4 Tips to Gain Muscle Lose Fat and Look Like a Fitness Model

By: http://superbodybuildingtips.wordpress.com

So you're ready to lose fat

So you have been lifting weights for a while and put on some size but in the process through the extra calories you have been eating your now carrying a bit more fat than you would like. Lets face it to get a fitness model physique you need to have low levels of body fat but to do this you don't want to sacrifice your hard earned muscle.

With that in mind here are 4 tips that may actually help you gain muscle lose fat and give you the look that makes all the effort worthwhile.

1 - Give yourself plenty of time to get lean

If you leave the decision too late to start losing fat and you only have a couple of months to get in shape then this means a really strict low calorie diet and lots of cardio. This combination will get rid of fat quickly but make it very difficult to retain your muscle mass and is more likely to reduce it. Therefore to gain muscle and lose fat you want to have at least 3-4 months to get super-lean without losing or even gaining muscle. By going slower you only have to create a slight calorie deficit and aim for 1 to 2 pounds a week fat loss. This will mean building muscle is still possible.

2: Time to clean up the diet but keep it real

So first thing to do is clean up the diet. However if you have planned well in advance then this won't have to be as strict as you are only looking to lose small amounts of fat each week. Also if you go to severe too soon you simply won't be able to maintain this discipline for long enough. A good rule of thumb is to make 80% of your meals clean and low calories with the rest made up of treat/normal meals. To lessen the impact of these more relaxed meals I try to time it so I have them after a good hard workout. If working out in the evening then try to reduce the carbs in the day before so that you are more primed to burn body fat for energy rather than the energy from your food.

3 Keep the weights heavy to gain and retain muscle

The reason you want to carry on lifting heavy weights is to keep making strength gains and progressing enabling your body to hold onto that hard earned muscle. If you start going to light with higher reps your body doesn't have any reason to keep or build anymore muscle mass.

4 Time to crank up the cardio but use high Intensity Interval Training

I am firm believer that Interval Training is the most efficient form of cardio to burn body fat without losing muscle. You only have to look at the physique of a sprinter to see the effect of short intense bursts of effort followed by rest periods. Sprinters train using high intensity interval

training and yet manage to have lots of muscle mass and low levels of body fat which is a clear indicator to me that this approach works.

A quick example routine of this is to warm up for 5 minutes then do 30 seconds of sprinting followed by 90 seconds at a recovery pace. Repeat this for 20-25 minutes. Apart from burning body fat I have actually gained muscle in my legs doing these types of routines.

These tips will help you gain muscle lose fat and develop a stand out physique so make sure to give them a try.

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