Lose fat and gain muscle: Set a plan and proceed gradually.

What you need to do is lose fat, build muscle, set a plan, and proceed gradually.

Losing weight is easier said than done. Although various weight loss products and methods flood the market, dieters often suffer from pain and rebound weight gain. This inevitably raises questions: Have you found the right weight loss method? Is your method healthy? Is your method scientifically effective? The human body is mainly composed of bones, muscles, fat, internal organs, blood, and water. Therefore, weight = bones + muscles + fat + internal organs + blood + water. From the perspective of body composition, bones and internal organs are basically fixed. Muscles are the main site of calorie consumption in the body; reducing muscle mass leads to a decrease in metabolism, so weight loss should not focus on reducing muscle. Water makes up a large proportion of the human body but is easily excreted and replenished. Excessive fat accumulation is the root cause of obesity. Fat not only affects our appearance but also harms our health; therefore, the fundamental purpose of weight loss is to reduce body fat and adjust the body's fat ratio.

Dieting will make you fatter. When people drastically adopt rapid weight loss methods such as dieting and taking diet pills, the weight loss is mostly muscle and water. Starvation diets cause the breakdown of protein in muscles, resulting in muscle loss, shrinking internal organs, decreased function, a lower basal metabolic rate, and an increase in the proportion of body fat. Therefore, don't rush to lose weight just because you see an increase in weight, and don't focus solely on whether you've lost weight, because your weight is deceiving you. Increasing your basal metabolic rate is key to weight loss. For dieters, the number on the scale is meaningless. No matter how many kilograms you weigh, if the proportion of body fat hasn't changed and the proportion of muscle hasn't increased, you haven't achieved your weight loss goal. Therefore, only by achieving fat loss and muscle gain, with a significant increase in muscle mass, can you achieve true weight loss. If a person loses 3 kilograms of body fat and gains 3 kilograms of muscle, although their weight remains the same, their density increases and their volume decreases, making them appear thinner. This kind of weight loss result cannot be measured by a scale.

We already know that human calorie metabolism has three components: basal metabolic rate (BMR), exercise metabolism, and energy exchange. As we age, muscle mass decreases, organ function declines, and the amount of calories burned by various organs gradually decreases. Combined with reduced physical activity, the BMR also decreases. At this point, when daily calorie intake exceeds calorie expenditure, the excess calories are converted into fat and stored in the body, leading to obesity. Even while lying down, you're burning calories – that's the power of BMR. Analysis of numerous successful weight loss cases shows that the level of BMR is the best indicator of a person's weight loss success. The most effective way to increase BMR is to increase or maintain lean body mass. This is because fat and muscle are the main components of BMR; fat hardly metabolizes calories, while muscle is the primary calorie burner. For every 5 kg of muscle gained, approximately 150 kcal (1 kcal = 4.18 kJ) can be burned daily. Therefore, increasing BMR is crucial for weight loss! The smart way to lose weight is to continue burning calories and even increase metabolic activity most of the time when the body is not exercising. For example, if two people consume 1500 calories of food daily and do nothing, one person's basal metabolic rate (BMR) is 1400 calories, while the other's is 1600 calories. The first person will consume 100 more calories, and the second will consume 100 fewer. The excess calories will be converted into fat. Only by increasing your BMR and improving your metabolism can you ensure that the calories you consume don't turn into fat storage. Muscles are like an engine, and fat is like a fuel tank. To burn fat, you must exercise. While strength training during a fat loss period is unlikely to increase engine size (muscle gain), it can maximize muscle mass and increase engine power, increasing fuel consumption, raising the BMR, making fat loss more efficient, and less likely to rebound.

Body fat consists of subcutaneous fat and visceral fat. The former affects our shape and appearance, while the latter, located in the abdomen around organs such as the liver, is the most dangerous type of fat. Some people appear thin but have a high body fat percentage because of high visceral fat. Therefore, there's no such thing as spot reduction; to lose weight, you need to lose weight in your chest, hips, waist, and legs. If you absolutely must focus on a specific area, it's the abdomen, specifically visceral fat. The key to fat loss is ensuring that total energy intake is less than total energy expenditure. The indicators for this are controlling body fat percentage and increasing basal metabolic rate; weight is only a reference indicator. Weight can be lost quickly, for example, through intensive dehydration before a bodybuilding competition, weight control before a weightlifting competition, or extreme starvation. A well-reduced body fat percentage results in slow rebound; conversely, fat loss is slow. Reducing body fat percentage requires a process. Generally, with proper adjustments, losing 1% of body fat percentage per month is quite good. Increasing the body's metabolic rate requires increasing muscle mass, specifically increasing exercise intensity, to adjust the metabolic rate to your energy expenditure. Running improves cardiovascular function and effectively burns fat. Aerobic exercise is a full-body workout that burns both fat and muscle. However, prolonged aerobic exercise can reverse the ratio of fat to muscle consumption, with muscle becoming the primary energy source. It is recommended that aerobic exercise not exceed one hour.

