Workout Adjustments When Moving To Fat Loss

photo credit: lululemon athletica

This is a guest post by Adana Lima.

If you've just come out of a period of muscle building and are now looking to shed off any of the body fat that you've accumulated along the way so you can now show off all that hard earned muscle tissue, you're going to have to keep a few things in mind.

Because the diet for a fat loss program is incredibly different than the diet for a muscle building program, there are some key adjustments that will need to be in place if you are to see success.

Many people don't go about their fat loss workouts correctly however, which is unfortunate because then they end up with issues such as a slow metabolic rate, lean muscle mass loss, and a severe decline in strength levels.

Let's take a quick look at a few of the main adjustments that you should keep in mind when switching over to a fat loss workout protocol.

If you can be sure to pay attention to these at all times, you should have no problem seeing the results that you're after.

Slash Workout Volume

The very first thing that you must do when switching over to your new workout program is to reduce the total volume that the muscles are exposed to.

Because you will be decreasing your overall calorie intake and very often decreasing your carb intake as well, this means there will be less fuel availability to not only perform those workouts with, but also recover from as well.

If you're attempting to do set after set after set, your reserves are going to run low and you're going to quickly burn out.

As a rule of thumb, you should usually be doing about half of the total volume that you did on a muscle building workout program in your fat loss workout program.

Unfortunately most people go the opposite direction because they figure more exercise will help them burn more calories faster.

Consider A Full Body Approach

Second, you may also want to consider switching your entire workout program over to a full body training session as well.

The reason for this being that there's a very good chance you will be adding some cardio workouts into the mix now as well, and if you're hitting the weights hard four to five times a week, when are you ever going to fit cardio in?

A full body workout is best for revving the metabolic rate and will then also allow enough time to get these cardio workouts in without overtraining yourself.

While you may not think the full body approach is going to be complex enough to produce fat loss, don't kid yourself. Some of the best fat loss results will be seen with full body approaches.

Maintain The Weight

Moving on, another must for your weight loss workout program is to make sure that you are maintaining the weight that you lifted during the muscle building workout program.
This is possibly the biggest mistake most people make – they lighten the weight as they increase the volume upwards.

The point to remember here is that heavy weight is essentially the signal to your body that it must maintain its muscle mass. If you're now lifting lighter weights than you used to your body sees no reason to maintain that much muscle tissue, and it may start to be lost as you go about the program.

More important than anything else as you move to the fat loss workout program is keeping up the weight you normally lift so really pay utmost attention to that.

Avoid Lots Of High Rep Training

Finally, the last mistake you don't want to be making with your fat loss workout program is performing a great deal of high rep training. This mistake goes hand in hand with the high volume concept and the reduced weight issue.

People think that high rep training where they move from one exercise to the next in a circuit style is always best for fat loss.

While you may burn a few more calories in this manner, you won't maintain your lean muscle mass and eventually you may also burn out from this type of workout if you're following a very intensive fat loss diet.

Instead, keep the rep range lower for most exercise and take just a few of your isolated lifts up a bit higher.

This will be your best bet for success.

So there you have the main points to remember as you progress throughout your weight loss workout program. If you pay attention to all of these, you should be right on track for maximum success.

About the Author: Adana Lima is a fitness enthusiast who owns DumbbellsForSale.com, a website offering high quality adjustable dumbbells for sale.

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