lose fat and gain muscle

weight loss exercise class
Image by ninahale via Flickr

How To Gain Muscle And Burn
Bodyfat At The Same Time

by Jon Benson

What is your "big dream?"

I have two:

-- To make an impact on the lives of over 10M people before I die;

-- To have a family that's mobile so I can live in many places.

Not bad, right?

Want to know a "third" dream of mine? One that I saw become a reality a few years ago?

To gain muscle AND burn bodyfat all at the same time.

It's like a pipe-dream that somehow worked its way through the pipes and into my gym.

It is not easy, granted, but you can do it.

Almost anyone can do it.

You just have to train and eat in a very specific way.

Listen: You do NOT want to just "burn bodyfat" or god-forbid "lose-weight"... that will not give you the body you want.

You absolutely MUST shape your muscles, tighten and tone, and burn bodyfat.

And you can do it at the same time.

Most pros disagree with me. They think it is metabolically impossible to gain muscle while in a state of low-calorie dieting.

They are wrong.

Here's an article I wrote on this topic. I hope you enjoy it.

To save you time, I put a link to the online complete version of the article below...

- - - - -

I remember a friendly argument with my co-author of Fit Over 40 Tom Venuto. It all started when I told Tom how I was eating and training for my last peak. A peak is where you lower your bodyfat and try to maintain as much muscle mass as possible.

"There's just no way I could ever get in shape eating and training like that," says Tom. "Sure you could man...what are you, a mutant?" Tom fires back, then me, then Tom....and so it goes. (I really didn't call Tom a mutant. That was creative liberty.)

So why are so many fitness pros like Tom freaked out about my training and nutrition plan? Simple: I claim it burns fat while building muscle at the same time. Every time I read an article by some doctor or expert claiming it's "biologically impossible" to gain lean muscle mass on a hypocaloric diet (a diet low in calories) I just laugh.

I do more than make claims--I have proved this to be true many times. I've had my bodyfat hydrostatically measured during several peaks. In all but one I showed an increase of muscle mass and a decrease of bodyfat during a 12-16 week period. The one time I didn't show an increase in muscle mass when was I was training the most in the gym. That may not make sense right now, but it will in a moment.

Article Continued below --