Diet For Muscle Gain And Fat Loss

Break Up With The Scale

With a goal like body recomposition, it’s important to be patient and measure your progress in ways other than the scale, because you’re not just trying to lose weight.

“Progress may feel slow because, unlike a dedicated weight-loss or weight-gain phase, you won’t be able to rely on the scales to help monitor progress,” Carpenter said. “You may train for a month and see no change in actual scale weight.”

Measuring body composition without expensive equipment is challenging, but a couple of options are keeping waist measurements or using a tight-fitting pair of jeans to see whether they start to feel tighter in some places as you gain muscle and looser in others as you lose fat.

“Understand that the scales won’t be able to tell you much about your progress, and other ways to measure body composition may be valuable, if you are the kind of person who enjoys tracking progress like that,” Carpenter said.

The Best Exercise And Diet Plan For Losing Weight While Gaining Muscle

Researchers from McMaster University may have just discovered the ideal program for quickly losing weight and gaining lean body mass

Muscle changes everything.

The better your body compositionthat is, more muscle and bone, and less fatthe leaner youll ultimately be. Muscle increases your resting metabolic rate, burning a higher amount of calories around the clock. And muscular strength is connected with lower risks of cancer and cardiovascular disease.

So its beyond frustrating when you lose weight fast and end up losing muscle right along with it.

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But researchers for McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, have found its possible to tackle both objectiveshow to lose weight fast but still gain musclein just 4 weeks.

Fair warning: Its not easy.

In their month-long study, which was published in the latest issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 40 overweight men in their 20s followed a rigorous exercise program and followed a diet that consisted of 40% fewer calories than what they would normally require.

However, while they all heavily restricted calories, half the men followed a lower-protein diet and the other half followed a higher-protein diet . Both diets were above the recommended daily amount of protein.

The participants worked out 6 days a week, doing resistance training, sprint work, high-intensity interval training , and plyometric circuits. They also had to hit 10,000 steps every day.

Body Recomposition: The Secret To Losing Weight And Gaining Muscle Together

Yes, it’s possible to change your body with the right approach. Here’s how to lose weight and gain muscle at the same time.

When most people are set on having a fitness goal, usually it’s because they want to get more “toned.” The truth is “toning” is just another way of saying gaining muscle. When someone says their goal is to lose weight and gain muscle, they’re actually referring to body recomposition. This is the act of altering your physique by burning fat and gaining muscle at the same time. This requires a different strategy than the typical weight-loss mindset.

Often times, this idea stumps people because when it seems impossible to reduce your body fat and build muscle at the same time. The confusion stems from being in a caloric deficit aids in weight loss, while to build muscle, you have to eat more calories than you burn. The good news is that it is possible to do both by keeping a close eye on your diet and your training.

Here’s what you should know about body recomposition and how to make it work in your favor.

Body composition refers to your body fat percentage and lean mass percentage.

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Sustain A Caloric Deficit While Eating Enough Protein

You need your body to burn more calories than you consume, and also provide your body with enough protein to rebuild its muscle.

You can only lose fat if youâre in a calorie deficit.

Remember the Sorting Hat analogy:

If youâre eating too much, your excess calories are being sent to the âStore as Fatâ house.

We want to pull from this house instead. So eat less than you burn consistently.

To help here, I have 3 resources for you:

You donât have to follow some predetermined blueprint like âlow-carb.â You can create your own diet . Learn all about it right here.

Option : Breakfast Of Champions

This is a great option for people who arent put off by the idea of eating meat in the morning. Frying up a grass-fed fillet steak with some almonds and greens beans to serve with it is one of the best ways to start the day.

Here are some other options to try:

• Lean cut of red meat or oily fish e.g. fillet steak, venison, buffalo, salmon
• Small handful of nuts e.g. almonds, walnuts, cashews or pecans
• Handful of greens e.g. spinach, green beans, kale.

Try these Steak and Peanut Butter Skewers, for a tasty and convenient way to eat meat and nut for breakfast.

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Tips To Decrease Body Fat And Increase Lean Muscle Mass

How To Stay On Track

Habits and cravings are the devil when it comes to dieting. Lets first deal with habits. Juge explains that it takes a good week or two to ease into dieting. Fast food is so easy and theres a McDonalds on every corner. The hardest thing is to develop the new habit of preparing your meals and taking them with you. The first week is the most difficult, so prepare yourself for some challenges as you abandon your usual routine. For example, you might usually go out for a sub sandwich or burger at lunch. Youll now have to bring your food with you and resist the temptation of spicing up your meal with the Doritos in the vending machine or your usual can of Coke. It can be a real mental battle to stick to your food plan.

