How To Lose Fat And Gain Muscle At The Same Time

How To Lose Fat And Gain Muscle At The Same Time

Lose fat and gain muscle – it sounds simple, right? But why should we not be able to do it? Well, it is no doubt that it is a tough process that requires the utmost determination and confidence.

Some people say that it is a foolish task while others say one should follow special forms of exercise and dieting to lose fat and gain muscle simultaneously.

But all these facts are wrong. Losing excess fat and building strong muscle simultaneously are beyond these mere tactics. However, it is not something that you cannot achieve in your life.

It is achievable, and it does not require any special methodology, esoteric knowledge or drugs. It mainly depends on your body composition, experience, and training.

Stop wishing, start doing.

Therefore, I am going to reveal how body composition actually works and what we need to do to lose fat and gain muscle simultaneously.

Is It Hard To Lose Fat And Gain Muscle Simultaneously?

Yes, it is right that losing fat and developing strong muscles at the same time is a bit tricky and the reason behind this is protein synthesis.

Every day our cells ensure the maintenance of our body where our damaged, degraded and faulty cells are eradicated from our body; and new cells are formed in the place of these eliminated cells.

Protein synthesis plays an important role in creating new cells, and it also removes degraded or unwanted cells from the body.

Under normal health conditions, our muscle tissues stay fairly stable, and the cellular regeneration cycle remains balanced. To gain muscle, your body must add new cells to the muscle fiber, and this is how your muscle gets stronger and bigger.

Therefore, whenever we think of muscle growth, it is actually the increased level of protein synthesis that makes the muscle look bigger and stronger.

Similarly, when the level of protein synthesis decreases, you lose your muscles. This is the reason that bodybuilders apply every technique out there to increase the level of protein synthesis in the body and reduce the protein degradation rate.

Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.

Tips To Lose Fat And Gain Muscle At The Same Time

Here are the main tips on how to lose fat and gain muscle simultaneously:

  1. Must set a moderate calorie deficit. To lose body fat, you must eat low-calorie food than your body requires. However, it should not be too little so that it hampers your physical training or exercise.
  2. To gain muscle growth and to maintain hormonal balance, you should take the right amount of macronutrients such as carbs, fat or protein.
  3. Follow a strict physical exercise routine to burn extra calories and gain muscles.

Let’s discuss these points in brief to get a better understanding.

1. Maintain A Moderate Calorie Deficit

Calorie Deficit

You can build muscles when you have a calorie deficit, but you won’t be able to lose extra fat unless you follow a moderate calorie diet.

However, it is important to keep in mind that there should not be too much deficit because it may lead to energy loss, muscle loss or mood crash and similar problems. Now the question is –

How does one identify an optimal diet?

Well, the optimal diet means when you have to have a calorie deficit of 10% to 20% to lose fat.

2. Heavy Compound Weight Lifting

Heavy Compound Weight Lifting

Compound exercises basically involve multiple muscle groups and require the whole body strength and effort. The examples of compound exercises include – deadlift, squat, bench press, military press, etc.

If you would like to build strong muscles, then you must focus on doing compound exercises.

There are many people who work out regularly and eat healthily, but still, they don’t get any fruitful result. Losing fat and building muscle is a hard task even when you think that you are doing everything right.

To help people to achieve this goal, here are more useful tips that will help to lose fat and gain muscle simultaneously:

3. Make Sure That You Eat Enough

Meal Prep

You know that if you want to burn extra calories from the body, you must eat less. But it does not mean that you will skip your meals. It is not a smart way to lose fat because your body needs fuel and when you eat enough you can supply the adequate amount of fuel to your body.

If your ultimate aim is to lose fat and gain muscle, then you should eat enough food, but it should be the right kind of food like low-calorie food.

When you don’t eat enough, your body extracts the energy from your muscles, and this will hurt your metabolism.

4. Longer Workout Is Not Necessarily Required

Long Workouts

The key to lose fat and gain muscle is to practice variation in the intensity of your workout. Going on a long walk is fine, but when you practice a higher intensity workout, it will engage more muscles and thereby increase your body metabolism.

5. Make Sure You Eat Before Working Out

What To Eat Before And After Workout

Fuelling before a workout is very important. Your body requires an adequate amount of carbs to practice any physical work. Having enough energy sources within your body will allow you to workout for longer hours and thereby, you can burn more calories.

Properly following these tips to lose fat and gain muscle may give you some fruitful results, but it may take some time, from a few weeks to months. In the meantime, you should congratulate yourself for the little success you have achieved and for being proactive about your health and fitness.

Don’t forget to ask questions in the comment section below. Also, sharing is always appreciated.

Lose Fat And Gain Muscle

21 Comments

  1. It tells us repeatedly to eat enough calories. .
    There is no information on how to figure out your own personal amount of daily calories. .
    Any suggestions on how to come up with a daily calorie amount?

  2. I liked the article and it talks a lot of sense, but it gets one very important point very wrong. To quote the offending statement: “To gain muscle, your body must add new cells to the muscle fiber…” This makes it seem as if you increase the number of muscle cells when you gain muscle, but it’s actually the other way around. You increase the number of myofibrils or muscle fibers inside each muscle cell. The number of actual cells does not change. That’s why cancers of muscles are virtually unheard of, because muscle cells do no multiply!

    Muscle cells are very unique in that they are extremely long and have multiple cell nuclei. What happens as muscles grow is that new nuclei are added and the muscle cells essentially swell up as they fill with more myofibrils (strands). Other changes also happen that increase the strengthen of each of these myofibrils as they get repaired after exercise (that essentially damages them). I hope this clarifies the process.

  3. Thank you for your valuable advice. Do you have any suggestions for Protein supplements. Please recommend.

  4. Why shosld I eat fat before workout if I’m eating carbs? It’s not enough energy from carbs? Then, why I should eat fats after workout, what does fats do for my muscles?

  5. My goal is to achieve attain both simultaneously and I am doing weight training focussing one muscle per day in morning for 6 days along with 6km walk in evening…is that good enough? Along with ofcourse balanced and controlleed diet having low carbs…so is one muscle per day good enough or should i try some another variation in weight training ?

    1. You should focus on compound exercises that involve multiple muscle groups and requires the whole body strength and effort. Compound moves include: deadlift, squat, bench press, military press, and more.
      This is what I would recommend you, as you can read inside this article.
      But if you’re getting results with your routine, keep is going. In the end, only you can figure out what your body “likes” or “dislikes”. 🙂

  6. Is it necessary to have protein supplements like protein shakes to compensate for any deficits in protein from food intake ?

    1. It is not necessary if your diet is rich in proteins. But as you already know, most of the bodybuilders drink protein shakes too, to supplement the protein intake in the body.

  7. I usually workout in the evening after returning from office. So if am asked to intake protein foods post workout what should be the quantity ? Because Having much food before bed time is it advisable ?

  8. First it is a great article, I am very interested in applying these advices. But, I have a question, How long time should it separate between eating and before workout ?. We all know that doing any workout with filled stomach is to so extent affects exercise.

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