Ep. #180: How Do You Build Muscle & Lose Fat at the Same Time?

[00:00:00] Hey, this is Mike and welcome to another installment in my in five minutes or less series, where I answer one common question quickly and simply, because while long form content is great, sometimes it is also nice when someone just gets right to the point and tells you what to do and how to do it in five minutes or less.

And that’s what I do in these episodes. Hey, this is Mike Matthews from Muscleful Life and Legion Athletics. And in this short podcast, I want to talk about building muscle and losing fat at the same time, otherwise known as body recomposition. And let’s start with some good news and some bad news. So the good news is, yes, it is possible to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time.

The bad news is it’s really only possible under specific unalterable conditions. And the ugly is, [00:01:00] This much of the advice that’s out there and how to do it is just piss poor. And to understand why, let’s start with the basics of muscle building. So every day there are two vital chemical processes that are occurring in your body.

One is protein degradation or protein breakdown. And the other is muscle building. Protein synthesis. Now, protein degradation is the breakdown of proteins into their constituent parts like peptides and amino acids. And protein synthesis is the creation of new proteins from those smaller components. Now, when you are generally healthy and your diet is generally okay, your total lean mass remains fairly stable, meaning that protein synthesis and protein degradation or protein breakdown rates more or less balance each other out and you don’t really gain muscle or lose muscle, at least over the short term.

Of course, if you weren’t to do anything. to train your muscles. You will lose muscle over the long term. So at some point starting usually in our twenties, somewhere in our twenties, we actually [00:02:00] start to slowly lose lean mass over time if we don’t do anything to prevent it. But when we are taking just a sliver of time, if you’re looking at it over the course of a week or a month or even a few months, total lean mass remains fairly stable.

Now, if we want to gain muscle, if we want to increase our total lean mass, then ultimately what has to happen is protein synthesis rates have to exceed protein degradation rates for extended periods of time. And to accomplish that, we have to do things like train our muscles And really, if we look at that, it’s not just train our muscles, but it’s progressively overload our muscles over long periods of time.

So we have to progressively increase tension levels in our muscles over time to keep on gaining muscle tissue. And of course, the most effective way to do that is to add weight to the bar or use heavier dumbbells essentially to get stronger over time. And that’s why. So for us natural weightlifters, the most important [00:03:00] thing we can do to maximize muscle growth is increase whole body strength over time.

So that’s one way to jack up protein synthesis rates and keep them above protein degradation, protein breakdown rates. Another way is eating protein. So when you eat protein, it stimulates protein synthesis. That’s one of the reasons why eating enough protein is a very important part of maximizing muscle growth.

And another one is eating enough calories, just enough calories. And the long story short here is that research shows that when your body is in an energy deficit, when it’s in a calorie deficit, when you are eating fewer calories than you’re burning, then protein synthesis rates are impaired. In other words, when you are restricting your calories, when you are in a state of negative energy balance, let’s say to lose fat.

Which you have to do. That’s the only way to lose fat is to consume less energy than you are expending over an extended period of time. Your [00:04:00] body simply can’t create new proteins as efficiently as it can when you are eating more or less fat. The amount of energy that you are burning every day or more.

Now the physiological mechanisms in play here are complex, but really what it comes down to is when you are restricting your calories, when you are feeding your body significantly less energy than it’s burning, it responds by getting stingy with the energy that it is getting. And what I mean by that is your body engages in an energy triage, so to speak.

So it takes the energy that it’s getting and it pays a lot more attention to where that energy is going. So it highly prioritizes the important physiological processes that it needs to stay alive. And it becomes less willing to spend energy on non vital physiological processes like Muscle building, for example.

Also this is one of the reasons why many women will lose their periods when they restrict their calories because menstruation gets bumped down on the [00:05:00] list of priorities and isn’t given the normal amount of energy and attention that it’s given when food intake more or less matches, energy output.

So this is why it’s very important to make sure that you are not in a calorie deficit when you want to maximize muscle growth. Because if you want to maximize muscle growth, that means that you want to maximize protein synthesis rates and minimize protein breakdown rates. And when you are eating fewer calories than you are burning, and especially when it’s a significant number.

Then you have the opposite. You are going to have lower than normal protein synthesis rates and higher than normal protein breakdown rates. And this is why bodybuilders have been saying for decades now that you have to eat big to get big. And really they’ve been more right than wrong. We can be more accurate and say that you need to consistently eat slightly more calories than you’re burning to gain muscle and strength as quickly as possible.

But the idea is the same. And this is also why [00:06:00] bodybuilders have been saying for just as long that you can’t effectively gain muscle and lose fat at the same time. And again, they’ve been fundamentally correct in terms of energy balance, in terms of calories in versus calories out. But the goals of losing fat and gaining muscle have.

