Lose Weight and Look Lean by Following Smart Training Plans

Getting slim or muscular remains the universal plan among those wishing to get in better shape. However, adding 20 lbs of muscles and slimming down to 5% body fat isn’t necessary to present an impressive physique. You want to cut down on excessive, unnecessary body fat while building and shaping the muscles.

Wanting to achieve this goal and actually turning the planned goals into results appears elusive to many gym-goers and home workout aficionados. Anyone who wants to see results shouldn’t become unnecessarily despondent. Finding the right workout plan – and sticking with it – could lead to attaining a desirable look.

The Self-Defeating Gym Strategy

Doing something exercise-wise is better than nothing. A low-impact, half-hearted session in the gym should do more than merely sitting at home and watching television. Lame workouts, however, won’t lead to great results. And “lame” doesn’t mean low-intensity. You don’t need to work too hard to get results. The results-robbing problem people embrace involves not having any plan or structure in the gym. The hit the gym and perform a bunch of random workouts without any rhyme, reason, or logic. They stop after a certain amount of time has passed, and they never assess their workout programs.

Rather than continue to embrace these types of workouts, look at the following strategies men and women employed for years to see results.

Change Your Diet

A new cliche finds itself repeated regularly in fitness centers these days: “You can’t out-train a bad diet.” The “new” saying represents the way the biology of human metabolism always worked. In short, any calories you don’t burn turn into stored fat. Working out super hard and burning 700 calories does something, but not much when you are eating 1,800 calories over your preferred body weight. And packing on a ton of extra calories isn’t tough when one muffin delivers 400 calories and a fast food meal presents 900.

Working out isn’t enough. You need to eat clean. Reduce your calorie intake to lose weight, but don’t go overboard. Starvation diets don’t usually work as they slow down the metabolism and burn up desirable muscle. Look at different diets as a means of cutting a moderate number of calories. Getting rid of “bad” food choices usually assists this plan.

Try the Fasted Cardio Method

Fasted cardio refers to working out on an empty stomach. Usually, you skip breakfast before your workout session. Often, the fast starts after a final 6pm meal the night before. At 6 AM, the body has already metabolized a large part of the previous meal. With no new food in the stomach, the calories must draw – in part – from stored fat.

The fasted cardio routine originally gained popularity when the general public learned celebrities embraced the plan. Fasted cardio isn’t only valuable in Hollywood. No matter where you exercise, the method could lead to better fat-shedding results. Fasted cardio workout plans require some discipline, but the effort could pay off and present the best way to lose weight fast for men.

The Old School Three-Day Full-Body Routine

All sorts of “new and amazing” exercise and weightlifting routines become fads in the gym. The cynical suggest these routines are rooted more in personal training and fitness media marketing than from seeing real results. Are new methods even necessary when old methods work? The answer is debatable. What’s not debatable is how the old-time full-body workout program gave fitness enthusiasts results for decades. Just look at the legendary Steve Reeves’ physique. He built a near-perfect body back in the 1950s using the old-school method.

The old-time routines mainly focus on compound exercises. Squats, bench presses, pull ups, and other exercises that employ more than one muscle group are compounds ones. Yes, you can weave a few isolation exercises such as curls, triceps extensions, and the like into the workouts but you’ll mainly focus on hitting compound moves three days out of the week. The workout supports the development of lean muscle mass. Muscle helps speed up the metabolism and assists with burning fat.

Mixing Up Your Cardio

Low, moderate, and high-intensity cardio sessions burn up calories. A combination of the right diet and several days featuring 30 minutes of cardio should yield results. Jog 30 minutes for five days a week, and you burn stored energy. The drawback here is that some people do get bored with jogging on a weekly schedule week in and week out. So, why not mix up your cardio workouts during the week?

A couple of days a week at the local kickboxing gym combined with one hour of indoor spin classes mixed with brisk lunchtime walks add up to a lot of burned calories. The physical benefits aren’t the only ones gained here. Mentally, you probably won’t become bored or burned out with the same routine. The chances of giving up on your cardio workouts decline.

The Bottom Line

Consistency counts for a lot when hoping to slim down, look better, and feel healthier. Giving up on your workout programs for several weeks and going back to junk food and a sedentary lifestyle isn’t helpful. Do your best to commit to a new and healthy lifestyle. This way, the chances of seeing desired results increase.

About Shannon Clark

Shannon holds a degree in Exercise Science and is a certified personal trainer and fitness writer with over 10 years of industry experience.