The fat intake is lowered because of the high fat intake during the mass diet. It is simply another way to cycle and re-adjust your metabolism. The protein and carb calories have been increased to make up for the lost fat calories.
Another major difference in the cutting phase diet is when to eat the post cardio meal. In my previous workout, I could eat it as soon as I finished my cardio, but for my new program I cannot. I now wait for a full 60 minutes before I have my first meal. This is because your body is still burning fat at an advanced rate for up to one hour after you finish exercising. On the fat loss diet there is no tolerance for eating out. To keep your body fat in check, I recommend cooking all of your meals.
Your diet on this phase is very restrictive. You must get control of what you put in your body. First, you must decrease your intake of simple carbohydrate (candies, syrups, sugar, alcohol, milk and milk products, and processed white flour products). Concentrate on eating complex starchy carbs like brown rice, whole grains, beans, potatoes, and yams. You can, however, still eat simple solid carbs like rice cakes, cream of wheat, popcorn, etc. if you make sure to combine them with protein. This should sufficiently delay digestion to avoid an insulin response.
You are not allowed any fruit or fruit juices for this fat loss period. This is essential in minimizing fat storage. Remember, from an insulin response standpoint, there is no difference between drinking orange juice or a soft drink. Both are simple sugars that produce a high insulin response and suppression of glucagon. If you are on the fat loss diet for more than two weeks, you can start eating fruit again once your metabolism has been sufficiently increased. I don’t recommend it, but if you must have some fruit, green apples are the best choice. If you eat them with the peel, they contain more fiber and fewer simple carbs than most other fruits.
You will also be avoiding milk and milk products on this diet. Not only does milk have a very large amount of fat and sugar, but it also has high levels of sodium, which leads to water retention and a smooth bloated appearance.
Weight training in the cutting phase. You will not lose fat without dieting, or lowering your calorie intake, so this is what you will do in the cutting phase. Since you will be on a lower calorie fat loss diet, your focus will be to just maintain your current strength level while you lower your body fat percentage and lose all of the fat that you gained during the bulking phase. When you get your bodyfat percentage to 8%, you will see your abs again. Read the fat loss weight training routine.
You should not be over-stressing your muscles in any way during the cutting phase. This means that you will be performing with lighter weights. Your sets should all be 12-15 reps. If you can't perform that many reps, decrease the weight! Do not perform any negative reps. You will also reduce your number of core exercises, and focus on more machine and isolation work. This is because when your body is on a lower calorie diet, it is less able to handle the high stress that heavy weight training can cause. Continue to train with weights no more than 3 times per week, but change your exercises and tempo. Your tempo will be 1/0/1, resting only 90 seconds between sets. In other words, you do the positive and negative motion each for a count of one second. You will still work each body part only once per week, but you should only do a maximum of two exercises per body part. Weight training develops more lean body mass (muscle). The more muscle you have, the faster your metabolism.
It is during the cutting phase that your calorie intake will decrease drastically. You will still want to keep the same ratio of protein, carbs, and fat, but your daily calorie intake will be much lower. A good rule is to multiply your bodyweight in pounds by 14 to get your cutting phase calorie intake. Your fat intake during the cutting phase should only come from fish, fish oil supplements, nuts and olive oil.
Expect to lose 1% of your bodyweight per week on a cutting cycle; more loss than that is likely muscle loss. This means if you are 170 lbs, you should lose 1.7 pounds per week, which should be almost all fat loss. Much more weight loss than that means that you are losing muscle, which is NOT good. If this is the case, increase your calories by 200-300, ensure that your cutting phase diet ratios are correct (above) and continue your cutting phase activities of 30-minute cardio sessions 3-4 days a week at 140 heartbeats per minute. Keep track of your heart rate with the Bowflex Basic Heart Rate Monitor Watch.
|
|
The stationary bike is excellent because it reads your heartrate, which you need to keep at 140 beats per minute for fat loss. Do cardio 3-4 times a week for 30-45 minutes, in the morning on an empty stomach so you are burning fat and not the food in your stomach and the glycogen in your muscles. |
Do cardio in the cutting phase. To speed up your fat loss, you are required to perform some form of cardiovascular exercise, in the morning (no exception), on an empty stomach, for 30-45 minutes while keeping your heart rate at about 140 beats per minute. I recommend performing your cardio on the stationary bike because it is relatively easy and more importantly because you can monitor your heart rate which is crucial. You want your heart rate to be about 140 beats per minute during your cardio trainng, as this is the optimal range for fat loss. A BPM lower than 140 bpm is not effective for fat loss and a bpm higher than 140 is nearing the range for endurance and this NOT what you want to do because your body will be eating your hard-gained muscle!
