How to Lose Fat and Gain Muscle

How to Lose Fat and Gain Muscle: Best Practices

UP THE ANTE

It’s time to turn the intensity up. Forget slacking off, checking your phone and sending a text between sets. If you want to strip fat and build muscle, you need to give it your all, and that requires focus. Instead of doing the usual sets and the rest, try alternating upper body and lower body exercises so that you maintain continuous movement.

GET STUFFED

How you eat has a massive impact on the results you’ll see in the gym. You could have the best fat burning weight training program in the world but have slower progress if you're not ensuring you eat a balanced meal of carbs, protein and good fats. Aim to eat small healthy meals every three hours to regulate your blood sugar levels, and build up your muscle mass.

CUT THE BOOZE

If you really want to see results and lose fat, then giving up alcohol is one way to speed up results. Alcohol is filled with empty calories, disturbs sleep, and increases your cortisol levels (the stress hormone) all of which are detrimental to fat loss and muscle gain.

MIX IT UP

Don’t rely on the same old workout time in time out. You’ll get complacent, and so will your muscles. Your body is designed to adapt, so shock it into action with some new moves every week if possible and try to challenge yourself.

COUNT SHEEP

Almost as important as the workout itself, is the time you allow your body to recuperate. After an intense fat burning weight training session, aim for eight hours sleep per night at the absolute minimum and you’ll see a difference in results. Sleep deprivation undermines your body’s ability to eat and train correctly which means that ultimately you’ll struggle to bring down your level of body fat. If you deny yourself sleep, you’ll sabotage all your hard work.