Gaining Muscle But Not Losing Fat – Here are some success stories from our online coaching clients who have managed to do both:
Plus, I get tons of cool LEGO photos and crazy giveaways, so it’s always a great time.
Gaining Muscle But Not Losing Fat
Just ask our friend Axel (who achieved amazing body transformations with his nerdy fitness trainer):
Nutrition Mistakes That Hinder Muscle Growth
However, as I mentioned in the introduction, you’ll often hear that it’s impossible to lose fat while building muscle. There’s an argument to be made that you should only focus on one or the other because doing both at the same time is doomed to failure.
With this in mind, it is impossible to gain muscle while simultaneously losing fat (a caloric deficit).
To understand the nuances here, let’s take a closer look at fat loss and muscle gain and then combine them.
When it comes to losing body fat, there’s a simple answer and a slightly less simple answer.
Can We Still Grow Muscle When Dieting?
When your body requires more calories than you take in, you are in a “calorie deficit.” Your body doesn’t have enough calories for fuel, so it starts breaking down its parts to meet its energy needs.
Hopefully your body will draw primarily from fat stores, and depending on how well you exercise, it will also break down muscle.
Likewise, when you eat in a caloric deficit, your body will draw energy from fat stores and existing muscle.
From a physical and health perspective, the focus is not to break down the body’s muscles in a caloric deficit, but rather to burn fat stores. [3]
Experts Debate: Should You Lose Fat Or Build Muscle First?
I point this out for one reason: No matter what general metaphor you use, your fitness goal should not be to “lose weight.”
Instead, the goal is to lose body fat (and even build muscle) while maintaining existing muscle.
By reducing total body fat or increasing muscle mass, you will end up with a lower body fat percentage (which is simply a ratio relative to other people’s fat).
Later in this guide, we’ll cover tips for maintaining and building muscle on a calorie deficit. Now, remember that it takes “less” calories to lose weight than “you take in,” whether from fat or muscle stores.
Why You’re Not Losing Fat: 4 Hidden Mistakes You’re Unknowingly Making
The numbers will help tell the story: If this is exaggerated, let’s use the “widely accepted” starting point of “3,500 calories equals one pound of fat.” [4]
If you want to lose a pound or pounds of body fat in a week (a healthy, sustainable goal for some people), you should reduce your caloric deficit by 500 calories per day.
Burning 500 calories is more efficient and time efficient than burning an additional 500 calories.
As Time magazine controversially noted, citing numerous studies, “Exercise alone won’t make you slim.” It’s easy to add more calories, but it takes a lot of work to effectively impact “calories burned.”
Strength Training For Fat Loss
Additionally, exercise naturally increases appetite, thereby increasing calorie consumption. [17]
To lose body fat, you need to watch your diet and do it in a sustainable way.
At Nerd Fitness, we believe that 80-90% of the fat loss equation comes down to diet.
These foods are nutritious and low in calories compared to processed foods. This means you’ll be full without overeating.
Calorie Deficit But Not Losing Weight: What’s The Culprit Behind It?
Have you noticed the difference between a 200-calorie bagel and a 200-calorie bagel? WiseGEEK demonstrates this very well, so we’ll take a few photos of them.
Most people can eat an entire bag without any problem. Broccoli is rich in fiber, making it difficult to eat too much.
We cover it all in our Beginner’s Guide to Healthy Eating. She’ll offer advice on how to develop healthy eating habits over time, including proper portion sizes, group cooking tips and an episode of Winnie the Pooh.
That being said, we recommend taking it slow and focusing on consistency so that your new habits stick.
The P Ratio: How Body Fat Percentage Affects Muscle Growth & Fat Gain
This is a strategy we work closely with our coaching clients: small dietary changes that are easy to make. Here’s how some of them successfully lost 50 to 100 pounds!
If you want to build muscle, you need to lift weights and make sure you eat enough calories and protein.
I will always be a part of the strength and conditioning team. If you want to build muscle, you have to lift heavy objects.
When you lift an object (or your own body weight) enough times, your muscles reach a point of failure. This causes your muscles to wear down and break down.
