7 Tips to Lose Fat and Maintain Muscle Mass

Learn some tips that will help you optimize your fat loss, but avoid getting you to lose muscle mass in the process.

The truth is that these days, we all want to lose some body fat, whether for health or aesthetics. At some point in your life you will need to lose fat! But what everyone wants, because of the need for speed, is to lose fat without losing muscle mass. And the question is: is it possible? Here we will understand that there are yes some tips for this to be done.

The truth is that many are the methods proposed, many are products made for this purpose but little is said about the basics that should be done. Minor changes and modifications that will really make a big difference in practice and help you achieve your results, after all there is no miracle, but serious work done right.

1- Do not cut dietary lipids

One of the biggest mistakes that has been made in the past was associating the fat ingested in the diet with the fat that will be stored in the body. Also associated with cardiovascular diseases, fat has become a major villain in the diet and every diet for weight loss soon prioritizes a reduction of that nutrient. In this way, it seems obvious that when we ingest fat in the diet, it seems to be "ready" to be stocked. But logic goes a little further.

When we ingest fats, fatty acids, and glycerol in our diet, they will be "broken" in the gastrointestinal tract and absorbed, and may serve different purposes, such as storage in the form of triacylglycerol, in the adipose panicle, follow the eicosanoid route, be synthesized to such as the maintenance of semipermeability of the skin, construction of cell membranes, among other endless functions. All this depends on our physiological state and our needs at that moment.

Over time, it was perceived that not fat, but other macronutrients, such as carbohydrates, were much more likely to be transformed into body fat, because larger and more complex influences of insulin processes are involved, which are highly and may signal the storage of body fat.

Lipids can promote energy supply without altering these insulin processes, and some of them have thermogenic characteristics, such as the medium chain lipids (MCTs) and omega-3.

Cholesterol is also an important lipid molecule (with no energy value) essential in the production of steroid hormones, such as testosterone. It is known that low levels of this hormone can alter metabolic functions and reduce lipid oxidation, increase muscle loss and so on. Therefore, both men and women should have adequate levels of testosterone in their bodies.

Obviously, you should be careful with excess saturated lipids or plant-derived lipids, which are usually sources of hydrogenated (processed) fat that form trans fat, highly damaging to the cardiovascular system.

“Over time, it was perceived that not fat, but other macronutrients, such as carbohydrates, were much more likely to be transformed into body fat, because larger and more complex influences of insulin processes are involved, which are highly and may signal the storage of body fat.”

2- Focus on resistance exercises with weights

Many people have a habit of associating body fat loss solely with aerobic exercise. In fact, they help increase the energy expenditure and oxidation of lipids stored in the body. However, when one does not have a hypertrophic stimulus in the muscle fiber, the tendency is that it is degraded. Also, aerobic exercise promotes the elevation of catabolic hormones to skeletal muscle such as adrenaline, cortisol and glucagon.

Stimulating the muscle fiber with resistance exercises with weights, commonly called bodybuilding, you get a growth stimulus, which causes the muscles to be maintained. This also helps the body not look flaccid and saggy, but a more beautiful and turned.

The maintenance and / or elevation of muscle mass also contributes to the basal metabolism, since muscle tissue is one of the most energy-consuming tissues in the body.

Therefore, allying bodybuilding and cardiovascular exercises is always a great option.

3. Ingest significant amounts of high biological value proteins

A major mistake in weight loss is neglecting the use of proteins, and proteins of high biological value. Many people promote such a large energy deficit in the body that they end up having a very high protein deficit.

This causes the muscle mass to be impaired, degraded and the metabolism to decline. Yet, the ratio of muscle mass X to body fat tends to get larger for body fat, which also happens not to be properly eliminated.

The protein has a very interesting thermogenic character in that it also helps in weight loss.

In low-carbohydrate diets such as the ketogenic diet, 1,2g to 1,6g of protein per body weigth kg for athletes is enough for the maintenance of muscle mass. If you consume excess protein, your liver will perform a magic trick called gluconeogenesis. This literally translates to  “the making of (genesis) new (neo) sugar (gluco)”.

During gluconeogenesis, the liver (and occasionally the kidneys) turns non-sugar compounds like amino acids (the building blocks of protein), lactate, and glycerol into sugar that the body uses a fuel. When glycogen (your body’s sugar storage) is low, protein intake is high, or the body is under stress, amino acids from your meals and your muscle become one of your main energy sources.

If your body continues to convert amino acids into fuel, it can keep you from getting into ketosis. This is why some ketogenic dieters may experience an increase in body fat percentage and a decrease in muscle mass during their first couple weeks on the ketogenic diet.

