If you want to lose fat, get toned, and stay that way forever, you need to build some muscle. We’re not talking bodybuilder or powerlifter-sized bulking here. Still, you do need to add some functional muscle to your body. Our motto – gain muscle to lose fat.
Here at Warrior Babe, we’re big fans of strength training and believe that you need to focus on gaining to lose – that’s gaining muscle to lose fat.
Muscle is metabolically active tissue. That means it needs calories to sustain it. The more muscle you have on your body, the more calories you’ll use per day, even while you sleep. This is called your metabolic rate, and the higher your metabolic rate is, the quicker, and more quickly, you’ll burn fat and lose weight.
In addition, strength training workouts, like those from the Warrior Babe Blueprint, increase your insulin sensitivity. This means that more of the carbs you eat will be stored in your liver and muscles and are much less likely to be converted to fat. There is no need to adopt the no carb diet if you lift weights regularly.
Another benefit of gaining muscle to lose fat is increased muscle tone. As the fat comes off, you’ll be left with sleek, firm muscles that can defy the effects of gravity. That’s something almost every woman wants.
So, how do you build muscle to lose fat? Just follow these Warrior Babe get toned workout tips.
Focus on compound exercises
One of the most important rules for gaining muscle to lose fat is creating workouts around compound exercises. Compound exercises involve using several joints and muscles at the same time. They’re not only the best way to build muscle, but they also burn more calories, so you’ll lose fat faster too. Good examples of compound exercises are squats, lunges, push-ups, lat pulldowns, and deadlifts. Check out this article for some examples of the best exercises for gaining muscle and losing fat.
In contrast, isolation exercises only involve one joint at a time. They are good for toning but not as effective as compound exercises for fat loss. Examples of isolation exercises include leg curls, hip abductions, and triceps pushdowns. These aren’t bad exercises; it’s just you’ll get more bang for your buck if you focus on compound moves.
Don’t be afraid to lift heavy
The more effort you put into your build muscle to lose fat workout, the more effective it will be. This means you are going to have to push yourself, and the best way to do this is by lifting heavy weights. A lot of women shy away from heavy weights. That’s a shame because endless reps with weights that are lighter than your purse are nothing but a waste of time!
Some fitness experts and even a few celebrity trainers go so far as to say that women should never lift heavy weights. They say that because doing so will make them look masculine and bulky. This is nonsense! If more women lifted heavy weights, the world would be a leaner, stronger, fitter, healthier, sexier place! And don’t worry about accidentally bulking up by lifting weights; you are the boss, and it’s up to you how much muscle you build.
Try circuit training
One of the best ways to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time is circuit training. With traditional strength training, you do a set of your chosen exercise, rest a minute or two, and then do another set. Using this method, you may spend more of your get toned workout resting than exercising!
With circuit training, you do the exercises in your workout sequentially and back-to-back. This cuts down on wasted rest time, burns more calories, and also gives you an excellent little cardio workout for free.
For example, a full-body circuit workout could look something like this:
- Squats
- Push-ups
- Lat pulldowns
- Romanian deadlifts
- Dumbbell shoulder press
- Inverted rows
- Step-ups
- Planks
Rest for 1-2 minutes after completing the eighth exercise and then repeat the entire sequence two or three more times. Circuit training is not only the best gain fat and lose muscle workout, but it’s also the most time-efficient. It’s perfect for busy women who don’t have time to spend all day at the gym.
Make your workouts progressive
There is a saying in the fitness industry: If you always do what you have always done, you’ll always get what you always got. This tongue twister means that, if you don’t keep changing your workout and challenging your body, your progress will soon stall.
Avoid this problem by making your workouts progressive. From one week to the next, try and squeeze out an extra rep or two or add a few extra pounds to the bar. Even if you can’t make any increases, you should at least try.
Once your progress stops and you can’t do any more reps or add any additional weight, it’s time to change your workout and try some different exercises. Sticking to the same workout, even though it produced good results in the past, is a big mistake that a lot of exercisers make. Not sure where to start? We’ve got you covered! Just check out any of the Warrior Babe programs for assistance and guidance.
Respect your body’s need for rest
Working out to gain muscle and lose fat takes a lot out of your body. Lifting heavy weights breaks your muscles down, and you need to rest and recover for them to grow back stronger and more toned. That means you should generally avoid working out every day and make sure you give yourself at least a day or two off from the gym per week.
Sleep is also essential. That’s when your body gets busy building new muscle tissue. Most adults need between 7-9 hours of sleep per night, with eight being a good target for most of us.
If you are training hard but aren’t seeing the results you want, you may need to rest more and exercise less. To gain muscle and lose fat, you need to focus on workout quality as much as workout frequency and duration.
Eat to support muscle gain
While it’s not really practical to provide you with an entire build muscle lose fat diet, suffice it to say, to be successful, you need to align your diet to your workouts. As the old saying goes, you can’t out-exercise a bad diet!
To build muscle, you need to make sure you supply your body with the calories and macronutrients needed to power through your workouts and also fuel recovery. You can learn more about macros here, and in this article, we list the 15 best macro counting apps of 2020.
Summary
The key to long term leanness is muscle. While cardio can help, training and dieting to gain muscle and lose fat will make the best use of your time and energy. Get the results you want by following the Warrior Babe Blueprintto success and remember, you’ve got to focus on gaining to lose more.