If you want to lose weight, building muscle is one of the most effective ways to do it. When you increase your muscle mass, you burn more calories and it’s a lot easier to shed the pounds and, most importantly, sustain your weight loss. However, a lot of people don’t realize this and they think that weight training is just for people that want to have huge muscles and it’s not beneficial for people that just want to maintain a healthy weight. If you are finding it difficult to meet your fitness goals, here’s how to build muscle to lose weight faster and sustain your weight loss.
CUT BACK ON CARDIO
People always make the mistake of thinking that doing lots of cardio is the best way to lose weight. But even though it will help you to burn fat, doing all cardio and no strength training is not the most effective way to lose weight. You also burn muscle mass when you do cardio, so it’s important that you do strength training alongside it, especially as you get older and your muscle mass naturally drops. That’s why it’s a good idea to cut back on some of your cardio sessions and replace them with weight lifting exercises instead. Deadlifts, squats, and bench presses are the 3 core strength exercises that give you an all-around workout. You should use the spoto bench press method as well because it gives better results and helps to improve your technique. You can then supplement these core exercises with some more focused exercises to work on specific areas of the body where you lack muscle. Ideally, you should be doing around 2 or 3 strength training sessions a week, alongside some cardio exercises as well.
EAT PLENTY OF PROTEIN
When you are trying to build muscle, it’s important that you eat plenty of protein. If you don’t get enough protein in your diet, you will lose muscle mass and your muscles won’t recover properly after a workout and they will be sore for days. Chicken and fish are both great sources of protein to add to your diet but if you are eating a vegan diet, things like beans and nuts are ideal. You could also consider protein shakes if you are worried about a lack of protein in your diet but this shouldn’t be necessary as long as you pay attention to what you eat. In some cases, you may need to increase your calorie intake slightly if you feel that you are not recovering from your strength workouts.
BE PATIENT
Building muscle and burning fat is a slow process, so it’s important that you are patient. Many people find that they hit a plateau and they don’t notice much difference anymore, even though they were making great progress in the beginning. At this point, many people lose motivation and give up on their routine but it’s important that you push through this hurdle. Changing up your routine is often a good way to get over a plateau and you may also need to increase the number of workouts that you do each week as well.
If you follow these simple tips, you will be able to build muscle at the same time as burning fat and this makes it a lot easier to sustain your weight loss.
