My question is would you have more NETpositive results in body fat % trying to improve both at once vs. concentrating on burning fat or building muscle?
Yesterday we began a series on losing fat and gaining muscle simultaneously, and with that first post I posed the question:
Can it be done?
The answer? Yes. BUT, only with a VERY strategic approach.
Now, in order to understand how these seemingly mutually exclusive goals can be accomplished simultaneously, we need to understand a few things about achieving your goals in general.
First, your goals are a direct result of both your training and nutrition program.
Second, optimal training for fat loss and optimal training to gain muscle are different.
Third, optimal nutritional strategies for fat loss and optimal nutritional strategies for gaining muscle are different.
Let’s take a look at each.
From a caloric balance perspective, in order to gain muscle you need to be taking in surplus levels of calories – there is simply no way around it. Fact is, it’s nearly impossible to gain muscle mass while in a caloric deficit 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Period.
Conversely, if your goal is to lose body fat, you need to create some sort of caloric deficit (i.e. you are eating less than you burn).
Now, those two situations may indeed seem mutually exclusive, but they’re not.
More on that in a minute.
On to training.
Optimal training for fat loss consists of very metabolically demanding resistance training (think circuit training) coupled with high intensity interval style cardio sessions.
Optimal training for gaining muscle is more a product of using heavier weights, more rest, while still performing a large number of repetitions per session (volume).
Those two things also seem mutually exclusive – but they’re not.
Here’s how:
TIMING.
What if you alternated the two types of workouts throughout the week?
Could you burn fat and gain muscle?
Perhaps, but not likely due to the nutrition issue.
But what if you were to feed your muscles with a surplus of calories on muscle building workout days, and remain in a caloric deficit on other days?
Or what if you were to feed your muscles with a MEGA surplus of calories for the several hours after your muscle building workout (when your muscles are most primed to suck up nutrients and much less likely to convert those extra calories to fat)?
Or what if you were to take small bursts of time to concentrate on building muscle – say, two weeks. And then follow it up with an intense one week fat loss phase? Essentially, over a twelve week period you’d be losing fat and gaining muscle “simultaneously,” unlike those who only do one or the other in that time frame.
Or what if you were to do exclusively muscle building workouts (with a caloric surplus on those days), and then burn excess calories via interval training (and not resistance training) combined with dieting on other days?
There are SO many different ways to do this.
Give me at least 300 comments and I’ll be back tomorrow with a number of different specific ways to approach the goal of building muscle and losing fat simultaneously.
Talk to you in the comments section!
Joel
P.S. Check out the below video from my buddy Kyle explaining one of the NEWEST methods we’re using for simultaneous fat loss and muscle gain:
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332 comments - add yours
Have you tried it with anyone (or yourself)? If not, count me in as a guinea pig!
these ideas are obvius yet needed for the people of the lower iq standerd but this advice would be fairly usfel for amtures and such props for posting sth so basic yet needed as the saying goes the fundamenatls are well fundamantel
Hi
I have been doing very well — dropped +- 25 kg in fat in 2 years and have now and have very nice muscle tone – eating well doing cardio and working hard on resistance weight training. Its been working very well so far. Thanks for all the advise
Look forward to hearing more………..
I’d love to see the methods to do this; however would you be able to continue to eat and train in such a way in the long term?
Has there been a longer term application of the training process?
This makes since I guess, but would switching workout strategies every few weeks give you enough time to see some gains before switching it up again and again?
I do not believe that you can loss fat and build muscle Simultaneously is like trying to drive a car one feet is on the accelerator and the other feet is on the brake,it will be impossible to move forward.
You said “From a caloric balance perspective, in order to gain muscle you need to be taking in surplus levels of calories – there is simply no way around it. Fact is, it’s nearly impossible to gain muscle mass while in a caloric deficit 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Period.
I think one should priorities e.g loss fat for a certain time and build muscles after.Very skeptical
Wrong, Joel. It’s not that complicated. You can lose fat and gain muscle at the same time by doing circuit training (or boot camp or P90X or Insanity or whatever) and eating a little above your BMR. Nutrition is 90% of the equation.
