Definition Fitness

Losing fat and gaining muscle-People who are new to resistance training or are coming back from a long layoff can often lose fat and gain muscle simultaneously (meaning same day or week), but only for a certain period of time. After that, it’s generally most effective to focus on one goal at a time – either fat loss or muscle gain. We call these “bulking” and “cutting” cycles, and they are referred to frequently in this community.

People often refer to losing fat and gaining muscle simultaneously as “toning”, but some people think of that word as having a different meaning. It should be noted that the word “tone” doesn’t have any relevance to reshaping your body. There are no exercises to “tone”, there are no diets to “tone”, you can only lose fat and/or gain muscle. And of course, you can gain fat and lose muscle.

Losing fat-Unless you are new to lifting weights, coming back from a long layoff, or are on drugs, you can only lose fat by consistently eating fewer calories than you burn. To lose fat and maintain muscle effectively you have to eat fewer calories than you burn and have a good weight training program. Partitioning can be improved greatly by the specifics of one’s diet and training program. Muscle loss on a diet is more and more likely the lower your bodyfat percentage is. (There are other factors as well)

Gaining muscle-Unless if you are new to lifting weights, coming back from a long layoff, or are on drugs, you can only gain a significant amount of muscle mass by eating extra calories and weight lifting and/or cutting back from daily activity while still weight lifting. By doing this most people will gain some muscle and gain some fat. Again, partitioning can be improved greatly by the specifics of one’s diet and training program.

Losing fat from specific areas = “spot reduction”-A frequently asked question is to how to target and remove fat from certain areas of your body via exercise. This is called “spot reducing” and is generally impossible. When you diet, fat leaves your body in genetically predetermined patterns. When you eat excess calories you will gain fat in genetically predetermined patterns. No amount of crunches will burn stomach fat, and no amount of leg lifts will burn leg fat – exercising the muscle has no direct effect on the specific fat covering that muscle. Sad but true!

How to schedule cardio and weight workouts Many people ask which to do first, or if they should schedule them on different days, or what. The answer depends on your own personal schedule and what’s doable for you, but there’s one thing that’s pretty definite – if you do a long and/or intense cardio session and then try to lift weights, you won’t get the most out of your weight workout. You may even be more likely to injure yourself. Other than a warmup (5-15 minutes low-to-moderate intensity) doing cardio right before weights isn’t a good plan. You can schedule weights and cardio on separate days, or do one in the morning and one in the afternoon or evening. Or if it’s absolutely necessary you can do weights first and then your cardio. But please, don’t do a major cardio session and then expect to lift well.

This advice is intended mainly for those who are training for strength sports or for general fitness, and your needs may vary depending on your goals and priorities. If your “cardio” is actually training for a sport such as running or cycling, and that’s what’s most important to you, then splitting workouts would be ideal. However, if you need to do both you might consider putting the sport-specific training first. If you have questions about how to arrange workouts for other sports or activities, please go ahead and post your specific questions, and/or consult a community that’s geared specifically to that activity.

And lastly to clear up a common misconception, fat cannot turn into muscle and muscle cannot turn into fat.