Contrary to what many personal trainers and nutritionists believe it is indeed possible to build muscle and lose fat at the same time. Our clients often often enjoy this result.
We agree with this quote from the article referenced below:
“Although many people claim that you cannot do it, it is indeed possible to build muscle and lose body fat simultaneously. This process is often referred to as ‘recomping,'” Ben Carpenter, a qualified master personal trainer and strength and conditioning specialist, previously told Insider.
Rachel Hosie Aug 1, 2022, 4:00 AM
Overall it’s a good article that gets a lot of things right. If you want to build muscle and lose fat you do need to eat a calorie deficit and train hard. Training “hard” is based on more than just leaning into progressive overload with heavy weights. I will explain that in more detail below. Whats of vital importance is the macro nutrient ratio you eat. This makes a big difference! In order to build muscle your body needs adequate protein, and the key is often precisely regulating your carbohydrate intake to cause fat loss.
Macros and Exercise
From a nutrition standpoint we see the best results starting with a macro balance of 40% protein, 30% carbohydrates, and 30% fat. Fat loss can further be accelerated by cycling your carb intake up and down over the course of the week. We utilize this when fat loss or muscle gain has stalled. This is a short term solution that we keep in our tool belt to kick our clients metabolism back in.
From an exercise standpoint building muscle can be achieved through any of these 5 factors:
- Performing exercises correctly
- Using the right repetition tempo
- Increasing exercise volume
- Adding instability to the exercise
- Adding weight
As a matter of fact, the biggest mistake we see people make is to only focus on the weight, which can lead to injury far too often! Especially with someone new to exercise. The keys to achieving muscular hypertrophy while avoiding injury is employing strict form, using a weight that’s challenging yet within your ability to safely control it, performing enough sets and reps to exhaust (but not overwork) the targeted muscles, and employing instability techniques to recruit core and stabilizing tendons and ligaments.
Recovery
Additionally focusing on recovery which is influenced by training, nutrition and rest is important. When a person is continually sore its not always because of training volume. it could be too much of a calorie deficit, lack of sleep, life stressors, lack of stretching and myofascia release. All of these factors influence recovery. Poor recovery leads to stalled metabolism, lack of muscular hypertrophy, and injury.
Body Composition
Another key success factor we teach is to get a body scan at least every 2 weeks. A body scan tells you your body composition in terms of how much muscle you have and your body fat percentage. This is a critical data point that gives insight into programming modifications. A cheap scale doesn’t tell you this. Until you know exactly where you are and how your body is changing, you are shooting in the dark.
Jeffrey Szakonyi
Read the referenced article:
https://www.insider.com/lift-heavy-weights-eat-high-protein-fat-loss-muscle-building-2022-7
