Hi friends! Today I would like to tell you about what is easier: to lose weight or to pump up.

Friends! At the end of the article, I will have great news for you. In the meantime, let's get to the topic of the article.

You need to understand what is losing weight and gaining muscle mass.

Weight loss is the process of reducing the amount (percentage) of fat in our body.

Drying is the process of reducing the amount (percentage) of fat in our body, while maintaining the maximum possible muscle volume.

Gaining muscle mass is a complex biophysical process of increasing muscle volume.

It's the muscles! Not just weight gain, as many do.

Most, as soon as they learn that they need to stick to an excess calorie diet to cover the energy deficit and restore muscle tissue, they begin to eat like crazy. Sorry for being rude.

But it’s true, you can’t throw words out of a song.

As a result, 5-7 kg of muscle was gained per year, and 20-25 kg of fat. Then they brag: “I gained 30 kg in a year!”, so what? And the fact that you began to look like a pig, is it okay? "Who cares? The main thing is MASS!

Well no. Not important. The main thing in bodybuilding is high-quality muscle mass.

Those. mass gained through MUSCLES, not fat.

With this, I think, figured out.

The trick is that the process of building high-quality muscle mass does not last a week or a month, or even a year, but YEARS of diligent, constant work on your body and mind.

Exactly! Not only over the body. Often, it is the rational component that begins to limp.

For example, a person begins to swing, eat a lot of protein and carbohydrate foods, but train 6-7 times a week in the first years of training, naturally and without omissions.

What happens to the body?

Due to under-recovery, squandered energy, one of the basic principles of muscle mass growth is not fulfilled -.

The next thing is that each person has his own PHYSIOLOGICAL (genetic) ceiling, above which it will not work to jump without AAS (anabolic steroids).

I mean that every person will sooner or later hit his physiological ceiling.

The genetic limit depends, by and large, on your ancestry. What muscular and other qualities were laid in you by your ancestors as a result of anthropogenesis (evolution).

In order to give you some kind of benchmark in numbers, I’ll say that approximately more or less dry muscle mass for a person with a height of 175-185 cm is 85-90 kg.

We are talking about competent training and diet, as well as a long training experience (usually more than 5 years).

Most people, unfortunately, do not have this competent approach, because. most people are not accustomed to receiving constantly new knowledge and implementing it, and around you can constantly run into low-quality information.

What is the main mistake?

I believe that the main mistake of people is that they take the wrong benchmarks and their expectations are often incommensurate with the possibilities.

Now I will explain.

Many people go to the gym impressed by the physique of top athletes.

And in itself this is not bad, because a person is already STARTING TO DO SOMETHING instead of just sitting on the couch, but still, it is confusing, because. these same beginners are guided by the training of top athletes, although their training is accompanied by a colossal overload that only athletes training on steroids can withstand.

The entire bodybuilding industry, ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING, is built around taking various combinations of exogenous (obtained from outside) anabolic hormones (testosterone, insulin, growth hormone).

Steroids accelerate the recovery process of an athlete to incredible speeds.

Therefore, a person can endure daily, heavy, constantly destructive training, against the background of increased calorie content.

This article is not about that, but remember this point - professional athletes train on split programs that involve frequent workouts. take doping, which speeds up the process of their recovery.

Ordinary people who just went to the gym to pump up a bit of bitsuhu do not have such recovery opportunities, that's what I'm talking about.

The results of natural athletes, of course, are less.

As a result, the natural athlete reaches the physiological limit and that's it, further progress is practically limited.

What if the person stops exercising?

In short, the bottom line is that if a person begins to “give in” to training for weeks 3-4, then his muscles will slowly begin to burn out in the truest sense of the word.

The body will reduce what we do not use, and in addition what spends a large amount of energy.

Yes, there is such a thing as muscle memory, but in most cases it happens that a person who started skipping workouts then does not begin to fully train in the same mode.

And if all this is accompanied by a lack of proper nutrition, then the muscles begin to burn at an extremely high speed.

So it's easier to lose weight?

