The Lazyman's Guide to Fatloss..... Step 1: Develop Muscle!

As a fitness trainer, I spend a lot of time explaining to people how best to eat for maximum fat loss.

The first thing I need to explain is WHY YOU NEED MUSCLE. Sounds basic doesn't it, but every woman I speak to is afraid to "bulk up" or "get muscly".... usually responding with "I just want to tone up, but don't want to look big". Girls, you will never look like a toned up female version of Arnold Schwarzzanegger unless you take steroids, cut all the bad foods out completely for at least six to twelve months and spend eight hours a day in the gym.

Now given that you now understand that you will not be bulking up any time soon, let me explain that there is a difference between male and female muscle.

Muscle building is basically a miniscule tearing of the muscle at the cellular level. That soreness you feel after exercising is that tiny tearing of muscle, that is then re-generating as you sleep and therefore becoming bigger. When men tear their muscle and it rebuilds, it builds on top of eachother, which is why it doesn't take too long in the gym before our guy's muscles are bulging! However, on the other hand, when we tear our muscle and rebuild it, it rebuilds it in a flat-pack style. It does develop, but the muscle becomes long and lean with several tiny muscle fibres bound together.  Basically our muscles become long and lean and tone us up. I can attest to this, at my very smallest I was a size 6 and full of muscle (generally I am a size 10-12, so this gives you some idea of muscle.

But getting to the best bit..... MUSCLE BURNS FAT EVEN WHEN YOU ARE SLEEPING.

That's right, the thermogenic effects of muscle means as soon as you start developing it, you will start burning more fat exponentially! In other words, not only are you working hard to eat the right foods (low-fat, high protein) and exercise (hard slog at the gym)... but when you get home after you've had your chicken breast and three vegetables, your body gets to it and continues to burn fat!

Now call me crazy, but I'm pretty lazy and anything that makes me work less, I am happy about. So why wouldn't I take advantage of a hefty weights session lasting an hour, if for the following eight hours, my body is doing the hard work for me. It's all a matter of maths.

So ladies, next time you go to the gym, don't be afraid of the weights machines; or of building muscle. You will look more like Elle MacPherson than Sly Stallone, providing you are working hard to develop each and every muscle to it's maximum potential.