Muscle and Fat in a Battle

Fat and muscle are at war for your body! here are a few things to practice that will help muscle win the battle. Remember muscle is the most calorie expensive tissue in the body. It burns more calories than other tissue, when the body is at rest.

To burn more calories you've got to increase your muscle tissue. This will require you to strength train. Increasing your strength training will require you to eat more protein.

The two most important times to eat protein are within a half hour of waking up in the morning and right after a workout. Good sources for protein are eggs, chicken, fish, lean cuts of red meat, nuts, and Greek yogurt. Protein powders can also be helpful, but be smart.

Strength training means stimulating your muscles past their current capacity. Your training will need to be intense and you should expect progression. You'll have to work hard. Progress will be represented by increase in reps and/or weight load. If that isn't happening, you're probably not adding muscle tissue.

Unfortunately, the fatter we get the more our metabolism slows down, which results in storing more fat. It's a bad cycle. Thankfully, the more muscle tissue we add the easier it is to stay lean.

Good luck in your battle. You can do it!

Author: Travis Leeman

Travis is a personal trainer in Indianapolis at Fitness By Design. In addition to working with clients one-on-one, he leads bootcamp style fitness classes. See Travis on YouTube doing chin ups the hard way.