Nevertheless, unlike other macronutrients, proteins are the least likely to be converted to body fat, despite providing the same amount of calories as carbohydrates (4Kcal / g).

Ingested proteins also need to be of high biological value because they have higher amounts of essential amino acids and branched chain amino acids (BCAAs). Good sources of proteins of high biological value are: meats (white, red, swine etc), eggs, cheese and almonds.

4- Increase the consumption of thermogenic foods

Food and / or thermogenic substances are characteristic of increasing basal metabolism through elevated body temperature. In addition, these foods and / or substances also contribute to sweating and diuresis. Therefore, with an elevation of the basal metabolic rate it is much easier to lose fat because the body will naturally be releasing more energy.

Some examples of thermogenic foods are: ginger, peppers, coconut oil, raspberries, some citrus, green tea, coffee, among others.

Just be careful not to think that thermogenic foods can be consumed at will. Some, such as coconut oil, are high in calories and we should always pay attention to their consumption and "ally" it to the diet and not "make it " the diet. The interesting thing is always to leave these foods and / or substances in a functional way in the diet.

5- Intake sodium

Sodium is a mineral of extreme importance and vitality to the body. Among its main functions we can mention neurotransmission, muscle contraction, control of blood osmolarity, control of fluids in the body, absorption of nutrients such as glucose, among others. Without sodium, it is virtually impossible for anything to happen in the body, for it is paramount in neurotransmission that is the basis of everything in the body.

The recommendations suggest that fewer amounts of sodium are ingested, because the population currently ingest this nutrient in excess, due to processed and / or processed foods, due to the discovery of salt as a mechanism of food preservation and by the palate itself that has been changing in the decades.

But if you have a balanced diet, worrying about sodium really is irrelevant and harmful. Low levels of sodium in the body are associated with less serious problems such as decreased performance, lack of muscle strength, abdominal pains and discomforts, and premature fatigue. But, these problems can be aggravated leading to hyponatremia, fainting, nausea, dizziness, diarrhea, and in extreme cases to death.

Athletes or even amateurs of any physical activity usually require even greater amounts of sodium than sedentary individuals, especially if they are subjected to exercises in situations of extreme wear such as high heat, extreme cold, dry conditions, among others.

So, there is nothing wrong with using this or that sauce, adding the salt itself in the food or using one or the other condiment. Remember especially that you practice physical activities and the losses should also be properly supplied, making your sodium consumption needs higher.

6- Make Primordial Solid Meals

Many people, with the excuse that they do not have the time or even can not plan their diet, usually make millions of liquid meals and forget about the importance of solid food.

In reality, there are many cases where eating is really impossible and the only alternative left to us is to even consume a shake or a liquid meal. However, most people forget that these "meal substitutes" are not the best options. First, because they do not provide exactly the amounts of nutrients we want in that meal, being much more difficult to handle in your favor. Still, these meal substitutes do not have the same kinetics when compared to solid foods, in addition to not having significant amounts of nutrients such as dietary fiber, vitamins and minerals.

In addition, meal substitutes usually do not have there the best ingredients: carbohydrates come from oligosaccharides like maltodextrin, dextrose and fructose, the protein comes from whey protein concentrate and whey protein alone and so on.

Wanting to lose weight, or even wanting to gain muscle, is a process that requires effort, planning and discipline. Most people who "can not eat" simply do not do so because of the lack of such things mentioned above. Be it planned, promote healthy eating and you will see how the results will be optimized more and more.

7- Don't do millions of sit-ups

Another big mistake of those who are looking for weight loss and muscle definition is to invent hundreds and millions of abdominal exercises. Abdominal exercises, as well as pectoral exercises, dorsal exercises, quadriceps exercises among others, serve to stimulate target muscles. But for them to respond, rest is critical and overloading is damaging.

Also, specifically the abdomen, it is an always active muscular set, being present in the stabilization of the core in the body all the time, in all movements. So the stress in that body area is already relatively and naturally high.

Abdominal exercises DO NOT burn localized fat and will NOT help you define the belly. For this, it is necessary to have a low percentage of fat, a relative low water retention and then to develop the abdominal muscles as we do with all other muscles of the body, respecting rest periods, training with intensity and prioritizing biomechanics. If done in excess, the abdominal exercises will be detrimental to other exercises, because the abdomen will always be in fatigue, hindering the stabilization of the body, especially in standing exercises.

Excess abs can also be damaging to the lower back because of an imbalance of forces that occurs between the anterior and posterior side of the body. So pay attention to it!

I hope that with these 7 tips you can optimize your fat loss and avoid that with the fat you also lose muscle mass.