BODY RECOMPOSITION

 HOW DO YOU BUILD MUSCLES AND BURN FAT AT THE SAME TIME?

Physical activity and proper nutrition are among the most important and necessary factors for building muscles.

It is not possible to build muscles through exercises only, because the increase in muscle mass will stop without proper nutrition, and as we know, the body relies on fat to provide muscles with energy during some types of physical activity, and it is recommended to focus on healthy fats to maintain overall health and muscles strength.

But burning fats and building muscles are contradictory physiological processes, due to the body's resistance to doing both at the same time.

in other meaning; losing fats require that the amount of calories lost is greater than the amount gained, and building muscles only work if the amount of calories in is greater than the amount lost.

So can you build muscles and burn fats at the same time?

Building muscles while burning fats is not an easy goal to achieve, but reality has proven that it is achievable, but this depends entirely on your weight and physical fitness.

1- If you are a professional and at an advanced level and your goal is to gain a large amount of muscle while losing a large amount of fat at the same time, this contradicts the physiological nature of the body, but you will go through two stages: bulking phase and the cutting phase.

Each phase needs its own diet, as the bulking phase lasts for several months, and may reach several years, and you need a diet high in calories and rich in protein to build muscles.

The cutting phase, it aims to preserve the muscle mass that was built in the previous phase while reducing the largest possible amount of fats.

2- If you are a beginner or at an intermediate level and want to balance the percentage of fats with muscles in your body, the matter is somewhat easier.

How to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time?

If you are trying to gain muscles while losing fats, you are rebuilding your body, in this situation, you are not aiming to lose the general weight of the body, but rather you want to increase the percentage of muscles and reduce the percentage of fats.

To know how?; you should understand two things:

1-What does body recompose mean?

In body composition, we will focus on the percentage of fats and muscles, because that is what matters to us.

In light of this, the best analysis of the body is to measure the percentage of fats and muscles in the body, rather than dealing on the basis of the general weight of the body.

That's because your body fats to muscles ratio better reflects the state of your body's health.

So Reconstruction of the body depends on burning fats and building muscles to improve balance in proportions (for the benefit of muscles, of course) rather than general weight loss.

In order to succeed in the process of gaining muscles and losing fats, your first and last focus should be on losing fats only and not losing weight.

There are many people whose only focus is always on the scale at the end of the week without taking into account other factors such as  fats to muscles percentage.

It is possible for the bodyweight to be stable, but there is a change in terms of the percentage of fats in general due to the gain of muscle mass, so you should make your first goal to lose fats and not just lose weight.

So keep in mind that building muscles and burning fats at the same time will not be accompanied by rapid weight loss because you compensate for this fats loss with muscles gain.

Example: Instead of losing 10 kilos, you will find that you only lose 5 kilos, but you have gained muscle and this is what you want.

2-Rebuilding the body is a lifestyle, not a diet:

It means we are not talking about a diet to lose weight.

This requires us to follow a special diet and special exercises that facilitate the process of reshaping the components of your body( Fats to muscles percentages).

How to burn excess fat:

When it comes to burning fat there is an easy way to consume and it is fewer calories than you lose or burn, then the body enters a calorie deficit phase, accordingly, it begins to break down fats and muscles due to energy requirements.

Here comes your diet and training method to make your body draw energy from burning fat only.

A-The right diet  to burn fats while building muscles:

Rely on foods that are low in calories that will help you fill your stomach without putting in more calories than necessary, such as meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruits, and nuts.

Example:

-100 grams of cooked or boiled broccoli contains 35 calories, equivalent to 2% of the body's daily requirement.

- 100 grams of French bread are 289 calories.

1- Eat a protein-rich diet:

A study (1) of 88 overweight adults found that a diet containing 0.64 grams of protein per pound (1.4 g/kg) of body weight was more effective at maintaining muscle mass and reducing body fat than dieting Dietary provides 0.36 grams per pound (0.8 g)/kg) of protein.

Protein is the most important element for building muscle mass, along with the rest of the important elements as well, such as carbohydrates and healthy fats. During periods of fat loss, you should always try to maintain a relatively high percentage of protein, which will help you greatly to gain muscle mass and prevent muscle demolition that you may be exposed to during Fat loss.