The target heart rate for fat loss is 140 bpm, while the desired bpm for cardiovascular endurance is 180 or higher. To calculate your current heartrate, simply place two fingers on your carotid artery (on the side of your neck), then count the number of beats for six seconds. Now simply add a zero onto that number, and you have your total number of heartbeats per minute.
|
|
Heart Monitor Watch. A heart rate monitor watch is essential for the cutting phase. You need to keep you heart rate at 140 beats per minute, and you need a way to keep track of that. I use the Bowflex Basic Heart Rate Monitor Watch because it's inexpensive, strapless, has a large display that also shows the time, and there's no chest strap required like in other heart rate monitors. |
IMPORTANT! Do your cardio in the morning on an empty stomach! To increase your body’s fat burning ability, do your cardio exercise in the morning before eating, after an overnight fast of at least 8 hours. Doing your cardio first thing in the morning is ideal because you will not have eaten for that eight hour period that you are asleep. Your muscles will have used up just about all of their glycogen (sugar used for energy) stores. Once this happens, your body turns to using stored body fat for fuel. You are more than welcome to exercise anytime you like, just do not eat 8-10 hours before. This is very important because I want you to be burning fat calories when you exercise, and not the food in your stomach or the glycogen in your muscles. If you eat before doing your cardio, you will be burning the calories from that meal and not body fat. This is one of the main reasons why many people do tons of cardio, but never lose any fat. You should not ingest any calories at all, including toothpaste which contains the carbohydrate saccharin. On cardio mornings, I brush my teeth with an all natural non-sugary toothpaste. Baking soda is also good.
Millions of people perform cardio in the evenings and at other times when they have eaten recently. This is wrong. these people are not effectively burning fat, but are only burning calories. These people will do the same thing for months and months with little or no result. They will wonder why they cannot seem to lose fat, and it is because they are not following the rules of fat loss cardio. They are also likely not following the nutrition rules or the diet for fat loss.
The Highly Popular "Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle" Training Program
Cardio is about increasing your metabolism, not burning calories. Don't get caught up in how many calories you burn each session, because that is irrelevant. The point of doing cardio is not to see how many calories you can burn. You are already on a low calorie diet, so you do not need to burn off more calories with cardio! If you want fewer calories, just eat less. The purpose of doing cardio is to increase your metabolism, which, in turn, causes you to burn more body fat. Studies have shown that your metabolism will remain elevated for up to 3 hours, after just 45 minutes of cardiovascular exercise, and for more than seven hours after 60 minutes of cardio!
It's best to do your cardio on non-weight training days. It's best to do your aerobic exercise on non-weight training days, so you will be as strong as possible when training, but it is not absolutely necessary. If you can't do it on separate days, just space them as far apart as possible. For example, do cardio in the early morning and weight train in the afternoon or evening. I don't recommend doing cardio and weight training during the same session because this is highly stressful and with our fast metabolisms, it's murder on our muscle mass!
Drink Water!
 |
Drink 1 Gallon of Water Per Day! The best thing to drink is water, and a lot of it. Your body needs it desperately to perform well amidst the incredible strain you are placing on it with your workouts. Water is crucial even for those who don't workout because your bodily functions (blood circulation, breathing, perspiration, digestion, etc) demand it greatly. |
 |
Drink at least .66 oz of water per pound of bodyweight every day. A gallon of water a day is a good mark for most people, bigger people will need more. Water will excel your body in all performances. Hydration is king! Read the importance of water. Split your water intake up over the course of the day. Buy a Brita water pitcher – you definitely don't want to be drinking tainted tap water or expensive bottle water. |
Bringing It All Together
|
Bulking: Big, but not yet ripped… |
Bulking + Cutting: Big AND Ripped! |
|
Your goal in the bulking phase is to pack on as much muscle as possible on your way to your goal weight. Aim for 1-2 pounds of weight gain per week, no more because it will likely be too much fat. Your goal in the cutting phase is to targetedly burn fat in order to lower your bodyfat percentage to become ripped and defined like the guy in this picture. Aim for 1% bodyweight loss per week (mostly fat – no more than 1% weight loss!). Your bulking goal weight depends on how big you want to be when you are ripped. |