If someone tells you this, then, most likely, he does not have much control over the situation, because. there is NOTHING more unfavorable for the body than the burning of reserve energy reserves.

And fat is exactly the reserve source of energy for our body (the main one is carbohydrates).

In fact, it all depends on the state in which each individual person resides.

Depending on the initial state, the rate of weight loss will be different!

For example, if a person weighs 120-150 kg for at least 2 years, then it will be extremely difficult for him to lose weight, because. over time, the body shifts the equilibrium point in one direction or another.

Therefore, fat people seem to start eating right, adhering to a calorie deficit, they train, but at the very beginning the result can be very close to zero. And only a little later, when the balance point starts to shift (after 2-4 months), the result will begin to appear.

And also, if a person is fat, then he needs more time, effort, perseverance, motivation to adhere to an unusual diet and physical activity, so many give up over a long distance.

Bodybuilding is a sport that loves hard work and consistency.

If a person has 10-20 kg of excess fat, then most likely, other things being equal, it will be much easier for him to lose weight.

I say this to the fact that it would not be entirely correct to say that losing weight is easy. No not like this. But for some it will be easier to lose weight, and for others it will be more difficult. Depends on the input.

In fact, to answer the question of what is easier, lose weight or pump up, you need to take into account a bunch of factors:

• Age.
• Fitness.
• Genetics.
• Motivation.
• Financial opportunities.
• starting point.
• Etc.

It is for this reason that I cannot say which is easier, weight loss or muscle growth. These are two very energy-intensive and complex processes in their own way.

But what is more real?

If we think purely hypothetically, without going into details, then, if we consider what is more real, then I am more inclined towards losing weight (“drying”).

Because It is very difficult for a natural athlete to build muscle!

Muscle growth requires a very long, resource-intensive approach, which includes proper nutrition, training, sleep, dietary supplements, a rigorous analysis of the results and its correction, preferably, control of analyzes.

To lose weight, a person can simply take his will into a fist, study the issue and make himself competent training and nutrition.

Therefore, with weight loss, it is a little easier to achieve much more real results.

By the way, I always advise a person to lose weight first, and only then build muscle mass, when he already has leptin and insulin resistance set up, neuromuscular connections are formed and built, etc.

And even more so, when you lose weight, the balance point will shift and the diet will become a little less stressful, i.e. you can afford a little more than during drying.

I hope that I managed to explain to you what is still easier, to lose weight or pump up.

I tend to believe that losing weight is a little more real than building muscle naturally.

In general, both weight loss and muscle gain are complex biophysical processes. Getting a beautiful body in any case is not so easy.

See you, friends.

P.S. Subscribe to blog updates. It will only get worse from there.

With respect and best wishes, !

If you ask fans and professionals of iron sports, you will get a bunch of conflicting (and sometimes absurd) answers. Someone will say that this is impossible, the other, on the contrary, will claim that he knows one guy who knows another guy who heard from a third that his friend is losing weight and gaining muscle at the same time, without the use of steroids and other pharmaceuticals, and the third he will confidently say that it is as easy as shelling pears, you just need to overtake fat into muscles!

Who is right and who is not? Let's find out.

muscle growth

Let's talk right away. If you want to build up your butt (make it more round/protruding/protruding, etc.) then you need to understand the process of muscle growth.

Our body is always trying to avoid changes by any means, in this regard, it is an ardent Republican 😉 The body wants to be in one constant, calm state. This phenomenon is called homeostasis.
But the calmness of our body is periodically roughly violated by the external environment. They constantly interact with each other to achieve the necessary balance. But if changes occur in the external environment, the internal will also be subject to cataclysms and changes. And if such changes occur again, then the internal environment will be forced to adapt in order to maintain constancy.

For example, for the first time a person burns, as they say “out of habit”, but if the procedure is repeated for a certain time, then the body begins to adapt and melanin is produced and you no longer look like boiled cancer. That is, your body is going through a process of adaptation - adaptation of the internal environment to changes in the external one. This is how balance is maintained and habituation occurs.

