Saturday, January 24, 2009

Do I Need to Lose Weight Before Bodybuilding?

By Steve Dale

To lose weight before bodybuilding is not only unnecessary, it takes more effort than bodybuilding alone. In order to accomplish that task you would have to forgo the bodybuilding program while you tried to lose weight rather than combining the two and reaching your goals much faster.

In order to lose fat you must burn more calories than you intake. If you are on a sensible diet and nutritional plan that cuts your caloric intake and you include this as part of a bodybuilding program, you will be burning more calories than you are eating and in turn losing weight as you increase muscle mass.

A bodybuilding program will drastically help with weight loss. Your body's metabolism is determined by how your body is capable of burning calories and how efficiently your body burns that energy.

If you body's metabolism increases, the more calories it burns throughout the day. Lean muscle mass, age, and gender are all factors in your metabolic rate.

The more lean muscle your body has, the higher your metabolic rate is. This means that if you follow a bodybuilding program and a healthy diet, your body will burn away those extra pounds and inches because adding muscle mass will increase your metabolic rate.

To attempt to lose weight before bodybuilding is a complete waste of time. As you go through the right sort of bodybuilding program you will be able to see your fat disappear and your muscle mass and/or muscle tone increase.

Many people rely on their body mass index (BMI) to know if they are within a healthy weight range; however, as you work through a bodybuilding program, you will notice that this is no longer a valid indicator of obesity or health.

Muscle is heavy and dense, so as you add lean muscle mass to your body with a body building program, you may not see a decrease in your weight. However, this does not mean you have not lost fat, it means you are shifting your muscle to fat ratio. You are becoming learner, not lighter.

Since BMI is your height divided by your weight multiplied by 703, a person who regularly body builds could have a BMI similar to someone who is obese. To accurately gauge your body's fat; you should use fat callipers or body fat analyzers.

The only real permanent weight loss programs that work over and over again are those centred around a fitness regime, and a bodybuilding program is by far the best way to lose fat, so this should give you even more incentive to start a program.

As you progress with your bodybuilding program you will notice the fat inches begin to disappear and your muscle tone starts to show. And remember, you do not need to lose weight before bodybuilding, but you do need a good bodybuilding program to help lose fat and feel great permanently. - 16004

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