Perhaps you don’t have much muscle under the fat, and you’d like to be somewhat muscular after the fat has been shed, so you don’t end up looking frail.

Burning Calories Means Less Muscle Growth
When your body is losing weight, there’s a deficit in calories. You’re either increasing your exercise, cutting your calories, or both.

Your body burns up the carbs, but it also burns up the valuable protein which is essential for building muscle. So if you’re trying to lose weight and gain muscle at the same time, it’s very slow and ineffective. You could end up completely sabotaging your success. To achieve the desired physique in the shortest period of time, your strategy should be divided up into two phases.

Phase 1 – Strength
For at least several months (or longer) focus more on weights and strength training. In this phase, you’re not cutting your calories or trying to lose weight, but you’re trying to gain muscle mass and that is all. I call this the “strength phase” or “growth phase”. Your weights should be set so that your muscles fatigue at about 6-10 repetitions. Don’t focus on cardio. 15-20 minutes of cardio per workout should be fine.

You should be eating well and getting plenty of protein, carbs, and some HEALTHY fats, not saturated fat. For example: Avocados vs. Donuts

Always try to avoid the really unhealthy stuff like fast food or junk food.

Phase 2 – Trim the fat
After months of gaining muscle which is hidden underneath your fat, you’ll have become stronger as your muscles have grown from all the lifting. However, you still don’t see the 6-pack abs. That’s alright though, because they’re just hiding behind the fat.

Now, in Phase 2, you’re more focused on burning calories than you are with building muscle. You should be increasing your time on the elliptical machine, stairmaster, treadmill, jogging, or biking. In Phase 2, cardio takes the front seat.

Continue to lift weights, but lower the weight so you can do more repetitions than in Phase 1. Still do as many as you possibly can. The weights should be set so that your body can get away with 15-20 repetitions before becoming fatigued.

You should cut your calories as well, and continue to eat only healthy foods.

Conclusion
Trying to build muscle and lose fat at the same time is inefficient. It’s much more effective to be focused on each goal at a time. This is why we break the process into 2 phases.

In fact, this is exactly what professional bodybuilders do. They bulk up in the winter with food and lift heavy weight. But when summer gets close, they trim down the excess fat by increasing their cardio and cutting their calories so people can actually SEE their 6-pack abs…and they can show off their nearly fatless, ripped bodies.

In your case, you may not even be going for a totally ripped body, but at least you’ll be strong AND lean – in the shortest period of time.

Disclaimer
You’re likely to lose a little bit of brute strength after Phase 2, but that’s to be expected. This is because you’ve cut your calories and are losing weight…mostly fat, but a little bit of muscle too.

It’s also because you’re lifting less weight. The flip side to that coin is that you will have greater muscular endurance, better cardiovascular endurance, and a nicer looking physique.

And it can, if approached properly be made.

But to lose weight and gain muscle, you really do have a “right” when it comes to your diet and your training.

In fact, the bodybuilding pros in the old days used to do these 2 separate phases of the fillers and trim.

Not anymore!

With today’s nutritional progress, almost all bodybuilders (amateur or professional) stay lean and muscular year round.

It’s all on your calorie intake and nutritional approach.

This “balance” of the calories will make sure you take enough to lose weight and gain muscle but not so many extra calories, so you gain fat.

You have to find “balance” to.

Even in your weight training sessions, you should be heavy weight, lower number of reps and sets, and train to use every muscle group only once a week.

That, and make sure that cardiovascular sessions are short and intense.

So if you are to lose weight and gain muscles like, here’s what you can do:

1. Find your required calories per day and make sure you’re not going to significantly above or below.
2. Keep weight training, so that severe muscle stimulated to grow. If you do not grow by force muscle by lifting heavy and intense, they do not grow.
3. Keep short and intense cardio. Long cardio sessions are not productive at burning fat and maintaining muscle mass.

Written My good friend, Tom Venuto, has what I feel to be “losing Best” manual weight and gain muscle I have ever met.

Tom,  is a lifetime natural bodybuilder and personal trainer, I’ve learned a lot of amazing information from the Tom’s Fat Loss course.

To gain weight and muscle, check out Burn The Fat loose, Feed The Muscle

Okay, here’s the first thing you need. About a 8×8 open area. And your bodyweight. That’s it. Don’t rest between any of these exercises.

First exercise: Prisoner Squat

Place your hands behind your head, keep your elbows back, and squat down halfway to the ground. Keep your shoulder blades together to work your upper back and push your hips back as you squat to work your back of your legs.

Do that 10-20 times depending on your strength levels.

Second exercise: Push-up Plus

Do a regular pushup, but at the top, add a little extra push to round your upper back and make your shoulder blades move away from one another. Do 4-12 reps depending on your strength.

Third exercise: Plank

Support yourself on your forearms and toes and keep your body in a straight line from ankles to shoulders. You’ll be “hovering” just above the ground. Keep your abs braced and hold for 10-60 seconds depending on your endurance.

Fourth exercise: Split squat

Stand with one foot 2 feet in front of your body and the other foot 1 foot behind your body. This is a stationary lunge position. Bend your back knee and drop your hips to the floor. Then push up using the muscles of the lead leg. Use a wall for balance or support if needed. Do 5-12 reps per side depending on strength.

Rest 1 minute then repeat the circuit up to 4 times.

Have fun, and burn fat,

The most important factor that made me lose weight and  gain muscle is to look better in appearance. Also, I can joinmy friends in all sorts of exercise and sports.

Losing weight is not easy but it is also not difficult if you are determined. The only changes that I made was to alter my diet and include exercise.

The most challenging thing about losing weight for me is diet. I used to love fast food, fizzy drinks and snacks. In order to lose weight, I avoided those foods as much as possible. I replaced snacks with fruits, fast food with soup noodles and fizzy drinks with ice water.

As soon as my diet plan started. I started to exercise in a routine manner of 3 times a week.

However, weight loss did not occur overnight. I only noticed results after 1 month. I started out with low intensity exercises for 3 months. After that, I opted for higher intensity exercises in the gym. It took me a total of about 7 months to reach my current weight.

To attain success in weight loss throughout the 7 months is not easy. I would not want my efforts to go down the drain so I have maintained my weight loss for 2 years.

I have become healthier and look so much better in appearance now. I can also join my friends in a marathon where I have never done before.