Can You Lose Fat and Gain Muscle at the Same Time? Yes, Here’s How

Unravel the mystery of simultaneous fat loss and muscle gain. Explore the science behind this fitness paradox and discover practical strategies that can help you achieve this seemingly contradictory goal. Let's redefine what's possible for your body transformation journey.

Fitness

Want to tone up and build muscle? The secret isn’t weight loss — you need to know about body recomposition

The act of altering your physique by burning fat and gaining muscle at the same time
Requires a different approach to health and fitness than the typical weight-loss mindset
Your body is smarter than you think
By keeping a close eye on your diet and training, you can absolutely lose fat and gain muscle while still maintaining a healthy balance

How to build muscle

Focus on two main factors: weight training and protein consumption

Strength training is essential to changing your body composition
You can’t build muscle without being in a caloric surplus, so you must eat more calories than you burn to promote muscle growth
Protein is especially important for building muscle because without enough protein, your body will struggle to repair the muscle tissues that get broken down during weight training.

What is body composition?

Your body composition is the ratio of fat mass to lean mass in your body

Lean mass includes muscle, bones, ligaments, tendons, organs, other tissues and water
Depending on what method you use to measure it, you may see water as its own percentage

How does body recomposition work?

It comes down to your specific health and fitness goals.

Basic guidelines to follow
Resistance (weight) training to build muscle
Overall decrease in calorie consumption to lose fat
Increased protein intake to promote muscle formation

What about body recomposition?

Represents changing the ratio of fat mass to lean mass

The goal is to lose fat and gain muscle simultaneously, unlike the traditional approach of “bulking and cutting” where you put on weight first and then go through an intense calorie deficit to lose the fat and reveal muscle underneath

How to lose fat

Cardiovascular exercise, or combined cardio and resistance exercise, alongside a healthy diet, is the best technique for fat loss.

Calorie cycling

Modifying your calorie and macronutrient intake to match your goal for the day

On days that you do cardio exercise, consume enough calories to meet your maintenance number
Consuming maintenance calories on a cardio day ensures that you’re in a slight deficit to promote fat loss, but not in a deficit so large that your body starts using muscle tissue as fuel
Rest day calories: decrease that number by 5% to 10%

Forget About Weight Loss

Body recomposition isn’t about weight loss; it’s about fat loss.

Muscle weighs more than fat, and changes to your physique are mainly due to fat loss
One caveat to consider is that if you want to lose a large amount of body fat and don’t intend to put on much muscle mass, you may lose weight in the long run.