How To Build Muscles And Still Lose Weight

A question that commonly gets asked is “How do I build or maintain my muscle tone while I’m trying to lose weight.” It’s a good question, and the answer is to add strength training to your aerobic workout plan.

When beginning a training program most people think they need to make a choice between an aerobic program, designed to burn fat, and a strength training routine aimed at building muscles. This is simply not true. In fact, exercises designed to build lean muscle mass can actually help you lose weight while you enhance or maintain lean muscle mass.

How to Build Muscles and Still Lose Weight: Designing Your Program

So, which is better for you - aerobic activity or strength training? The answer is both. Combining aerobic activity - whether it’s of the sustained or high intensity variety - with strength training will help you to burn fat and build lean muscle, giving your body a sleek, toned appearance.

Aerobic activity can be defined as any exercise involving the body’s large muscle groups - legs, back, core, etc. - which is rhythmic and continuous, requiring you to expend energy. In layman terms, this basically means any exercise that gets your heart pumping and requires endurance. These exercises might include:

Brisk Road or Treadmill Walking
Jogging
Swimming
Cycling
Jump Rope
Dancing

When designing your aerobic workout, make sure to choose something you enjoy (or could learn to enjoy) doing. Activities which are not enjoyable are difficult to get motivated about and may cause you to abandon your workout program prematurely.

Aerobic exercises are a great way to burn fat in the short-term and give you tons of energy. But if too much time is spent doing just aerobic activity, with no strength training added, eventually you can start to lose muscle mass as well as fat. The end result is a very lean body without any muscle tone, as evidenced by many marathon runners. If this is not the way you want your body to look, it’s absolutely critical that you add strength training to your overall fitness routine.

Strength training, or weight training, helps to build and maintain lean muscle in places where it will look good, but it also has an effect on your body’s ability to burn fat. Weight training will boost your metabolism and regulate your endocrine system (hormones) to signal your body’s natural fat-burning response to kick in. The result is a leaner, stronger body that always looks toned and healthy.

There are thousands of different theories on how to burn fat, just as there are thousands more on how to build muscles, but if you want to do both, your best bet is to choose an aerobic activity you enjoy, be consistent with your workout plan and combine it with regular strength training. The result will be a toned, muscular looking body that is optimal at burning excess fat - fat which would otherwise be stored in places where you would least want it to show up.