【Building Muscle and Losing Fat】How to Train for a Great Body Shape
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Normal or lean body type: Start → Build muscle → Lose fat → Achieve a good physique. Fatter body type: Start → Lose fat → Reach a normal body weight → Build muscle → Lose fat → Achieve a good physique. We will explain each step in detail: Step 1: The starting phase: The ideal physical condition for starting out is one with neither too high nor too low body fat; for example, men should be able to see distinct abdominal muscle contours (with around 15% body fat for men). This is a good starting point for building muscle. If you have too much body fat, you need to lose weight first, so as to bring your body back to a normal weight before starting to build muscle, which is the second approach mentioned above. II: Muscle Building Phase: When you start building muscle, you know nothing – you have no idea what training methods to use, nor how to arrange your diet. So the muscle-building phase is something that many beginners in fitness struggle with. For example, a large amount of sebum is produced during muscle building. Or, a muscle-building diet may not contain enough protein, resulting in suboptimal results. First, the choice of training method: since your goal is clearly to increase muscle mass and achieve a good physique. Then you should opt for bodybuilding, as it is the best way to shape your physique. Some people might ask, I see that athletes in many other sports also have great physiques. I can choose other projects as well. I would say that for all sports, as long as body fat is well controlled, one’s physique won’t be bad (except for endurance sports). But there is an efficiency issue here: other sports do not focus on physique; for example, in gymnastics, gymnasts do have good physiques, but physique is not part of what is evaluated in gymnastics competitions. He was competing on speed of movement. The focus of bodybuilding competitions is the physique! That’s what is being compared in these competitions. Therefore, the role of bodybuilding training in shaping the physique is incomparable to that of other sports. As the old Chinese saying goes: there are specialized fields for different skills. That’s exactly the idea. Secondly, it comes to managing your diet: since your goal is to build muscle, you need to consume more calories than usual, while also ensuring an appropriate balance between carbohydrates, protein, and fat. For example, there are many proposed ratios for a bodybuilding diet: 4 grams of carbohydrates per kilogram, 2 grams of protein per kilogram, as well as 50 calories or more per kilogram, and so on. But I would say that there are individual differences; everyone starts with a different level of muscle mass and different metabolic rates, so their dietary needs also vary. For example, from a nutritional perspective, on average 30 grams of protein is sufficient to achieve a \"zero nitrogen balance\"; the recommended intake for adults is 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight. 【Insufficient protein intake can lead to protein-energy malnutrition (PEM), and you may experience swelling.】 But if the goal is muscle building and maintaining a \"positive nitrogen balance,\" then the protein intake required is actually lower. So how exactly should we consume it? Do I have to read a bunch of nutrition books? Actually, there’s no need for that (although it’s good to read them if you can). I’d like to give you some advice: if you are a normal adult man weighing around 65–75 kilograms, I recommend that you consume more than 2500 calories per day. [Referenced from Chinese residents’ DRIs] If you are doing strength training, it is recommended that you increase your calorie intake by 100 calories per week until it reaches around 3,500 calories. If you are tall and heavy, you need to consume even more calories. Of course, here we are only talking about calorie intake. Calories are a key factor, but another important aspect is the balance of nutrients. If you rely solely on carbohydrates to reach 3500 calories, the results will be poor. On days when training is not done, calorie intake should be lower. Moreover, the 3500-calorie figure is not fixed; it varies from person to person. If body fat increases too rapidly after consuming this amount of calories, then it’s necessary to reduce intake. Personal recommendations for a diet aimed at building muscle: consume 4–6 grams of carbohydrates per kilogram of body weight, 1.5–3 grams of protein per kilogram, and 50–60 grams of fats per day. Divide the daily intake into 5–6 meals, such as breakfast, a snack, lunch, a meal before training, a meal after training, dinner, and a meal before bedtime. 【Note: Be sure to gradually increase your intake; don’t eat such large amounts right from the start.】 Increase it gradually over the weeks, until an appropriate intake level is reached. Muscle-building cycle: It is very difficult for muscles to grow; even for men, muscle growth occurs on a yearly basis. Typically, the muscle-building cycle lasts 3 to 5 years, although this period can be shorter when the body’s anabolic capacity is higher. If you can stick to a systematic and scientific muscle-building training regimen for 3 to 5 years, followed by a systematic fat-reduction phase of half a year, your level will be good enough to meet the standards for participating in small-scale fitness and bodybuilding competitions. Body fat control during muscle gain: Since calorie intake is high during muscle gain, body fat inevitably increases. What we need to do is keep body fat within a controllable range, so as to prevent it from increasing too much. The control method involves 2–3 sessions of aerobic exercise per week, along with monitoring the increase in body fat. How to monitor body fat? You can simply use waist circumference as a guide; if it increases too rapidly, then reduce the calorie intake in your diet and increase the intensity of your aerobic exercises. Most people don’t have a good physique during muscle building, and that’s because they have high body fat. Some people are born with low body fat, and even during muscle-building phases their body fat level doesn’t rise much – that’s a matter of innate talent. However, it is also more difficult for people with lower body fat to build muscle.
