How to Gain Muscle While Burning Fat

Pre Note: This article is your chance to learn about how your body works and how you can better build muscle and burn fat to achieve your dream body. However, for a specific program tailored to you and your goals: Email me at kevin.fit2last@gmail.com or visit my website KevinMullinsFitness.com and check out the Evolution training tab. Shoot me a note and we’ll get you started!

The holy grail of body sculpting isn’t as untouchable as many would have you believe. Building muscle mass and burning body fat can absolutely occur at the same time. It just takes a bit more dedication and emphasis on the smaller details in order to make it happen. It requires a base understanding of what mechanisms build muscle and what processes burn down unwanted body fat.

It’s a big undertaking, but we’ve got you covered.

The fact is, getting results doesn’t have to be complicated. You don’t have to follow a crazy diet and specific training program as though you are chasing down the Holy Grail. Rather, your success comes from consistency, or the constant application of force in the right direction. In this race it is most important to embrace the virtues of the turtle and leave behind those of the hare.

Think of it this way, if you were to gain 1% of a pound of muscle per day, so long as you lifted and ate the right foods…would you do it? Granted that is only .01 pounds of muscle a day, a rate that is not visibly noticeable, nor is it scientifically significant, but it is progress in the desired direction nonetheless.

What if you could also lose .01 pounds of body fat a day? Again, this rate of fat loss is not significant when examined alone, but over time can build into a quite different physique. Under the circumstances listed here you’d gain a pound of muscle and lose a pound of fat in just 100 days. That’s a 2 pound shift in the positive direction, but still frustratingly low for over 3 months of pushing it at your fullest!

The truth is that your progress won’t be this slow. As you make changes in your body composition, hormone levels, and metabolic efficiency you’ll actually start accelerating your rate of change, just a ball rolling down a hill picks up speed. Over time you’ll be gaining far more muscle per day and lose far more fat – eventually leading to the ideal one pound per week of either tissue. This sort of progress is very real and possible, so long as you consistently apply force in the right direction.

This isn’t a program that you can do Monday through Friday and throw to the side on the weekends. You can’t lift weights only when it’s convenient for you and your schedule. You can’t get well only when you are feeling excited about it. You have to do it day in and day out.

This theory is known as the slight edge method, a process made very popular in life and business by Jeff Olson in his book, “The Slight Edge”.

Apply it to your fitness and bask in the glory of compounding interest, as well as exploding interest by everyone else on what your “secret is”.

What it takes to build muscle –

Muscular hypertrophy refers to the ability of a muscle fiber to expand in size and girth as a result of a stress. So, when you are lifting you are actively tearing your muscle fibers due to the repeated contractions. Each consecutive eccentric and concentric cycle forces the fibers to tear a bit more. Then, once you are done exercising and recovery has begun your body will do what is necessary to heal this damage, and prevent it from happening again.

This scientific process is why you can be so excruciatingly sore after your first few workouts of a new program. Your body has no idea what just hit it, and as a result it takes a bit longer to recover. Yet, once the body has adapted and sent various satellite cells to heal the damaged muscles – your growth begins. It is this very factor that contributes to “newbie gains” – or those astonishing levels of progress a new trainee experiences when weight training is added into their lives.

Now, the exact reason a muscle will hypertrophy varies person-to-person. Some will be able to go heavy and hard and see tremendous changes in their muscle size. Meanwhile, others will benefit from a bit lighter resistance and a longer period of workload – causing their muscles to balloon up and fill with blood.

Science is constantly working to establish the exact modalities of muscle growth – and elite researchers such as Brad Schoenfeld have dedicated their lives work to understanding exactly what makes a muscle grow.

The research is getting stronger, and this is what it says.

