Fitness Tips For Men: What To Do When You Need To Lose Weight Or Gain Muscle

Nothing is more frustrating than spending time exercising at the gym or doing at-home workouts and seeing little to no progress. 

The first step to success is admitting that you’d like to build a ‘healthy man body.’ However, you may waste energy and never achieve your goals without the right tools and tips.

If you’ve been working out for a while and are frustrated by the lack of visible results, or if you are a beginner who wishes to educate yourself more before starting a workout plan, you need to hear this.

Read on for some of the best fitness tips for men to help you reach your goals.

What Are Some Fitness Tips For Men?

To make this a more well-rounded article, we shall be looking at:

• Fitness tips for daily routines
• How to lose weight for men
• How a man can build muscle
• Dietary and recovery tips

This information ensures you get the most out of this health journey while remaining safe and injury-free while exercising.

How Often Should Men Workout Each Week For Optimal Results?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization, the global recommended exercise for healthy adults is at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity. This amount of time generally translates to 30 minutes of exercise 5 days a week (1, 2).

The CDC adds that adults should also ensure that 2 out of these 5 days include muscle-strengthening activity – aka resistance/weight training. 

These exercise guidelines are the minimum requirement. If you’d like faster results – or even more health benefits – experts recommend you go beyond these 150 minutes of exercise a week (1).

Please Note:

• If you wish to exceed the recommended minimum of 30-minute workouts 5 days a week, do not overdo it. More isn’t always better, especially where exercise and health are concerned. Working out too much without enough rest could lead to overtraining, negatively affecting your physical and mental health (3).
• Remember to rest. Rest is the main thing that helps combat the above-mentioned overtraining syndrome. You should get at least 24 to 48 hours of rest a week.

What Are Some Fitness Tips For Men To Build Muscle?

Having a significant and noticeable muscle tone is something that most men desire. 

But how do you ensure your routine gets you to this goal? 

Here are some health tips for men that can help.

Watch What And How You Eat

Whether you are a younger guy looking to get fit or an older man considering fitness over 50, diet – not exercise – should be the first thing you pay attention to. When it comes to diet, you should prioritize nutritious or clean foods. Clean eating involves lots of whole foods and minimized processed food intake. 

BetterMe: Health Coaching app helps you achieve your body goals with ease and efficiency by helping to choose proper meal plans and effective workouts. Start using our app and you will see good results in a short time.

Your diet should have:

• Whole Grains 

Options include brown rice, quinoa, oats, whole-grain bread, and pasta. Whole grains are a great source of complex carbohydrates essential to any muscle-building workout plan. Research shows that carbs help fuel your muscles, enabling you to exercise for longer and lift heavier, leading to muscle growth (4, 5).

• Proteins

These can either be plant-based or animal protein. 

Healthy animal proteins for muscle growth include eggs, lean beef, cottage cheese, chicken and turkey breast, greek yogurt, whey, and fatty fish like salmon.

You can find plant-based proteins in beans, peas, legumes, soy products like tofu, and nuts and seeds. This macronutrient is the building block of muscles. It maintains muscle already in the body and helps build muscle the more you workout (6, 7, 8).

For optimal muscle growth, researchers recommend a daily intake of 1.2 g to 1.5 g of protein per kg of body weight (9, 10).

• Healthy Fats

They may not directly impact muscle growth as protein and fats do, but they are still good for your health. One study published in The Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology states that diets lower in fat may decrease testosterone levels in men (11).

Studies over the years have shown that this reproductive hormone positively affects men’s muscle mass and strength, especially when combined with heavy resistance training (12, 13, 14). You can find healthy fats in fatty fish, nuts, seeds, and avocados.

• Fruits, Dark Leafy Greens & Non-Starchy Vegetables

They are rich in antioxidants that boost your immunity and body health, allowing you to give your all during workouts.

Read more: Which Fasting Diet for Men Is Best for Weight Loss?

Watch Your Calorie Intake

Not only does what you eat matter, but how much you eat also determines whether you will gain muscle. According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020-2025, adult males consume anywhere between 2000 to 3000 calories a day, depending on their level of physical activity.

If you are at your ideal weight and want to bulk and add muscle, you should add anywhere between 300 to 500 calories to your daily intake. 

Eating at a calorie surplus gives the body the extra energy to help you power through those heavy lifts.

Please Note: If you hope to lose weight but also build muscle – you should eat at a calorie deficit, not a calorie surplus.

Exercise Regularly

Gains are all about consistency. You cannot work out sparingly and expect to build muscle. If you are a beginner, try as much as possible to exercise three times a week – you can also push yourself to exercise 5 days a week, but listen to your body and do not overexert yourself. As mentioned above, rest is essential for muscle growth, so take it as seriously as weightlifting.

Resistance Training

Muscle only grows under stress. What we mean is that when you exercise your muscles, the muscle fibers tear, and after ample rest and a diet high in good-quality protein, these fibers can repair and recover. This process makes the muscles bigger and stronger for the next workout session.

For resistance training fitness tips for men at home, we suggest doing calisthenics (or bodyweight exercises) if you cannot afford gym equipment for a home gym. If you want more resistance, exercise bands make a great addition to calisthenics workouts. If you can afford a gym membership, hit the weights, but remember to pace yourself. Trying to lift more than you can handle can lead to serious injury. For more details about 3-month body transformation, take a look at our prior publication.

Try Progressive Overload

This phrase refers to a workout routine where you gradually increase the load of your workout, which translates to consistent growth in muscle mass, strength, and endurance. You can have progressive overload by lifting heavier weights or increasing the time spent exercising, such as by increasing the number of sets or repetitions per exercise (15).

