Ultimate Guide to Lose Fat and Build Muscle

The idea of starting your fitness journey from scratch can be daunting, especially with how much information (both reliable and unreliable) is available online nowadays. It can be very easy to become overwhelmed. This step by step guide should squash any worries that you may have and explain how to execute the process in the simplest way possible.

1. Download a calorie counting app

If you've never counted calories before, don't be afraid to start! It's the best way to educate yourself on how dense foods are with calories so that you can begin to make better choices with your meals and snacks. I personally use Nutracheck but My Fitness Pal is also another good option. Don't worry, you won't have to do this forever but I would certainly recommend sticking with it for at least 8-12 weeks to get a good idea of what eating habits work best for your goals.

Whatever app you decide to use, it will require you to input your nutritional goals. Don't get bogged down with these starting numbers as they are likely to change very quickly as you progress. As a general rule of thumb, I advise women to start at 2000 calories a day and men to start at 2500 calories.

Protein is the most important macronutrient, as this is crucial for building and maintaining muscle. I recommend 2g protein per kg of target weight (e.g. if you are 90kg and wish to drop to 80kg, your daily protein target will be 160g). Carbohydrates and fats do not require nutritional goals, but it is essential to hit around 30g fibre every day to ensure that your food is digested properly, especially with an increase in protein in your diet.

2. Create a training plan that you can stick to

When trying to lose fat and build muscle, some form of resistance training is essential. The number of days you train per week isn't really important, what really matters is that you pick a number of days that you can stick to CONSISTENTLY week after week. As a starting point, 3 days a week is ideal but if you can only manage 1 or 2 days a week, start with that and gradually increase as you get fitter and stronger. Below are some example training splits that you might want to consider depending on how many sessions you can fit in per week:

x1 per week:

• Full body

x2 per week:

• Fully body x2

• Upper, Lower

x3 per week:

• Full body x3

• Upper body, Lower body, Upper body

• Lower body, Upper body, Lower body

• Push, Pull, Legs

x4 per week:

• Upper body, Lower body, Upper body, Lower body

• Push, Pull, Legs, Upper body

x5 per week:

• Push, Pull, Legs, Push, Pull

To keep things simple at the start, the best way to approach your training plan is to do full body splits or some form of upper/lower split depending on which parts of your body you feel need the most work. There are lots of workout plans online that you can copy or modify, but make sure to pick exercises that you enjoy and you can perform safely.

If you don't have access to a gym, I would recommend looking for a HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) workout regime that involves resistance bands and body weight movements that you can do at home for maximum results. We will be uploading some of our own versions of these workouts that we use ourselves shortly in a separate article, so keep a look out!

Whatever workout regime you choose to follow, stick to it! Ensure that every exercise is performed to failure (meaning that you physically cannot do another repetition of the movement), rest for at least 90 seconds between sets and track the weights/resistance that you are lifting to ensure that you are increasing them over time. This is crucial to ensuring that your muscles are being stimulated enough for growth.

3. Set a step goal

Although you don't need to go mad with cardio to lose body fat, it is essential to do at least a small amount of light exercise or movement on a daily basis. The easiest way to do this is to set a step goal. A lot of fitness enthusiasts seem to be obsessed with this magic 10000 steps a day goal, but for most people this is a huge target and will most likely be too big of a challenge at the start. Going from 1500 steps a day in an office job to having to now get 10000 steps in will be a daunting task. This journey should be a gradual, fun process that you can slowly get better at over time.

The best thing to do is find out roughly how many steps a day you currently achieve, and add a thousand or so on top of that. If you enjoy cardio or would like to get even fitter, sure go ahead and go for regular runs or bike rides etc. But if not, simply walking around the block once a day or taking your dog for a 10 minute longer walk than normal is a good place to start, and will do your mental health wonders too.

4. Apply the 80/20 rule to your nutrition plan

The saying goes that abs are made in the kitchen, and there is a lot of truth in that! There is no magic supplement that will make you lose fat, and there is certainly no cheat way of doing it. You just have to accept the fact that your nutritional habits need to change in order for your body to change. Now this doesn't mean eating boring foods all the time and cutting out every food you love. What this means is that you need to make small swaps and changes and control how much of the 'bad' foods you have.