|
Check out these charts for some ideal weight guidelines:
| Height | Minimum Weight to Lose Skinny Look |
Minimum Weight Standards to Not Be "Skinny" You should weigh at least 5 pounds for each inch of height you have above 5'7". (This means 1kg for each cm above 1m.) Anything less and you will look skinny. Here are some goal weights depending on your height. I suppose a "normal" male bodyfat percentage is 12-15% so that is what these minimum weights pertain to. |
| 5″7″ (1m70cm) | 154lbs (70kg) | |
| 5″9″ (1m75cm) | 165lbs (75kg) | |
| 5″11″ (1m80cm) | 176lbs (80 kg) | |
| 6″1″ (1m85cm) | 187lbs (85 kg) | |
| 6″3″ (1m90cm) | 200lbs (90 kg) |
| Height | Natural Bodybuilder Weight |
Natural Bodybuilder Weights Use these weights as a reference to a bodybuilder physique. Keep in mind that these weights are at a low bodyfat percentage, 5%-8% bodyfat. This means that you would walk around normally at 8-12% and you would be a slightly higher weight than these displayed. My Goal (AlGetsBig). So, at 5'7" my goal is to weigh 173 lbs at just under 8% bodyfat and to be 168 lbs ripped at 5% bodyfat when I am getting ready for a photo shoot for my website or getting ready for a beach vacation. My ripped 168 will be a smaller version of the black guy above, who is likely 220 lbs+ ripped Remember:
|
| 5″7″ (1m70cm) | 170lbs (77kg) | |
| 5″9″ (1m75cm) | 180lbs (81.6kg) | |
| 5″11″ (1m80cm) | 190lbs (86 kg) | |
| 6″1″ (1m85cm) | 210lbs (95 kg) | |
| 6″3″ (1m90cm) | 230lbs (104 kg) |
How do you know when to start the cutting phase? It's up to you. Reach a weight higher than your final goal ripped weight. Use the chart below as an example.
Final bodyfat percentage. The goal of your bulking phase was to pack on as much muscle as possible. You could not help gaining bodyfat as well, but you did your best to gain as little bodyfat as possible by keeping your protein, carb, and fat ratios in check: 40% Protein, 30% Carbs, and 30% Fat. Your final bodyfat percentage will likely be 15-18%, depending on when you stop bulking. Some people never wish to have a bodyfat percentage over 12% so they start bulking at 8% bodyfat, and start cutting when they reach 12%. This means always starting and stopping the different phases. I choose to simply bulk all the way to my heavy weight, and then cut all the way down.
Long-Term Fat Loss. If you wish to continue on a fat loss diet for more than three weeks, after 3 weeks you should switch your weight training workout to that of the bulking/muscle-building workout. This means heavy weight, low reps (no more than 8). But instead of concentrating on the eccentric motion, you will use a fast tempo of 1/0/1 (1 second of lifting work, 0 seconds pause, 1 second back to starting position). This because if you are on the low intensity fat loss weight training workout for too long, you will begin to lose strength. Switching back to a more challenging program will help maintain as much muscle mass and strength as possible. Do this hybrid weight training workout for 3 weeks, and then go back to the normal fat loss workout of high reps, light weight, and 1/0/1 fast tempo. So, on a 15 week cutting plan, you would go normal for 3 weeks, go hybrid for 3 weeks, normal for 3 weeks, hybrid for 3 weeks, and finally normal for the last 3 weeks.
Adjust your calorie intake during the cutting phase to alter your metabolism. You will still have to fulfill the aerobic exercise requirements, of course. You should also begin to cycle your nutrient profile and caloric intake after about 4-6 weeks of low calorie dieting to re-adjust your metabolism. Your body will always try to conserve energy, so if you are on a low calorie diet for a prolonged period of time, it will slow your metabolism to conserve energy/calories — making your diet ineffective. By alternating between a low calorie and slightly higher calorie diet, you can avoid this problem and continue to lose fat. Adjusting could mean simply adding or removing an extra 200-300 calories.
Let's say for example you are 155lbs now before you bulk. During the bulking phase you may go all the way up to 195lbs. Then, during the cutting phase you may go down to 173lbs at 8% bodyfat. Now you are back to being lean again, except with 18 new pounds of muscle. Now that you weigh 173 pounds, repeat the phases and you may be 185lbs at the end of the next cycle. Repeat the phases over and over again. Eat like a horse, sleep like a baby, grow like a weed!
 |
 |
Learn how Vince DelMonte went from scrawny to brawny in Vince went from a lightweight, puny 149 pounds to a solid 190-pound fitness model! |
Filed under General by alboa45