The same law of balance applies when it comes to muscle growth. When you train, you begin to upset the balance between the body and the external environment. Muscle cells are destroyed, many internal systems are affected, and the body begins to feel stress. With regular repetition of such actions, your body will have no choice but to adapt by building muscle mass.

How?

How do muscles grow? In a calm state, the muscle is in balance with the external environment. You train = cause indignation from the body. At the end of the workout, you relax, and the body begins to “heal” the muscles and remove all kinds of damage. The body carefully prepares for the possibility of a repetition of stress in order to be ready for such changes in the external environment. In the process of recovery of the body, the process of hypertrophy occurs.

Hypertrophy is a medical term meaning an increase in the whole organ or part of it as a result of an increase in the volume and (or) number of cells. Muscle hypertrophy, in turn, means muscle growth and an increase in the total muscle mass of the body due to the growth of individual muscle groups.

There are two types of muscle hypertrophy - M iofibrillar and With arcoplasmic. The first gives muscle growth due to an increase in the volume of muscle fiber cells (while their number remains practically unchanged), the second - due to an increase in the nutrient fluid surrounding this fiber.
The muscles obtained as a result of different types of hypertrophy differ from each other. M-hypertrophy is characterized by "dry" and tightened muscles, while C-hypertrophy is rather "puffed up" and voluminous. Different types of loads lead to different types of hypertrophy.

Studies show that the healing process of the muscle fiber begins 3-4 hours after training, and ends after 36-48 hours - which is why it is ineffective to train the same muscle group more often. The main recovery assistants are nutrition and.

You need to understand that this process is a very important point, because a significant part of the effectiveness of your physical activity is based on it. Without an understanding of this process, success and retention of results is out of the question. According to most experts, muscle growth is based on two main secrets - this is supercompensation(rest, in which the process of hypertrophy occurs) and load progression.

fat burning

The body stores the hated fat reserves in special fat cells in the form of triglyceride. And in order for this chemical to be used to meet the needs of the body, fat cells must break down triglycerides into fatty acids and glycerol. There is a name for this process - lipolysis, during which the final substances (FA and glycerol) leave the fat cell and are transported through the blood to the place of use.

The signal for the start of lipolysis is a certain hormonal background (namely, through hormones, special biologically active substances, your body controls all cellular work). Glands are responsible for the production and release of hormones. Once in the blood, hormones "travel" through all the systems and organs of your body.
So, being near the cells in which they should be involved, hormones, like the missing piece of the puzzle, contact the receptor, and the necessary command is launched. In our case, “fat splitting”.

I think it’s obvious that you can’t say “hey, boss, slow down” to the hormone of a specific problem area. The lipolysis command will be given for the whole organism, or not given at all!

After fat is released, it is transported along with the blood to the muscle . When it reaches this muscle, it burns out in the mitochondria, the "power plants" of a person.

But lipolysis(fat breakdown) is not synonymous with weight loss!
Yes, the triglyceride has left the cell and is absorbed into the blood. And now, in order to really get rid of it irrevocably, the body must "burn"(to spend on certain needs). If this does not happen, our poor triglyceride will circulate through the bloodstream, and deposited back in the same fat cells, or even on the walls of blood vessels, creating cholesterol plaques.

And that's exactly why no goji berries, turboslims, belts, saunas, body wraps, etc. are pure divorce!

So is it possible to combine these two processes: fat burning and muscle growth?

An important point in this matter: the synthesis and breakdown of protein is a continuous process, regardless of the type of food. Those. your body produces and destroys protein, without asking you at all.
When it comes to the muscle itself, the sum of protein synthesis and breakdown can lead to three different outcomes (Tipton & Wolfe, 2001).

• If more protein is synthesized than is broken down, then this can lead to to the growth of "lean" muscle mass.
• If the protein breaks down more than it is synthesized, then this can lead to to net loss of muscle tissue.
• If protein synthesis and protein breakdown balance each other, then this leads to to balance.

