TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. DO THE RIGHT CARDIO
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2. TIME YOUR CARDIO 4
3. CUT FAST FOOD
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4. CHEAT WITH FOOD YOUR BODY RECOGNISES
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5. TIME YOUR CHEATS! 7
6. LIMIT ALCOHOL 8
7. LIFT WEIGHTS! (ESPECIALLY IF YOU’RE A WOMAN)
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8. EAT MORE PROTEIN10
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9. REDUCE YOUR CARBOHYDRATES
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10. KEEP FAT MODERATE (AND HEALTHY)
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BONUS TIP: EAT REGULAR MEALS
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Top 10 Ways to Build Muscle & Lose Body Fat at The Same Time!
1. DO THE RIGHT CARDIO
The main two type of cardio are low intensity steady state cardio (LISS) and High Intensity
Interval Training (HIIT)- both are great and both work when timed correctly (see tip 6).
Low intensity is exactly as it says, its low intensity (a 15 minute steady pace walk, jog or cycle)
where you are at around 70% of your max heart rate for example.
Note: to calculate your max heart rate subtract your age from 220; mine for example is 220 – 28
which is 192.
LISS is a great tool if your diet is near perfect i.e. your carbs are low and you’re eating regular
meals through the day alongside your weight training program, again timing is everything (doing
cardio post workout taps into fat stores more efficiently)- but you do have to do longer spells of
LISS (15-30 minutes being the norm) to see any major results.
High Intensity Interval Training on the other hand is ‘sprint training’. The benefits are: its quick (510 minutes normally), burns through more glycogen (so if your diet is only 80%, you can still ‘tap’
into your fat stores) and gives you a great feeling of accomplishment upon finish. The negatives
are: its hard.. And when done correctly, very hard!
There are hundreds of ways to incorporate HIIT into your program (Tabata, 20:40 sprints, outdoor
100m sprinting) but my favourite method is ten minutes of 30:30 HIIT.
For 30:30 HIIT, you have 30 seconds ‘on’ or sprint time and 30 seconds ‘off’ for rest or recovery
time. This can be done on a bike, treadmill, with battle ropes or bodyweight movements
(spider push ups/burpee etc), the key is to go as hard as possible for the 30 seconds and then
completely rest or recover for the other 30 seconds.
HOW TO USE THIS!
Try adding in 15-30 minutes of LISS or ten minutes of 30:30 HIIT to the end of your weighttraining program. To find out why at the end of your workout, check out tip 6.
Top 10 Ways to Build Muscle & Lose Body Fat at The Same Time!
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2. TIME YOUR CARDIO
As important as cardio is, the timing can be everything! To understand why cardio after your
resistance training is important, it helps to know what your body uses as its main energy source
(similar to petrol or diesel for a car).
Your body’s preferred source of energy is glucose (all carbohydrates you consume get converted
to glucose), any excess gets stored as glycogen (stored carbohydrate) and then any excess
glycogen gets stored as body fat (fat stores)
Glucose → Glycogen → Fat Stores
To key to losing bodyfat and toning up at the same time is to tap into fat stores during your cardio
time and not before then (so your main workout doesn’t suffer). By cutting out carbs in your pre
workout meal, your body has to tap into glycogen quicker; weight training depletes glycogen
faster than cardio (nearly twice as fast) and then allows you to tap directly into fat stores.
To explain this further, check out my two scenarios below:
Scenario 1:
John Smith trains 5 days every week for 60 minutes on the cross trainer, he had pasta and
chicken in his last meal. After 20 or 30 minutes on the cross trainer, John finally depletes his
glucose (from his pasta meal) and is now using glycogen as his energy source.
Another 30 minutes pass and John is still using glycogen as his energy source. He leaves his
workout happy that he got to the gym. Two months later, after going to the gym 5 days a week,
john hasn’t lost any body fat, built any muscle or changed at all, and quits. Does this sound
familiar?
Scenario 2:
Jane Smith trains 5 days every week for 60 minutes. She does weight training for 45 minutes and
10 minutes of high intensity cardio at the end of her workout. Her pre workout meal was chicken
or salmon, mixed vegetables and one tablespoon of almond butter.
Jane’s glucose levels are nearly depleted before she has picked up her first weight, she’s ready
to start her workout and she’s already tapping into her glycogen stores!
45 minutes later, her glycogen is completely depleted; she is now directly tapping into fat stores
for her 10 minutes of HIIT. Two months later, Jane is leaner, fitter, slimmer, more toned, feels
better and continues to train for the rest of the year.
Now, ask your yourself- “which scenario would you prefer”?