Reduce Your Stress Levels & Sleep More

Research shows that the more stressed you are or the less sleep you get at night (or a combination of both) negatively affects the rate of your muscle gains (16, 17, 18). To prevent this from happening, find positive ways to reduce your stress and try sleeping anywhere between 7 to 9 hours each night.

What Are The Top Weight-Loss Tips For Men Looking To Lose Belly Fat?

Interestingly, the same tips mentioned above are fitness tips for men to help build muscle and work for belly fat loss – with two main exceptions. To lose belly fat, what you eat matters, your stress levels and sleep matter, and how you exercise. Resistance training and progressive overload are the most recommended.

However, the main difference comes in how much you eat. You must eat at a calorie deficit when you want to lose fat or weight. This calorie deficit, combined with a good workout plan, helps you burn more calories throughout the day, thus eventually leading to fat loss. You can achieve the best calorie deficit for weight and belly fat loss by reducing your average daily food energy intake by 500 to 750 calories (19).

The second exception covers how you exercise. Resistance training is a great way to burn fat – such workouts build muscle and keep your metabolic rate up long after the exercise session, enabling you to burn calories even while at rest (20). 

However, add cardio to your routine if you want to lose belly fat faster. Cardiovascular exercises are good for your heart and lungs but also burn many calories during the exercise session – perfect for weight loss. 

Combine cardio and resistance training in your weekly exercise program for the best results (21).

Which Diet Tips Support Muscle Gain And Fat Loss For Men?

We recommend two dietary fitness tips for men at home that help with muscle gain and fat loss.

1. Eat On A Calorie Deficit

As mentioned previously, a deficit helps your body burn more calories and store fat, eventually leading to fat and weight loss. There are a couple of steps to ensure you are in this calorie deficit. First, you will want to determine your daily calories burned based on your basal metabolic rate (BMR), which is calculated based on age, height, and weight. 

Next, add the additional calories burned through exercise to this BMR number to give you your daily total calories burned. Finally, use a reputable calorie counter app to find your daily average calorie intake, and then go ahead and subtract at least 500 calories from this. This new number should be your new deficit.

2. Eat A High Protein Diet

We mentioned above that protein helps build muscle, and more muscle in the body boosts your metabolic rate, which helps increase overall fat loss. But there are more things that protein is good for. 

This macronutrient increases satiety and thermogenesis in the body (22). The former helps you maintain your deficit by keeping you full for longer throughout the day, and the latter enables you to burn more calories, leading to fat loss.

How Can Men Stay Consistent With Their Fitness Routines?

When it comes to how to make working out a habit, we suggest the following 5 tips.

• Make A Schedule That Works With Your Lifestyle 

A schedule makes it easier to stick to the plan since it flows with your schedule rather than going against it. But remember that some days or weeks will be better than others, so don’t beat yourself up for skipping a workout here and there. Weight loss or gain takes time, and you should view it from a wider lens, not just as a quick fix.

• Start Small 

You don’t have to start with 30-minute workouts 5 days a week. Start with twice a week and gradually increase the days. You can also start with just 10 minutes a day and gradually add the time when and where you can.

The BetterMe: Health Coaching app will provide you with a host of fat-frying fitness routines that’ll scare the extra pounds away and turn your body into a masterpiece! Get your life moving in the right direction with BetterMe!

• Set Realistic Goals

Unrealistic goals are the quickest way to lose motivation. Set goals that are easy to reach. The excitement of accomplishing them can give you the motivation to keep going.

• Accountability Partners 

It’s always easier to complete a task if you do it with someone else. Find a friend or family member to keep you accountable for your routine. 

• Mix Things Up

Doing the same thing can get boring, causing you to slip off the routine. Work out in nature. Try pilates or yoga. Check out our article on the benefits of Pilates for men if you want to learn more about this exercise.

How Can Men Maintain Energy Levels During Intense Workouts?

To avoid fatigue during intense exercise sessions, you should:

• Eat well before workouts – Some carbs at least 30 minutes before the session can help give you enough energy to complete the workout.
• Do your cardio – Aerobic exercises help increase your heart and lung health. Good heart and lung health means your muscles get enough blood and oxygen during the workout to keep them moving.
• Stay hydrated throughout the day and during the session.
• Eat a balanced diet throughout – An unhealthy diet can make you sluggish, thus negatively affecting performance.

Read more: 9 Benefits of Pilates for Men — Breaking Stereotypes with Real Results

What Recovery Tips Help Men Avoid Injuries?

As mentioned above, rest is essential to help muscles grow and avoid injury. 

You can do passive recovery, which involves doing nothing on the designated day, or active recovery, where you do simple stretching exercises through yoga to help keep the muscles active without overdoing it.

Also, remember to focus on proper form throughout your workouts. Lifting something too heavy with poor form can lead to injuries. Focus on doing the exercises correctly, then slowly increase the weight at your own pace, and don’t worry about trying to impress others.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Can I get fit in 3 months?

Three months is enough time to make good fitness progress and develop a solid routine. However, getting shredded in this timeframe may only be possible for some. It largely relies on your starting weight and genetics. Smaller people can get fit in 3 months, but heavier people will need more time.

• Can you get ripped at 47?

Yes, you absolutely can get ripped at 47. Muscle growth does not stop once you hit 40. You will see the desired results if you follow the tips mentioned above.

• How many sit-ups a day?

There is no standard number of sit-ups that one should do a day. Do as many as possible, but avoid doing daily sit-ups and other core exercises, as it may lead to overtraining.

• Do planks give you abs?

Planks are a great core workout that can lead to six-pack abs when combined with a healthy diet and full-body exercises to help burn fat.

The Bottom Line

We hope the above fitness tips for men show you that gaining muscle or losing fat is not as challenging as you’d probably imagined. Use these health tips to achieve those goals you have been dreaming of. 

Remember that patience and consistency matter above all else. Good luck!