Studies show that exercise can lead to an increase in the rate of protein synthesis. It may be about the acceleration of transport of amino acids after exercise (Biolo et all., 1995). Moreover, it is strength training that, to a greater extent, can lead to an increase in muscle mass, if, of course, a sufficient amount of amino acids is provided (Phillips et al., 2002).
The body prefers to build muscle when it is in a positive energy balance, because under these conditions, there is a sufficient amount of macronutrients and available amino acids.

There are a few exceptions, i.e. cases in which in deficiency, for some time, an increase in muscle mass is possible:

1. in people significantly overweight(more than 25% for men, and the effect is fixed in just days or weeks), as they begin to follow a diet, coupled with training;
2. for beginners(the effect is again fixed for days or weeks, but not indefinitely);

   In either case, regular beginner training (both strength training and cardio) improves muscle tissue sensitivity to insulin and improves nutrient absorption (strength training is probably the most powerful tool in our arsenal to improve absorption nutrients in that particular tissue type).

   In addition, “complete” beginners have a fairly large number unclaimed calories floating in the blood(due to the developed insulin resistance of tissues, their fat cells become less receptive to storing excess calories and their blood contains a large amount of glucose, triglycerides and cholesterol). By the way, with the help of sports, overweight people begin to improve insulin sensitivity of tissues (muscle features) and their fat cells receive an incentive to more efficiently release excess stored energy. And the thinner you get and the longer you train, the more this effect fades away 🙁

3. professional athletes(in one of the studies, these were athletes with a total number of training sessions per week of about 15 hours, with an experience of 10-15 years);
4. when returning to strength training after a long break, provided that the person previously had a good muscular shape and a low percentage of fat, but having abandoned the training, he swam fat and became fat. So, returning to strength training, a person quickly feels the effect (the so-called "muscle memory"), which will also end quickly. He thinks that the fat is pumped into the muscles, but no, that's absurd. Read below why.

Concerning not beginners in sports and their desire to lose fat and grow meat, i.e. to provide both of these processes at the same time and in a calorie deficit (small / large / scanty / huge), then, alas, it is not feasible.

The higher the fitness and the lower the amount of fat in the body, the higher the process of adaptation to fat loss. This means that there is a significant increase in the sensitivity of tissues to insulin, especially in fat cells, which makes it difficult to ultimately lose fat, since people have a small percentage of body fat, i.e. fat cells not only have fewer accumulations, but they are becoming increasingly difficult to mobilize.

Besides, the higher the fitness, the more difficult it is, in principle, to get more muscle mass(i.e., over the years, it is more difficult to grow muscles than at the very beginning of strength training).

Our body is ill-equipped to do two things at the same time, especially when they contradict each other or require opposite conditions. For example, study after study confirms that the combination of heavy strength training with endurance training leads to significantly more modest results than training each indicator separately.

The processes of fat burning and muscle growth require completely different (and, in fact, mutually exclusive) conditions. Moreover, the specific conditions (calorie surplus at least) that allow you to grow muscle are the reason that promotes fat gain. And, in turn, the conditions necessary to burn fat is one of the reasons (along with the adaptation of the body) that you will burn muscle at the same time.

The synthesis of new tissues (whether muscle or fat) requires energy, and this energy cannot come from nowhere. The synthesis of muscle tissue is a particularly energy-intensive process, especially in comparison with the synthesis of fat.

One might idyllically believe that the calories needed for muscle growth could be magically taken from burning fat, but in reality this rarely happens, at least without specialized pharmacological preparations.

Actually, this is why all the proposed natural strategies that promote simultaneous weight loss with an increase in muscle mass are not very effective.
Simply put, if you do not belong to the above three groups of temporary exceptions, then you are more likely to you will not succeed with natural schemes, at the same time losing weight and gaining muscle mass.

Outcome

You can't lose weight and build muscle at the same time. These two goals require the use of different strategies and approaches. So, for example, in order to “pump up your ass”, you must consume more energy than you consume, i.e. must maintain a positive energy balance.
For the “relief press” and “split quadra”, you must consume fewer calories than you expend, i.e. must maintain a negative energy balance.

It's simple: first we lose weight - then we grow muscles.

"And here I am..."

Why you need to first lose weight (burn fat), and only then build muscle and not vice versa.

