The ongoing pandemic and the prolonged shut down has caused majority of the people to gain weight. You need to be fit to enhance your health and immunity to stay safe from dangerous diseases. Your objective should be to lose unwanted fat and not your precious muscles. This is something that the majority fails to achieve. They starve themselves and in the process damage their health further. To avoid such a situation, you need to follow certain fitness and eating regimen.
To optimize muscle maintenance and fat loss, you are to lose weight safely. It is crucial to maintain overall health, physical activity and fitness level. Taking this approach will enable you to maintain muscle mass and shed unhealthy fat. You need to combine your eating plan with proper exercise to derive effective results.
How to lose fat the safe way?
Consume fewer calories than burnt every day. You also need to exercise regularly. By undertaking frequent physical activities, you will be able to eliminate fat. There are options to lose lot of weight without doing any exercise, but then it will only make you to lose fat and muscle. Getting to lose fat only on specific body parts is not just possible. Rather, you need focus towards reducing overall body fat %.
Take it slowly and do not rush with things. Shedding weight quickly will only lead to further muscle loss. Hence, lose less weight every week by taking more time.
Tips to maintain muscle
While losing fat, you need to retain your muscle. For this, you are to have a better balance between pushing yourself and limiting yourself as much as possible. Remember, every person is not the same and hence, the results are likely to be different. You need to understand your body and listen to its requirements. Do not overdo with your exercise as it will only lead to unwanted health consequences. Adjust eating and workout plan accordingly.
Recovery time
Between workouts, you need to take adequate rest. This way, your body will get sufficient time to recover from the pressure it has undergone while performing rigorous exercises. Otherwise, you will feel fatigue, thus losing muscles along with fat. It is also vital if you perform intense workouts and consume fewer calories. Good sleep can help restore lost energy levels, keep you fresh and healthy.
Avoid restriction
Do not be extremely restrictive or drastic with your eating plan. Otherwise, you may only witness long-term problems.
Again overtraining is not good. Do not indulge in overtraining as it will might cause injury or drain you completely. Again pushing too fast r hard will only cause missed workouts resulting from injury or fatigue. You need proper and timely rest.
Well-balanced exercise
This is another vital aspect to consider maintaining muscle mass. Researches conducted revealed that individuals having carefully balanced eating plan and exercise avoided muscle loss. This was the result of calorie restriction. Eating plans mostly comprise of 30% fat, 15% protein and 55% carbohydrates.
Eating healthy
Your eating plan should witness constant change to include less unhealthy fat sources and healthy proteins. On higher protein diet consumption, older adults manage to lose more fat and gain more lean mass.
Supplements
You can find various types of supplements easily available in the market. Do not take them blindly without understanding the ingredients or discussing with your doctor. The health professional will recommend you with a supplement that will have a positive effect on your body. It will help with effective weight loss, control hunger pangs and maintain blood sugar levels.
While taking supplements, you are also to do the following:
- Perform resistance exercises
- Manage calorie intake
- Consuming macronutrients like carbohydrates, fats and proteins in appropriate amounts.
Exercise plans
To achieve your weight-loss goals safely and quickly and to build muscle mass, you are to follow a few tips.
- Cardio exercises: You need to perform moderate-to-high-intensity cardio for about 150 minutes/weekly. This will help maintain muscle mass and lose bad fat. A few cardio exercises recommended are:
- Running
- Cycling
- Soccer
- Boxing
- Volleyball
- Basketball
- Increase intensity: Challenge yourself by increasing workout intensity with each progressing week. This will help burn calories. You can build strength effectively by pushing your muscles further to its optimum capacity. It requires taking intermittent breaks before proceeding.
- Strength training: This should be done 2-3 times a week and may combine the following:
- Resistance band exercises
- Bodyweight exercises
- Weightlifting
- You may also attend exercise classes like tai chi, pilates or yoga.
First start using low weight loads with fewer repetitions. Then increase gradually your challenge to availing more repetitions or taking heavier weights. It will help prevent injuries.
Strength training does help to avoid muscle loss while increasing muscle mass. It targets your main muscle groups. But then you need to follow balanced routine. Schedule proper muscle recovery time! The target should be to exercise each muscle group once or twice a week at the max. Your workout plan should involve interval training to reduce fat.
- Healthy eating: A healthy diet is an absolute must to meet your energetic and nutritional needs. Healthy food consumption will make you feel full, thus not allowing eating more than what is required. Before performing workouts, even simple ones, drink lots of fluids. This will help your body to stay hydrated. Avoid consuming sugary beverages and replace them with healthy drinks. It may include fresh vegetable juice, coconut water, green tea, etc. Also have easy to digest, light meal filled with carbohydrates. After completing workout, you should have meal comprising of healthy fats, carbohydrates and protein within 45 minutes. After workout, having carbohydrates is likely to enhance your energy levels. It also quickens your muscle recovery process. While performing exercise, carbohydrates replace stored glycogen that is lost to derive energy.
You need to set a very clear goal, schedule your exercise and diet regimen. Maintain discipline and follow the set regimen stringently.