Why Aren’t You Losing Weight In A Calorie Deficit?
When your muscles recover after exercise, they will be larger and stronger than before. Then do it again.
Since muscles need to rebuild after exercise, the calories have to come from somewhere. I’ll talk more about proper nutrition (and the Harry Potter comparison) in the next chapter, so I won’t spend too much time here.
Your body repairs itself while you sleep, so get enough rest at night. I’m talking about 7-8 hours or more. Over time, this will help your body get stronger.
If you train hard but don’t get more than 6 hours of sleep a night, you’re doing yourself a disservice. go to sleep!
Top Muscle Building Foods For Optimal Growth
In a nutshell, how to build strength: challenge your muscles, eat well, and rest well.
To wrap up our second point, “Eat according to your goals.” This will be very important as you lose body fat and gain muscle.
To answer the question of how to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time, I’d like to use a metaphor from the world of Harry Potter.
Remember the Sorting Hat: The Sorting Hat’s job is to determine which of four houses new students will call “home.”
Ice Cream Fitness Helped Me Lose 7 Percent Body Fat
Just like the traffic commander said: “Harry, you are going to Gryffindor! Draco, you are going to Slytherin!”
Your body works in a very similar way: it takes in new calories each day (when you eat) and then decides what to do with them!
You fry a chicken and eat 20 ounces of juice. Your body then has to know where to direct those calories.
Your body needs a lot of calories every day to survive: to keep your liver functioning properly, your heart functioning properly, your brain functioning properly, regulating your body temperature, etc. .
Strength Training For Weight Loss
And “B.
Here’s the problem: If you eat too many calories and your body doesn’t need the fuel, it absorbs the excess calories and stores them as fat.
So let’s imagine a scenario that combines all of this with intense exercise and reduced calorie intake:
Your body prepares for this by storing excess calories in “fat storage” bins for years.
Body Recomp For Women: Lose Fat Gain Muscle For A Sexy Fitbody!
This means your body can recover from “fat storage” and all the work can still be done, including your daily functions as a human being and rebuilding your destroyed muscles.
If you have fat stores (we all do), you don’t need a “caloric surplus” to rebuild muscle. Calories stored in fat cells are necessary energy.
However, if you want to skip all the experimentation, trial, and error, the Nerd Fitness Trainer does all the heavy lifting for you (not really, you still have to do it).
Your nerdy fitness trainer will create a customized plan for you to lose fat and build muscle at the same time. Learn more here!
Body Recomposition Vs Weight Loss — Integrated Fitness & Nutrition
Let’s put it all together and take some steps to lose body fat and build muscle at the same time.
You don’t need to follow a predetermined plan like “low carb.” You can create your own eating habits (I do). Find out all about it here.
If you could sell every person on the planet a prescription drug that made them healthier, it would be like strength training in a bottle.
In fact, if you want to build muscle, you have to lift something! Either it’s weight, or it’s your own weight.
How To Build Muscle And Lose Fat At The Same Time
You need to challenge your muscles to strengthen them. As we discussed in our article on correct reps and sets, there are a variety of ways to do this.
Either way, it should be very difficult for you to get close to “failure” (i.e., not being able to complete the exercise using proper technique.)
To recap: If you work out hard and don’t eat enough calories, your body will burn fat stores for energy and build muscle. It’s a double whammy for AWESOME.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/BuildMuscleLoseFat-98e3bb453daf4049aeb72b3841ca2d0a.jpg?strip=all "Gaining Muscle But Not Losing Fat")
In addition to insufficient calories and
How To Gain Less Fat While Bulking
Gaining muscle not losing fat, losing fat and gaining muscle, diets for gaining muscle and losing fat, losing fat and gaining muscle for women, gaining muscle while losing fat, meals for gaining muscle and losing fat, diet for gaining muscle losing fat, gaining lean muscle and losing fat, gaining muscle but not losing belly fat, gaining muscle but not fat, supplements for gaining muscle and losing fat, losing weight but gaining muscle