Metabolic Health

How to Burn Visceral Fat While Maintaining Lean Muscles in Five Steps

I preserved lean muscle while reducing stored fat by understanding how lipolysis and mTOR work and tailoring my plan accordingly.

Muscle Activation and Fat Mobilization

Muscles and fats are critical for our health, fitness, longevity, and overall well-being. Despite the need for fat in the body, fat as an energy source helps maintain our metabolism, creating a muscle-protecting effect, beneficial to our long-term health.

Therefore, an excellent metabolic formula revolves around keeping muscle mass and burning stored fat continuously.

First, I’d like to highlight a few critical points for keeping lean muscle and burning stored fat from physical, chemical, and biological perspectives without going into scientific details.

Even though these two functions are highly complex and relate to many metabolic pathway functions, there are two critical terms that we need to understand to adjust our lifestyle choices.

From the muscle perspective, the key term that we need to know is mTOR which stands for Mammalian Target of Rapamycin.

This scientific term is a kinase (catalytic enzyme) that regulates cell growth and protein synthesis. So, activating mTOR is critical to building muscles.

However, too much mTOR activation is associated with some health risks, such as cancer cell growth, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and neurodegeneration, as documented in this scientific review publicly available online.

Theoretically, there are multiple metabolic functions and growth factors to activate mTOR, but practically, they boil down to two tracks from my experience and reviews.

The first one is consuming amino acids (around 30 grams of bioavailable protein) at a time. The second one is stimulating muscles with resistance training.

In addition, when we consume protein or carbs at a certain amount, the insulin hormone can activate mTOR. Interestingly, the sports nutrition literature documented that some branch amino acids, especially leucine, can activate mTOR faster than others.

From the fat perspective, we need to understand the concept of lipolysis breaking down stored fat into free fatty acids and transporting them into the bloodstream.

The secret to burning fat is first mobilizing it. When cells need energy, specific hormones bind to fat cells, triggering hydrolysis of triacylglycerol (fatty acids). This process requires three conditions: a caloric deficit by reducing food intake, increasing energy expenditure by moving the body, and creating a thermic effect by exposing the body to cold temperatures.

As we are all unique, these tips are only for giving practical perspectives so that the points can be used while customizing our lifestyle choices, especially nutrition and exercise. Therefore, these tested tips aim to provide ideas for customization rather than presenting a strict formula. Here are the five factors that helped me maintain lean muscle mass while burning stored fat that put me in a metabolically advantageous position.

1 — Activating Muscles with Resistance Workouts

The muscle-building and maintenance of resistance training are well-documented in the body of knowledge. Therefore, bodybuilders and athletes use resistance workouts to grow or maintain muscles.

While working with heavyweight is an effective way to stimulate the growth of muscle fibers, we can also improve muscle tone with a lighter weight and more repetitions.

As we know, gyms are abundant with weight-lifting and resistance-creating machines.

However, we don’t have to go to the gym to activate our muscles to keep them healthy. We also don’t need excessive workouts. Growing muscles require substantial resistance training. However, maintaining lean muscles does not, in my experience and observations.

For many years, mature friends I have interacted with keep their lean muscles just using five kilos of dumbbells and calisthenics training such as pushups, pull-ups, squats, and lunge walk at home conveniently. And they spend around 30 minutes a day.

Intriguingly, I know several centenarians who have never been in a gym in their lives and keep their lean muscles just by using their body weight for daily workouts. People in Blue Zones usually don’t use gyms.

When performing resistance training, some people focus on various muscle groups, such as the upper body muscles one day and the lower body the next day. It is a personal matter.

I like compound exercising covering multiple big muscle groups, such as squats and lunge walk with dumbells.

Compound workouts can also naturally boost testosterone and growth hormone, which is critical to maintaining lean muscle mass.

I particularly refrain from excessive cardio due to hormonal effects that can cause muscle loss.

