Posts Tagged ‘gain muscle’

Are You Ready To Lose Weight And Gain Muscle?

The Basic Two Steps to Lose Weight and Gain Muscle

It is really no surprise that the two basic steps how to lose weight and gain muscle is diet and exercise. No big mystery there. However, what are the correct foods to eat and the correct type of exercises to perform that will make you lose weight and gain muscle? Opinions vary for these questions and the answers can be quite misleading.

You Are What You Eat

Therefore if you eat the wrong things this usually will lead to being overweight. Again, this is no big secret here. So to lose weight what should you eat? Well let’s ask this first:

1.    What can you eat that you enjoy and will make you leaner and healthy?

2. What type of program will help control your caloric intake?

The direct answer is to allow for a wide enough variety of foods that have high nutrition and low calories. Studies have continually shown that people who have eaten high protein foods are less likely to have the excess weight return to their bodies. Also, you should try to lean more toward vegetable protein than meat protein. Here is a short list of foods that you can include in your diet.

Fruit:

• Berries (blueberries,strawberries) that will provide natural fructose.
• Apples contain high fiber.
• Cantaloupe and melons provide good nutrition.

Vegetables:

• Greens-are low in calories and include spinach, zucchini, lettuce, cucumbers and broccoli. They also supply high protein.
• Carrots which are low in calories.
• Beans and peas, which are low in calories.

Lean Protein Meats

• Chicken Breast
• Alaskan Salmon
• Grass fed Beef Steak.
• Whole Grains
• 100% whole wheat bread.
• Brown rice (not white rice).
• Oatmeal and Barley cereals.
• Yams and Sweet Potatoes.

This is just some of the foods you can eat when you are trying to lose weight and gain muscle. Find a good nutrition guide that will help you follow your diet. The guide should give you detail concerning the number of calories you can consume and their breakdown for protein, fats and carbohydrates.

Exercises to Lose Weight

The process of increasing your metabolism will help you start to lose the weight. The start or increase in your exercise program will speed up your metabolism. But you have to exercise right. For example, you could join a gym and run the treadmill for thirty minutes and accomplish nothing more than wearing down the tread on your sneakers. You need to either consult with a good trainer or find an exercise guide for instructions when doing the right exercises.

Here are some exercises that will start building your muscle mass which in turn will burn off your calories and increase your metabolism.

Push Ups:

As with all exercises you need to do them correctly to gain any benefit so let’s go over the correct way for doing a push-up.

1. Keep your body in a straight line from your shoulders to your toes and tighten your abdomen muscles.

2. Your hands should be positioned slightly more than the width of your shoulders.

3. Lower yourself down slowly until you are about 3 inches from the ground.

4. Use your chest muscles, shoulders and triceps to lift yourself.

Dumbbell Workouts:

On a Bench

1. This exercise can be done on a flat or incline bench at about 45 degrees.

2. Extend the dumbbells above your chest with your arms fully extended. Your palms can be facing down towards the floor.

3. The dumbbells can be lower down to your chest level level with your head. Repeat to extend the dumbbells as explained in step #2.

Squats:

1. While standing with your feet about shoulder width apart have a dumbbell in each hand.

2. Take a long step forward.

3. Bending your back knee to the ground, you should lower your body to bring your front thigh parallel to the ground.

4. Keep your body upright and do not bend your back.

5. return to the upright position and perform the same exercise with the opposite leg.

Factor in your physical shape and with your personal physicians approval, you can work up to doing 30 push-ups in a set. You can also work up to 75 pounds for the dumbbell set for the bench exercises and doing 10 reps. When you are doing your squats you can likewise do 10 reps working up to 85 pounds for the dumbbells.

Keep Your Diet and Exercise Program Active

When you are trying to lose weight and gain muscle remember that you have to keep with the diet and exercise program. All to often people have started and given up. To avoid boredom consider finding a partner who will motivate you to reach your goals. Have the right mindset to lose weight and gain muscle. Stay confident and purpose driven.

I hope you enjoy these Helpful Hits to Lose Weight and Gain Muscle!!