The easiest way to do this is to follow the 80/20 rule. To summarise, this basically means that 80% of your daily calories should be regarded as 'clean', whilst saving around 20% of your calories for 'dirty' snacks such as your favourite sweets, chocolates or biscuits. It is essential to prioritise protein and fibre within the 'clean' calories and stay within your total daily calories no matter what. Below lists the types of foods you should be aiming for 80% of the time:

Protein:

• Meat/fish

• Milk

• Whey protein

• Yoghurt

• Eggs

• Peas

• Lentils

Fibre:

• Fruit

• Vegetables

• Beans

• Pasta

• Whole wheat bread

Carbohydrates:

• Potatoes

• Rice

• Low sugar cereals

• Fruit

• Pasta

• Oats

Fats:

• Nuts/nut butters

• Salmon

• Seeds

• Avocado

• Eggs

I won't list any examples of the 20% 'dirty' foods, as I think you know exactly what your favourite treats are! Allowing yourself to have a small amount of these foods regularly will make you far less likely to binge eat at the weekend as this journey it is far less restricting than any silly crash diets that you may have tried previously.

In regards to takeaways, it is absolutely fine to have them every once in a while. Just try and stick within your calories where possible. This means maybe ordering a smaller meal than you'd usually go for, or skipping a meal during the day to allow for a larger meal later on in the evening for example. If you do fall off and go way over your target calories, the best thing to do is to just start back on the grind the next day and forget about it. We all indulge every once in a while, but make sure one bad day doesn't turn in to a bad week!

Luckily we live in an age where we have Instagram reels, Facebook reels and TikTok videos pouring with high protein low calorie recipes. If you're struggling with cleaner eating, don't just scroll past these videos, give them a go! Make sure to follow Jungle Supplements as we have a whole load of meal ideas planned to launch in the coming future.

5. A note on alcohol

If you don't drink alcohol, great you can skip this part! But if you do enjoy a tipple every now and then, try and have spirits with low calories mixers or limit yourself to a set number of drinks for the night then switch to low calorie soft drinks. Drinking occasionally will have little to no affect on your progress, however regular binge drinking is certain to have a detrimental impact on both your physical and mental health.

6. Track your progress

Now that you've got everything in place to smash your fitness journey, how do you track it? I know a lot of people have an unhealthy relationship with the dreaded scales, but they're the most accurate way to check if you're doing the right thing. Of course, if you're looking and feeling better then obviously you're making great progress! However, in terms of calorie control you need to know whether you're eating too much or too little for your goals.

I recommend weighing yourself every day (or as many days a week you remember) and then create a weekly average on the Sunday of every week. This is because your weight fluctuates so much on a daily basis with water retention, gaining one reading per week/month might not be reflective of your true weight.

If your weekly average weight drops week after week, there is no need to alter your calories. But if it stays the same or increases over the course of a week, its time to drop your calories. Let's say you start at 2000 calories a day and your average weight stays at around 80kg after 2 weeks of tracking, your calories should be dropped by around 200. This now means that your daily calorie goal starting from the next week will be 1800. A drop in weight would be certain by the following Sunday if this goal is stuck to.

However, as you lose weight, your body will eventually adjust to the drop in calories and your weight will stall again. When this happens for 2 weeks straight, drop by another 100-200 calories and keep doing this until you've hit your target weight! When you get there, you can maintain your physique by staying on the same amount of calories, or gradually increase the calories in the same way to enter a muscle building phase.

7. Enjoy the process

This is not a quick fix, it is a complete change of lifestyle and habis that is both sustainable and extremely rewarding. Keep ticking those boxes off every day, eat well, smash your workouts and enjoy the results that come along with it. As always, the team here at Jungle Supplements are always happy to help. If you have any questions regarding this article or your own fitness journey, do not hesitate to get in touch. Thanks for reading!