2 — Consuming Adequate and Bioavailable Protein

Protein intake and metabolism vary from person to person. Information on protein use for muscle building and maintenance is highly controversial and confusing, especially on the Internet.

Even scientific literature is convoluted with conflicting findings, especially from biased studies funded by protein powder companies.

Some use scare tactics like if we don’t drink a certain amount of protein shake, we will lose muscles. However, we know that excessive use of protein shakes causes massive belly fat, even for hard-working gym-goers.

Sadly, some immature nutrition scientists with no real-life experience recommend protein utilization ranging from one to four grams per pound of body weight or muscle mass based on obsolete theories, broad assumptions, and subjective criteria.

These formulas can guide but do not make sense for individuals to customize their requirements. For example, the protein requirement of an Olympic athlete with gigantic muscle mass differs from the need of an average sixty-year-old office worker. So my point is that it is impossible to verify these claims as so many factors exist.

From my experience and observations, the best approach is to customize our protein consumption pragmatically based on advice from two types of health professionals.

The first one is to consult a specialist doctor in human physiology who can obtain blood tests and DEXA scans, check medical history, review genetic factors, and make an informed assessment.

The second one is a qualified dietician who can design a customized diet based on the specialist medical doctor’s recommendation.

Like many people, this approach was pragmatic and optimal for my needs. People are afraid of the cost.

But, realistically, I did not spend a fortune. The total investment in such a program was under $1,000, which I consider an excellent investment in my health with a high return rate.

3 — Consuming Adequate Healthy Fats

The body needs a certain amount of healthy fat for various reasons. Some of them, such as omega-three fatty acids, are essential as the body cannot produce them.

Besides, every cell in the body needs cholesterol to maintain hormonal balance. However, we were forced to fear fat and cholesterol for decades due to misinformation, as documented and debunked by Nina Teicholz in her best-seller and award-winning book The Big Fat Surprise.

Because of misinformation by biased studies eating fat was demonized. It sounds paradoxical, but I melt my visceral fat and keep lean muscles by eating healthy fat.

More ironically, when I increased the consumption of healthy fat, including saturated fat and cholesterol, my bad cholesterol reduced, and my good one increased, improving my hormonal profile. Fortunately, the wrong cholesterol hypothesis that scared millions of people for decades was debunked by brilliant and caring scientists recently.

For example, it was more challenging to meet my fat and protein requirements when I was on plant-based diets restricting healthy fats from animal sources.

I couldn’t achieve sustainable fat loss and maintain lean muscle on a plant-based diet when I ate three times a day and snacked three times in between, following the traditional advice on those days.

Fortunately, a time-restricted eating regime with a well-formulated ketogenic diet with adequate fat and protein fixed the damage.

Increasing healthy fat intake with moderate bioavailable protein allowed me to solve 12 entangled health conditions.

Now, I eat one nutritious meal giving me an adequate amount of protein to keep my lean muscle and enough healthy fats to provide me with energy allowing me an optimal hormonal profile and well-functioning digestive system leading to an excellent metabolic function. I don’t consume carbs by choice.

However, I know that some people perform well with moderate and non-refined carbs. I also observed healthy vegetarians following a ketogenic diet regime using time-restricted eating. But, again, it is an individual matter.

4 — Eating in a Specific Window and Cutting Snacks

Metabolic and neurological advantages of time-restricted eating are well documented in the literature. Intermittent fasting has become a prevalent way to achieve this goal.

Nevertheless, some people still fear fasting, associating it with starvation and potential side effects. Starvation is a perception far from the truth. Of course, starvation is terrible for the body causing muscle loss and making us feel miserable.

But ironically, daily fasting, even medically supervised long-term fasting, does not put us into starvation mode unless we have underlying health conditions.

I sometimes try long-term fasting for up to seven days. Long-term fasting did not cause me any muscle loss; instead kept lean muscle and melted significant stored fat.

Paradoxically, when I was eating six meals a day, I felt starved and craved more snacks. I don’t feel any cravings when I eat one meal a day. This regime improved my leptin and insulin sensitivity.

