This is a promotional ad for a weight loss assistance program.
“I want to lose fat and gain muscle.” That’s what we hear so often from our clients when we ask them about their goals. It might also take the form of “I want to lose fat and get toned”, but it means the same thing since “toning” and gaining muscle are the same thing. But can you really do both at the same time? That’s what we’ll explore in this article.
We’ll cover:
- When losing fat and gaining muscle is possible.
- When losing fat and gaining muscle is highly unlikely
- Our preferred approach when it comes to losing fat and gaining muscle
And heck, if you want to lose fat and gain muscle, and figure out what’s right for you, as opposed to getting generic advice, you can see if you qualify to work with us by responding to this email with the words “Body Transformation” in the subject line. But first, the theory.
In Theory…
Losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time is impossible. After all, to gain muscle, you need more calories than maintenance, and to lose fat, you need fewer calories than maintenance. For example, if it takes you 2000 calories per day to maintain your weight, then in order to gain muscle (that is, you’ll get heavier), you need to consume more calories than 2000. Likewise, to lose fat, you’ll need to consume fewer calories than 2000. So you can’t be consuming both more calories and fewer calories at the same time. It’s logically impossible.
In theory, it would throw out the idea of losing fat and gaining muscle out the window. But in practice…
When Losing Fat and Gaining Muscle is Possible
As you know from my article on the importance of measurements, we measure our clients every 2 weeks. So although in theory you can’t lose fat and gain muscle at the same time, in practice, it’s an effect that I and my trainers have observed over and over, to the point where it’s undeniable.
Complete beginners, or people who have taken an extended period of time (more than about 2-3 months) from strength training, can indeed lose fat and gain muscle at the same time.
How does this happen? Can they overcome the laws of thermodynamics magically? No. I have my theory on it.
My theory is this: if you don’t strength train or you haven’t strength trained in a long period of time, essentially, you are “deficient” in muscle and strength. So, the body tries to make you “sufficient” ASAP. It may do this by something called “repartitioning.” That means that the nutrients/calories that you eat, more of them go towards muscle stores, and less towards fat stores.
Think about it like a sponge. A dry sponge can absorb more water than a wet sponge because its capacity for storage is greater than a wet sponge.
But once you get past the “beginner gains” in muscle gains, progress slows down, and then, it’s near impossible to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time.
When Losing Fat and Gaining Muscle is Highly Unlikely
As I mentioned in the previous section, once you’re past the beginner stage, of really easy progress, it starts to get a lot harder to do both at the same time.
How long is the “beginner” stage? It depends on who you are. If you’re a man or woman between 40-60, and haven’t really strength trained before (and no, body pump classes are not considered strength training. Not that they’re bad for you. They’re just not strength training), your beginner stage may be 2-4 months.
If you’re over 60, and you’ve never strength trained before, your “beginner” stage may be 3-6 months. That’s encouraging, because you make real easy progress for longer.
If you have done consistent, and regular strength training before, your “beginner” stage may only be 2-8 weeks, regardless of your age. Because you’re basically just regaining “lost” muscle, and that happens faster than gaining new muscle.
Our Preferred Approach to Losing Fat and Gaining Muscle
Although it’s possible to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time for beginners, or people who’ve had a long layoff, we prefer to separate the two. So we’ll break it up into phases.
Phase 1 will typically be a fat loss phase.
Phase 2 will be a muscle gain phase.
Why do we prefer to break it up like that? Because to go after two very opposite goals in the same program will lead to stagnation and frustration. Whereas if you go after one goal single-mindedly until it’s complete, you can have a much more targeted and focused approach. And you get faster results.
We prefer to do a fat loss phase before a muscle gain phase for men who have over about 12% body fat, or women over about 18% body fat. Whereas, when our clients have less body fat than that, then the muscle gain phase will come before the fat loss phase.
We prefer this order of fat loss before muscle gain because when you gain muscle, you almost always add some fat along with it. But how much fat you gain will depend on the body fat that you start with.
If you’re under 12% for men, and 18% for women, you might gain 1 pound of fat for every 3 pounds of muscle (this is a hypothetical number and will vary person-to-person). That’s normal. Whereas, if you’re higher than that, you might gain 1 pound of fat for every 1 pound of muscle. Not so good. Again, these numbers are hypothetical, but the message is that when leaner people gain weight, it’s more muscle and less fat, and when um… “not lean” people gain weight, it’s often both muscle and fat. So become a lean person before attempting to gain muscle.
We can assist you in this mission of resolving your weight issues. Contact us with an email with the words “Body Transformation” in the subject line.