Time under tension is King.
1. I jokingly call it King TuT, but it’s actually quite truthful. The science shows that the longer a muscle stays under tension, the more likely it is to undergo the stress necessary to initiate hypertrophy.
2. Slower reps that emphasize the eccentric (or lengthening) portion have been shown to do more muscle damage, and as a result, build more muscle.
3. This form of training requires a step down in load, so you can’t expect to go near-max in your training and experience this form of hypertrophy.
Still need to go heavy
1. There are two major types of hypertrophy – mechanical and sarcoplasmic
  1. Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is what often occurs during TuT training – the muscle cells undergo massive chemical stress, which initiates a series of enzyme and hormone responses that leads to inflating the volume of a muscle cell due to increase water and glucose retention.
  2. Mechanical hypertrophy, however, results from forcing a muscle to contract in a way that tears the myosin and actin fibers responsible for movement. A forceful contraction, especially with under loads greater than 85% percent of your max, causes the muscle to tear in and require repair. The body will then send satellite cells to the site of injury for the repair of fibers. This repair though, isn’t just to fix the problem. It actively thickens the muscle fiber to better withstand stress.
Frequency over Annihilation
1. Contrary to the popular belief spread within bodybuilding circles – annihilating a given muscle group is NOT the best way to ensure that it grows. Rather, frequency of training is.
  1. Instead of training a muscle with 25 to 35 sets of exercise – focus on doing 10 to 12 sets of amazing repetitions – only with the exercises that really cause change
  2. Sure, there is space for beating up a muscle, but save it for the end of the week. The most common cause of significant muscle growth is that the muscle is frequently seeing the stimulus for change. We call this phenomenon “super compensation”

What it takes to burn Fat –

Now that you understand what it takes for a muscle to grow it is imperative to understand how the body dispenses of fat. It isn’t as simple as calories in vs. calories out as so many nutrition personalities would have you believe. Rather, it is a careful balance of the 3 major macronutrients in accordance with your workout program. It’s so much more than just making sure you don’t eat Doritos. It’s an understanding of giving your body what it needs when it needs it and nothing more or less.

There are so many trainers and fitness professionals out there spewing on for hours about “this diet” or “this cleanse” that it can be nauseating and frustrating. So many are far off on the base of science and are only trying to capitalize off of the universal desire to look good naked. If you come across diets that aren’t certified by medical boards and consummate professionals – think twice. Complete eliminations of food groups, or worse, a macronutrient such as carbohydrates, typically causes long term harm to the metabolism. All of that in favor of a short window of looking “dialed in”.

Nutrition is so much about the effect of consistency. You need to crush it day in and day out with few errors in order to actualize the fat burning effect you chase. You can’t turn it off just so you can have fun. Nor can you make up for your weekend transgressions, or burn off that bad lunch. You must be the turtle and not the hare.

Fat burning occurs when the body is actively needing energy to drive metabolic processes, internal repair, and normal body function. It doesn’t require ridiculous calorie cuts, the removal of carbohydrates, or a massive overload of protein shakes. It simply requires bad ass workouts and a nutrition plan that is well thought out and customized to the person following it.

Here are the facts:

Burning Body fat takes more than a caloric deficit
1. Long distance runners are consistently in a caloric deficit, yet very few embody the aesthetic awesomeness that so many desire. In fact, many look tired and depleted. This is because they are constantly breaking down their body without taking the time to recover and allow muscle cells to regenerate. Most lack significant resistance training too, but outside of the elite few, most lack great nutrition practices.
2. You can’t cut calories and keep training hard for very long without the body fighting back. Injury, burnout, and general displeasure can come from doing things this way. Soon enough you’ll find yourself skipping the gym and crushing the burger instead of crushing your weights and skipping the fries.
3. Calculate your BMR (basal metabolic rate) and start there. A more specific RMR (resting metabolic rate) can be done at certain health clubs and health care providers if you want the real nitty gritty. Start here with your caloric intake and adjust your calories based on your current goal state, but never by more than two-to-three hundred calories.
Sure, low and slow tells the body to burn fat, but don’t rule out conditioning
1. The “fat-burning” zone has been a hot topic of fitness since the 80’s. Every cardio machine has a setting that is supposed to help you burn more fat, but few can deliver on the promise of making you leaner…why?
  1. This is because slower exercise may cause your body to use more fat as energy, but it doesn’t necessarily demand that your body use more energy stores in general. See, the body doesn’t just burn fat as though it as an exclusive source of energy. It isn’t unique. It is a part of a spectrum system that incorporates carbohydrates, fats, and even proteins. Your activity levels, nutrition habits, and recovery habits dictate what happens.
  2. Conditioning exercises, or those that demand more from your body, force it to use energy indiscriminately. This application of effort means that your body will be burning calories during and after your exercise bout. This is known as EPOC. The Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption dictates that your body will actively seek to replace the oxygen used during intense exercise, even after the experience is over.
    1. THIS IS THE MECHANISM of fat loss. When your body is actively depleted in oxygen levels due to an intense exercise bout it will keep the metabolism accelerate for hours until the job is done. The same goes with muscle building exercises – the “afterburn” can last for up to 48 hours for some major lifts.
It’s not as simple as slashing carbohydrates and upping protein
1. The number one mistake most people make in their “cutting” attempts is a radical slash of carbohydrates due to the faulty science that “all carbs” are bad. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Moreover, the only people that should ever think about completely eliminating carbohydrates in their diet are those who are only a week or so out from a bodybuilding stage or a photo shoot.
  1. The rest of us need to ease ourselves down off of bad carbohydrates such as cookies, chips, and candy, and baked goods. Slowly lowering the intake of potatoes and breads also goes a long way towards cutting down on excess sugars and ensuring your body burns more fat.
  2. Potatoes and breads should be consumed post workout to help fuel glycogen replenishment. Filling your muscles back up with good fuel can go a long way for building quality muscles and burning stubborn fat.
2. The bulk of your carbohydrates should come fruits and vegetables. These foods are so much more than calories. They carry vital nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients that help your body do everything from make enzymes to rebuild muscle tissue.
  1. Aim for 7 to 10 servings of vegetables a day
  2. Aim for 3 to 5 fruits per day

