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Muscle for life
How to Build Muscle and Lose Fat…at the Same Time

By Michael Matthews
CATEGORIES: BUILDING MUSCLE DIET & NUTRITION LOSING FAT NUTRITION WEIGHT LOSS
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How to Build Muscle and Lose Fat…at the Same Time
Many people think it’s impossible to build muscle and lose fat simultaneously. Others think it’s easy. They’re both wrong. Here’s how it works.


Gaining muscle while losing fat, or body recomposition as it’s sometimes called, is the holy grail of getting fit.

Some people say it’s a fool’s errand. Others claim it’s only possible with “advanced” diet and training protocols. Other still think it requires steroids.

Well, they’re all wrong.

It’s doable. And it doesn’t require esoteric knowledge, fancy or newfangled methodologies, or drugs.

There are some catches though. Depending on your body composition and training experience, you may or may not be able to build muscle while losing fat. And in this article, I’m going to help you understand why.

To get there, we need to start with some basic physiology related to how muscles grow and how fat cells shrink. So let’s get started.

Why Losing Fat and Gaining Muscle is Tricky
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There’s a good reason why many people think building muscle and losing fat at the same time is a pipe dream. And it has to do with something called protein synthesis.

You see, every day, your muscles undergo “maintenance work” whereby damaged and degraded cells are eliminated and new cells are created to take their place. This process is known as protein biosynthesis or protein synthesis.

Under normal health and dietary circumstances, muscle tissue is fairly stable and the cycle of cellular degradation and regeneration remains balanced. That is, the average person doesn’t lose or gain muscle at an accelerated rate–his or her lean mass more or less remains level on a day-to-day basis.

(If we don’t take actions to stop it, we actually slowly lose lean mass as we age, but you get the point.)

How Muscle Growth Works

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When we train our muscles we damage the cells in the muscle fibers, and this signals the body to increase protein synthesis rates to repair the abnormally large amount of damaged cells.

Our bodies don’t want to just repair the muscle fibers to their previous states, however–they want to adapt to better deal with the stimulus that caused the damage. And to do this, they add cells to the muscle fibers, which makes them bigger and stronger.

Thus, what we think of as just “muscle growth” is actually the result of protein synthesis rates exceeding protein breakdown rates.

Muscle growth = protein synthesis rates exceeding protein breakdown rates.
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At the end of, let’s say, every 24-hour period, if your body synthesized more muscle proteins than it lost, you gained muscle. If it created fewer than you lost, you lost muscle. And if it created more or less the same amount as it lost, your total lean mass has stayed more or less the same.

Realize that if your goal is to gain muscle, everything you do in and out of the gym is to achieve one simple thing: more protein synthesis than degradation.
How Fat Loss Works

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In order to lose fat, you need to give your body less energy (food) than it burns over time. This is known is creating a “calorie deficit,” and it’s the most important factor in weight loss.

No calorie deficit, no losing fat. Period.

There are some negative side effects that come with a calorie deficit though. And there are two in particular that I’d like to call your attention to:

A calorie deficit reduces anabolic hormone levels.
A calorie deficit impairs protein synthesis.
That is, a calorie deficit causes changes in your hormone profile that make it more catabolic (a state wherein muscle breakdown is higher) and directly interferes with your body’s ability to create muscle proteins.

These are the two primary reasons why it’s generally true that you can’t build muscle while in a calorie deficit (losing fat).

Notice I said generally true, though, and not universally…

Who Can Burn Fat and Build Muscle Effectively and Who Can’t
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You now know what your body is up against when you’re in a calorie deficit and why building muscle in a deficit is an uphill–and sometimes unwinnable–battle.

The good news, however, is that if you’re reading this article anxiously, you probably can build muscle and lose fat at the same time.

I say that because the people that can’t are experienced weightlifters that have several years of training under their belts and that have achieved a large portion of their genetic potential in terms of muscle growth.

And those guys and gals have usually learned the lessons of this article along the way and know that a traditional cutting, bulking, and maintenance approaches serve them best.

