Are You Losing Fat Or Muscle?

I often have to catch myself when speaking with clients or
newsletter subscribers when I use the terms “weight loss” or
“losing weight”.

I mistakingly use these terms on my site and in my newsletters
even though I probably shouldn’t.

Why?

I can bet that you, no matter how much you think you do, do not
want to lose weight. You want to lose fat. Maybe a little, maybe
a lot. But it is the body fat you want to lose, not just weight.

I have never had anyone approach me and ask me how they could go
about losing some lean muscle while maintaining their fat
levels. This would cause weight loss.

So, all of us that think we may want to lose weight, it is
really the fat we are trying to lose while preserving lean
muscle tissue.

The cool thing is, when we lose fat and preserve lean muscle,
that lean muscle actually helps us burn more calories to keep
off the body fat.

So how do we go about ensuring that we are losing fat and not
muscle while we exercise and focus on our nutrition?

Although there is no absolute cut-and-dry method to ensure fat
loss and muscle preservation during intense exercise or calorie
restriction, there are some steps you can take to maximize the
likelihood it is fat you are losing and not lean muscle.

First, separate and attack the two independently. Focus on
losing fat. Focus on increasing your lean muscle mass.

Treat them as two distinct entities.

When attempting to lose fat, there are primarily two ways to do
it. One, increase aerobic activity. Two, decrease caloric
intake. The best approach is to do a little of both.

Start to slowly decrease your caloric intake while increasing
the amount of cardio/aerobics you do.

Do not go to an extreme on either. Do not restrict calories too
much or you will actually cause your body to store more body
fat. Also, do not do too much cardio for risk of overtraining
and increasing the likelihood of injury or sickness.

Approach losing bodyfat by focusing on those two areas, a
reduction of calories and an increase of aerobic activity.

That addresses the issue of losing fat, so how do you ensure
gaining or at least preserving your lean muscle mass? Again, by
focusing individually on what creates muscle gain.

During your weight training routine, try to keep progressively
increasing the amount of weight you lift over time. This alone
will cause your body to keep adapting to the increase in demand
by adding lean muscle tissue.

One quick way to increase the weight you lift is by decreasing
your repetitions.

Also, make sure you are getting adequate nutrition during the
day to support muscle growth. Since protein (amino acids) is the
building block of muscle, be sure to get enough of it in your
diet. Aim for about half of your daily calories from protein.

Be sure you are getting adequate rest and recuperation from your
weight training workouts. It is very hard to grow lean muscle if
your body is not recuperated properly from workouts.

These are some steps you can take to make sure you are losing
fat and not muscle while attempting a weight loss/weight control
program.

It is fat loss we are after, not just weight loss. If we lost
muscle, we would still be losing weight, but not the weight we
would like to lose.

Approach each individually. While attempting to lose fat, focus
on the steps above that have to do with fat loss. In the mean
time, take the steps listed above and try to maximize muscle
gain while in the gym.

1. Prev:How You Live Determines How Fit You Are
2. Next:The #1 Factor In Your Fitness Success