Getting into a well shaped and toned body with muscles and having a lean figure with no excess fat and controlled weight are two extremes of coins. While the first on requiring lots of food in quantity and quality, the later requires the minimal intake possible. While the latter needs lot of cardiovascular exercises, the first one can better avoid any irrelevant activities. Can a possible merger of the two take place?
Yes, of course, a strict regime of exercises and diet can help achieve both a muscle toned body and lean, weight controlled body at one go. To achieve both simultaneously, a disciplined approach of exercise and diet has to be strictly followed. During the entire program, there would be extreme control of diet to the extent of having a minimal diet and having heavy loads of exercises which would include a combination of Cardio workout, walking the treadmill, cycling, jogging, weight training and many more. There would be another phase where a sumptuous meal of heavy protein and calorie intake has to be taken in order to build muscles.
Most of the time, rather than the quantity, timing of the function is important. For example, the weight training has to be scheduled in the late afternoon or early evening session so that the entire day can be utilized to burn fat. The weight training has to be done after a low carbohydrate diet and it should be scheduled in a way that there would be a six hour gap between bedtime and weight training. Dinner in this case would be a protein rich diet and overfeeding is required to replenish glycogen stores and enhance protein synthesis in the body. In case such overfeeding is done early in the day, fat burning would be halted for the entire day. Thus the timing of activities is more important than the quantity of activities in order to achieve both the purposes.
Loosing weight and building muscles is basically dependent on three critical factors – diet, weight training and cardiovascular exercise. While doing exercise, especially the weight training, the muscles enter into a catabolic state where they start breaking down. A protein rich diet would help to bring back the body into the anabolic stage, thus helping in muscle building. A protein rich diet would ideally comprise of lean beef, chicken, fish, eggs, beans. While a high protein diet is advised, carbohydrates in the diet need to be cut down. Thus, whole grains and oatmeal would be a better option than rice or wheat. The calorie intake should be as per the prescribed limit, thus processed and junk foods should be a strict no in case of such a strict regime. The supplements should be taken only if absolutely necessary; otherwise it is better to avoid them.
Exercises such as Cardio, running, cycling, shadow boxing, dancing, swimming, and various weight training such as inclined dumbbell presses, squatting, weighted leg raises, and reverse grip barbell curls which cannot be avoided at all. These exercises would help in toning and shaping of muscles while cutting down on excess fat. Make your body look fab – Gain Muscles but not Weight.
