How Can I Get Rid of a Layer of Fat Over My Muscles?

I’ve been working out for several months now but I still have a thick layer of body fat over my muscles. I’ve been eating a lot in order gain muscle but I think I bulked up a little too much! What can I do to burn this fat off and get lean?

It definitely sounds like during your bulking phase, you gained a considerable amount of body fat and hopefully packed on some lean muscle as well. This helped you push harder and lift bigger weights at the gym. However, the mass has come at the price of a few extra layers of fat especially around your abdominal area. You have been pondering on getting rid of this ugly layer of fat over your muscles for quite a while, so let’s try to breakdown this dilemma and really help you get the muscle definition that you need in order to get shredded!

Getting rid of that layer of fat over your muscles starts with your diet, period. Diet contributes to around 75% of the success of your bodybuilding efforts, whether its packing on mass or getting ripped. While it was okay to eat everything and anything during the bulking phase, you now need to be more meticulous about the food and overall calories you eat. You need to stop the endless eating of any and all kinds of junk food and high sugar, fat laden comfort foods. You do not need the extra fat, carbs and calories found in these foods when you are trying to get lean. Instead, focus on lean protein with tons of vegetables and try to limit your overall starchy carb consumption (starches like rice, bread, potatoes, pasta). Starchy high carb foods will wreak havoc on your insulin levels, especially when consumed later in the day. A little bit of clean carbs in the morning and early afternoon are just fine but make sure to avoid going overboard. You will see major changes in your physique by simply cleaning up your diet and cutting back on carbs. Remember the age-old saying, “Abs are made in the kitchen, not in the gym”!

Do more cardio exercise! Doing cardio is an excellent way to make your body shed fat fast. Include cardio in your exercise regimen 5-6 days per week. Ideally, you should do cardio for a period of at least 30 minutes per session but try to shoot for 45-60 minutes for the ideal length of time to burn adequate calories and overall fat. You can either choose to do cardio at the gym or outside. Doing cardio at the gym is a good idea for those who do not have the time later in the day and need to get everything done in one shot. A great workout routine is to do 30 minutes of weight training and then follow it up with 30 minutes of cardio after. Always do cardio after lifting weights and not before. This one hour workout structure is the perfect amount of time to get a killer workout in so you can help build muscle and burn fat.

You might also want to look into different fat burning supplements to help assist your fat loss efforts. You will need to take some time to research fat burning supplements to make sure they are not only safe but also effective. Read reviews and ask the salespeople at your local vitamin store. Most of these supplements contain caffeine and other stimulants that you might not react well to. If you find a good product, it can really help to give you that extra boost to power you through tough workouts and help you burn off additional body fat.

Fat loss takes time, so be patient. All of your hard work and discipline will pay off big time but you need to be focused and resilient. As mentioned earlier, always look at your diet as the most critical element for making drastic changes to your physique. Clean up everything and stick to nutrient dense whole foods. Remember, it doesn’t matter how much exercise you do if your diet is terrible since you simply can’t out-exercise a bad diet!

The layer of fat over your muscles is hiding your true physique from the world so you just need to widdle away the extra fat in order to start seeing razor sharp definition. I can’t stress enough how important diet is to making changes, whether it’s to get cut or pack on muscle mass, your diet is the absolute key to your success!