How To Burn Fat, Not Muscle
by Yuri in Weight Loss
As you go about your fat loss workout, you must be taking the time to ensure that you are burning off body fat and not burning off your lean muscle mass.
Your lean muscle is the one type of body tissue that is going to help you stay lean in the future so you definitely don’t want to sacrifice it. Unfortunately though, any time you’re on a reduced calorie diet you will see that much of a greater chance of losing this lean muscle mass, so you really must be careful about how you do things.
Let’s go over a few of the things that you must know if you want to burn fat and save your muscle.
Maintain The Intensity
The very first thing that you must be doing if you want to maintain your lean muscle mass is make sure that you don’t let the intensity of your workouts slip. As soon as you aren’t working out as intensely as you did before, that’s when you’re sending the signal to the body that it really doesn’t have to keep this muscle mass. It realizes it could easily get away with doing less than you’re asking of it due to the fact the workouts are much easier now.
When that intensity level stays high however, that’s when the body will realize that if it doesn’t keep its muscle, its going to be in trouble.
Keep Up Your Protein
Second, another must do if you’re going to keep your lean muscle mass and strictly burn fat is to boost your protein intake in the diet. When on a reduced calorie diet there is a much higher chance that the body will turn to incoming protein as a primary fuel source, meaning less will be left over for your muscles to use.
If you can add a bit more protein into your diet than normal at this point, that will guarantee that you still have plenty left over to satisfy all your primary muscle recovery needs.
Aim for at least one gram per pound per day, if not more.
Don’t Overdo Cardio Training
Third, make sure that you’re not overdoing it when it comes to your cardio training during your fat loss workouts. While it is true that cardio will help you burn off some calories, too much cardio will cause the body to get rid of its lean muscle mass.
Since muscle is such a dense type of tissue, the body will realize that if it wants to transport itself across long distances, it would be far better without this muscle tissue. Hence, it says goodbye.
Add In Some Carbs
Finally, the last thing that you must do if you’re going to preserve your lean muscle mass is to ensure that you don’t eliminate carbohydrates entirely. While you can certainly cut back on how many carbs you’re eating as an effective strategy for burning off body fat, don’t eliminate them entirely. The moment you do this you’re really setting yourself up for problems because carbohydrates are the primary form of tissue that the body wants to use as fuel.
So there you have some smart tips to help ensure that you burn fat, not muscle. Do you have any tips that you’d like to share?
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