Remember, progress is addictive; I don’t know a person in the world who could continue a
workout regime with absolutely no progress, so arm yourself with knowledge to lost body fat and
tone up at the same time and time your cardio to get better results in less time
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Top 10 Ways to Build Muscle & Lose Body Fat at The Same Time!
3. CUT FAST FOOD
Eating fast food, any hydrogenated oils or trans fats (anything deep fat fried) is probably the
single biggest mistake when trying to lose body fat and tone up at the same time.
In Tip 6, I explained how your body uses its energy source (similar to petrol fuelling a car) and
how to time it in order to tap into body fat stores while you train. Now, add fast food (or trans fats)
into the mix and look how the energy chain (glucose, glycogen, body fat) changes.
Glucose → Glycogen → Fat → Trans Fat Stores
You have now added a whole other ‘wall’ to jump over in your quest to lose body fat. Trans fat
pockets are normally around your lower abdomen or go to your ‘stubborn’ areas (the places you
struggle to remove body fat from).
Your body doesn’t recognise trans fats; its actual chemical make up is completely foreign to the
body (“trans” is Latin for the opposite side, hence the name trans fat) and because of this, as
soon as you consume it, your body panics and tends to shuttle it straight into he fat pockets or
visceral fat (fat over the organs) as to not do any damage to your vital organs.
Its basically a survival safety mechanism, your vital organs are safe if the ‘unknown’ consumptiontrans fats in this case, are safely tucked away in your fat pockets.
I regularly do a Q and A across my social media (YouTube, Instagram and Facebook) Brian
Keane Fitness and people cannot understand how I (and other clients) are able to consume ice
cream and chocolate regularly and still continue to lose body fat. Remember not all cheats are
created equal. Ice cream and a bag of chips are processed in two completely different ways by
the body.
Top 10 Ways to Build Muscle & Lose Body Fat at The Same Time!
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4. CHEAT WITH FOOD YOUR BODY
RECOGNISES! (NOT ALL CHEATS ARE
CREATED EQUAL)
Ice cream and chocolate are mainly sugar and fat based foods; now I’m not saying go out and
eat a full tub of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream; but strategically timed cheats around your hardest
workouts (see tip 9) allows your body to work in its preferred energy chain (glucose).
By cheating with things like ice cream and sugary-based foods, your body gets an instant supply
of glucose (an energy rush), excess gets stored as glycogen. Consider these two scenarios.
Scenario 1:
John just finished his cardio session (60 minutes on the cross trainer), he skipped his post
workout meal because ‘he doesn’t want to get fat’. He waits 3 or 4 hours and then orders a
Chinese (about 1,000 calories worth) with his partner.
John eats his food, goes to bed (doesn’t sleep too well as the sodium has him so bloated and full)
and wakes up feeling tired, bloated, sluggish and has zero motivation to train.
Not only that, but he’s now added to his fat pockets (back of the queue trans fats) and will have to
work and diet ten times harder this next week to undo the damage of his cheat meal.
Note: as your body cant use trans fats for current energy expenditure, it leaves you sluggish and
tired the next day as your body spent all its energy shuttling it into to fat pockets in order to keep
your vital organs safe.
On the other hand:
Scenario 2:
Jane just finished her brutal leg session for the week, she’s had her post workout dinner
consisting of sweet potato, steak and vegetables; she waits an hour or so and now its time for her
weekly cheat.
Jane breaks out her full tub of ice cream (about 1,000 calories worth), after about an hour, Jane
goes to bed (sleeps like a baby as the glucose has completely relaxed her body) and wakes up
full of energy as her glycogen stores are completely full! Jane is dying to get to the gym to train
and work off her cheat!
She then proceeds to do her second hardest workout of the week, she has loads of energy (from
full glycogen stores), motivation is high because her energy is so good and after an intense high
intensity session, she’s now depleted her glycogen (and is even possibly tapping into her fat
stores again) – meaning her cheat had no negative effect on her fat loss or her ability to tone up.
In my years of working as a personal trainer around the world (the US, the UK, Ireland), this is
the single biggest variable that all my ‘major transformations’ have; the guy who just wanted a
six pack, got their six pack and the girl who wanted a flat tummy, got a flat tummy. If you only use
one tip from this book, let it be this one.
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Top 10 Ways to Build Muscle & Lose Body Fat at The Same Time!
5. TIME YOUR CHEATS!
As mentioned above, cutting fast food and using cheats your body recognises can be the
difference between a six-pack and a ‘beer belly’ or a flat tummy or a fat tummy.
However, timing these cheats can nearly go as far as reducing ANY negative effect (if used
sparingly, once per week). As mentioned in the scenarios above, timing your cheats is crucial.