The main reason for this is as an advanced weightlifter, you have to fight tooth and nail for every pound of muscle you gain.

If you have 3 to 4+ years of proper weightlifting under your belt and have built your foundation of size and strength, the most muscle growth you can hope for (naturally) is about 5 pounds of muscle gain per year. And that’s men–women can expect about half of that.

People new to weightlifting, however, can benefit greatly from what we call “newbie gains.”

‘Newbie gains’ are real and here’s how to make the most of them:
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Simply put, when your body is relatively untrained, it’s going to be hyper-responsive to resistance training. So much so that the reduction in protein synthesis rates caused by a calorie deficit just isn’t enough to stop muscle growth. Thus, muscle can be built while fat is lost.

I’ve also seen these effects with people with some weightlifting experience but who that have made very minimal progress. In fact, I’ve experienced it myself with my own body.

So, with that out of the way, let’s move on to how to actually build muscle and lose fat at the same time.

Use this workout and flexible dieting program to lose up to 10 pounds of fat and build muscle in just 30 days…without starving yourself or living in the gym.

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How to Build Muscle and Burn Fat at the Same Time
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Just because your body can lose fat and build muscle simultaneously doesn’t mean it comes easily.

The first thing you should know is that even when you do it right, muscle growth while in a deficit is slower than muscle growth during a proper “bulk.” Protein synthesis rates are higher when you’re in a calorie surplus and this translates into more muscle gain over time.

I haven’t come across any studies worth citing for this, but I’ve worked with thousands of people and it would seem that potential muscle gain is halved by a calorie deficit.

That is, if you could gain 10 pounds of muscle in your first 12 weeks of weightlifting if you were in a mild calorie surplus, you could expect to gain about 5 pounds if you’re in a deficit.

So be patient. Wild claims on the Internet about losing double-digit amounts of body fat and gaining the same in muscle are lies. What you’re usually looking at is a combination of muscle memory, drugs, and Photoshopping.

So, with that in mind, let’s take a look at how to best go about the “body recomp.”

Maintain a Moderate Calorie Deficit

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Building muscle is an energy-intensive process and the less energy that’s available, the less of a priority it will be for the body.

We can see this in the fact that the more you restrict your calories, the lower your protein synthesis rates will be.

Thus, it’s very important that you don’t try to rush your diet by putting yourself in a large daily calorie deficit.

How large of a deficit is too large, though? What’s optimal?

Well, we can thank researchers at the University of Jyväskylä for an answer.

How large should your calorie deficit be?
In a study they conducted, they split their subjects–20 to 35 year-old national and international level track and field jumpers and sprinters with low levels of body fat (at or under 10%)–into two groups: a daily calorie deficit of 300 calories (about 12% below their total daily energy expenditure) and a daily calorie deficit of 750, with both groups following a high-protein diet.

After 4 weeks, the results were surprising: the athletes utilizing a 300-calorie deficit lost very little fat and muscle while the group utilizing a 750-calorie deficit lost, on average, about 4 pounds of fat and very little muscle.

Remember, however, that the 750-calorie deficit group was not starving themselves by any means–they were eating over 2,000 calories per day. Nevertheless, they were utilizing a pretty aggressive deficit of about 24% and the results speak for themselves.

These findings completely jive with my experience both with my body and the thousands of people I’ve worked with:

Mild calorie deficits can work if you’re very overweight, but as you get leaner, larger deficits become necessary and don’t automatically cause muscle loss. And this is why my standard calorie deficit recommendations for weight loss are between 20 and 25%.

How do you determine your calorie intake?
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I give a very simple formula for weight loss in my books that results in about a 20 to 25% calorie deficit if you’re exercising 4-6 hours per week:

1.2 grams of protein per pound of body weight, per day
1 gram of carbohydrate per pound of body weight, per day
0.2 grams of fat per pound of body weight, per day (increase to 0.25 if you have a fast metabolism)
This gives you a good starting point and you can adjust up or down as needed (I discuss how and when to do this fully in my books, Bigger Leaner Stronger and Thinner Leaner Stronger.)

Oh and in case