After a period of training, some people may wonder why their body mass index (BMI) is up to standard and their face looks thinner, but their stomach is still loose and flabby. This indicates that muscle mass hasn't increased yet, and body fat percentage is still relatively high. After the fat-burning phase, to achieve a satisfactory body fat percentage and maintain it long-term, a combination of aerobic and anaerobic training is necessary. Aerobic exercise alone is unlikely to reach the standard 13%-20% body fat percentage. Therefore, at this point, it's necessary to increase strength training while burning fat, and scientifically supplement protein. Increased muscle mass will firm up the body, resulting in a more muscular physique. After building muscle, weight may increase slightly, but the overall body shape will change significantly: waistline becomes thinner, face smaller, body more toned, chest fuller, and buttocks more lifted-this applies to both men and women.

Increasing muscle mass (lean body mass) directly increases energy expenditure, including both sustained and resting energy expenditure. Fitness training, aimed at health, can build muscle and is suitable for a wider range of trainees. Bodyweight training is an excellent form of exercise, allowing various parts of the body to bear weight and emphasizing physical ability and muscle usage. Six-time Olympic champion Dorian Yates stated, "Abdominal muscles are still muscles, just with better endurance. They also need training, stimulation, and growth to become large enough to be prominent and clearly visible." In muscle training, we can draw on bodybuilding theories, such as isolating abdominal muscles for better strength, prominence, and definition. Furthermore, individual differences are significant; it's crucial to find a training method that suits you and not blindly follow textbooks. Therefore, it's clear that aerobic exercise alone is insufficient; muscle training must be added to enhance the body's aesthetics. Muscles are costly tissues in the human body, consuming a lot of energy and requiring significant nutritional support. To build muscle, adequate carbohydrates, water, protein, and sleep are all essential. The main nutrients required for muscle fiber synthesis are amino acids (derived from protein breakdown), while muscle cells also store glycogen and water. Muscle growth requires two main conditions: high-intensity stimulation and a high-protein diet, essentially "starving" the muscles and then feeding them. Weight training, commonly known as weightlifting, improves the muscle strength of the limbs and also burns midsection fat (visceral fat), enhancing overall aesthetics and yielding excellent results. Aerobic training is a systemic activity, burning both fat and muscle. Prolonged aerobic training can lead to a conversion between fat and muscle consumption, with muscle becoming the primary energy source. Therefore, it's recommended to complete aerobic training within one hour; otherwise, the benefits outweigh the gains. How do muscles grow? Through training, we damage and tear muscle fibers, causing minor injuries. Then, we provide them with nutrition and time to repair. Repaired muscle fibers are thicker than before. Muscles follow the principle of "use it or lose it," meaning we must continuously tear them and allow them to repair. Muscles are like an engine, while fat is just a fuel tank; to burn fuel (lose fat), you must exercise. While strength training during a fat loss period may not significantly increase muscle mass (engine size), it can help maintain muscle mass and increase engine power, leading to higher fuel consumption, increased basal metabolic rate, more efficient fat loss, and less likelihood of rebound.

While fat loss and muscle gain don't require elaborate training plans, a basic understanding of the body is essential. The core challenge of simultaneously achieving fat loss and muscle gain lies in protein biosynthesis. Simply put, countless muscle cells in the body are broken down and excreted daily, while countless new cells are synthesized to replenish them-this process is protein biosynthesis. Under normal diet and health conditions, the mass of human muscle tissue remains relatively constant, and the cycle of cell growth and breakdown is relatively balanced. Therefore, a normal person's body fat and muscle mass remain at a constant level. Strength training damages muscle cells, sending signals to the body to accelerate protein biosynthesis, thereby repairing the damaged cells. Driven by self-adaptation mechanisms, the body will oversynthesize muscle fibers to better cope with the stimulation of future resistance training, resulting in larger and stronger recovered muscle tissue. This process of the body adapting to external challenges is the essence of muscle growth; simply put, it's the rate of protein biosynthesis exceeding the rate of protein breakdown. After a change in body fat percentage, the changes in the body are very noticeable; waist and hip circumference will decrease accordingly. Even better, as your body fat percentage gradually returns to the standard range, once you lose weight, you develop a "lean physique" and are less likely to regain it.