HOW TO USE THIS TIP:
Pick your two hardest workouts of the week (for me, its legs and a high intensity circuit workout)
and have your cheat either side of these workouts. Do this for 6 weeks and watch your body lean
out on a tub of Ben and Jerry’s every week (providing everything else is in perfect order).
I would also advise having your cheat at the end of the day in place of your last meal. I cant
speak for everyone but I know in the past, if I have my cheat earlier in the day, the ‘floodgates’
tend to open and leads to binging on all sorts of food for the rest of the day.
Keep your cheat meal until your last meal of the day each week and then go back to your regular
routine the following morning.
Top 10 Ways to Build Muscle & Lose Body Fat at The Same Time!
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6. LIMIT ALCOHOL
I have a little bit of a love/hate relationship with alcohol.
On one side, your body WILL NOT burn body fat while its detoxifying itself of alcohol, but on the
other side, it moves straight to the front of the queue as your primary energy source: meaning
your body will burn through it as its ‘go to’ energy source while its in your system.
That being said, your body using alcohol as its main energy source is a lot like your car trying to
run on water; it will just break down shortly after you get going.
Have you ever gone for a run after a night out to try and ‘sweat’ the alcohol out and felt like it
was coming through your pours as you ran, this is because your body using it as its main energy
source.
However, alcohol is one of the first things I re-introduce to clients once they hit their ‘target weight
or physique’ – this is because small amounts of alcohol (2/3 glasses of wine on a Saturday
night) will go straight to the front of the queue to be used as energy; meaning if you train with a
high intensity workout (I recommend HIIT or a high intensity circuit), your body will burn straight
thorough any alcohol you drink.
Energy Source System (with alcohol):
Alcohol → Glucose → Glycogen → Fat Stores
HOW TO USE THIS:
I recommend limiting alcohol until you get to your ‘target weight or physique’, then re-introduce
it once or twice a week and train intensely the next day to burn straight through it. High intensity
training where you burn through alcohol quickly will get your body back to its normal energy
source system.
TIP: There are 64 calories in a shot of clear alcohol (Vodka, Bacardi) and 82 calories in a glass of
white wine. Beer has between 200 and 300 calories PER PINT.
Limit your alcohol consumption to white wine and clear alcohol and save yourself a fortune on
calories.
Comparisons:
3 Pints of Beer: 600kcal – 900kcal
3 glasses of white wine: 246kcal
3 glasses of vodka and diet mixer: 192kcal
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Top 10 Ways to Build Muscle & Lose Body Fat at The Same Time!
7. LIFT WEIGHTS! (ESPECIALLY IF
YOU’RE A WOMAN)
One of the biggest mistakes that people make (men AND women) is the overuse of cardio
machines when trying to lose body and tone up! Cardio is amazing and when timed right (see tip
6) and the correct methods are used (see tip 5), it can do wonders for fat burning!
However, the key to losing body fat and toning up is to keep your metabolism elevated; your
metabolism is like a fire; the harder the fire burns, the faster your metabolism is (allowing you
to eat and burn more calories, lose more fat and have more energy). Weight training (or any
resistance training) tears an incredible amount of fibres, which in turn elevates your metabolism
dramatically.
HOW DOES THIS WORK?
When you tear muscle fibres through resistance or weight training, your metabolism has to rise in
order to repair the cells; this now means that the calories you eat are going towards repair of the
muscle and not into fat storage.
Cardio does burn more calories while you’re engaging in it (for example, you burn more calories
doing an hour of cardio than an hour of weights) but once you finish your cardio, you stop burning
calories.
Weight training on the other hand, allows your body to keep burning calories even when you’re
at home watching a movie or catching up on your favourite TV show! This happens because your
metabolism his to rise and elevate in order to repair the fibres and cells that your torn in your
resistance/weight training session.
HOW TO USE THIS TIP!
Make sure to do all of your weight and resistance training at the start of your workout and add the
right cardio after (see tip 5 and 6)
Top 10 Ways to Build Muscle & Lose Body Fat at The Same Time!
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8. EAT MORE PROTEIN
Protein is the most metabolic of all three macro nutrients (carbohydrate and fat being the other
two), meaning your body will burn more calories just trying to break it down; fat is also quite
metabolic but protein has significantly less calories per gram.
Protein has 4kcal per gram and fat has 9ckal per gram, meaning you can eat more protein and
consume fewer calories than eating the fat equivalent.
For example 20g of protein is 80 calories whilst 20g of fat is 180 calories.
PROTEIN: 4kcal per gram
CARBOHYDRATE: 4kcal per gram
FAT: 9kcal per gram
ALCOHOL: 7ckal per gram
Protein also keeps blood sugars levels stables leaving you feeling fuller for longer whilst avoiding
the dreaded ‘energy crash’ that happens from low blood sugar.
