Confused on How to Approach Fitness
For the today’s fitness enthusiast, the idols on magazine covers or in motion pictures are the motivation to keep working out and striving for the best.
Whenever new weightlifters learn of a famous diet or workout from the magazines, they have a tendency to copy those routines to get the same exact results.
This will almost never work as our genetics are completely different from one another and exercises that work for one body type may not deliver the same results.
The physique that most guys strive to achieve is muscular but proportionate with low enough body fat to see definition.
Many weightlifters fail to build really impressive physiques because they’ve never dieted down to their lowest body fat levels before training to build muscle.
Why You Should Be Very Lean Before Building Muscle
Workout and diet routines posted in magazines capture a brief summary of what that person did to achieve their results, but very little of that information applies to the reader.
Whenever fitness models and stars are shown on screen, they’re usually at their leanest, meaning they’ve dieted for weeks or months to achieve that look.
Getting to very lean levels of body fat (males: under 10%) gives you the appearance of looking bigger, especially when on screen. Downward cast lighting increases silhouettes around your muscles, giving you the appearance of looking 10lbs heavier.
Better Transformation
Getting leaner not only makes you look bigger, but your body transformation will be much more impressive. Gaining muscle when your body fat is high (over 15%) doesn’t show any muscular development you’ve had over the months (see How to Get Super Defined Arms).
Less Guilt
If you’ve had problems getting rid of excess body fat, eating extra calories to gain muscle won’t make you feel better about your new physique. Lowering your body fat as you slowly grow stronger removes any guilt you have from eating the foods you like. Building muscle this way keeps you motivated much longer than just eating and lifting.
Harder to Gain Fat
Ever notice how some people gain fat just looking at food while others eat as much as they want without gaining a pound? Because 1g of muscle burns 4x more calories than a gram of fat, your metabolism when body fat levels are low increases. Having a disproportionate amount of body fat decreases your metabolism and increases your appetite at the same time.
The Wrap Up
Lower body fat levels give you leaner, muscular appearance than cannot be easily achieved by just eating to gain muscle. Fat loss training should be the first step to sculpting an athletic physique that curbs excess calories and keeps motivation elevated long enough to continue making great progress.
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