This article doesn’t just apply to bodybuilders, but to everyone who wants to lose fat. Preserving muscle is essential whilst losing fat, because muscle mass helps keep the metabolism high, which burns fat. Once muscle mass starts to be disappear, the metabolism slows making losing fat much harder. In this article I will show you how to lose fat without losing muscle.
On the most basic level, maintaining muscle when losing fat is as simple as telling the body that the muscle mass you have is still needed. You do this by using resistance exercises. For instance, if you have access to weights, then training with weights around 3 times a week, covering the entire body (particularly the areas you wish to maintain muscle) is all you would need to do.
If you don’t want to train with weights, you can perform bodyweight exercises such as push ups, one legged squats, or whatever you desire. But, just make sure that you do this, or you’ll soon see muscle begin slipping away. (It’s important you know that you can’t build muscle whilst losing fat, because building muscle requires calorie surplus, and losing fat requires calorie deficit — which can’t co-exist.)
You can try to feed the muscles the nutrients they need, though. Protein is the most important nutrient in building and maintaining muscle. And, like I say, although you can’t build muscle whilst in a calorie deficit, you can supply the body with adequate protein, so the muscles aren’t burned for protein consumption.
Eat plenty of egg whites, fish, chicken and beef — particularly after your resistance training, but eat a little every 3 hours if you can.