I Want to Lose Fat and Build Muscle Simultaneously - Can I?
The internet is loaded with sites that boast of their ability to help you "pack on 20 lbs of muscle in 6 weeks" and "get a six pack in 30 days".
Naturally people read these headlines and think "yes, this is EXACTLY what I want to do" and believe that in 2 months they will have the body they have always dreamed of.
Can you do this? Really? Well, someone does win the lottery, and all they did was buy 1 ticket.
So in fact the answer is yes, it can be done.
But your odds are better at buying the lottery ticket.
See, the facts to these web sites boasts hides in the small print.
Or as I like to call it, the truth.
Doable? Yes.
Easy? Well...
I'm afraid not.
With VERY few exceptions, losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time is virtually impossible to do.
That's because of the opposing demands these goals impose on your body.
To build a lot of new muscle tissue, your body needs energy.
Meaning you need to overfeed, to consume more calories than you're burning each day.
To lose fat, you need to do the opposite, underfeed, to consume fewer calories than you burn.
If you try to do both things at once, your progress in either direction will be so frustratingly slow that it won't be long before you feel like quitting.
It would be nice if the energy your body needs to build new muscle tissue came from stored fat, but, unfortunately when your body is in a catabolic state, which it needs to be to lose fat, gaining muscle is not its main priority.
The good news is there are exceptions, most notably beginners.
More specifically, overweight beginners.
And by "beginners," I mean people who are new to weight training.
Overweight beginners on an exercise and nutrition program that's geared towards fat loss can gain a significant amount of muscle mass while losing fat.
The reason that beginners usually respond better to weight training is that they're a long way from the upper limit of what they're capable of in terms of muscle mass.
The closer you are to this upper limit the slower your gains will be.
Someone who's been working out with weights for 10 years will gain muscle a lot more slowly than someone who's just starting out.
Obviously if you are obese fat loss will occur when you begin exercising.
So what are you to do, if fat loss and mass gain simultaneously is your goal and you are not an "overweight beginner"? Well like most things you can bend the rules a bit and find a way.
If I have been able to do this, which I have been and so can you, it will lead to the huge lean physique that everyone dreams of.
Just not in 2 months.
Naturally people read these headlines and think "yes, this is EXACTLY what I want to do" and believe that in 2 months they will have the body they have always dreamed of.
Can you do this? Really? Well, someone does win the lottery, and all they did was buy 1 ticket.
So in fact the answer is yes, it can be done.
But your odds are better at buying the lottery ticket.
See, the facts to these web sites boasts hides in the small print.
Or as I like to call it, the truth.
Doable? Yes.
Easy? Well...
I'm afraid not.
With VERY few exceptions, losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time is virtually impossible to do.
That's because of the opposing demands these goals impose on your body.
To build a lot of new muscle tissue, your body needs energy.
Meaning you need to overfeed, to consume more calories than you're burning each day.
To lose fat, you need to do the opposite, underfeed, to consume fewer calories than you burn.
If you try to do both things at once, your progress in either direction will be so frustratingly slow that it won't be long before you feel like quitting.
It would be nice if the energy your body needs to build new muscle tissue came from stored fat, but, unfortunately when your body is in a catabolic state, which it needs to be to lose fat, gaining muscle is not its main priority.
The good news is there are exceptions, most notably beginners.
More specifically, overweight beginners.
And by "beginners," I mean people who are new to weight training.
Overweight beginners on an exercise and nutrition program that's geared towards fat loss can gain a significant amount of muscle mass while losing fat.
The reason that beginners usually respond better to weight training is that they're a long way from the upper limit of what they're capable of in terms of muscle mass.
The closer you are to this upper limit the slower your gains will be.
Someone who's been working out with weights for 10 years will gain muscle a lot more slowly than someone who's just starting out.
Obviously if you are obese fat loss will occur when you begin exercising.
So what are you to do, if fat loss and mass gain simultaneously is your goal and you are not an "overweight beginner"? Well like most things you can bend the rules a bit and find a way.
If I have been able to do this, which I have been and so can you, it will lead to the huge lean physique that everyone dreams of.
Just not in 2 months.