Guys…you won’t get huge but you will be ripped. Girls…you will be ripped without being bulky. You will gain muscle and have lots of definition and lose a lot of fat.
You do not need to do any funky cycling of carbs or calories.
Eat your starchy carbs early in the day before your workouts. Eat clean. Eat protein and fibrous carbs at other meals. Do high intensity workouts. Yeh…even if you are a 56 year old like me. Get your heart rate up between 90 & 103% of your maximum for 20+ minutes a session at least 2-3 days a week while doing cardio and strength training. The rest of the time do yoga, stretching, low intensity or whatever.
One day of heavy lifting a week. One day of complete rest. Water and sleep…you all know this already. But you gotta do it, not just read about it.
For you middle agers like me, please, PLEASE, do high intensity cardio or circuits on a weekly basis. You MUST periodically/regularly utilize the glycogen stores in your muscles and liver. This happens when you workout at an intensity level that is above 80% of your VO2max or maximum heart rate. This will help prevent insulin resistance and type II diabetes. It can save your life! And you will look and feel great, too!
please tell me, the suspense is getting to me!!
Hi Joel,
Very nice approaches on gaining muscle and lose fat. I think the one that I will use from now on is the 2 weeks on gaining and one week on losing. I have just a small amount of fat that I want to get rid of and I think this is the best approach to do it.
Thanks,
Andrei.
Timing would be key. I don’t see them as mutually exclusive either, I mean, if a heavy person starts working out and building muscle, their body will naturally start changing. Metabolism changes, more calories burned day and night, and if they eat just right so this growth comes from both food AND fat stores, they will also naturally shed some fat in the process.
You don’t necessarily need caloric surplus to gain muscle weight, but you do need the protein and water. And you don’t necessarily need huge caloric deficit to lose fat, you just need to eat in such a way as your body uses stored fat for energy some of the time and as much as possible.
I do believe it can be done, and I actually have the Extreme Fat Loss Diet, which I found too extreme for me and the job I had at the time, I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t eat enough on the surplus days, I was losing health on the restriction days because I wasn’t eating the “free foods”. I couldn’t make or take shakes with me, it was just bad, I might try again in the future when I can do it more correctly. But Joel is right, timing is key, but only when you want extreme results quickly. One can adopt some simple tactics to accomplish the goals over longer periods of time without too much struggle.
You got my attention, please tell us more
Well, it makes sense….. theoretically. But our body doesn’t work like a textbook. If it was so simple, there was no ‘overweight issue’. So, does it really works out well in practice?
tell me!!!! because i need to gain some muscle in order to burn more fat, but i’m afraid of gaining ugly fat…what’s the best thing to do????
hopefully you will give us some information we can put to use right away, and not another “program” that we have to purchase.
good stuff
Looking forward to your next post :D
Seeing is believing. Let me see the strategy please.
can’t wait for tomorrow’s post!
How?
ok looking forward to this one…
So this definition of simultaneously is over 12 weeks….usually simultaneously refers to instant multitasking
hi joel
ife been training like this losing fat and building muscle for a long time and being successfull most of the time BUT SOME BODY PARTS SEEM TO GET SMALL DURING INTENSE CARDIO WOULD APPRECIATE YOU GIVING US SOME INFO LIKE WHAT TO EAT AND WHEN TO DO CARDIO AND WHEN WEIGHTS
THANKS
I know you will say “it’s easy to talk on the hind side” but believe me (or not) that’s what I’ve been trying to do since couple of weeks now and looks like it works (eat a lot of proteins and carbs after workout, eat less and make cardio the other days, allow a little more eating on days where I have time to make cardio and workout) I have a small injury on my wrist and my programme was interrupted so I will confirm if it really works in a couple of weeks. Cheers.
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Hey, it’s Joel! So you want to know a little more about me, huh? Well, I’d be happy to oblige :-)
I guess it all started back in 2001 (my freshman year of college) when I was just a “skinny fat” 19-year old kid. At the time, I was spending close to 2 hours a day in the gym (now my workouts last about 30 minutes), and despite my efforts, you’d probably never guess I worked out a day in my life by looking at me...