LIFESTYLE
This is one of the best way to sustain a healthy caloric deficit efficiently.
when it comes to losing weight, burning calories, discussing lifestyle ranges from, what time you wake up, what you eat, how you plan your day to day, your training frequency, are you working on your feet, remote in a desk or are you unemployed.. all of this comes into play towards your physical and mental and ironically they both affect your weight loss/muscle building journey.
Scientist found that 'higher stress levels correlated with catabolic properties in skeletal muscle. In this case, a decrease in muscle protein synthesis, which is the opposite of muscle growth. In addition to impacting our strength levels, stress also impacts our body composition (with weight gain/loss).
if you want to know what decreases body fat, this is the first barrier to get over.
It's nearly impossible to breakdown lifestyles, considering we all live different lives, so I will briefly analyse mine with someone else’s.
I lead an active lifestyle as I'm always on the move, my job requires me to walk often, i train 5x a week, i'm up early from 5am - 8am, eat at least 4-5 times a day, mostly carbs and protein, i indirectly avoid all sweets, chocolate, cakes it is just something that does not appeal to me, maybe because i am aware of what their nutrient contents are.
As i am often on foot when working and training 5x a week, this means I have a reduction of meal availability and constant use of energy [expenditure].
This lifestyle makes it easier GET LEAN due to constant fat burn during caloric deficit.
Example: Active lifestyle: Working in construction or group fitness trainer or a busy entrepreneur.
An inactive lifestyle will consist of those who spend time indoors just like a covid lockdown or office workers who spend more time sitting down and indoors that requires little to no energy. They also tend to wake up late, eat less meals, but overall are limited in nutrient density, so eating cupcakes, chocolate and some pasta within their days and then they say they do not eat that much, which is true but when you combine inactivity, lack of dense nutrient intake and no fitness training.. that does not sound right when it comes to losing weight or being healthy.
According to healthline when seeking to improve metabolism - Sitting for a long time burns few calories and is bad for your health. Try to stand up regularly or invest in a standing desk.
Being inactive leads to a lack of energy expenditure, but an increase in food intake. This lifestyle makes it harder to stay lean but easier to BULK UP due to constant caloric intake and lack of energy [expenditure]
Example: Office related jobs, non workers who spend more of their time indoors with limited movements.
This is just one of the factors that could affect you getting that lean muscle mass.
Next up - THE GYM
Now for the big boy talk.
Muscle is more metabolically active than fat, and building muscle can help increase your metabolism
When working in the gym, I can offer some added insights that can further assist you, in staying or getting lean, which coincidentally as we all know affects and or decreases body fat.
#1 - Make Supersets your best friend.
Super sets are a great way to keep burning fat whilst building muscle.
An example will be -
Resistance - Incline bench press into dumbbell chest press
Bodyweight wise - Burpees into push ups.
However, it’ll be harder, more intensified and deplete energy 2x faster.
Point being, you’ll be stressing every physical aspect all over again.
There are two types of supersets
Non compete supersets also known as compound supersets - Doing back to back exercises for the same muscle are for example, incline bench press with dumbbell chest press
Whilst the second version is doing an exercise right after doing another, for example working a dumbbell bench press and seated shoulder press
Second rule - Rest time
Your rest time makes a big difference, simply being because of muscle recovery.
It becomes harder if you can not manage appropriate rest time intervals to fit within a workout, especially for your goals.
“too long for maximal strength and too little for total burnout”
So if you want to train to burn out all fat and build lean muscle mass, you do so by; increased muscle training, and minimal rest for total burnout.
Point is, you have to consistently grow and train the muscle and find various ways to increase intensity for fat burn.
MR DIET - Here’s the kicker
Most people usually end up losing themselves over the diet scheme, such as when, where, what to eat and the complexity and controversial over food products and intake placements.
Of course what you take in will definitely affect you in some way.
Some people are fast gainers and some are slow gainers.
Some have high metabolism, some have low.
Most can’t tell apart.
What does specify to everyone is the law of weight gain/loss
Weight Gain - Energy intake [Food] Must! Be Higher - compared to energy expenditure [Exercise]
And vice versa..
Weight Loss - The less your energy intake [food] is compared to energy expenditures [active movements]
In a nutshell - if I ate 20 pizza today, I better be ready to run a marathon tomorrow to feel like I earned the meal off.
Simultaneously, eating less is not enough to lose weight, you must also do more
{exercise, workout & cardio} anything to maximise burning energy than food intake.
What about timing of meals.
This can vary, dependent on your training type.
Strength/size gain - 1 hour prior to exercise
Hypertrophy - 1 hour and half
Regular training - 2 hours
Fat loss - 2.1/2 hours (keep hydrated)
In a nutshell..
Strength & Size - you still need fat in the body(energy and size) so you’ll use some from previous meal, you will need a lot of energy and most will come from your food source (dietary fat has more energy than carbs), Food is energy but also size.
Hypertrophy - You want just enough fat/carbs in your body to take over for a period of time before working the muscles for Striations and shreds
Regular training - For the regular trainers, you are just to make sure that they are fuelled properly to cover your training sessions without feeling overwhelmed or “under the weather”
Fat loss - Reason being for fat loss or weight loss training, i'm sure you can understand, if not.. you wouldn’t want to burn what you just ate. Instead you’d want to burn what is currently your weight so to say.
E.g: if said person was aiming for fat loss overall and your training session is set for 4pm.
Wake up @ 8-9am, drink water or coffee with fruits till 12.
Partake any daily activities up till 1pm now you can eat foods high in protein and good fat [Avocado, Nuts, Salmon, Tuna and Olive oil]
From 2-3 increase intake in water consistently till training starts at 4pm
After training, consume meal high in protein and filling carbs [Sweet Potatoes, Oatmeal, Protein Shakes and Fruits]
In conclusion
Lifestyle:
Is one of the most important factor to determine the level of difficulty in keeping lean mass, this is mainly because of food intake.
[when you can eat and what will be available] and also
[what you do naturally to burn unused calories daily]
An active lifestyle, to get in their daily required calorie intake, should constantly keep prep meals with them often,
On the other hand, an inactive lifestyle:
What's more important with this lifestyle is how much fat you can burn during the day and what it takes to do so.
Training Routines: These should genuinely filled with
supersets and minimal rest to keep the muscle working and fat burning.
All throughout the process, muscle growth is stimulated.
Barbell workouts and bodyweight workouts should be intensified with reps on reps, minimal rest time of 10 seconds to a maximum of 90 seconds.
Food intake: These should be planned across the day.
2 things should be considered; Which specific meals to eat and how much calories daily, but also when to take it
In accordance to your physical goals.
Everyday will be different but the basis MUST stay the same including..
Breakfast - Pre/Post training meal - Lunch planned along your daily activities'
Making time for fitness somewhere during the day to burn calories, doing this for at least 4 times a week will maximise getting lean muscles.
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