Irreconcilable differences, so to speak. They are mutually exclusive because to lose fat, you have to significantly restrict your calories. You have to eat quite a bit less. energy than you’re burning. And to gain muscle effectively, you have to do the opposite. You have to eat a bit more energy than you’re burning.

And unfortunately, that’s really just the way it is. You can’t get around it through any cute diet or training hacks. So some people say that if you just eat enough protein, you can keep your body in a positive nitrogen balance. And then you can also be in a caloric deficit and gain muscle effectively.

No, you can’t doesn’t work like that. Similarly, many people [00:07:00] think that manipulating meal frequency might be the secret to success. To body recomp. So like intermittent fasting, for example, is often cited as a way to recomp your body effectively. And again, no, that’s not true. And ironically, from a muscle building perspective, intermittent fasting is not optimal.

It’s fine. Do it if you like to do it. but eating just two or three servings of protein per day is really not optimal for maximizing muscle growth. And if you want to learn why, head over to muscle for life. com and search for protein timing and check out the article that I wrote on that. And other people will say that if you train in very specific ways, That you can effectively build muscle and lose fat at the same time.

So they might say that, you want to do something like German volume training, or they’re going to say it’s a special combination of heavier weightlifting and maybe high intensity cardio. Unfortunately, No, none of that is going to matter. Now [00:08:00] there is one exception. There is one type of person that can effectively build muscle, gain strength, and lose fat at the same time.

And that is the newbie, the person who is new to weightlifting. or new to proper weightlifting. So if they’re new to heavy compound weightlifting, let’s say previously they’ve just done a bunch of, traditional bodybuilder type of workouts. So a lot of isolation exercises, high rep, no real progressive overload, a lot of machines, cables, lightweights, all that kind of stuff.

And then they go do something like it could be one of my programs or it could be just a strength program like starting strength for example. That person also can gain muscle and strength and lose fat at the same time. You can find several examples of this in the literature and I’ll drop a few studies down in the references section below if you want to check them out.

And the reason why this works for the [00:09:00] newbie is simply because his body is hyper responsive to resistance training in the beginning. So much so that it just supersedes and overrides the catabolic aspects of being in a caloric deficit. And therefore protein synthesis rates are still able to be significantly higher than breakdown rates for let’s say the first six to maybe eight months of weightlifting or of proper weightlifting.

This is also why So you can gain the most muscle and strength per unit of time invested in the beginning. So for guys, you can gain anywhere from, let’s say 15 to 25 pounds of muscle in your first year of weightlifting. And for girls, it’s about half that. And then year two is about half that your three is about half that and your four and really from there on out, you’re looking at a maximum muscle gain of probably two, three, maybe four pounds per year.

And so once your [00:10:00] newbie gain phase is over, once your honeymoon phase is over. Has ended. And again, I’d say that’s anywhere from six to eight, maybe 12 months at the longest, but most people it seems to be about six months at that point, you really are not going to be able to effectively gain muscle and strength and lose fat at the same time anymore.

So you have to choose one or the other. And you’re gonna have to optimize your diet and training for one or the other, maximizing muscle growth and strength gain, or maximizing fat loss. And we could say muscle preservation. So losing fat as quickly as possible while preserving as much muscle as you can.

Or gaining muscle and strength as quickly as possible with the unwanted side effect of gaining some fat because you are consistently eating more calories than you’re burning.

Hey, quickly before we carry on, if you are liking my podcast, would you please help spread the word about it? Because no amount of marketing or [00:11:00] advertising gimmicks can match the power of word of mouth. So if you are enjoying this episode and you think of someone else who might enjoy it as well, please do tell them about it, it really helps me.

And if you are going to post about it on social media, definitely tag me so I can say Thank you. You can find me on Instagram at Muscle for Life Fitness, Twitter at Muscle for Life, and Facebook at Muscle for Life Fitness. All right. So that’s all the theory. Let’s now talk how to do it. How do you gain muscle and lose fat at the same time?

So if you are new to weightlifting or new to proper weightlifting, you can do this and it’s actually very simple. What you want to do is one, you want to maintain a moderately aggressive calorie deficit. I recommend eating 20 to 25%. fewer calories than you’re burning every day. And if you’re not sure how many calories you’re burning, you’re not sure to how to even set that up, head over [00:12:00] to legionathletics.

com, search for calorie, and you will find an article that I wrote on how to determine how many calories you’re burning, and then also how to set up your daily caloric intake. And it also has a calculator that makes it easy. Next, we have your macros again, let’s keep it simple. Let’s say around one gram of protein per pound of body weight per day.

And let’s say 0. 2 to 0. 3 grams of fat per pound of body weight per day. I’ll leave it up to you to determine exactly how much you want, but just keep it in that range and get the rest of your calories from carbs. And in the gym, you want to emphasize the heavy compound weightlifting, nothing changes in that regard.

