Secrets to Build Muscle Mass & Cut down your Fat Mass!

June 12, 2018

1) You are Healthy, if your BMI ranges in between 18.5 to 24.9
BMI is an index of a person’s weight in relation to height. It is a good tool used to determine health risks and mortality rates associated with excessive body weight. However, BMI does not differentiate between fat and lean body mass. Therefore, an individual who has a large amount of muscle mass may in fact have a BMI that places them in the overweight, or obese categories, even though they clearly have very little body fat. In such cases a high BMI can be healthy. However, a high BMI as a result of excessive body fat is not healthy. Health risks increase when BMI exceeds 25.0.

For example: Two persons of the same height and weight will have an equal BMI. Now let’s suppose that BMI is 30, which is considered unhealthy, but one person is athletic and muscular with a low body percentage (such as women between 16-24% or men 12-18%) and the other has a much higher percentage of body fat. The latter would be at health risk while the muscular counterpart is probably not only healthy but may even be healthier than many other people with lower BMIs. This of course presumes this muscular person doesn’t have other health problems unrelated to weight.

2) Can Stress cause Weight Gain?
Stress could be one of the culprits. It plays a role in weight gain. While it can make you have less of an appetite at first, long-term “chronic” stress actually boosts your hunger. It activates the Fight and Flight Response in our Body and elevates the Cortisol Hormone.

Fight and Flight

Most of us become overeaters when we’re feeling a lot of pressure. This happens thanks to your fight-or-flight response, a.k.a. survival mode — once your body reaches a certain stress level, it does what it feels it needs to. In most cases, that means overeat. Why? Because your body thinks you’ve used calories to deal with your stress, even though you haven’t, As a result, it thinks you need to replenish those calories, even though you don’t. Hence can be a reason of your Weight Gain.

Cortisol and Comfort Foods

Levels of “the stress hormone,” cortisol, rise during tension-filled times. This can turn your overeating into a habit. Because increased levels of the hormone also help cause higher insulin levels, your blood sugar drops and you crave sugary, fatty foods.So instead of a salad or a banana, you’re more likely to reach for cookies or mac and cheese. That’s why they’re called “comfort foods.” Eating can be a source of solace and can lower stress. Fatty and sugary foods are usually the big culprits, because lots of us have such a strong love for them.
Hence, “More stress = more cortisol = higher appetite for junk food = more belly fat,”

3) Starving decreases your weight
Our body is programmed to store fat and protect us from starvation and it will take you no time to understand why Starvation diet lead to weight gain. When you try out a starvation diet, your body will use up all the circulating blood glucose in a rapid manner and then switch to the stores of glycogen and fat. But, your body doesn’t want to starve, so it releases hormones and messengers to increase your appetite and this makes you suddenly ravenous. At this juncture, people are mostly unable to bear the hunger pangs and land up binge eating. And what happens when you start binging? You consume hundreds or thousands of calories in one go. But the amount of glucose needed by the body is limited. So, what happens to the remaining of it? Well, it is stored as excess fat. This way begins the vicious cycle of weight gain and starvation in people who go on fad diets, starvation diets or crash diets hoping to lose weight fast. In a long run of life, it’s difficult and non-recommendable.

4) I will gain more weight if I stop going to Gym and working out.
Many a times people think that I will start to become fat if I leave gym (like fat will fly around from all around and get into you!). This notion is ABSOLUTELY WRONG. You will NOT GAIN WEIGHT.

Let’s take an example to understand this.

When you are gyming, you gain some extra muscles. Say that now you suddenly stopped exercising. Your daily movements/activity has reduced. So your body does not need those extra muscles that you have developed. Those muscle will start to go off. Now this is the process that makes you look ‘fat’. Suddenly your toned up muscles will loosen up which in term will loosen your skin a bit and this is what makes you look fat/chubby. On top of that, we tend to eat more when we exercise and even if you suddenly drop your exercising to zero, your eating quantity will still not go down immediately but will take time. But now since you have stopped exercising, the extra food quantity going in will be turned to fat.

So, becoming fat is not because you have left the gym, but because you have left the gym but your food intake is still almost the same.

5) Crunches and Abdominal Exercises will trim Belly Fat.
Crunches, sit-ups, and other ab exercises are great for building core muscles and, if done frequently and properly enough, can tone your abs into a sheet of muscle—but only if you have a good diet in place. Before your abs will start to show, that means torching belly fat once and for all. Hence simply doing Crunches and Abdominals will not help you trim your Belly.

The saying, “Abs aren’t made in the gym. They’re mad in the kitchen,” rings true.

EnlightenYourself