How to Lose Weight and Gain Muscle

How to lose weight and gain muscle is a question asked by many individuals these days. Here is the answer to this question

Tips on How to Lose Weight and Gain Muscle

Let's first understand the correlation between body weight and metabolic rate before we answer the question how to gain muscle and lose weight? . It is usually seen that people with low metabolism or metabolic rate tend to put on more weight. Metabolism actually is the process of converting food into energy. The body requires energy for its basic functioning like breathing, generating new cells and for circulation of blood. But with slow metabolism, the process of convertion takes longer and the consumed food gets stored as fat in the body.

Now let's understand why muscles are important in the weight loss process. The muscles increase the metabolic rate and they also add to the strength and fitness of the body.

Many times it has been noticed that people undertake cardiovascular workouts like walking, swimming, aerobics, etc. These cardiovascular activities certainly help in losing weight but you do not gain muscle mass at all. Hence it is important to have muscle building workout as a part of your exercise schedule. It is necessary that you workout at least thrice a week. You can alternate between cardiovascular workouts and strength training workouts.

With all the exercise schedules you plan, you should not forget that what you eat shows off on your body. Therefore it is important to monitor what you eat. Do not get into the habit of telling yourself, you are on a diet. You should make right and healthy eating a way of life. I am not saying you should not eat junk, you can eat junk in small quantities. Do not forget to consume a lot of fiber with junk foods. It is a conscious decision which you will have to take. You should consume vegetables, fruits and whole-grains in large quantities and limit the intake of fatty foods and sugar. The ideal calorie count for people who want to lose weight is 2000 calories a day for men and 1200 - 1500 calories a day for women. The breakup of the various food constituents should be 60% carbohydrates, 20% proteins and 20% fats.

It is important the way you actually execute the combination of weight training and cardiovascular exercises. A way of doing it is to perform high intensity weight training workout in combination with low intensity cardiovascular workout. It is important to monitor the tensity of the weight training workout, so that you are in a better position to increase the intensity gradually.

Apart from these three factors namely weight training, cardiovascular workout and right eating, it is important you do not forget that your body is not a machine and it needs adequate amount of rest as well. Rest allows the body to use the nutrients that it has gathered from your dietary intake and workouts, and also maintain and repair your muscles. To build the right kind of muscles, it is important that the body is not fatigued and famished.

Hence the answer to the question how to lose weight and gain muscle, is a balance between strength training, cardiovascular workouts, nutritious and right eating, and not to forget sufficient amount of rest.