To stay motivated and deal with cravings, Juge has a couple of great recommendations. First, schedule a cheat meal on every seventh day. Many of my clients have their cheat meal on Sunday, so then theyre ready for Monday and the week to come, he says. If you feel deprived during the week, concentrate on the cheat meal to come, knowing you can eat absolutely anything you want topizza, lasagna, doughnuts, beer, chips, you name it. Remember, though, its just one cheat meal, not an entire day of cheating. Afterward, get right back on the wagon with your next scheduled meal.

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Trifectas Healthy Meal Plans

All meal plans at Trifecta are designed to help you hit your fitness goals and provide a balanced approach to healthy eating, using science-based nutrition – no matter which diet you choose.

Of course, not every meal plan option is right for everyone, and each diet will give you something a little different.

Eat Protein Every Day To Lose Fat And Build Muscle

Protein is essential to both fat loss and muscle gain. For fat loss, include protein in every meal to have an increased thermic effect. You see, protein-rich foods help to increase your metabolism because your body requires more energy to digest them.

Which foods increase the thermogenesis, or fat burning process?

• Chicken and turkey
• Cottage cheese and full-fat yogurt
• Red meat like pork and beef

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Beginners Guide To Burn Fat And Build Muscle

Reviewing the study, youll see that exercise was half the foundation. The subjects used compound exercises with short rest breaks. Both of which have been scientifically shown to burn more calories while promoting muscular hypertrophy or growth.

With that said, youll want to focus on the classic compound exercises that utilize the greatest number of muscle groups, burn the most calories, trigger the highest degree of fat loss, and stimulate the highest production of fat-burning hormones:

How To Build Muscle

To build muscle, focus on two main factors: weight training and protein consumption. Strength training is essential to changing your body composition your muscles wont grow if you dont challenge them.

Additionally, you cant build muscle without being in a caloric surplus, so you must eat more calories than you burn to promote muscle growth. While all macronutrients are important, protein is especially important for building muscle. Without enough protein, your body will struggle to repair the muscle tissues that get broken down during weight training.

Plus, studies show that a high-protein diet can help with losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time. Research shows that, while in a calorie deficit, consuming more protein than you normally might can help preserve your lean body mass than being in a calorie deficit without changing your protein intake.

In people who have already been following a strength training program, increasing protein intake and following a heavy weight-lifting routine leads to improvements in body composition.

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Try Protein Shake Recipes

Combine your favorite ingredients with protein powder to create refreshing, delicious protein shakes for muscle building.

Blend the following ingredients together to create a custom-made protein smoothie:

• 1 1/2 2 cups of milk or plant milk
• 1 scoop of protein powder
• 1/4 cup of fruit OR 1 teaspoon of nut butter OR coffee OR matcha green tea powder
• A handful of ice

Use this basic protein shake recipe but plugin ingredients of your choice based on your taste preferences.

When using protein shakes for weight loss, drink them as meal replacements or consume smaller shakes between meals.

You Can Build Muscle And Lose Fat Simultaneously

“Although many people claim that you cannot do it, it is indeed possible to build muscle and lose body fat simultaneously. This process is often referred to as ‘recomping,'” Ben Carpenter, a qualified master personal trainer and strength-and-conditioning specialist, told Insider.

“Part of the confusion is that people understand you need a surplus of calories to gain weight and a calorie deficit to lose weight, so these two concepts sound completely opposing,” he said. “However, this refers to total body weight as one. You can lose body fat and gain lean body mass at the same time.”

Carpenter cited a study that found that men eating in a 40% energy deficit for four weeks while resistance training, doing high-intensity interval training, and consuming a high-protein diet were able to increase their lean body mass.

A second study found that women who did resistance training and ate a high-protein diet simultaneously lost fat and built muscle.

So yes, it’s doable.

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How To Make This Study Work For You

To sum up the study: Large amounts of dietary protein in combination with a reduced calorie diet and intense exercise program will support fat loss and muscle building simultaneously.

Sounds great, but what about realistic actions you can take right now to start supporting more fat burning and muscle building? Heres a beginner-friendly and experienced lifters plan that you can adopt to kickstart your progress.

