Are You Ready to Lose Weight and Gain Muscle?
The Basic Two Steps to Lose Weight and Gain Muscle
Most everyone knows that the two basic steps to lose weight and gain muscle is diet and exercise. No big secret there. But what is the correct diet and what are the correct exercises that will make you lose weight and gain muscle? This is where opinions vary and can be very misleading.
You Are What You Eat
So if you eat the wrong things you are going to be overweight. Again, this is no big secret here. So to lose weight what
Eat Right to Lose Weight and Gain Muscle
should you eat? Well let’s ask this first:
1. What can you eat that you enjoy and will make us leaner and healthy?
2. What program will help control calorie intake?
The answer is to eat a wide variety of foods with high nutrition but with low calories. Studies have shown that people with higher protein intake are less likely to have the lost weight come back on their bodies. Also, you should try to lean more toward vegetable protein than meat protein. So here is a short list of foods that will help you with your diet.
Fruit:
Berries (blueberries, strawberries) provide natural fructose.
Apples contain high fiber.
Cantaloupe and melons provide good nutrition.
Vegetables:
Greens- spinach, cucumbers, zucchini, lettuce and broccoli are low in calories and fat-free. They also provide high protein.
Carrots are low in calories.
Beans and peas, which are low in calories.
Lean Protein Meats
Chicken Breast
Alaskan Salmon
Grass fed Beef Steak.
Whole Grains
100% whole wheat bread.
Brown rice (not white rice).
Oatmeal and Barley cereals.
Yams and Sweet Potatoes.
This is just some of the foods you can eat when you are trying to lose weight and gain muscle. You should obtain a good nutrition guide for helping you follow your diet. This guide will provide detail about the number of calories to consume and how they should be broken down between protein, fats and carbohydrates.
Exercises to Lose Weight
Just increasing your metabolism will start to help you lose the weight. The start or increase in an exercise program will accomplish the increase in your metabolism. But you have to exercise right. For example, you could join a gym and run the treadmill for thirty minutes and accomplish nothing more than wearing down the tread on your sneakers. You should either consult with an expert or find a good exercise guide to help you with doing the right exercises.
So let’s consider some exercises that will get you building muscle mass that in turn will burn off calories and increase your metabolism.
Push Ups:
As with all exercises you need to do them correctly to gain any benefit so let’s go over the correct way for doing a push-up.
1. Brace your abdomen muscles and maintain your body in a straight line from your toes to your shoulders at all times.
2. Position your hands slightly wider than your shoulder width.
3. Lower yourself down slowly until you are about 3 inches from the ground.
4. Use your chest muscles, shoulders and triceps to lift yourself.
Lift Weights to Lose Weight and Gain Muscle
Dumbbell Workouts:
On a Bench
1. You can do this on a flat bench or an incline bench at about 45 degrees.
2. Extend the dumbbells above your chest with your arms fully extended. You can have your palms facing down toward the floor.
3. Slowly lower the dumbbells down to the chest level along side of your head. Repeat to extend the dumbbells as explained in step #2.
Squats:
1. While standing with your feet about shoulder width apart have a dumbbell in each hand.
2. Step forward with a long step.
3. Bend your back knee to the ground and lower your body bringing your front thigh parallel to the ground.
4. Maintain your body upright and do not bend your back.
5. Return to the upright position and perform the same exercise with the opposite leg.
Depending on your physical shape and your personal physician’s approval, you can eventually work up to 30 push-ups in a set. You can eventually work up to 75 pounds for the dumbbells on the bench exercises for 10 reps. When you are doing your squats you can likewise do 10 reps working up to 85 pounds for the dumbbells.
Keep Your Diet and Exercise Program Alive
When you are trying to lose weight and gain muscle remember that you have to keep with the diet and exercise 
program. Many people have started only to give up. To avoid boredom consider finding a partner who will motivate you to reach your goals. Having the right mindset to lose weight and gain muscle is very important and not to be overlooked. Stay positive and purpose driven.