HOW TO USE THIS TIP:
add a small amount (10-20g) of protein to every meal.
PROTEIN FOODS:
Chicken, fish, whey protein, soya, beef.
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Top 10 Ways to Build Muscle & Lose Body Fat at The Same Time!
9. REDUCE YOUR CARBOHYDRATES
From a nutritional standpoint, carbohydrates are the most over rated food type a person can eat.
Protein has essential amino acids and fat has essential fatty acids (your body cant make them
and needs to get them from food) but there is no ‘essential carbohydrate’.
Now the types of carbohydrates you choose is crucial, but an overall reduction is a great way
to insure you body starts using fat for fuel. When your body is low in carbohydrate (glucose and
glycogen), your body becomes more efficient at using fat as its main energy source, making you
leaner in the process.
Also, carbohydrates blunt natural growth hormone (GH) in the body; high GH will keep your body
fat low and speed up recovery from your workouts.
HOW TO USE THIS TIP:
Try dropping carbohydrates out of all of your meals until after you have trained. After you train,
your muscles are like a sponge for nutrients; this in conjunction an increase in insulin sensitivity
(when your body doesn’t store carbs as fat as easily) is a massive tool that you can utilise to stay
lean and toned all year round.
CARBS TO AVOID:
Sugary food, sugary drinks, high sugar fruit (watermelon) and fast glucose converting vegetables
(parsnips and turnips).
Top 10 Ways to Build Muscle & Lose Body Fat at The Same Time!
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10. KEEP FAT MODERATE (AND
HEALTHY)
Fat is the most underused tool in the arsenal for losing body fat and building muscle (or toning
up) at the same time.
Fat (healthy fat) is not only vital for supporting your vital organs; but plays a key role in helping
your body get used to using fat as your main fuel source.
The secret is to avoid the ‘bad’ types of fat: trans fat (from fast food) and hydrogenated oils (from
deep fried food).
Your body doesn’t recognise these types of fats and shuttles them straight into fat stores (so they
don’t do directly damage to the vital organ) – leaving you with a spare tyre around your waist.
Trans fat pockets tend to locate in the lower abdomen and build up as visceral fat (fat over the
organs); this slows down fat loss to an incredible degree! It’s like trying to drive a car with the
handbrake on - it will move and you will eventual get to you destination, but it will take you so
much longer than if you had just removed the handbrake in the first place.
Cutting trans fats out of your life and including healthy fats (particularly those high in omega 3)
will improve your health; make you feel better, smarter (omega 3 plays a massive role in brain
function) alongside making you leaner, fitter and stronger.
HOW TO USE THIS TIP:
Include healthy fats in each ‘non carbohydrate meal’ (see tip 2), 5-15g of fat depending on body
weight is a sufficient amount.
GOOD FAT FOODS:
Oily fish, flax seed oil, coconut oil, olive oil, almond and natural nut butters.
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Top 10 Ways to Build Muscle & Lose Body Fat at The Same Time!
BONUS TIP: EAT REGULAR MEALS
If cutting fast food is my single biggest tip, then eating regular meals is right up there with it.
Keeping your metabolism high is one of the major keys to fat loss and toning up at the same time;
your metabolism is literally your body’s internal fire; the harder the fire burns, the more calories
you burn, the slower it burns, the less calories you burn.
Eating is one of the most metabolic activities you can do (digesting food burns calories) so in
order to maximise this, eating smaller meals throughout the day (every 2 ½ to 3 hours) can keep
your metabolism firing all day long.
On the reverse of this, going long gaps without eating will actually make you gain MORE body fat;
it’s known as ‘starvation mode’.
Your body works as a basic survival mechanism; when you go long gaps without eating, your
body effectively ‘panics’ and shuttles all the calories that you do it into fat stores in case it needs
it for fuel in the future, this is down to an evolutionary adaptation for when food was scarce;
this kept us alive thousands of years ago but unfortunately our bodies haven’t adapted to the
abundance of food we have today (in Western Society).
Fortunately you can use this information to get your body to look exactly as you want. When you
eat smaller meals through the day, your body uses these calories as ‘current energy’ – meaning
your brain sends a message to rest of your body in the knowledge that’s its going be getting food
again in 3 hours; in turn, using those calories for energy (one of the first things my clients notice
when changing over to eating regular meals is a massive increase in energy alongside a drop in
body fat).
By following this system, you will drop body fat, keep your metabolism high and have more
energy; try it for alongside the other tips for 10 days and see how much better you look and feel.
Top 10 Ways to Build Muscle & Lose Body Fat at The Same Time!
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