III: Fat loss phase: After 3–5 years of systematic muscle-building training, you have become a large-sized individual; everyone in the gym is amazed by your huge arms and chest. However, your body lacks definition – your abs are barely visible, and there are no visible muscle contours throughout your body. At this point, you are just a \"semi-finished product\"; to achieve a perfect physique, one final step is needed! That is fat loss, also known as weight reduction. When you have removed all the fat covering the surface of the muscles, you will be successful. It really turned into a great physique! Training methods during fat loss: Actually, the training methods during fat loss aren’t very different from those used during muscle building. There are mainly two aspects: 1. The frequency of aerobic training was increased during the fat loss phase. (This is the foundation for fat loss.) 2. During the fat loss phase, strength training should use lighter weights with more repetitions, while reducing the rest time between sets. Diet during fat loss: Diet is the biggest difference between fat loss and muscle building. During a fat loss phase, calorie intake is very low, usually just above the basal metabolic rate. For example, men weighing 65–75 kilograms should consume around 2,000 calories per day during fat loss, and their diet composition also changes: carbohydrates are reduced while protein intake increases, with the amount of carbohydrates being roughly equal to the amount of protein. The diet progresses from low-fat to oil-free. [Note that cooking oil is not the same as fats; even if you avoid cooking oil, you can still obtain fats from other sources.] Since calorie intake is reduced during weight loss and carbohydrate consumption is low, it’s easy to feel fatigued while losing weight. Fat loss phase: Fat loss is much simpler compared to muscle building, and it also happens more quickly. Generally, a fat loss cycle lasts around 3 months to half a year. Therefore, bodybuilders generally start fat loss in preparation for competitions 12 weeks in advance.
;P;P;P What was written above refers to boys~~
This post was last edited by LLawliet on 2016-7-4 at 13:57. How should women train to achieve a good figure? For most women, the process of achieving a good figure is much simpler; it generally goes like this: Start → Lose fat → Maintain. [Why didn’t I mention the process of building muscle?] Answer: 1. It’s very difficult for women to build muscle – it’s hundreds of times harder than for men. Because women don’t have testicles. (For a more detailed explanation, please see “A Comprehensive Guide to Women’s Fitness Issues”). 2. Even if you focus on building muscle, your physique will not look good during that phase due to an increase in body fat. Most women don’t want to do this. So do women not build muscle? No. Women should also build muscle, but their muscle-building approach shouldn’t be as \"aggressive\" as that of men (unless you’re a hardcore enthusiast). Therefore, if a heavier woman wants to achieve a good physique, she should exercise in this way. At the beginning of fat loss training (strength + cardio; the importance of strength training is well-established, so it won’t be discussed here), once the body shape returns to normal, focus the training on comprehensive physical fitness exercises or strength training. Do cardio 2–3 times a week, using it only as a means to monitor body fat levels, rather than making it the focus of training – unless you are an enthusiast of endurance sports. Therefore, the revised fitness program for heavier women should be as follows: Start → Fat loss → Normal body weight → Addressing shortcomings in body shape (that is, focusing training on strength training or overall physical fitness, using aerobic exercise as a means to monitor body fat levels, rather than making it the main focus of training)
Why muscle building and fat loss should not be done simultaneously: 1. Generally speaking, muscle building is driven by anabolic processes, while fat loss is driven by catabolic processes. Anabolism and catabolism are equivalent to assimilation and dissimilation in middle and high school biology; they are two processes that are completely opposite to each other. 2. On a smaller scale, during the muscle-building phase your calorie intake is relatively high. During the fat loss phase, food intake is kept low. Gaining muscle necessarily leads to an increase in body fat, because it’s impossible to accurately determine exactly how many calories are needed for muscle growth. Even if you can calculate that figure precisely, it’s still difficult to choose the right foods; too few calories will prevent muscle growth, while too many calories will result in an increase in body fat. Therefore, to achieve the best results in terms of muscle gain, it’s necessary to consume a higher amount of calories during the muscle-building phase. Wait until muscle building is complete before systematically carrying out fat reduction. Building muscle and losing fat at the same time is almost impossible. Summary: Building muscle and losing fat can occur simultaneously, but the effect of the latter is almost negligible. It usually happens to professional athletes or very overweight people. Most of what you consider to be “building muscle and losing fat” is the visual effect you see after losing fat. In other words, the fat is reduced and the muscles become visible, and then you think you’ve built muscle; in fact, those muscles were there all along! They were just covered by fat.
I don’t have a chance; you need to start from being overweight, and I already fall into the obese category. :L
;P;P Those who exceed the normal weight range are considered to be overweight:lol:lol
That won’t do; there still needs to be a difference. :lol
To lose fat, one needs to run for more than half an hour every day; to build muscle, going to the gym is necessary, provided that you first lose fat.