When I talk with clients who desperately want to build muscle and burn fat, nearly all of them claim that while they would love to have a new body, they just don't have enough time to make it happen. While it would be great if we all had an extra 2 hours to spend in the gym each day, the reality of the situation is that most of us don't.
If you want to build muscle and burn fat without seriously altering your lifestyle, then you need to learn how to get in, get on with it, and get out of the gym within 30 - 45 minutes max. While this philosophy of training seems strange, the truth is that it's just as effective as (in most cases even more effective than) traditional 1 - 2 hour marathon workouts.
In order to help you build muscle and burn fat as quickly as possible, I have outlined a few tips to help you get it done in only 20 minutes a day!
1.) Log what you eat every day for 1 week. This will give you a good idea of how many calories your currently eating and when you are eating them.
2.) After you've logged your meals for 1 week, sit down and take a look at where you are currently at. This represents the number of calories you need to eat each day to maintain your current body weight at your current body composition.
Your goal is to build muscle and burn fat, so you will need to eat slightly fewer calories than you are currently consuming, some where in the ballpark of 200 - 500 less.
In addition to lowering the amount of calories that you're currently eating, you will also want to expend more energy throughout the day (200 - 500 calories). You can accomplish this by performing a moderate to high intensity weight training workout 3 - 4 times per week combined with 2 - 4 20-minute aerobic exercise sessions per week.
If you're really pressed for time, perform your weight training workouts and aerobic workouts on alternating days spread throughout the week.
This powerful combination of eating slightly less and exercising regularly will allow you to build muscle and burn fat with ease!
The other major benefit of this approach to building muscle and burning fat at the same time, is that you will be able to eat more food throughout the day. Instead of simply cutting your calories by 500 to 1000 a day (like most diets recommend) and suffering through bouts of low energy, hunger and moodiness, you will be able to fuel your body with nutritious foods 5 - 6 times per day - keeping your belly full and your energy levels stable.
3.) After you have calculated your target calorie intake, grab a calorie counter and start the process of planning out 5 - 6 well balanced meals (containing carbohydrates, protein, fats and vegetables) that add up close to your target calorie intake.
4.) Plan your 20 minute weight training workouts. Focus your weight training workouts around compound free weight movements like squats, bench press, incline press, barbell curls,lunges, dead lifts, rows and the dumbbell equivalents. It's also OK to include body-weight exercises into the mix.
If your goal is to shed some fat and gain a decent amount of muscle mass, then you will need to focus your training on only one body part per workout. This will allow you to perform a full 3 set warm-up and 2 - 3 sets of each exercise, with rest intervals of 2 - 3 minutes between sets.
If your goal is to burn fat while adding a small amount of muscle, then you can lighten the weight a bit shorten the rest intervals. For this type of goal, I typically recommend some sort of circuit based workout structure.
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