Most people cannot lose weight while building muscle, whether they are on a diet or not. The reason for this is because muscle growth is a form of weight gain, and therefore requires more calories than weight loss. However, if you are new to weight training you will -- for a short amount of time -- be able to do both, as your body will not be used to weight training. To take advantage of this beginner gain, you need to regularly weight lift and ensure that you eat the right food to encourage muscle growth and repair while also maintaining a calorie deficit.
Instructions
1. Speak to a personal trainer about a strength training program. This is exercise that uses compound lifts that work entire muscle groups at once, with weights with which you can only lift four to six times in a row. This exercise is the most efficient for weight loss and muscle growth because of its intensity. It will encourage muscle growth across your body while also speeding up your metabolism, thus making you more efficient at calorie burning when you are not exercising.
2. Perform your strength training program every second day. You need a day in between workouts to give your muscles a chance to both recover and grow.
3. Eliminate processed foods from your diet. Your muscles will grow the most effectively when they are given whole, natural foods with which to work.
4. Replace simple carbohydrates such as white bread with complex carbohydrates. For grainy carbohydrate sources, the general rule of the thumb is to stick with the brown option -- wheat bread instead of white, brown rice instead of white and oatmeal instead of cereal.
5. Increase your protein so that you have a 40/40/20 split -- 40 percent carbs, 40 percent protein and 20 percent fat. Keep your fat intake to 20 percent by sticking to lean sources of protein such as tuna fish in water and skinless chicken breasts.
Tags: muscle growth, encourage muscle, encourage muscle growth, instead white, strength training, strength training program