Quoting a study (2) conducted by the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, it was found that a diet rich in protein positively affects the number of calories you burn throughout the day.

The reason is due to an increase in the amount of calories burned through the process of digestion itself, absorption, and distribution of nutrients referred to as the thermic effect of food.

2- Reducing the amount of carbohydrates consumed:

Carbohydrates are one of the biggest causes of weight gain.

By reducing carbohydrate consumption as much as possible, the body will be urged to destroy excess fat stores in the body.

consume it two hours before exercise and immediately after, for example.

1.5 grams per pound of bodyweight or only 1 gram if you are obese on days when you do a lot of physical activity, whether by exercise or daily tasks.

On moderate days, reduce this amount to “1 or .75” grams per pound.

3- Eat healthy fats:

Of course, not all fats have the same effect. Harmful fats can increase the risk of weight gain and chronic disease.

Healthy fats play an essential role in maintaining optimal cell structure and hormone levels, and each type is important to support muscle building, it also helps you feel full.

Here are some foods that contain healthy fats:

Fish rich in fat, eggs, avocado, olive oil, olive, Nuts (particularly walnuts), Flax, Chia and Hemp seeds, Dark chocolate, Coconut Oil, and MCT Oil, Parmesan cheese.

Try to consume approximately 0.5 grams of healthy fats per pound of body weight each day.

Be sure to include a variety of sources to reap the many benefits that different types of fats (omega-3s and 6s, and monounsaturated fats) provide.

B-The right exercises to build muscles and burn fats:

To stimulate the building of muscle mass while increasing fat burning, you must apply a combination of strength exercises and cardio exercises, taking into account the following strategies; to get the best results:

1- repetitions and heavyweights:

If you want to increase muscle growth, you must resort to heavyweights and increase the intensity of exercise.

“This means that you lift weights equivalent to 80% of the maximum weight you can carry with a frequency of 5 to 6 repetitions.”

This strategy is proven, the researchers point to two main reasons for the superiority of heavier weights over light ones in building muscle as follows:

* Higher of pressure is placed on the muscles, resulting in greater amounts of metabolic stress.

* Urging a greater number of muscle fibers to work to resist the weight, causing greater damage to the fibers, and thus a better result appears after recovering these fibers again.

2- Exercise repetition:

Leave at least 48 to 72 hours between strength training sessions for each muscle group you train, in order for the muscles to recover and build new tissues.

3- Rest between exercises:

 The best amount of rest time between rounds depends on what you're training for.

One of the main factors in how muscle grows and amplifies is the amount of anabolic hormones your body produces after exercise.

Short rest periods of one to two minutes cause an increase in the secretion of more of these hormones than long periods of rest. 

Short rest periods also increase lactate production and blood flow to target muscles. It turns out that increasing blood flow to the muscles helps the protein get there faster, which means more muscles.

4-The best cardio exercises to build muscles and burn fats at the same time:

You can burn fat without resorting to cardio exercises, but if you want to get rid of fat more quickly, you can benefit from cardio exercises provided you employ them in a way that suits your goals.

So HIIT is the best cardio exercise regimen.

What is HITT and why is it considered the best cardio exercise program?

By definition, high-intensity interval training is a type of interval training in which aerobic exercise or activities are performed for short periods of time followed by shorter recovery periods.

The HIITCardio style outperforms others by:

*Increasing the metabolic rate up to 24 hours after exercise, in other words, the burning of oxygen in the muscle remains for longer periods, which results in burning excess fat.

* Improve muscle insulin sensitivity.

* Higher levels of muscle fat oxidation.

* Increase in levels of growth hormone (which aids in fat loss) and levels of catecholamine.

* Appetite suppression after exercise.

5-Sleep well helps to build muscles and burns fats at the same time:

To lose excess weight efficiently, your body needs adequate rest. And if you don't get enough sleep, your hormones may not work properly and your cortisol levels will rise, this increases the chance of carbohydrates being stored as fat, in addition, your fatigue will make you unable to exercise, especially hard exercises, and therefore you will not build enough muscles and over time you will lose more muscles than what you gain, try to sleep 7 to 9 hours a day.

Sources: (1) - (2) - (3) - (4) - (5) - (6) - (7) - (8).