You don’t want to change to a low weight, high rep, super set, drop set, giant set type of program when you’re cutting to really feel the burn and bring out the cuts. All of that is just nonsense. Instead, you want to stick to the fundamentals. Keep pushing heavy weight, push for more reps, push for more strength.

[00:13:00] And for those of you that are new to weightlifting, at least a proper weightlifting, for those of you who can gain muscle and lose fat at the same time, you will have no problem getting stronger throughout your cut. And if you are going to include cardio, which you’re going to have to if you want to get really lean, at least at some point, I have a few recommendations.

One is do either high intensity interval training. Or something very low intensity like walking. And the reason for this is high intensity interval training is difficult, but it is also the best for maximizing fat loss and time efficiency. So you are going to burn the most fat per unit of time. I’m doing HIIT over anything else.

And you also don’t have to do that much to really keep the needle moving. I myself do and recommend no more than one to two hours of HIIT cardio per week when cutting. So really what that means is just a few sessions of HIIT cardio per week when I’m [00:14:00] cutting. And I also choose to cycle for my HIIT. I use an upright bike.

And the reason why I do this is one, it’s convenient. I just have it down in my. I’m in my basement in the exercise room in my basement, but also research suggests that cycling in particular is less likely to impair muscle and strength gains than other forms of cardio for a few different reasons. But one of them being is that the movement mimics the squat movement.

So when you are cycling intensely, which is what you’re doing when you’re doing hit, there’s a carryover effect, so to speak, to your leg training in the gym. Now, if you can’t or don’t want to do HIIT, then I recommend you go in the opposite direction. Go to the other end of the spectrum and do the lowest intensity cardio possible, which is walking.

And there are a few reasons for this. One is that walking actually burns a decent amount of energy. You can burn about 300 to 350 calories per hour of walking if you’re walking at a decent pace. And two, it’s very easy on the [00:15:00] body. It doesn’t add any physical stress. And in fact, research shows that it can even reduce physical stress levels.

So it can reduce cortisol levels, for example, which is just going to help you recover better from your weightlifting workouts and ultimately see better results from your work in the gym. And it also minimally impacts muscle and strength gains. You’ve probably heard that doing cardio And that’s more or less true.

A number of studies have shown that the adaptations that occur at a cellular level with cardiovascular training interfere with the adaptations that need to After weightlifting to gain muscle and strength and so the more cardio that you do in general and the more intense and demanding that cardio is in general, then the harder it’s going to be for you to gain muscle and strength.

And so walking [00:16:00] then is one of the most acceptable forms of cardio you can do when you’re trying to gain muscle and strength as quickly as possible because research shows that the interference effects are very small. I mean you have to walk a shitload to really get in the way of your muscle building.

And one final little tip is something I personally like to do when I’m cutting is I will do two or three HIIT sessions per week, usually 25 to 30 minutes. And then I will also do a few two or three 30 to 45 minute walks just to bump up my energy expenditure without adding any stress on my body. And that’s it.

That’s all you have to do to build muscle and lose fat at the same time. You just have to restrict your calories and be moderately aggressive with it. You have to get your macros right and you have to push hard in the gym. Don’t move away from your heavy compound weightlifting. Just keep going for more reps, more strength, and don’t do too much cardio and your [00:17:00] body will transform if it can.

If you have the newbie gains in you, they will work to your favor. And also a quick note on supplements, just in case you’re wondering about it, there are no supplements that are going to dramatically impact this process. You can do just fine without them. But if you have the budget and the inclination, then I would recommend creatine because it is going to help you gain muscle and strength faster and it’s totally safe and it’s not very expensive either.

And in terms of specific products. I recommend my own. That’s what I take. It’s a post workout supplement called recharge. It contains creatine as well as two other ingredients that speed up your recovery and reduce muscle damage and muscle soreness. And if you want to learn more about it, just head over to legionathletics.

com slash recovery. Recharge. Hey there, it is Mike again. I hope you enjoyed this episode and found it interesting and helpful. And if you did and don’t mind [00:18:00] doing me a favor and want to help me make this the most popular health and fitness podcast on the internet, then please leave a quick review of it on iTunes or wherever you’re listening from.

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Lastly, If you didn’t like something about the show, then definitely shoot me an email at mike at muscleforlife. com and share your thoughts on how you think it could be better. I read everything myself, and I’m always looking for constructive feedback, so please do reach out. Alright, that’s it.

Thanks again for listening to this episode, and I hope to hear from you soon. And lastly, this episode is brought to you by me. Seriously though, I’m not big on promoting stuff that I don’t personally use and believe in. [00:19:00] So instead, I’m going to just quickly tell you about something of mine. Specifically, my flexible dieting cookbook, The Shredded Chef.

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