10 Tips To Lose Weight Without Losing Muscle

Perform Aerobic Or Cardio Exercises

It is believed that people doing basic cardio exercises with moderate to high intensity may prevent muscle degradation while losing weight.

Some highly preferred cardio workouts for weight loss are jumping jacks, walking, skipping, and running which are part of high-intensity workouts. But, how does cardio protect against the loss of muscle mass?

Cardio exercises enhance the heart rate and burn sufficient calories. Several studies^[1] suggest that cardio exercises could be highly useful in maintaining muscle mass.

But, it would be best if you focus on the intensity of cardio exercises to get the best benefits and reduce excess fat. Moreover, it is believed that week-long cardio may help achieve the maximum heart rate and tone the muscles.

Several doctors and trainers advise that you should not perform cardio exercises excessively as they may not allow you to recover from an energy-deficient state.

Focus On Strength Training

Strength and resistance training are two potential reasons for muscle growth. Moreover, exercises like weight lifting and working against resistance^[2] may help prevent muscle mass loss.

Strength and resistance training puts high pressure on muscles or tissues that causes micro tears or damage to the tissues due to muscle protein breakdown.

Hence, the damaged muscles are repaired^[3] by entering a muscle protein synthesis phase that may require a high protein diet to meet the protein requirements.

As the muscle repair phase gets higher than the muscle protein breakdown, the body experiences muscular growth. Hence, by preventing excessive muscular protein breakdown, you may protect against muscle loss.

Moreover, you should keep the exercise intensity moderate and cover all body parts in your workout routine to lower muscle degradation.

Consider Carbohydrates After Workout

You might be surprised to see carbs in the weight loss process, but carbohydrates could be the best nutrients to facilitate a healthy recovery phase.

Carbs could be part of your post-workout diet if you are a heavy lifter or perform high-intensity workouts. After heavy strength training, the muscle fibers get damaged, hence, they require immediate energy reserves to refuel.

A carb-rich diet post-workout could be highly beneficial for refueling^[4]. As soon as you finish a heavy or high-intensity workout, the metabolism and insulin sensitivity would be at their peak, i.e., the body may easily digest carbs and instantly fuel the body.

Don’t Push Too Hard

Generally, people choose a restrictive diet like a ketogenic diet to lower their body weight. But, these diets could cause^[5] muscle loss along with fat.

Moreover, a restrictive or drastic diet plan would be challenging to follow in the long term. Similarly, it would help if you do not overtrain yourself to prevent yourself from susceptible injuries.

Moreover, a harsh and challenging workout routine may drain your energy quickly and leave you energy-deficient leading to muscle loss.

Sometimes forceful or excessive workouts may result^[6] in missed active days due to fatigue or muscle soreness. Hence, you must consider rest days between active days to recover from stress.

Consider BCAA For Maintaining Calorie Deficiency

BCAA or branched-chain amino acids are the building blocks of protein chains. These essential amino acids could be highly useful in increasing an individual’s muscle mass.

Deposition of branched-chain amino acids in muscles could be used as stored energy for different metabolic activities.

Moreover, BCAA drink is a low or zero-calorie beverage that could be a potential replacement for high-calorie and heavy protein supplements.

Hence, consuming BCAA drinks would be highly beneficial in maintaining the calorie-deficiency and preventing^[7] muscle degradation in an individual.

You may consume BCAA drinks in optimum amount before the workout session. The drinks may boost energy and help you perform better.

Don’t Miss Proteins In Your Diet

Proteins are one of the essential nutrients to consider while building muscles. Increasing protein intake may help improve the muscle mass of an individual. Therefore, consuming low-calorie protein daily in your diet is a weight loss tip that works.

Moreover, higher protein concentration in the body could help heal the microtears of the tissues or muscles. Generally, to lose weight without affecting muscle mass, lean protein could be highly beneficial^[8].

Several studies suggest^[5] that an individual must consume 0.8-1.2 grams of protein per pound of their body weight daily to stay muscular.

So, it would be best to increase protein-rich food like chicken, fish, etc., in your diet to get the required amount of protein.

But, practically, getting such a considerable amount of protein from food would be difficult, hence, you may rely on protein supplements like whey protein to fulfill the remainder.

Create Moderate Calorie Deficiency

Creating calorie deficiency is essential to lower body weight. By reducing the calorie intake, you may develop a shortage of fuel, i.e., glycogen, hence, the body may use the fat reservoir as an energy source.

But, excessive calorie deficiency may lead to the degradation of muscle protein and fat. Hence, you should consider a diet with a balanced calorie intake to lower muscle protein loss.

You should avoid following any restrictive^[9] diet as it may not be helpful in the long term. It will help if you focus on limiting the calorie intake below your daily requirements.

Moreover, adding some muscle-building ingredients like lean protein, fibers, and healthy fats in optimum amounts may help to keep the muscle gain as usual.

Safe And Approved Dietary Supplements

Dietary supplements are consumed mainly by people doing heavy or high-intensity workouts. These nutritional supplements may help them build strong and dense muscles.

Moreover, the supplements contain added nutrients in optimum amounts to feed the body properly. Generally, multiple dietary supplements like protein shakes, BCAA drinks, etc., are available in the market.

But, all the supplements aren’t safe and approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), hence, you must consult a doctor or dietitian before adding any dietary supplement.

These dietary supplements may prevent muscle protein loss and enhance growth. Nutritional drinks^[10] may instantly boost energy; hence mostly consumed before workout sessions.

Additionally, it may help reduce fatigue and muscle soreness post-workout.

Sleep Sufficient Hours A Day

Sleep is one of the best remedies to recover from workout stress. Whenever you are training heavily, you may be putting the body under tremendous pressure.

Hence, the body needs sufficient time to recover^[11] from damages and injuries during workouts. It is believed that the human body secretes the highest level of growth hormone during the night.

Moreover, the level peaks during the deepest sleep hours, hence, the growth is highest during the period. Therefore, you should at least get 8 hours of sleep throughout the day to allow your muscles to relax and rebuild evenly.

Do Not Expect Heavy Weight Loss

One of the biggest mistakes people often make is expecting to lose excessive weight in a short span. The expectation leads to overdoing things like dieting, training, etc., which may harm the overall growth.

Several studies suggest that people expecting to lose weight without losing muscles should consider losing 1 or 2 pounds per week.

The above range of weight loss is safe for an individual as it won’t require a forceful reduction of calorie intake. Moreover, you may achieve the goal by reducing 500 calories from the daily amount needed.