When should you stop losing weight and start working on a set of muscles?

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Lifehacker's fitness expert answers.

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Good day! Interested in the issue of health. Obese people who decide to change their lives for the better first lose weight (dry out) and then gain muscle mass. This is clear and logical. And the question is: how to understand when to stop losing weight and start working on a set of muscles? Thanks.

Fedor

You can lose fat and gain muscle mass at the same time. Strength training can help you lose excess fat because it:

1. Spend a lot of calories. Especially if you are doing multi-joint movements that involve several large muscle groups.
2. Increases metabolism.

Plus, strength training improves insulin sensitivity and testosterone, which can help you gain muscle and shed excess fat.

To both lose fat and build muscle, do 2-3 strength and 2-3 cardio workouts per week.

How to do cardio

Choose exercises without heavy shock loads: long walking, swimming, elliptical and stationary bike classes, rowing machine or air bike.

Start with 20 minutes, gradually work up to 45-60 minutes. Monitor your condition: maintain a pace in which you can hold out for a long time without nausea and severe shortness of breath.

How to do strength training

If you exercise at home, you can do push-ups (classic or from support, reverse), inclined pull-ups on loops, rings or a low horizontal bar, air squats, lunges. Do 3-5 sets of as many times as you can with good form. Read about the correct technique in.

In the gym, you can perform basic strength exercises: squats with a barbell on your back, deadlift, deadlift on the block, barbell deadlift, bench press, standing chest press, dumbbell spread to strengthen the shoulders.

Do 3 sets of 6-12 reps. Pick up the weight so that you finish the set with a good shape, but at the same time feel fatigue in the muscles. To increase your calorie expenditure, do not divide your body into zones for now. For at least the first 2-3 months, do one exercise for all large muscle groups in each workout.

How to eat right

Do not cut calories by more than 25%. At the same time, watch your protein level: eat at least 1, 8-2 g per 1 kg of body weight, if you do not have kidney problems. Eliminate sugar, sweets, and alcohol. Eat more vegetables, lean meats, and fish.

This diet, combined with strength and cardio training, will allow you to lose fat and build muscle at the same time. And at the same time, exclude the "diet swing" - when you sharply limit the amount of food, and then break loose and re-type everything that you threw off.

It is also very important for weight loss to get enough sleep and reduce stress levels: high levels of cortisol will help you lose fat and build muscle. Watch this.

If we are talking about a set of large amounts of muscle mass, you will have to increase the calorie intake. It is worth considering this when your body fat percentage suits you.