Or buy my paid training course, everything is mega-cool there:

• After losing weight and reaching 10-15% body fat (men); 15-20-25% (women) = fix this result.

Be sure to record the result, so that excess weight (fat) does not come back. I talked about this in more detail. This process takes about 5-6 months.

• After that, you can begin to grow muscles.

Gradually increasing the caloric content of the diet, that is, it is important to try to gain predominantly dry muscle mass (max muscle, with min fat) in order to look / feel 100%.

And for this you need to gradually increase the calorie content, for example, by +50 gr. carbs/week and look in the mirror at yourself, how is the result of muscle and fat growth. If the muscles grow with a minimum of fat = all is well. If it grows and a lot of fat = not good, you need to slightly reduce.

The goal is that you need to try to gain mainly MUSCLE (with a minimum of fat).

Losing weight and growing muscles at the same time = impossible, because these are completely different physiological processes that a priori simply cannot be combined into one.

Therefore, there is only one schema. Actually, that's all. Good luck to you!

Regards, Administrator.

Eat fewer calories than you burn. Professional fitness trainers call this negative energy balance. The bottom line is simple - the body receives less food than it needs, and for this reason it begins to use an "emergency" source of energy - fat.

Speed ​​up your metabolism. The higher it is, the better the food is absorbed and the faster it is excreted without forming fatty deposits. To increase your metabolic rate, eat more often and in smaller portions. And increase your fluid intake to two and a half liters per day.

Eat healthy food. And the consumption of foods that contain fats and sugar, reduce to a minimum. Fatty pork, fat-containing dairy products, cakes and pastries, chips and other snacks, sweet carbonated drinks - all these "goodies" stand in the way of getting rid of excess fat.

Reduce the amount of food you eat, but don't go hungry. Since fat is the "emergency" energy that the body turns to during periods of long-term fasting, short-term diets and not eating at all will not lead to anything. As soon as the old diet returns, the weight is restored again. In order to really lose weight, you need to eat less for a long time.

How to pump up muscles

To dry and stretch the muscles, make them elastic and embossed, do strength and cardio training. During the power part, glycogen is wasted and after that the subcutaneous fat begins to “burn” immediately. Therefore, first strength training, then running, jumping, jump rope, cardio. And all the while monitoring the number of calories consumed. When drying muscles, it is good to use amino acids. And do not forget to warm up before training, and finish the workout with stretching.

But in order to really increase muscle mass, which is especially important for, you will have to increase the calorie intake. Moreover, calories in the body should come not only from protein, but also from carbohydrates and a small amount of fat. In this case, it will be possible to get rid of excess fat, but it is unlikely that it will be possible to lose weight.

One of the most popular questions is - is it possible to lose weight and build muscle at the same time? Let's find out 😉

According to Alan Aragon's Research Review (AARR), November 2008: Aragon AA. Culking, part 1: great expectations, maximum possible increase in lean muscle mass for natural athletes with proper nutrition and effective types of training aimed at increasing MM:

Newbie- 1-1.5% increase in lean muscle mass of total body weight per month;

Middle level- 0.5-1% increase in lean muscle mass of total body weight per month;

Advanced level- 0.25-0.5% increase in lean muscle mass of total body weight per month.

That is, there is a dynamics of a decrease in the rate of gaining muscle mass with time approaching the "genetic limit" of the athlete.

We know that for muscle growth us need a calorie surplus, but what should this surplus be?

Muscle tissue is 70% water, 22% protein, and the rest is fat, carbohydrates, and minerals. The exact value of the amount of energy required for the synthesis of 1 gram of muscle is unknown. According to various studies, from 5 to 8 kcal accounts for the creation of 1 gram of muscle mass.

Calculations

Let's compare the data above and get the following values:

A beginner weighing 50 kg per month can gain - 0.5-0.75 kg of lean muscle mass under ideal nutrition and training conditions. Then the level of surplus kcal from its daily norm for the synthesis of this muscle mass should be 2,500 - 3,750 or 4,000 - 6,000 kcal per month, or an additional 83 - 125 or 133 - 200 kcal per day. That, in general, are “ridiculous” numbers, but with the correct calculation of your daily kcal norm, and most importantly, confirmation of this norm in practice (that is, a constant value of body weight for 2-3 weekly or monthly measurements), this small surplus of kcal (in combined with proper training) gives an increase in muscle mass (MM).

