Personal Trainers Forum

[Personaltrainer]

How to lose fat without losing muscle

Charles Remington explains how appropriate carbohydrate intake can help you lose weight whilst maintaining muscle

Cycle fat-burning days with recovery days
The secret to losing fat without losing muscle starts with not being too aggressive or extreme with your reduction of carbohydrates. You need carbohydrate management, not carbohydrate elimination. Over the last 12 years, with more than 10,000 clients, I have found that by reducing carbohydrates by 20% of daily needs and within 48 hours replenishing the glycogen in the muscle by eating 100% of daily carbohydrate requirements, allows for fat loss,without muscle loss. In essence you have two fat burning days, then a recovery day. By doing this you will have the best of both worlds. You will experience fat loss that averages between 1 to 2 pounds weekly, while muscles are being well fed. You never drastically deplete the glycogen stores in the muscle, so athletic performance is not affected like it would be on a low carbohydrate diet.

Exercise on days where you eat more carbohydrates
Exercising on days when muscles get more carbohydrates and taking days off when you are being aggressive about fat loss, is one of the most difficult thoughts for exercisers to accept but it has been proven that most of the results from exercise come when we are not exercising. They come after we exercise and as a direct response to how the muscles receive nutrition after exercise.

Timing your exercise
As insulin levels increase in response to a rise in blood sugar after a meal, the cells are in an anabolic state (receiving nutrients). You should try to exercise 1.5-2 hours after eating to make the most of these nutrients.As blood sugar levels drop, insulin levels drop, the pancreas produces glucagon and nutrients stored in fat cells are released to the blood and used to produce energy. The management of this blood sugar rise and fall is important. If blood sugar levels go too high, insulin feeds the muscle cells and deposits the excess into fat cells. If insulin levels fall too low, the muscles are being underfed. A slow rise in blood sugar provides good nutrition to the muscles and a slow fall allows glucagon to take nutrients from the fat cells. Timing your exercise to this blood sugar decline allows the muscles to receive energy from the fat cells more effectively. It is important never to exercise without having at least one meal left in your day so that muscles can recuperate from exercise.

Final thoughts
Long-term success at managing weight starts with the right approach. If you are overweight, the real problem is that you have too much body fat for how much muscle you possess. A body composition solution is needed, not just a weight-loss diet. Your goal should be to lose fat without losing muscle or sacrificing your health in the process. To maintain your results, your eating habits must develop lifelong character. Low carbohydrate diets provide initial weight loss, but at the cost of losing muscle and reducing metabolism. They are inadequate sources of fuel to support exercise activity, which is vital in maintaining good health. The risks to your long-term health make low carbohydrate diets poor solutions for lifelong weight management.