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Question
16 Jan 2004
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When to lift weights
Hi, I joined the gym at the end of December and now I have been riding the bikes, doing sit ups and the arm curls in the gym. I am not yet at the weight I want to be, but I would also like to build muscle, is it wrong to try and build muscle when I still have some fat I want to get rid of?
FitnessDoc
No, not at all. In fact, it will help you in the long term. The reason is that muscle has a naturally higher metabolic rate than fat (it's more active), and so you actually will use more energy at rest if your muscle mass goes up. So, in the long run, building muscle and lean mass is actually recommended to help keep weight off. So, I would say go for it.
One thing that you must be aware of is that you will need to be a little more liberal in your watching of the scale. Remember that you will be building muscle, so even if you are losing fat, the scale might not change. So, it's important to have some subjective judgement of how the training is going - how do you feel, look and is the training making your appearance any different - that's the important thing, not the scale or numbers
GOodluck
One thing that you must be aware of is that you will need to be a little more liberal in your watching of the scale. Remember that you will be building muscle, so even if you are losing fat, the scale might not change. So, it's important to have some subjective judgement of how the training is going - how do you feel, look and is the training making your appearance any different - that's the important thing, not the scale or numbers
GOodluck
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