About macronutrients (BJU)

Let me remind you just in case...

1 gram of proteins = 4 kcal;

1 gram of fat = 9 kcal;

1 gram of carbohydrates = 4 kcal.

It turns out that the norm of kcal for a set of MM = the norm of kcal, at which the weight is stable + a small surplus of kcal for the synthesis of MM. Naturally, with a lack of protein, MM synthesis is impossible, therefore, there are recommendations to consume about 2 grams of protein per 1 kg of body weight, values ​​below reduce muscle mass synthesis, values ​​above do not make sense from the point of view of increasing synthesis. Fats at least 1 gram per kg, since it is very important for natural athletes to maintain a normal hormonal background, with values ​​​​lower, there is a risk of problems with the general hormonal background. The rest of the calories come from carbohydrates.

So, with a set of muscle mass, more or less figured out, but what about Losing weight and gaining muscle mass at the same time?

Losing fat mass and gaining muscle mass are essentially 2 opposite processes, one requires a deficit, and the other requires a surplus. But still there are exceptions when these two processes are not mutually exclusive:

1) An increase in MM is possible with a deficiency of kcal in people with high body fat (more than 25%). In this case, protein synthesis is stimulated by training, and the calorie deficit is covered by your own fat reserves. However, this option has a short-term effect, since the efficiency of protein synthesis decreases with weight loss, a decrease in fat reserves.

2) An increase in MM is possible with a shortage of kcal in beginners. Strength training becomes a powerful source of stress, which leads to a good hormonal response, improved insulin sensitivity of muscle tissue, improved nutrient absorption, increased protein synthesis, but again this has a short-term effect.

A combination of options 1 and 2 is possible. But the higher the fitness of an athlete and the lower the percentage of fat in his body, the less effective training with a kcal deficit, in the end it will not be about the growth of MM, but about the possibility of maintaining it with a shortage of kcal.

I told some details about losing weight and gaining MM in this video below.

I often hear the following phrases: I have been eating right for 2 months now, working out with a trainer, but ...» « butt doesn't grow», « no press" or simply " I don't see the result"How to be? It's an expectation-reality problem. The key word in this phrase is "2 months". This too little, I wrote above that, subject to all the rules and regulations in nutrition and training, a beginner can gain up to 500 grams of dry muscle mass per month - and that's good! But this not 500 grams in the buttocks, or arms ... These grams are “smeared” all over the body, and the longer we train, the less and less this increase becomes.

We all want to get the maximum, especially putting in a lot of effort, limiting ourselves to something, spending time on training, but big muscles do not come right away. It takes a lot of effort and time before the result is really noticeable.

So here are some tips:

- If you are a beginner, then try not to think about gaining muscle in the early stages. It is important for you to understand the correct technique, with each repetition you improve the neuromuscular connection (the relationship between the brain and muscles), while the weights, and accordingly your strength, can grow only thanks to this, and only then, having reached a certain limit, will adaptation to the loads occur due to muscle growth remember the rule of load progression);

- If you have excess fat, then it is better to lose weight first, and only then build muscle. We focus on low-intensity cardio, such as running on a fat burning pulse (this is an aerobic type of exercise that allows you to use fat as energy for muscles). Strength training is necessary to maintain the current MM. In nutrition, we create a small deficit of kcal, we monitor the amount of proteins and fats, we mainly limit carbohydrates;

- If your fat percentage is normal, then when gaining MM, do not “load” with a huge amount of calories, a small surplus and the correct distribution of BJU are enough. Focus on strength training;

- We are not trying to specifically combine a set of MM and weight loss. As I wrote, this option is possible in certain cases, but it is much more efficient to act in one direction. For example, first lose weight, and then grow lean muscle mass with the help of training and a small calorie surplus in the diet.