Lose Fat And Not Muscle
Under normal circumstances, most people will find that they will lose fat not muscle unless they are a frequent marathon runner for example.
Two methods that work well in losing weight are eliminating carbs from the diet and sporadic fasting.
When you refrain from eating for small period of time, this is short-term fasting. When you do this right, your body will produce more HGH (which is the fat burning and muscle building hormone) AND your metabolism will not slow down. Doing these intermittent fasts will lower your calorie intake. A lower calorie intake will lead you to lose fat. The benefit of a short-term fast is that it saves money, you don’t need to change the food you eat, and it can be done at any time.
Cutting Out Carbs involves cutting out carbs. Some examples of carbs that have been processed are rice, sugar, pasta, bread, and juice. Your body’s level of insulin will drop substantially. This prevents extra calories from being stored in fat cells. Once you eliminate carbohydrates that have been processed from your diet, you allow the body to use the fat to get the energy it needs. Excess fat will start to burn off quickly using this method.
Many people worry, however, that if they use this method of weight loss, they’ll begin to lose muscle also. This is a misconception that can be easily explained.
Muscles can use glycogen from carbohydrates or ketones from fats as an energy source.
When someone does weight training resistance exercises, they use intense amounts of energy in short intervals of time. Short sprints or HIIT exercises are the same way. Because the energy derived from fat is sufficient for these types of exercises, this helps you lose fat not muscle.
The only time when it becomes a real concern is if you’re a high endurance/performance athlete. When you do long drawn out aerobic activities, like marathon running, you absolutely need the glycogen from carbs.
Fruits and vegetables provide plenty of carbohydrates without having to consume processed foods. Natural sources of carbs will give your body more than enough glycogen for you to function normally.
When you cut out carbs, you need to increase your intake of fats because fats will be your main sources of energy. If you eat processed carbs regularly, you should cut down your intake of fats to prevent the excess calories to be stored inside your body as fat.
Both methods of losing fat will not make you lose muscle. Just keep up your resistance training, do HIIT once a week, stick to your meal plan (intermittent fasting or cutting out carbs) and you will lose fat, not muscle. This is the best way to lose fat not muscle.
