Some Common Questions
I’m looking to build muscle. What’s the secret?
To be very brief, building muscle consists of lifting weights, and eating a lot. Be advised that when you first start to exercise, you will most likely experience increased appetite. You will need to increase the amount of food you intake by a decent amount, since your new exercise habits will cause your daily calorie expenditure (DCE) to increase. Thus, you need to increase your caloric intake to balance the increased output. Furthermore, you need eat even more than you need to balance it, since you need a positive balance to build muscle.
I’ve been training at the gym for a while now. I’ve built some muscle, since I’ve been eating more, but now my muscle mass has slowly stopped increasing. Am I doing something wrong?
This situation might be related to the training program itself. If you’ve been doing the same work-out for a year, you might want to change the
exercise/set/repetition scheme, according to the principle of variation, which states that your body adapts to weightlifting stress after about 1-2 months. Nonetheless, if your body weight remained stable for the past few months, one thing is certain: you are in a neutral caloric balance. So bump your food intake up a little you might just start to build muscle again. If you don’t (ie. you’re gaining fat), chances are the problem is the way you train.
No matter how hard I train, I don’t think I’m gaining muscle mass. My gym trainers have said that I may be a “hard gainer”. Could this be the reason behind it?
Yes, it’s a possibility. If you are very lean and don’t gain or lose weight easily, you have a body type that some may consider a “hard gainer”. This type usually means high metabolism, so you’ll want to eat some more to offset that metabolism. I suggest you increase your food consumption and keep exercising.
I want to burn fat. What should I do?
The best way is to exercise and reduce your caloric intake somewhat. Exercise will add to your daily calorie expenditure, thus causing more calorie usage. When you decrease your caloric consumption in addition, you will have a negative caloric balance, your body will look for stored calories. Fat is the primary source, so your body will be using up fat for energy, allowing you to lose fat. However, decrease your food consumption by a little at a time and don’t over-exercise. When you’re losing about 1 to 2 pounds (or 1% of your body weight) per week, that’s a good rate of fat loss. If you’re losing more, then you may be losing muscle mass in addition to fat loss. You don’t want to end up there, so remember fat loss is a gradual process. Keeping your muscle mass is very important, because it eventually raises your resting metabolic rate and thus increases your daily calorie expenditure.
