There is a phenomenon in America I see in many gyms. Most people when they decide it's time to lose weight they attack the task with same strategy most of the "quick fix" infomercials and supplement companies sell. They use strategies that make it impossible to maintain muscle. They lose weight initially on the scale, but unfortunately become just smaller versions of their unaesthetic selves. Essentially they have become a "FAT SKINNY PERSON"! They have lost weight on the scale but their body composition is still higher in body fat and lower in lean bodyweight. Essentially they have lost both muscle and fat.
Ultimately your primary goal should be to lose body fat while maintaining or in best case scenario, gaining lean muscle tissue. Losing muscle will make you look thin and in some case sick looking. I have seen people who work so hard, lose weight through diet and even in most cases doing cardio yet end up looking worse because they look like they are battling a life threatening disease! Muscle is living tissue which requires nutrients to exist. Besides being functional and responsible for allowing daily tasks such as walking, carrying objects, proper posture, it also serves to burn excess calories. Ten pounds of muscle burns about 50 calories per day even at rest, so if you lose 10 pounds of muscle, you will burn 50 fewer calories per day, or 350 fewer calories per week. That can make a significant difference in the long run. With muscle loss caused by dieting and cardio with no strength training, we create an inability to utilize insulin optimally. The more muscle tissue you can put on your frame, the more effective your body will utilize the nutrients in your diet. Larger muscles such as the quadriceps have more insulin receptors. This means the muscles will absorb and utilize the nutrients you consume more effectively rather than be stored as body fat. (See the article I wrote last week about Sugar... The Anti Nutrient for more information about insulin.) Finally, the more lean muscle we can build, the more strength you will have which means you can train harder and thus burn more calories and continue to increase muscle tissue raising your resting metabolism. It all comes around full circle! Below are some mistakes I've seen people make when trying to lose body fat. 1. Lifting lighter weights for more reps. As I mentioned earlier, muscle tissue is a living organism that requires nutrients to exist. In order to maintain or even build muscle tissue you need to stimulate hypertrophy or growth. If you are accustomed to lifting 100lbs for 8-10 rep on the bench press and suddenly decide you want to lose body fat so you do 60lbs for 15-20 reps, you create less of a forceful contraction demanded. You have switched from a muscle building/maintaining workout to more of a muscular endurance workout! The theory of "cutting up" or trying to make the muscle more defined can only be accomplished by losing subcutaneous body fat. Muscles either are in an anabolic or catabolic state.... they are either increasing in size and strength or decreasing... period. By increasing reps and lowering your weight, you will definitely burn more calories and facilitate weight loss during the actual workout but will also cause the muscle tissue to potentially enter into a state of ketosis where it will burn protein in the muscle in order to utilize the amino acids to burn as fuel. 2. Doing a cardio workout after a fast. This is a trick used by many to lose some body weight quickly. This usually involves doing a cardio workout first thing in the morning after you have fasted all night. The theory behind this that your body will tap into the fat reserves to burn as fuel instead of nutrients which have been consumed throughout the day. The problem with this theory is that it creates a stress on the body. When the body senses stress it releases a catabolic hormone called CORTISOL. This is a natural enemy to preserving muscle tissue and destroys any hope of building up more lean tissue! So while yes, you will notice a difference on the scale, your lean percent of body mass will decrease and thus you have also decreased your resting metabolism. 3. Increasing the volume and duration of your workout significantly. If little is good, more is better! Wrong!!!! This thinking will not only destroy any muscle tissue you may already have but will set you up for failure. I have a saying I have used for years.... YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE ETERNAL TO BE DIVINE! The goal is to STIMULATE, NOT ANNIHILATE the muscle tissue! The only thing you stand to gain from spending hours in the gym doing set after set for each muscle group is overuse injuries such as tendentious, create an environment in the muscular system called ketosis, and waste countless hours of your day. TRAIN SMART, NOT HARD! As I started this article saying, the ideal situation is to decrease body fat while maintaining calorie burning and body shaping muscle. By over training, again, you cause a release of the hormone cortisol. You also create an environment where your body will begin to break down and the immune system and nervous system become taxed. Eventually you will end up frustrated, in a constant state of muscle soreness due to the tearing down of the muscle tissue, lethargic because of the calorie demand created trying to repair not only the muscle damage but also stress on the kidney's, liver and other organs in extreme over training cases. 4. Doing Cardio Before Going to Bed This usually isn't an issue for many because most people know better than to do cardio before going to bed for obvious reasons. Doing cardio right before bed will again, cause a stress on the body which releases cortisol. It also elevates your heart rate and can make sleep difficult and unproductive. During the REM stage of sleep - the deep sleep- the body achieves a rested state. This is when the body can secrete testosterone (yes ladies even you have some!) which will repair and build up muscle tissue. Cortisol levels are best kept at their lowest before and during sleep to allow your body to be in a anabolic or building environment rather than a catabolic or breaking down environment. Optimizing your hormonal levels and allowing your body to utilize amino acids etc. to repair muscle and organ damage is ideal. Doing cardio before bed can utilize the nutrients used for repair to tissues and prevent the body from most effectively building and sparing muscle tissue from being lost. The idea is to fuel your body with enough nutrient dense calories throughout the day to at the very least maintain as much existing muscle mass while allowing for a caloric deficit through proper nutrition and physical activity to burn bodyfat. Losing body fat isn't a matter of chance or some voodoo ritual found on an infomercial or supplement ad. It's simple math and science. The body responds long term to subtle changes. Stop the long cycle of gaining/losing and regaining the weight back. Train smart, train educated and you will not only lose body fat, sustain body shaping functional muscle as well as be able to maintain the new body your worked for!
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Josh McCabeAs a Personal Trainer, I am here to help you live the healthiest life style possible! This includes eating habits, workouts and just living well! Ask questions, share ideas and cheer one another on! Categories |
Photo used under Creative Commons from Mr. Vincent Freeman