4 Things Bodybuilders Can Do To Help Them Lose Fat More Easily

Bodybuilding may primarily be about gaining size, but not just any size is wanted. Muscle size – absolutely; Fat size – no way. However, it’s usually inevitable that some amount of fat will be gained whilst a bodybuilder goes though the traditional bulking phase, even if they play it slow with a tight diet. Most accept these fat gains, however unwanted, and continue going forward and worry about cutting the fat later. Once you come to the cutting stage, however, those without the experience or knowledge behind them can make many mistakes which not only slow their fat loss, but can stop it dead. Not to mention many will experience huge drops in strength and lose a lot of muscle mass. This can be largely avoided by following some of the tips given in this article.

1: Cut slowly

Don’t get me wrong, the idea of cutting is to lose fat as quickly as possible – but that doesn’t mean lose fat at all costs. You must be sure you retain as much muscle and strength as possible so you don’t spiral downwards into strength and muscle loss, lethargy and lose motivation and give up training. Most people lose their motivation for bodybuilding during cutting when they see their strength and muscle mass decline.

The secret is to accept that retaining muscle and strength whilst losing fat means you will probably have to re-adjust your fat loss expectations, maybe drastically.

A rule of thumb is to lose no more than 1.5lb of bodyweight each week when cutting. With continued training (you must keep lifting whilst losing fat or your body will eat the muscle instead of the fat) it is a good bet that most of that weight, if not all, will be fat. To play it safe, maybe even go for 1lb a week fat loss.

Keep in mind the more fat you have, the quicker you can lose it initially, so it’s natural for fat loss to slow the leaner you become.

2: Lower carbs, pre-workout and post-workout only

Carbs are hugely helpful for quick energy because the body prefers to use carbs for energy above all other nutrients. One thing most people aren’t aware of is the role carbs play in causing insulin release. Insulin is an anabolic hormone and responsible for keeping blood sugars down. It does this by forcing blood sugars (carbohydrates) into fat cells. When you consume carbs throughout the day, you encourage fat accumulation. When cutting, we want the opposite of this.

You want to eat carbs when you are most likely to use them for good purposes – to fuel a workout so they are burned straight off and not stored as fat, and after a workout when they are used for replenishing glycogen and rebuilding the muscles, and the raised insulin from carbs at this time is very beneficial to gaining muscle.

So, be sure you have most of you carbs during these times, and if you must have them at all throughout the rest of the day, have them very sparingly.

3: Do cardio post-workout

Losing fat is, when it comes down to it, dependant upon calorie reduction, but how you reduce your calories is very important. You can’t reduce your calories by too much each day (particularly via lack of eating) or you signal to your body you are starving, triggering your body to begin eating muscle mass to make up the calorie deficit – as the body tends to believe extra fat is more important than extra muscle. This is the reverse of what we want. Many people have a hard time losing fat purely from eating less as they feel they either don’t lose fat quick enough or they just become overcome with hunger and wind up binge eating wiping out their calorie deficit entirely.

The solution is to eat only slightly less, mostly from carb reduction, and to do cardio sessions to burn extra calories. I recommend no more than 30 minutes cardio. Some people like to do cardio immediately after training, whilst others do it later the same day or on a non-lifting day. Try and see which you prefer. It shouldn’t affect your lifting, so shouldn’t be done before training, and if you do cardio on off-days and find yourself struggling to lift the next day, cardio may be using too much energy and you may need to change it to post-workout or do it later on in the lifting day (provided you aren’t training the day after).

If you do cardio after your lifting, be sure to have at least a little of your post-workout protein and carbs just to tide the muscles over for the next 30 minutes so they don’t starve and your blood sugars don’t plummet putting you at risk of passing out. It’s important to always have a good sized post-workout protein portion within an hour of lifting, and the sooner the better.

4: Compound Exercises

Ok, just because you’re cutting doesn’t mean you stop changing your routine around, but if you can, when cutting, make the majority of your routine about compound exercises. Doing this will help you to burn many more calories than isolation exercises and give you overall better results at maintaining muscle mass and burning fat through burning extra calories.

This article is by no means an exhaustive list, but it’s a pretty good place to start and covers most of the basics. Now, cut that fat!