Tips To Burn Fat and Build Muscle
Tips to burn fat and build muscle. Read this article to find out.
8 Tips To Burn Fat and Build Muscle
Are you like so many Americans, looking for ways to burn fat and build muscle? Are you tired of clothes being a little too tight? It all starts in the kitchen. You are what you eat as they say. But you’ve got to hit those weights too! So here are ten tips to get leaner and more muscular.
- CICO (Calories in, Calories out)
The Holy Grail of the weight loss community. The idea is simple, you need to burn more calories than you eat. If you do this one simple thing you are ABSOLUTELY guaranteed to burn fat.
First you need to find out how many calories you burn in a day, I use this website! Now that you know how many calories you can eat, you need a way to count your calories. There are so many apps out there, but here are some suggestions.
- Drink (more) water to burn fat
Look I get it, a lot of things on this list are going to sound dumb. But studies have shown that drinking water can boost your metabolism for a couple hours. There’s science involved, it works!
Science aside, water also helps you fight cravings. When you’re starting to wafer between that healthy salad you prepared for lunch, and the cheeseburger your co-workers are getting, go drink a large glass of cold water. The water settles in your stomach, giving you a temporary sensation of “fullness.” Sometimes, that’s all it takes. When that’s not enough, try this next step.
- Plan your snacks
Some days there is no way around it, YOU’RE HUNGRY! Don’t force yourself to be miserable, go ahead and eat. Just make sure that you’re doing it in a way that helps you maintain your weight loss. If you’ve already measured a small bag of food out, you’ll eat that instead of the family-size bag of chips in the break room.
Plan for failure and you’ll succeed in the long-run. Which leads us to our next tip for fat burning…
- Keto
What if I were to tell you that there was a magical way to make your body burn the fat stores in your body first? Now what if I were to tell you that all you had to do was eat butter and bacon to do it? Please don’t do that, by the way. That is pretty much what the keto diet is though.
By eating a low-carb, high fat diet, your body enters a state of Ketosis. Ketosis is the metabolic process of your body turning the fat stores in your body into energy. When doing it right, the weight just melts away. Check out this site for some great ideas on how to get started!
- Eat more protein!
So you’re trying to get lean but also tone those muscles? Well you need to get more protein into your diet. Not only does it help you feel fuller, lowering how many calories you eat, it helps rebuild those muscles you’ll get in the next steps. Protein is so important to rebuilding muscles after working out that you need to eat 1.5 grams per kilogram (2.2 lbs) on some diets. For a 220 lb man, that’s 150 lbs of protein PER DAY!
Protein powder supplements can help you achieve this goal. As it can be quite difficult to eat this much protein without going over your CICO goal. Lots of animal based proteins, eggs, and fish are required if you’re looking to seriously build up those muscles.
- HIIT Workouts!
HIIT, or High Intensity Interval Training, are some of the best exercises you can do. HIIT are workouts where you go as fast as possible for a short amount of time, then rest for a number of cycles.
For example, burpees are a great exercise for burning fat and building muscle, but they are incredibly hard to do for a sustained time. So they are perfect for HIIT exercises.
You’d set a timer, this app works great, for 15 seconds, and 45 seconds. So you would do 15 seconds of burpess, then rest for 45 seconds, repeat 5 times. When you pair them with other exercises, you can knock out an entire workout in 15 minutes!
Or you can hire a professional NJ personal trainer to help you get fit.
- More sets with lower reps
So many people only do lifts in 3×10 when they first start out. However, this is similar to running a mile when you’re trying to get faster at the 100 meter dash. You’re looking to build muscle, so you need to be lifting heavy weights.
On your big lifts (bench press, squat, deadlift) try doing 5 sets of 5 reps with heavier weight. Not only will you get stronger faster, you’ll feel better watching that weight go up faster!
- Stop sitting down
You’re working out, focusing on getting bigger, leaner, and healthier, then why do sit down so much? Instead of going from seat to seat working out, try replacing seated workouts with standing ones. Your body will use more muscles stabilizing and balancing yourself.
This will help dramatically, not only with building muscle, but also your core will thank you. By using more than just the target muscles, you’ll increase strength and mobility throughout your back, core, and legs. Which will cause you to burn more calories as an added plus.
Read Truth vs. Myth strength training to learn more.
Make the Decision
At the end of the day, there is only one person who can make these changes. You’ve got to look that person in the mirror and be serious about making a change. If you’re not ready that’s fine. But if you’ve read this far, you know that you need to make a change.
These tips are only the first steps you should be taking.
These tips will also help you if you are training for weight loss.
Conclusion
You’ve already decided you need or want to burn fat and build muscle. Now you just have to actually go out and do it. That’s the hard part, there is so much information out there, sometimes it can feel impossible to know what is best. That’s what we’re here for though.
Jagged Fitness is about getting you into the shape you want to be in. That can be a long process, and it’s never easy. So start counting those calories, drinking water, burning that fat, and building your muscles on the way to a better, healthier life. Jagged Fitness also offers in-home personal training if you don’t want to go to the gym. And for those who want to train with their friends or family you can try Jagged fitness small group training.
We hope we have helped you with these tips to burn fat and build muscle and wish you the best!