What's a Fast Way to Gain Muscle Size and Burn Fat?

Two of the most common fitness goals are to gain muscle size and to burn fat -- and people often hope to do both at the same time. Of course, these two goals are easier to set than to achieve, which is why so many people are left searching for new ideas and approaches. However, you'll find that by mastering a simple set of workout principles and constructing a healthy nutritional program, you can make good progress toward achieving these goals.

Heavy Weight Circuit Training

• A great workout for gaining muscle size and burning fat at the same time is heavy weight circuit training. One especially good strategy is "high intensity training," or HIT.

  The first core principle of HIT is to work your entire body in a single, quick session two or three times per week. Working all of your major muscle groups at once will maximize your muscle stimulation and release a high amount of testosterone and other beneficial hormones into your system.

  The second main principle of HIT is to minimize or completely eliminate rest during the workout, while using heavy weights for a mid-level amount of repetitions. This is similar to a regular circuit training routine and provides all of the same cardiovascular and fat-burning benefits. But by using heavier weights, you are stimulating more muscle growth.

  The last main principle of HIT is to focus on compound exercises, which are exercises that use more than one set of joints in your body. The bench press, in which your shoulders and elbows are being used, is a classic example of a compound exercise. Move from one exercise to the next, completing only one or two sets per exercise and not resting between sets.

High Protein, Low Calorie Diet

• The other component you'll need to quickly gain muscle size and burn fat is an effective nutritional strategy. To build muscle quickly, you'll need to maximize your protein intake, while burning fat requires that you reduce your total caloric load. To be able to pull off both of these opposing ideals, you have to obtain your protein from lean sources and include protein in all of your meals.

  Eliminate processed junk foods from your diet, and ensure that everything you eat has a purpose. Divide your meals into smaller portions that you enjoy throughout the day. This will help keep you in line with your goals by preventing you from snacking unnecessarily or overeating, and it will also help your metabolism run as efficiently as possible.