The largest muscles (and therefore the largest calorie burners) are in the thighs, abdomen, chest, and arms.
Leg muscles have the potential to burn more fat because of their size. So focus on your leg muscles to increase your fat burn. But back muscles are also important, so do not skip those either.
You will first lose hard fat that surrounds your organs like liver, kidneys and then you will start to lose soft fat like waistline and thigh fat. The fat loss from around the organs makes you leaner and stronger.
Exercise that works large muscle groups, like the glutes and quads, blasts the most calories.
As against areas such as legs, face and arms, our stomach and abdominal regions possess beta cells that makes it difficult to reduce the fats easily and lose weight in these areas. However, as per research, belly fat is the most difficult to lose as the fat there is so much harder to break down.
If there's one thing that almost everyone in the gym can agree on, it's that losing weight is a heck of a lot easier than gaining muscle. And while there are certainly exceptions to this rule, for the most part, it's true. So if you're looking to drop a few pounds before summer hits, read on – you're in luck!
Fat leaves the body as carbon dioxide when you breathe and is also released as water through urine and sweat. So if you think about it, that backs up why exercise is an important part of weight loss. Your body disposes of fat through sweat, urine, and exhaled air.
Strength training specifically leads to gain lean muscle gain. These are fat-free tissues that are highly metabolic, allowing more caloric burns than any other tissue in the body. Essentially, this is why strength training works best: it loses fat while maintaining muscles that burn calories.
1 kg of body fat has about 7,700 kcal and 1 kg of muscle mass has about 1,800 kcal.
If you can sustain a lifting program and eat a caloric deficit, your body will be able to pull from its fat stores to both fuel itself and potentially build muscle mass. Prioritizing foods rich in protein is a key component to both losing body fat and building muscle at the same time.
Using weights alone without cardio, you will most likely develop bulk instead of a toned and streamlined body. When deciding between cardio or weights, remember that both types of exercises are needed when trying to achieve a healthy, strong body.
Exercises that require the coordination and movement of multiple joints, such as squats, deadlifts, Olympic lifts, pull-ups and push-ups, are the most effective for maximizing fat loss and muscle gain.
500g-1kg a week is considered safe weight loss. Dropping more than that will increase your risk of muscle loss. It is recommended that you consume more than 1,200 calories a day and if you are exercising regularly, you can often consume more.
While sweating doesn't burn fat, the internal cooling process is a sign that you're burning calories. “The main reason we sweat during a workout is the energy we're expending is generating internal body heat,” Novak says. So if you're working out hard enough to sweat, you're burning calories in the process.
Specifically, the body burns fat after first exhausting the contents of the digestive tract along with glycogen reserves stored in liver cells and after significant protein loss. After prolonged periods of starvation, the body uses the proteins within muscle tissue as a fuel source, which results in muscle mass loss.