{"id":387562,"date":"2026-04-19T18:08:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T18:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/387562\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T18:08:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T18:08:07","slug":"how-to-get-lean-gq-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/387562\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Get Lean | GQ"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cGetting lean\u201d is one of those fitness-isms that doesn\u2019t actually mean anything\u2014like \u201ctoning,\u201d or \u201cnourishment.\u201d It sort of vaguely means getting in better physical shape. And if you had to put a finer point on it, you could say that to get lean<\/a> is to lose weight while maintaining or gaining muscle. \u201cGenerally, when we talk about leaning out, we’re talking about body recomposition\u2014building muscle<\/a> while burning fat<\/a>,\u201d says dietician Maddie Pasquariello, MS, RD<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But beyond the desire or pressure to look a certain way, getting lean (the right way) may also come with health benefits.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea of getting lean has certainly evolved over time, because it’s no longer just something that\u2019s reflected in scale weight,\u201d says Glenn DeSimone, a personal trainer at Life Time<\/a> Boulder. \u201cWe now know that muscle is one of the best indicators for longevity<\/a>, and having a high muscle-to-fat ratio can lower the threat of things like cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and even cancers. It\u2019s about putting ourselves into a healthy, functioning metabolic state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless of the \u201cwhat\u201d of getting lean, or your \u201cwhy\u201d for wanting to do it, the \u201chow\u201d of getting there remains the same. At the end of the day, it all comes down to a relatively simple combination of diet and exercise.<\/p>\n

\u201cA good program in the gym will be your best friend while you’re trying to lean out, but eating enough calories and protein<\/a> is just as important,\u201d Pasquariello says. \u201cIf all you did was change your diet, but you did so in a meaningful way over a significant amount of time, you’d start to see changes in overall body composition, even without changing your workouts too much. But without the work in the gym, you won’t get the defined muscle<\/a> you’re looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever getting lean means to you, here are Pasquariello and DeSimone\u2019s top tips for simultaneously building muscle, burning fat, and restoring balance to your body.<\/p>\n

Make strength training your priority<\/p>\n

A common misconception about getting lean is that it\u2019s all about cutting calories and lumbering endlessly on the treadmill<\/a>. But if there\u2019s one absolutely indispensable component to getting lean, it\u2019s resistance training<\/a>. \u201cIf we don’t leverage resistance training, we’re not going to be able to create that lean tissue that we\u2019re talking about, which of course is muscle,\u201d says DeSimone.<\/p>\n

Strength training isn\u2019t just about building muscle, either. Pumping iron is also a pretty big part of your fat-burning strategy. \u201cThe more muscle we have on our body, the more metabolically active we are\u2014and that’s really important,\u201d DeSimone says. \u201cBasically, the more muscle we have, the more fat we burn at rest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crucially, strength training also stimulates the production of anabolic hormones like testosterone<\/a> and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), which do double duty to help you pack on muscle and burn fat. According to a 2005 research review<\/a> published in the journal Sports Medicine, these hormones spike following resistance training\u2014particularly workouts that focus on the larger muscle groups. \u201cWe want to make sure we’re doing compound lifts,” says DeSimone, who recommends strength training at least three or four times a week and building workouts around multi-joint, functional exercises<\/a> like squats, deadlifts, presses, and pulls.<\/p>\n

Cast cardio in a supporting role<\/p>\n

\u201cThis may be the right time to reduce your cardio a bit, if that’s the majority of what you do\u2014and instead focus on weights,\u201d Pasquariello says. At the end of the day, you can get lean with just strength training and a dialed-in diet. That said, if you\u2019re able to make time for one or two cardio sessions a week, a little can go a long way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cGetting lean\u201d is one of those fitness-isms that doesn\u2019t actually mean anything\u2014like \u201ctoning,\u201d or \u201cnourishment.\u201d It sort of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[565,134,111,139,69,2795,1251,5510,14651],"class_list":{"0":"post-387562","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-fitness","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-textbelowcentergridwidth","14":"tag-web","15":"tag-wellness","16":"tag-working-out"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}