Starting with building mass or losing weight?

“I will change my life tomorrow!”, “From tomorrow, I will start exercising and eating healthy”, “I will start taking care of myself and my figure from tomorrow”, “what should I start with? Increasing muscle mass, or maybe losing weight?

Those questions wandered through countless of newbies minds. Interestingly, regardless of the answer, there are similar schemes to follow:

• When deciding to start with building muscle mass, the first thing to do is go to the supplement store to get creatine, gainer and whole bunch of other supplements. They will ask if there you do strength training…. “No, but I’m starting soon”.
• Muscles… where does the idea come from? “I would like to expose my muscles, lose the extra fat and then build the mass.” “But you don’t have muscles, what do you want to sculpture them from?” - Someone may ask, which usually ends in lese-majesty. How could they say that there are no muscles? There are, “when I touch my stomach it’s hard”. However, looking at the rest of the body, there are only bones, skin and fat, which there is less or more of, depending on the individual.
• And weight loss - or what ladies like most, because when you exercise and eat healthy (healthy meaning salads, rice cakes, lean chicken and grapefruit), it’s to lose weight. Interestingly, women regardless of their appearance want to go for reduction - including these who have a normal, nice figure, as well as those slightly overweight, and those really skinny ones, who you would rather put at a table and make eat properly, and then “crawl” through the desired gym workout (which will eventually lead to them asking how much cardio they should do). The standard are also words “diet and exercise starts tomorrow, today I will start by buying a good burner”. This scheme is similar to the mass gaining - first, magical supplements, sorting out the life style comes later.

How is it in reality? Usually, the first change that occurs is in the wallet, not necessarily in the figure. Thank God for people, who clearly understand that effects on the figure are, most of all, what our physical body does and what quality fuel it receives - meaning solid exercise fitting the goal, advance level, type of figure and a proper diet, where the word diet doesn’t mean a 14 day cycle, titled ‘lose 5 kg in 2 weeks’, ‘discover the weight loss property of citruses’, etc., and understand that nutrition in a long term meaning.

So, what should we do to get the dream body?

First of all, look at it rationally. Our goals are not products that are on a store shelf, which we come up to and pick a colour that we most like. Each of us has a different body and predispositions. Goals should be realistic.

It’s good to also understand concepts and know what certain goals mean. For example - muscle building, a very popular concept among amateur athletes. Yes, it sounds nice, but what is it? What processes are involved? Who can “shred” muscles? First of all, to “shred” you have to have something to do it in. this process is a very painstaking work and those who work on themselves for years know this. Building muscle mass, controlling the fat tissue is not a job for a month or two, but much longer. Appropriate exercise, diet, and regeneration - those are only a few factors responsible for figure success.

Why should we not start with “shredding”? If we are dealing with a real newbie, classic Miss Smith, whose physical activity is limited to working at a desk, grocery shopping and cleaning the house, and the only exercise she was involved in was running around the school gym room in a PE class, we can be sure that this lady’s muscle mass is very lacking, almost non-existent, and regardless of how much fat tissue we reduce, we will not get a figure of a classic athlete.

What should you start with to improve your body?

That’s very simple. Newbies are in a really comfortable situation, because regardless of what they start with, the effects will be visible almost instantly.

First of all, take care of your diet. Look at what and how much you eat. Mostly eliminating processed food and appropriate choice of energy for the meals will make the body look nicer. Healthier skin, hair, more elastic skin, flat stomach, less stomach ailments and a much better mood. Interestingly - you can significantly increase consumed calories without gaining weight. Quite the opposite, actually.

Second of all, start moving. It doesn’t have to be a strength workout that includes breaking record in deadlifting. You can start with introducing walks, bike riding, dance classes or fitness. Of course, starting light exercises at the gym is good and even recommended. Gradually increase the intensity of the training, choose something that fits your own body, but before you get to that stage, just start exercising. The adaptive period is a matter of a few weeks and there’s nothing to wait for.

Third of all, change your approach ‘I have to look great in a week’. No. you can’t. Work, conscientiousness, patience and faith in your abilities. In addition to that, think of an appropriate sequence of actions, which means no magic pills, and then diet and exercise sometime in the future. Reverse this order, and it will definitely turn out good for you.