Bulking is over, you’ve hit your target scale weight and you like the way you look in the mirror but, it's time to lose some fat. Now before I lure you into believing that there is some kind of magical fat loss and muscle building program, let me just set you straight and tell you that there isn’t. You can in fact build muscle or lose fat on any workout program, as long as you apply basic principles such as progressive overload and eat according to your goals. Fat loss mainly all going to be down to you staying strict with your diet. Having said that, there are some rules that you can apply to your training that are going to aid you in losing fat more effectively, than if you didn’t use them. Let’s take a look.
Your nutrition should still be number 1
I couldn’t leave it alone, I know. However I can’t stress enough how important this rule is. You can train as hard or as fast as you like, but if you aren’t in a calorie deficit day in day out for a prolonged amount of time, you aren’t ever going to lose any fat. That’s just the way fat loss works. I don’t want to share these helpful tips with you and then you go ruin it all by eating in a calorie surplus do I? Figure out how many calories you need to maintain weight and then take 300-500 off daily.
Do weights before cardio
There is no point in working your ass off to lose fat if you are going to waste away all that muscle you have spent time building is there? You want to retain that muscle. Muscle burns energy (calories) like no other tissue in the body, the more muscle you have, the more your body needs to burn calories to feed them. So, it's important to keep that muscle at any cost. You’re going to need as much energy as possible for your training sessions, which can be difficult on a lower amount of calories. Do you think doing cardio before your weights is going to set you up well for that? Of course not, save cardio for after the weights and also, keep striving to be stronger than your last session. There is no reason why you can’t continue to gain strength when wanting to lose fat.
Include big movements
Now I’ll admit, these aren’t going to feel great if you are deep into a deficit. However, they still and always will hold the best bang for buck. By big movements, I mean compound lifts of course. Barbell presses, barbell squats, deadlifts and lunges. They all use a tonnes of muscle whilst you perform them, which means they burn more calories.
Switch up your cardio
This doesn’t have to be every session, but it could be weekly. Everyone is going to have their favourite way of doing cardio, naturally. Mine is a brisk incline walk on the treadmill. Steppers seem to be very popular at the minute also. Despite this, I always try to change my cardio from time to time. For me, it’s simply incorporating more of a high intensity type of cardio, such as sprints. It keeps my metabolism firing on all cylinders and is a nice mental change from the usual treadmill walk.
Know when to take a break
If you have stopped losing weight or feel unusually fatigued (mentally or physically), consider taking a break from training or a break from your diet. This can have a profound effect on your motivation and the ability for you to continue to burn fat. 7 days is usually enough, but you might not even need that. Don’t worry about tipping the scale in this time frame, as most weight will just water as long as you are eating at maintenance or just over.
It’s time to take your fat burning to the next level, good luck!
