Is It Possible to Lose Weight and Build Muscle at the Same Time?

If you’re getting ready to jump into a new fitness regime, chances are you want to kill two birds with one stone. Losing weight while also building muscle is the aim for most people, but it isn’t easy.

Usually, people fail at doing this because of two things:

• They don’t follow a healthy diet
• They don’t do the right exercises

In order to lose fat and build muscle, you need to be dedicated to a healthy eating plan specially catered to your needs, and you have to hit the gym regularly.

Before we go into any specifics though, let’s clear something up. It is not physiologically possible to lose weight and build muscle at precisely the same time. You can, however, lose weight and then build muscle over a number of months.

Weight loss is catabolic.This means when you’re losing weight your body is breaking down molecules and releasing energy.

Muscle growth is anabolic. This means that your body is creating new molecules when you exercise, for which it needs a supply of energy. It may seem like these two processes are completed at the same time though.

How to lose weight and build muscle?

Anyone can do this, whether they’re a body builder or an MMA fighter. You should find that, through taking up weight training or another kind of exercise, you’re able to lose weight and bulk up very quickly.

How to bulk up

Strength training is the best way to go for this. You should focus on numerous muscles at once – boxing is ideal and is one of the best workouts available. Strength training is also vital, as you can build up your core strength.

Your diet should be high in protein, omega-3 fats and unprocessed carbohydrates. You should also be eating lots of fruits and vegetables, and drink the daily recommended intake of water. This will ensure you always have a good store of energy available, so your body never turns to its muscle stores when in need of a quick burst of energy.

How to slim down

You should notice that you lose a fair amount of fat through your exercise, although you should also consider adding cardio to your regime. While weight lifting and strength training can increase your muscle size, cardio is the best exercise for weight loss and it can easily slot into your workouts.

You can do a 30 minute moderate intensity workout to get started before you switch to weights. Or, if you’d prefer, you could focus on a sport such as boxing or a martial art like judo for cardio and do weight lifting on the side to build added muscle.

No matter what your chosen sport or training method is losing weight and building muscle is definitely possible. However, you’ll need to be dedicated and stick at it, but it should all be worth it in the end!

About the Author

This article was written by Aurora Johnson on behalf of Fightshop.com, an online martial arts shop selling clothing and equipment for boxing, judo, MMA and Muay Thai.