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You Can Do It: Losing Weight Without Losing (Too Much) Muscle As a Grappler

You Can Do It: Losing Weight Without Losing (Too Much) Muscle As a Grappler

 

This article will examine the smart way to go down in weight without it affecting your muscle mass.

Losing fat without losing muscle is difficult to do but can be achieved if done properly.

 

Here are the steps you can follow to achieve this goal:

DON’T CUT WEIGHT TOO FAST

Try dropping your calorie intake by 200 per day for the first week, and take it from there. If you want to lose fat without muscle you shouldn’t lose more than 2-3 kilos per month . Slowly lose the weight over a period of 3-4 months.

TRAINING

1. INCREASE YOUR BJJ TRAINING SESSIONS

If you were just training once or twice a week, increase it to three times. The extra session will make a world of difference for grappling fitness and losing weight. Try to roll a lot during each session. You can also wear a sweatshirt under your Gi to get an extra sweat. You can then increase it four times a weak and so forth.

This will be your cardio training.

 

2. CONTINUE STRENGTH TRAINING & DO HIGH-INTENSITY INTERVAL TRAINING (HIIT) IN THE GYM

Since we’re looking for fat loss without muscle loss, that activity should focus primarily on strength training, not cardio training methods. Your cardio training can be your increased number of BJJ sessions.

High-intensity interval training (HIIT), also called high-intensity intermittent exercise (HIIE) or sprint interval training (SIT), is an enhanced form of interval training, an exercise strategy alternating periods of short intense anaerobic exercise with less-intense recovery periods. HIIT is a form of cardiovascular exercise. Usual HIIT sessions may vary from 4–30 minutes. These short, intense workouts provide improved athletic capacity and condition, improved glucose metabolism, and improved fat burning.

A HIIT session often consists of a warm up period of exercise, followed by three to ten repetitions of high intensity exercise, separated by medium intensity exercise for recovery, and ending with a period of cool down exercise. The high intensity exercise should be done at near maximum intensity. The medium exercise should be about 50% intensity. The number of repetitions and length of each depends on the exercise, but may be as little as three repetitions with just 20 seconds of intense exercise.

This can be good to do 1-2 times a week.

Increasing the tempo and intensity of your weight training sessions can have a similar effect. The easiest way to do this is to take less rest. Try resting for only 30 seconds after each set. You’ll definitely feel the difference.

 

DIET

BE AT A CALORIC DEFICIT

Being at a caloric deficit does not mean that you have to starve yourself or eat an incredibly low calorie diet. Just gradually cut your daily intake over time.

You can either eat fewer calories or you can eat the same amount of calories and increase your activity level to burn more calories.

CONSUME HIGH AMOUNTS OF PROTEIN

When you’re cutting your calories, you should still be having enough protein. Focus on good quality lean protein such as chicken, turkey, lean beef, fish, eggs.

Add some vegetables like broccoli (high in protein).

SLOWLY REDUCE CARBOHYDRATES 

Your body uses carbohydrates for fuel but do not cut carbohydrates all at once. You should slowly start to reduce theyour carb intake. That way you will slowly cut the fat without losing muscle.

Go for healthy carb option such as Quinoa (high in protein) instead of rice for example.

As a rule of thumb: eat a lot of lean meats such as fish and chicken, drink lots of water, don’t overdue the carbs, eat lots of vegetables and avoid sweets and alcohol.

EAT LESS AT NIGHT (AND LESS CARBS)

At night when your metabolism slows down, carbs are stored as fat. So make your dinner a low carb meal.

 

SUMMARY

In order to achieve fat loss without too much muscle loss,you have to be in a caloric deficit without starving yourself. make sure that your diet delivers plenty of protein and focus your exercise efforts on performing regular strength training. Your cardio will be your BJJ training sessions.

Follow these steps and watch the fat come off.

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