How to Apply this Science –

Plain and simple your lifting routine needs to be centered on getting bigger and getting stronger. Each and every day in the gym needs to be focused on hitting the major compound movements, as well as quality isolation work dedicated to breaking down muscle tissue with more stress over time.

Then, when you get home, or go to the office – your meals need to be healthier. No more frozen dinners and quickie-mart sandwiches. No more chips, cookies, or candy. There needs to be less booze on the weekends and a whole lot more sleep.

See, getting bigger muscles and burning more fat comes from training with an intensity that rivals even the most fantastic of beasts, while your nutrition should be kept tight to the script. More vegetables and fruits, less starches and grains, and a whole lot more protein from organic sources. All of this coupled with increased water intake and a focus on getting six to eight hours of great sleep a night will drive home the point.

How to Train –

Follow a training program that is centered on the 7 major movement patterns. They are, in no order of importance: The hinge, squat, rotation, horizontal push and pull, vertical push and pull. I’d also include lunges, gait (walking, running, sprinting, bounding), and stability exercises as major points of emphasis.
Train the deadlift, squat, and pressing movements (overhead and bench) with both heavy loads (3 to 6 rep sets) as well as another day of lighter, but more intensity (8 to 12 reps per set).
1. Utilize variations such as trap bar deadlifts, KB swings, split squats, and alternating bench press to challenge yourself
2. Each major movement should be trained at least twice a week
Train your body as a unit and less as body parts. You don’t need a biceps day, so much as you need a hinge, pull, rotation, stability and arms day. Another example is a squat, push, stability and lunge day.
1. One scenario has you hitting your legs, back, arms, and core. While the other hits your legs, pecs, shoulders, arms, core, and conditioning.
Only train to the point of fatigue, but cut it off there. Your goal is to come back every day and do something – not take the elevator one floor everywhere you go.

How to Eat –

Build your diet around healthy proteins such as poultry, fish, grass-fed beef, nuts, quinoa, Brussel sprouts, and your standard fair of shakes
Limit dairy as most people react negatively to milk and cheese. Yet, feel free to enjoy when appropriate
Limit grains and starches to meals that follow workouts. This will give the body plenty of fuel to recover without tripping off the switch for fat burning.
Build your diet around vegetables and fruits. 7 and 3 to start. This is non-negotiable. Look for variety too. Try to eat at least 5 different colors of each during the week.
Your fats should come from healthy sources such as avocados, coconut oil, olive oil, nuts, and meats.
Drink at least half your bodyweight in ounces of water per day.

For a specific program tailored to you and your goals: Email me at kevin.fit2last@gmail.com or visit my website KevinMullinsFitness.com and check out the Evolution training tab. Shoot me a note and we’ll get you started!

Best,

Kevin Mullins

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