How To Stay Lean Once You've Put On Some Mass

So, you’ve been hitting the gym, lifting some weights, and you’ve built a solid foundation of muscle. Kudos to you! You’ve taken the first step towards achieving a killer physique that is lean and muscular. 

But your journey is not yet over. Getting the results is one thing, but keeping them is another. Maintaining your muscle mass and keeping that fat off will take some hard work. 

We want to help you get there, so let’s talk about some things you need to be doing. Your final goal needs to be to burn off that extra fat you still have. So here are some steps to shed those last few pounds, maintain your muscle mass, and keep the physique that you’re working so hard for. 

Healthy Diet

The first thing to do is to keep up a healthy diet. You not only need to make sure you’re eating healthy foods and watching calories, but you need to make sure that your macros are in line with continuing to burn fat and build muscle. 

Macros for Weight Loss

To lose weight, you’re going to need to have a high protein diet. That may seem counterintuitive. Protein is for building muscle, right? 

Well, yes, protein is for building muscle. But it’s also for maintaining muscle. Your exercise routine for weight loss will shift into some cardio, which we’ll talk about in a minute. And you don’t want that cardio to eat up your muscles and deteriorate the work you’ve already done. 

So for the weight loss stage, you’re going to want to have as much as 1 gram of protein for every pound of bodyweight you have. So if you weigh 280, you’re going to want about 280 grams of protein per day. 

That is a lot of protein, and it can be a tough goal to meet. But it’s achievable. This amount of protein will protect all of those gains you’ve been making.

Calories

You’re also going to need to switch up your calorie intake to burn that final amount of fat. Your calorie intake should be high during the bulk phase, but during the burn phase, you need to cut calories and be in what’s called a caloric deficit.

This simply means that you burn more calories than you consume each day. This will force your body to turn to fat storage to get the fuel it needs, burning your excess fat. 

Find a calorie calculator online, and it will tell you how many calories your body needs based on your activity level, age, and sex. Shave off one or two hundred calories from that number, and you’ll have a good starting point for your calorie intake. 

But allow your calorie intake to be flexible. If you find you need to adjust your intake for one reason or another, then do it. 

Keep Your Exercise Routine Up

To get lean and stay lean, you’re going to have to keep hitting the gym. But your exercise routine should change a little for burning fat. 

Cardio

Cardio is essential for fat burning. It engages your body in what is called aerobic exercise. The term aerobic exercise refers to prolonged exercise that includes rhythmic movements of your cardiovascular system. 

This type of training causes your muscles to use oxygen for fuel, so your heart and lungs have to work hard to get the muscles all the oxygen they need. Your heart rate will climb, and your breathing will intensify. 

Some of the best forms of cardio for this stage of the lean muscle mass journey are swimming and rowing. These are full-body workouts that are great forms of cardio but are also suitable for building strength. They utilize many major muscle groups, causing your body to have to work to fuel your muscles for the activity. 

You should try to get around 150 minutes of aerobic exercise per week, preferably 30 minutes a day, five days a week. 

Strength Training

But you shouldn’t just do cardio. You still want to maintain all of the muscle mass that you worked so hard to get. So you need to make time for strength training as well. 

Continue to lift weights. You should try to exercise every major muscle group twice a week to continue building muscle and not lose it. But your strength training shouldn’t be quite as intense as before. You can drop down to one set of each exercise at about 12 to 15 reps per set. 

Boost Your Testosterone

Another significant thing for men looking to lose weight is to get their testosterone levels in check. This is becoming a more and more critical issue due to the rising number of men experiencing low testosterone levels. 

In fact, about 39 percent of men aged 45 or older have low T levels. Here’s why that’s a big deal when it comes to your physique.

Fat

For starters, there is a big link between weight gain and low testosterone. And that link goes in both directions. Low testosterone can cause weight gain, and weight gain can cause lower levels of testosterone. 

So if you’re trying to shed pounds, boosting T levels is incredibly important. Balancing your hormones will help get your body in optimal condition to get your weight in check. 

Muscle Growth

Testosterone isn’t just the hormone that gets you through puberty. It has functioned throughout the rest of your life. And one of those functions is muscle growth. Testosterone is responsible for protein synthesis in the muscles, and it also causes the release of human growth hormones. 

In these ways, testosterone boosts your muscle growth. Getting your testosterone levels up can help your body synthesize muscle and support your pursuit of that lean body mass. 

So How Do You Boost T Levels?

There are a lot of things that you can do to support your testosterone levels. These lifestyle changes can help your male hormones to work for you to get your desired physique. 

Sleep

One of the most important things to do to boost your T levels is to get good sleep. Your hormones, like so many other things in your body, are linked to your sleep cycle. Most of your testosterone is released during sleep. Getting poor sleep can reduce your T levels, so make sure you’re getting a full eight hours a night to support your T.

Reduce Stress

Stress is the enemy of testosterone. One study showed that the hormone released during stress, cortisol, is responsible for blocking testosterone. So if you have long-term stress, get it in check. Make time for a relaxing hobby. See a therapist. This can help support healthy T levels.

Testosterone Supplements

Testosterone supplements can be natural remedies that support your body’s ability to produce testosterone. They don’t put synthetic T into your body, but instead, they help your body make more real testosterone and be able to use more of what your body actually produces. 

A supplement like Total T is scientifically designed to help boost your testosterone and support your muscle building, your energy levels, and even your libido.  

Conclusion

All that work you’ve put in to get stronger in the gym can really pay off if you keep at it. Keeping your body fat low and maintaining your muscle mass will help you have a great physique that other guys will envy. 

So keep eating right, working outsmart, and boosting your T so that you can look good and feel great for years to come.