Burn Fats and Build Muscles at the same time?!

Hello! I wanted to do a short a post on burning fats while building muscles, because lately my group of friends have been asking me questions on it.
Just thought it'll be easier for everyone if I posted something on it to help them understand the process of how to do it and what goes on when doing it.
Keep the information out there for anyone to refer to :)

Here are some of the FAQs.

1. Can I burn fat and build muscles at the same time?
The answer to the question is, YES! You can build muscles and burn fat at the same time, I feel that it is the most efficient way instead of doing it one at a time.
In fact I like to call this process "a trade off". Trading fats for muscle, what better deal could one ask for :P .
I'll go into detail as to how the building/repairing of muscles help to burn the fats in your body in a later post :)

2.How do I burn fat and build muscles at the same time?
Hit the gym, do compound exercises such as Bench Press, Rows, Pull Ups, Squats, Shoulder Press. Movements that require a few muscle groups to work at the same time, unlike isolated exercises like Bicep Curls or Triceps Extension where only one muscle group is working at a time. If you don't want to gym, do bodyweight squats/pull ups/push ups. Limit your rest time to no more than 1 min, keep your heart rate up, but don't overtrain/overexert!

3.Can I just burn tummy fat?
Sadly no you can't just choose one area of your body to burn fat. Losing fats is a full body process, in fact the tummy is one of the last areas that fat is burned by the body. This is especially so for guys. So stop doing those 1000 crunches a day hoping for your 6packs to appear or belly fats to vapourise. Only through proper diet and exercise will you eventually burn the fats off.

4.What kind of diet should I have?
Diet is the most important part of burning and building. Not taking into consideration sleep/supplements/water/other factors, just between diet and exercise, diet would take up ~60-70% of the fat burning process and exercise ~30-40%. However you must understand that diet and exercise goes hand-in-hand, doing one without the other is ineffective. I would suggest switching simple carbohydrates for complex carbs food sources. Add lean meat to your diet like chicken breast meat which is a good source of protein, you can also have fish in your diet for the high protein. Protein helps with muscle repair and recovery. Try to avoid food which contains Trans Fat and Saturated Fat, go for Polyunsaturated or Monounsaturated fat sources usually in plant sources/nuts/fish.

5.Does cardio help burn fat and build muscles?
I like to see cardio as a supplement to your workout. Like how we can build muscles without taking protein shakes, we can lose fats without cardio as well. However, taking protein shakes will help build muscles better, just like how cardio can help burn fats better. So if you really want to add cardio to your fat burning workout, in my opinion it's best to do it after your gym or calisthenic workout for that extra burn.Use Low intensity steady state(LISS) cardio - i.e brisk walk on the treadmill for 20-30mins, slow jog(5km max.) If it's purely a cardio day, go for High Intensity Interval Training(HITT) like interval sprints or try fartlek though not exactly HIIT it is similar in nature.


These are just a few of the more common questions asked by my friends.
If you have any other questions related to losing fats and gaining muscles, feel free to ask me by leaving a comment :)

It's a short post nothing too detailed, I'll elaborate further in another post when I get the time to explain things in detail.
There's much more to it for each point mentioned so do stay tuned to find out more :)

Till the next post!