Nowadays, I genuinely sense the difference between physical and emotional hunger. Emotional hunger caused me visceral fat gain and unnecessary suffering.

Another significant advantage of time-restricted eating is that the body produces abundant growth hormones protecting muscles during the fasted state. In addition, ketones as signaling molecules also have a protective effect on muscles and reduce inflammation

Due to the hormonal impacts, eating in a specific window is more advantageous than eating frequently. Besides, the body can cleanse metabolic waste and damaged cells through autophagy, starting in a fasted state.

I tried both approaches, so I am 110% satisfied with the benefits of time-restricted eating despite the confusing noise in biased nutritional documents, which I filtered with my mastered skills. We need to understand the difference between confidence and arrogance in science to be able to detect noise and eliminate it.

5 — Adequate Sleep, Rest, and Recovery

Muscles, after a workout, require adequate rest. Sufficient and high-quality sleep, especially deep sleep, is critical to recovering from the damage of stressful activities. Quality sleep and rest can reduce our stress; hence the body needs less cortisol to manage it. When cortisol is optimal, the body can burn more fat from the stores and keep muscle mass.

As mentioned in my previous articles, the body cannot utilize stored fat when cortisol levels are elevated.

Even worse, if the body goes into starvation mode and the cortisol levels are too high due to excessive stress, we may lose valuable muscles. Losing muscle mass is awful for our health, especially as we age.

I experimented with my recovery using a data-driven approach recording my workouts, subjective feelings, and sleep monitoring.

On days when I got two hours or more of deep sleep, according to my smart watch, my muscles recovered faster after resistance workouts than on days when I got less than an hour of deep sleep. Of course, all sleep phases, including rem and light sleep, are critical for our health, but deep sleep is extra valuable for recovery.

Takeaways

1 — Keep muscles active daily with customized resistance workouts. Compound exercises can increase muscle mass while expediting fat burning.

2 — Consume adequate protein from bioavailable sources, meeting the needs of individual requirements customized by a qualified dietician.

3 — Consume adequate healthy fats and consider reducing refined carbs.

4 — Eat at a specific window, consuming nutrient-dense food increasing the body’s metabolic rate. Consider cutting snacks to give the digestive system a rest and prevent insulin resistance and initiate autophagy.

5 — Rest the body after the workouts until it is fully recovered to optimize cortisol levels allowing better fat utilization and muscle maintenance.

6 — Try to improve sleep quality, especially deep sleep hours to recover from the side effects of intense workouts.

7 — Consider exposing the body to cold air or water to turn white fat into healthier brown fat which can also increase energy by making the mitochondria denser.

Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.

Besides aiming to increase the hormonal intelligence of my readers and writing about neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, GABA, acetylcholine, and norepinephrine, one of my goals as a writer is to raise awareness about the causes and risk factors of prevalent diseases that can lead to suffering and death for a large portion of the population.

I aim to educate, create awareness, and empower my readers to take control of their health and well-being.

To raise awareness about health issues, I have written several articles that present my holistic health findings from research, personal observations, and unique experiences. Below are links to these articles for easy access.

Metabolic Syndrome, Type II Diabetes, Fatty Liver Disease, Heart Disease, Strokes, Obesity, Liver Cancer, Autoimmune Disorders, Homocysteine, Lungs Health, Pancreas Health, Kidneys Health, NCDs, Infectious Diseases, Brain Health, Dementia, Depression, Brain Atrophy, Neonatal Disorders, Skin Health, Dental Health, Bone Health, Leaky Gut, Leaky Brain, Brain Fog, Chronic Inflammation, Insulin Resistance, Elevated Cortisol, Leptin Resistance, Anabolic Resistance, Cholesterol, High Triglycerides, Metabolic Disorders, Gastrointestinal Disorders, and Major Diseases.

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Disclaimer: Please note that my posts do not include professional or health advice. I document my reviews, observations, experience, and perspectives only to provide information and create awareness.

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