Fat Loss Vs Muscle Gain

First two important concepts to understand: how you lose weight differs from how you gain musclethese goals often conflict with one another.

In order to lose fat or weight, your body needs to be in a caloric deficit, meaning you are taking in less calories per day making it more difficult for your body to maintain its current weight.

What is difficult here is that in order to then gain muscle, your body needs to be at a caloric surplus. This surplus provides the energy your body requires to repair itself and then build muscle mass.

Some people may think its impossible just based on pure science alone, Silvestri said. Because if you find yourself in a situation where you are constantly at a caloric deficit, your body then may start to break down other parts of itself for energy requirements. This can unfortunately put you in a situation where your body starts breaking down muscle instead of fat for energy.

Ugh, say it isnt so! How can you gain muscle while still losing weight when science is working against you?

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How To Lose Fat

Fat loss ultimately comes down to your calorie maintenance. To lose fat, you must eat fewer calories than you burn. Cardiovascular exercise, or combined cardio and resistance exercise, alongside a healthy diet still stands as the best technique for fat loss theres just no way around the science. Losing fat in a safe, sustainable way also means having realistic goals and not depriving your body of the nutrients it needs disordered eating habits are never worth the risk.

Regular Protein Is Key But Timing Doesnt Really Matter

Youll be pleased to know it doesnt really matter when you eat protein. Just how much.

Its common for guys to chug a protein shake as fast as possible after a workout in hope that theyll hit their so-called anabolic window.

In reality, it doesnt matter when you consume protein, as long as its regular and helps you reach your recommended daily total.

Studies show that even though nutrient timing is thought to enhance protein absorption after exercise, no such window of opportunity exists .

Grabbing a protein shake is a simple and effective way of upping your daily protein intake theres just no need to rush it post-workout.

Simply aiming for 20 grams of protein or so every 3-5 hours is more than enough to spike MPS and trigger muscle growth or fat loss.

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Can You Lose Fat And Gain Muscle At Home

If you train at home instead of a gym, you might be wondering if its possible to do a successful body recomp diet and training plan. The good news is, the nutrition part of the deal can be done anywhere, and your own kitchen is the best place to take control of your food quality and macronutrients.

The only issue might be lifting heavy enough at home. Its hard to overload your muscles with light dumbbells or kettlebells. But if you have a home gym set up with a barbell and plates, you can definitely train to achieve a body recomposition.

What Is Body Composition

Your body composition is the ratio of fat mass to lean mass in your body. Sometimes, body composition is used interchangeably with body fat percentage, but body fat percentage is just one part of your overall body composition.

Lean mass includes muscle, bones, ligaments, tendons, organs, other tissues and water in other words, everything thats not body fat. Depending on what method you use to measure your body composition, you may see water as its own percentage.

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Low Moderate High Cycle For Fat Loss

In the following example, our male athlete has a DCML of 3000 calories. He is wishing to lose weight slowly while maintaining as much muscle as possible, and decides to try eating an average of 2700 daily calories over the next month. Protein intake will remain consistent, and based upon the principles detailed in the frequent feeding section above. Fat intake will remain at a steady 20-30 of daily calories . The remain amount of calories would be eaten as carbs. The low, moderate and high cycle would look something like this:

• Monday – 2100 calories . 200 grams of protein, 70 grams of fat , and 167.5 grams of carbs.
• Tuesday – 2700 calories . 200 grams of protein, 90 grams of fat , and 272.5 grams of carbs.
• Wednesday – 3300 calories . 200 grams of protein, 100 grams of fat , and 400 grams of carbs.
• Thursday – 2100 calories . 200 grams of protein, 70 grams of fat , and 167.5 grams of carbs.
• Friday – 2700 calories . 200 grams of protein, 90 grams of fat , and 272.5 grams of carbs.
• Saturday – 3300 calories . 200 grams of protein, 100 grams of fat , and 400 grams of carbs.
• Sunday – 2700 calories . 200 grams of protein, 90 grams of fat , and 272.5 grams of carbs.

Isnt It All About Calories In Versus Calories Out Anyway

While maintaining a calorie deficit is necessary to lose weight , it is only a piece of the weight loss puzzle. The essential factor that Intermittent Fasting adds is that it reduces insulin levels to allow your body to use up stored fat. Otherwise, even if youre eating at a calorie deficit, you wouldnt lose weight because your body would always be getting what it needs to maintain homeostasis.

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