How to lose fat and maintain muscle in bodybuilding?

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How to lose fat and maintain muscle in bodybuilding?
How to lose fat and maintain muscle in bodybuilding?
Anonim

Fighting fat is a complex and time-consuming process. Find out how bodybuilders can completely burn fat while gaining muscle mass. Every athlete in preparation for the competition must get rid of excess body fat. In this case, you can tolerate a loss of strength indicators, but the destruction of muscles is completely undesirable. Now we are talking about bodybuilding, since, for example, in powerlifting, everything is exactly the opposite. However, in any case, you only need to lose fat mass. Today we will try to figure out how to lose fat and maintain muscle in bodybuilding.

Can you get rid of fat while preserving muscle?

Athlete with a pancake on a training belt
Athlete with a pancake on a training belt

You must understand that fat is necessary for the body to maintain its performance. First of all, this concerns the fatty deposits that surround all internal organs, thereby providing them with protection from damage. While burning fat, you will still lose some of your muscle mass.

The body's energy system mainly uses fats and carbohydrates as energy sources. If the body works as usual, then protein compounds are practically not used for these purposes. Only when the store of fat begins to deplete, protein compounds are broken down to provide all systems with the necessary energy. First of all, muscle tissue proteins are used for this. Thus, when there is a lack of energy, muscle destruction occurs.

Today there are many misconceptions associated with the fat burning process. Many athletes believe in them, and this only complicates the fight against body fat. Let's dispel the most popular ones.

Myth 1 - fat accumulates when you eat food in the evening

The girl with the clock sits at the table
The girl with the clock sits at the table

You must remember that the body uses energy only when it is needed. If you do not take a portion of protein shortly before going to bed, then muscles will break down at night. Most of your energy is expended during the day, but sleeping on an empty stomach will not eliminate excess fat.

Myth 2 - cardio burns fat best

Girl training on a stepper
Girl training on a stepper

Cardio helps burn fat during the session itself. In turn, strength training promotes lipolysis in the long term. If you combine cardio with a dietary nutrition program, you can reduce your fat mass, but at the same time, some of the muscles may shed. Be careful with cardio when doing bodybuilding.

Myth 3 - you can eat everything except fat

Healthy fats in foods
Healthy fats in foods

All excess energy will be converted into fat by the body. This is true even for protein compounds. Often, a person gets fat even with a limited intake of fat.

Myth 4 - the best way to lose weight is a fruit diet

Girl with a bowl of fruit
Girl with a bowl of fruit

This is not true for two reasons. First, fruits are low in protein. Which will lead to the destruction of muscle tissue. Secondly, these products contain a lot of fructose and other types of simple sugars. These substances contribute to the accumulation of fat stores.

Myth 5 - you can't burn fat and gain mass at the same time

The athlete sits at the table with food
The athlete sits at the table with food

If you use a medium-calorie nutrition program, you can burn fat while gaining muscle mass.

How to lose fat and maintain muscle?

Female athletes
Female athletes

To fight fat effectively, you must use more energy than you get. At first glance, this seems very simple, but in practice, many difficulties arise. First of all, during starvation of the body, all metabolic processes slow down. Exercising in the gym, you will burn fat, but often in preparation for the competition, this is not enough.

To speed up lipolysis, athletes have to resort to various medications, say, caffeine or ephedrine. Note that some of these tools can improve performance, but you need to be careful with them. This is due to the presence of many drugs (primarily synthetic) have their own side effects.

For example, Dexfenfluramine has a negative effect on brain function when used in high doses. When using a mixture of ECA, the heart rate increases, if the dosage of thyroid hormones is exceeded, you can disrupt the work of this organ, and then it is almost impossible to restore it.

Eating enough carbohydrates will reduce the consumption of protein compounds used for energy. In addition, carbohydrates help to increase the absorption of proteins, but at the same time slow down the rate of absorption. With this combination of nutrients, you can eliminate the main symptoms of overtraining during vigorous exercise.

It is important to consume slow complex carbohydrates that have a low glycemic index. The glycemic index of foods indicates the rate at which a nutrient is utilized and energy is obtained. The higher the index, the faster carbohydrates will be absorbed. With slow carbohydrates, you can provide the body with energy for a long period of time, and fast carbohydrates increase the risk of increased fat stores.

Also, you need to remember about such a concept as a negative balance of protein compounds. It occurs when you consume less protein than your body uses. When such a situation arises, your muscles will collapse. If the nutrient balance is zero, then the muscle mass will remain unchanged. During the study of the nitrogen balance in the body of representatives of weightlifting, it was found that with a daily intake of 0.75 grams of protein compounds per 1 kilogram of mass, the nitrogen balance does not shift in a positive direction. To do this, you need to consume 1.5 grams of protein. Simply put, maintaining muscle mass while losing weight is possible only if you consume a sufficient amount of protein compounds. In addition, it is important to ensure that your weight does not decrease by more than one kilo during the week.

How to quickly burn fat while maintaining muscles, learn from this video by Denis Borisov:

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