Lose fat not muscle is the goal for most people that go to the gym or exercise on a regular basis. So how can you do this?
That’s what you will learn more about in this post. It’s actually a lot easier than you might think too.
When I was a bodybuilder it was common to do a lot of bulking and cutting cycles in order to get the incredible physiques that you want to display on stage.
This makes sense because adding muscle means being in a calorie surplus. And the more calories you consume, the more anabolic your body will be – the more testosterone will be washing around your body and the less likely you will be to burn muscle for fuel.
So it might be obvious that eating extra calories makes it even harder not to gain any fat and especially when you’re getting them from sugar such as weight gainer products and other supplements that are similar.
The problem is you probably don’t want to spend half the year looking overweight which is very common for some bodybuilders.
So how can you use cardio to lose fat and not muscle?
That is what you will find out as you read on.
Is Cardio A Problem?
Lose fat and not muscle is a reason that most bodybuilders will stay away from intensive cardio when they’re bulking is that it puts the body once again in a catabolic state.
When you run using steady-state cardio, your body will supply energy by turning to your blood sugar and your fat stores.
So, this means your blood sugar drops. why is this a problem?
Well when your blood sugar drops, your body responds by releasing ghrelin, the hunger hormone.
Ghrelin release is always followed by cortisol (the stress hormone) and cortisol is followed by myostatin – a molecule that signals the breakdown of muscle.
The more myostatin, the more muscle you lose. We want to prevent that at all cost.
And your body will get 15% of its energy from protein and you have a scenario that is not good for building muscle. That is why is it avoided when the goal is to lose fat and not muscle.
Here’s The Solution
My favorite alternative to intensive cardio is to walk. That’s because walking will allow you to burn energy at a much slower rate and avoid completely depleting your energy stores.
And this means you never get to the point where you have very low blood sugar and you never start cannibalizing that hard-won muscle. Both are a win.
Another option is to use HIIT. This is High-Intensity Interval Training, which means alternating between spurts of sprinting and periods of jogging.
The good thing about this is that the sprinting portion doesn’t burn blood sugar or muscle and instead relies on energy stored as glycogen.
You will spend less time in a catabolic state and lose less muscle as a result and so many people love this because it’s a great way to lose fat and not muscle.
Conclusion
When you have the goal of lose fat and not muscle you want to follow the advice here and make sure to drink a high-quality protein.
You can also use nutrition to protect yourself and reduce your chances of losing muscle. The best way to do this is by consuming BCAAs – branch chained amino acids. These have been shown to have a very positive effect in reducing muscle breakdown during exercise.
RELATED ARTICLES:
Download Proven Ways To Lose Weight Here