1. Increase calories appropriately
To gain muscle, you need to provide your body with more calories than it needs (a calorie surplus). However, you need to increase calories slowly to avoid fat storage. You should add about 250-500 extra calories per day. This can help you gain muscle without causing excess fat storage.
The calories you consume need to come from quality food sources, rather than processed foods, fast foods, and sugar.
2. Divide your meals
Divide your meals throughout the day so your body can absorb nutrients better. You can eat 4 to 5 meals a day, each meal has about 20-30g of protein to maintain continuous muscle synthesis.
3. Enhance training
Exercise is key to gaining muscle without gaining belly fat.
To gain muscle effectively, you need to lift heavy weights with exercises that work many large muscle groups. You should exercise at least 3 times a week, focusing on major muscle groups such as chest, back, shoulders, legs and abdomen.
Even though your focus is on lifting weights, incorporating a little movement like brisk walking, light jogging, or stair climbing can help maintain cardiovascular health and minimize fat storage. However, these movements shouldn’t take up too much time in your workout plan if your goal is to gain muscle.
4. Get adequate rest
Another important factor in gaining muscle without gaining belly fat is rest. Muscles grow when you rest, not when you work out. So try to get at least 7-9 hours of sleep each night to give your body time to recover and build muscle.
At the same time, you need to ensure that muscle groups have at least 48 hours of recovery time before exercising that muscle group again.
