On fat loss and muscle building

I have been doing muscle building for quite a few years (since 2016 as a total beginner), learning from trial and error, friends and personal coaches.

Here is my personal note from a natty perspective for fat loss and muscle building that has served me well, and also a constant reminder for myself in the future.

On Fat Loss

  1. No alcohol

  2. No / less sugar in food or drinks

  3. Aim to hit 5,000–10,000 steps daily or 3–4 times low intensity Zone 2 cardio (incline walk)

    • Zone 2 cardio means keeping your heartrate within 60%–70% of your maximum heart rate

  4. Cold shower in the morning to generate brown fat activation that helps with fat burning via thermogenesis

  5. In terms of macronutrients prioritization, Protein → Fats → Carbs

    • Calculate how much protein to eat (2.2g – 2.8g per kg bodyweight)
    • Calculate fats needed for hormone balance (60–80g)
    • The rest will be for carbs

  6. Try to eat carbs before & after workouts (60–80g)

    • Before workout: Helps to fuel performance, prevent muscle breakdown, lower cortisol
    • After workout: Improve insulin sensitivity, replenish glycogen
    • Rest of the day should focus on protein/veggies

  7. Ideal weight loss goal should be losing 0.5kg of bodyweight per week

    • Track all cooked foods and drinks calorie intake daily
    • Bodyweight should be tracked everyday and average it out weekly
    • If there's no weekly progress, drop daily calories count by about 150–200 for the following week
    • If the weekly weight drops too rapidly, it might be a sign of muscle loss instead of fat loss, so aim within 0.5kg weight loss

  8. Have a refeed day every 2–3 weeks of diet

    • It keeps body metabolism from being slowed down too much & entering starvation mode
    • On refeed day: just eat at maintenance calorie

  9. Gut health determines how effective your nutrients are absorbed

    • Eat yogurt, veggies, fibers to keep it healthy

  10. Intermittent fasting 16/8 to improve metabolism & insulin sensitivity

    • 16 hrs fast, 8 hrs of eating window (eg. only start consuming food at 12pm-8pm)

  11. Focus on wholesome lean natural food, avoid processed food at all costs


On Muscle Building

  1. Train each muscle with vertical & horizontal movement

    • Prevents muscle imbalances & allows opposing muscles to be developed equally
    • Eg: For back muscle, pull up for vertical pulling & seated row for horizontal pulling

  2. Keep each set between 6–12 reps for hypertrophy & strength

    • Focus on the eccentric stretch for 3–4 seconds
    • The last rep could be 40–60 seconds until failure
    • Warmup set should be 15–20 reps without stretching

  3. Train each muscle at least twice a week

    • Each workout should be 3–4 sets
    • Each muscle trained with 3–4 exercises
    • So each week, each muscle will get around 18–24 sets
    • Muscle's protein synthesis will only last for 24-48 hours, hence we need to stimulate it as much as possible

  4. For lagging muscle group, use nucleus overload method to build them up

    • Choose targeted muscle & the targeted exercise
    • Perform the exercise daily, 4 sets of 15–30 reps without stretch
    • After 1 month, rest for a week for MTOR reset & repeat the same process
    • Rest time between sets should be 30–60 seconds only
    • Weight used should be 30%–60% of 1 rep max (e.g. if you can do 10kg of bicep curls, do 6kg instead for nucleus overload daily)

  5. Free weights > Fixed grip exercise

    • To better protect joints & ligaments long term, do more free weight exercise like dumbbell press instead of barbell bench press
    • Free weights are more natural to body structure
    • But when weights used are getting heavier, use machine/cable exercise to be the safer option

Additional Sources

Books

  • Arnold's Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding by Arnold Schwarzenegger
  • Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle by Tom Venuto
  • Genius Foods by Max Lugavere
  • Boundless by Ben Greenfield
  • How Not to Die by Dr. Michael Greger

YouTube