Build muscles to lose weight!

Whether you are just starting out on a fitness regime or are already on one, you need to keep this one thing in mind. Building muscles not only helps you burn fat but also helps you look better and stay fitter. When you work towards losing fat and gaining muscles, your body measurements, like your waist circumference, change even though your weight remains almost the same. The key to measure your progress is to see how your clothes fit and not how much you weigh. Here’s how you can build lean muscles with your diet and exercise.

Exercise tips by fitness expert Kris Gethin
Okay, first let’s get this out of the way – the common belief that cardio is for weight loss while weight training is for building muscle is wrong! The truth is that not only does weight training help you burn more calories while you’re doing it, it will also keep on burning fat long after you’re done! ‘When you start training regularly with weights, your muscles develop, become denser, and burn more calories. Though cardio is an excellent way to lose fat, it burns fat only while you’re performing the exercise, not round the clock. Strength training, on the other hand, turns your body into a full-time calorie-burning machine. Try these yoga asanas to build muscles and tone your body at home.

Diet tips by nutritionist Neha Chaddha
If you want to build muscles and get rid of the fat at the same time, you need to eat enough to preserve the muscle but not so much to put on fat. Here are some basic rules you must follow.

• Eating protein-rich foods can keep you feeling full for longer while eating too many carbohydrates can make you feel bloated. So, eat a lot of eggs, chicken, fish and protein-rich vegetables. Also, if you want to include carbohydrate in your diet, go for the unrefined ones like brown rice and whole wheat bread and pasta.
• If you cut down on fats in your diet altogether, you will start feeling deprived. You should aim for around 90g of fat per day. Go for monounsaturated fats found in olive oil, canola oil and nuts instead of saturated fat from cheese, butter and vegetable oil.
• If you are trying to get a lean and toned body, make sure that your calorie intake is not below 1200 calories as your body can go into famine mode and hold onto fat.

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