Although I set my alarm at 4:30 this morning, I naturally woke up at 4:25 and when I looked at the clock, I thought, “why bother?”. So, I moseyed on downstairs and popped my Probiotic and fixed my usual cup of coffee.

Caffeine… you are my best friend (whenever I’m not eating or thinking about cashews or pancakes).

Last night, I knew exactly what I was going to talk to you about. It’s this whole “Can you gain muscle AND lose fat?” debate. That’s one of the reasons I specifically wrote the Metabolic Meatheads 4-week program as a bonus when you get Elliott Hulse’s “Grow Stronger Method” program.

First, you want scientific PROOF that you CAN gain muscle and lose fat at the same time. Let’s start with this nerdy study:

Men and women performed a simple strength training circuit 3 days per week for 12 weeks, gaining 4 pounds of lean mass while losing 4 pounds of fat mass.

No changes in diet. No addition of interval training. <== (AKA “Boom”)

By the way, the average age for this group was 62.

Reference:
Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Apr;85(4):1005-13. Resistance training and dietary protein: effects on glucose tolerance and contents of skeletal muscle insulin signaling proteins in older persons. Iglay HB, Thyfault JP, Apolzan JW, Campbell WW.

What About Women?

I’m just being honest here – I DON’T like the “skinny” look that so many women go after. I’d rather you look athletic and healthy. I have a web-coaching female that loves to dominate her deadlifts, and because of that, she won $500 in the last TT Transformation Contest. She proved that you can build muscle and lose fat at the same time.

But you want more proof. Fine. Here:

In this study, girls did 5 days per week of strength training (and NO cardio) while drinking a liter of milk after each workout and they were able to gain 4.2 pounds of lean mass while losing 3.5 pounds of fat.

In your face science nerd.

So that proves you can gain muscle and lose fat at the same time as a female, too.

Reference:
Med Sci Sports Exerc. Body Composition and Strength Changes in Women with Milk and Resistance Exercise. Josse AR, Tang JE, Tarnopolsky MA, Phillips SM.

Hey, side note – isn’t the reference stuff so boring? Does anyone really read that? Who knows.

So, now that the proof is there – how do you do it?

First, let’s take a look at the nutrition side of things that you can use with a workout program like Metabolic Meatheads designed to help you sculpt and build muscle while burning belly fat at the same time.

This method isn’t perfect, but this method has been the winner with my clients:

1. On your off days – keep your calories about 200 BELOW your maintenance level

2. On your workout days, keep your calories about 200-300 calories ABOVE maintenance level.

3. On your workout days, try to consume your carbs around your workouts. An easy and inexpensive solution – low fat chocolate milk with some fruit.

So, you have your nutrition figured out (which is the most important). Let’s take a look at your workout approach.

When it comes to building muscle as the priority while losing fat, I like to “spice things up” and use a 4-day program. That means more volume and more muscle damage, which means your muscles build back up harder and more dense, while burning more calories, shedding stubborn fat, giving you that chiseled athletic look while building muscle and burning fat at the same time.

That doesn’t mean you won’t be living in the gym, either. You can get in and out of the gym in about 45 minutes and still do everything you need to build muscle and burn fat.

I also love (and so will you) using the meathead approach. That means you’ll be doing some of the meathead exercises like DB Tricep Extensions and DB Curls.

But be warned – I got whacky with the arm superset in Workout D. Your arms will be creating roadmaps (good times).

Here’s the key to losing fat WHILE you build muscle…

Metabolic Finishers, of course.

So, after Workout A of Metabolic Meatheads, you are to perform a lower body finisher. I filmed this finisher for you yesterday in my living room. I was planning on doing it at the gym with my client, but my phone locked up. (Don’t get me started on my Android phone… here I come Iphone). I’m surprised I avoided running into one of Champ’s toys.

Here is that video of the finisher after Workout A:

I typically write total body finishers, but not this time. After your lower-body focused workout in Workout A, you will demand more from your legs through the finisher as well. Good times.

Adding a finisher at the end of your muscle-building workouts allow your fat to stay at bay, and even lose fat if that is what you want (remember the guidelines above). They will also improve your overall performance in the gym, too.

In fact, the way I wrote the finishers in the Metabolic Meatheads is like this:

After Workouts A and C, you perform a lower body finisher

After Workout B, you perform an upper body finisher

After Workout D (this is my favorite – and based on client feedback, this was their favorite, too), you actually perform a total body finisher. Workout D is also the one with the crazy arm superset, too. Fun times.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t use a meathead style workout to focus on fat loss, either. Simply try to hover around 300 calories BELOW maintenance level and see what that does. Always give it 2 weeks for any changes, and remember to measure with clothes or a tape measure, and not the scale.

So, that’s how you gain muscle and lose fat at the same time using the Meathead approach.

After all, aren’t we all meatheads at heart?

So, here is what you need to do:

Grab Elliott’s program, The Grow Stronger Method THIS WEEK by clicking below:

=> Grow Stronger Method

Then, forward your receipt to us at cranktraininghelp@gmail.com and we’ll send you the Metabolic Meatheads program so you can gain muscle and lose fat at the same time using the methods above. And don’t forget, you can focus on just fat loss, too.

Release the metabolic meathead in you and of course…

May you never, EVER get bored with your workouts,
Mikey, CTT

Tags: build muscle and lose fat at the same time, metabolic finishers