Struggle: Losing fat & gaining muscle

I reached out and told people they could give me a fitness related topic that confused them and I'd turn into a post, hoping to clear up their confusion and point them in a better direction.

I had not one, not two, not three, but seven (7) people ask about fat loss and/or muscle growth. Now, this might seem like a lot or it might not, but it's definitely a good reflection of how many people struggle to wrap their heads around sustainable weight loss and muscle building.

In this blog post, I'm going to go over a few factors about these two goals and help you understand the basics of both. I'm also going to tell you why you struggle so much with actually following through with them.

Step 1: Understand that losing fat and gaining muscle are two separate goals, on opposite ends of the spectrum. For a lot of people, or at least the dozens of clients I've met with who have had this goal, fat loss and muscle growth is a package deal. People really think there is a secret formula, supplement or programming technique that will help them shed their body fat while bulking up to a point where the only option is walking sideways through doors. This just isn't the case...

When we are looking to decrease our body fat percentage, we are moving in the direction of a calorie deficit. You know, the thing where you consume less than you expend and you lose weight. Everyone gets that part. Imagine I took you for coffee to do a goal setting session and I said to you "oh you want to put on 10 kilos of muscle mass? No worries, we can do that in 6 months as long as you under eat and don't reach your calorie targets everyday". Does that sound strange to you? YES. I sound like a con artist when I put it that way, yet people still have the goal of "losing fat & gaining muscle". So where do you go from here? Pick one. If your goal is to lose weight, you're going to go into a calorie deficit until you're satisfied. If you want to build muscle, you need to enter a calorie surplus and back it up with hard training until you're satisfied.

I can already hear it, it's echoing through my mind "wait so it's not possible to grow muscle while losing weight".

Of course it's possible to put adequate tension on your muscles while in a deficit, but this means your goals aren't really where you want them to be. If you're looking to lose a little fat and gain a little muscle, chances are your goal is to get leaner. Everyone has muscle, it's just hidden a bit better for some people, me included. I call it my winter coat, and it's normal to hold more fat at certain stages of the year and your life.

So there you have it, step 1 towards making fat loss and muscle gain easier. Acknowledge they're different, and require different directions. Pick one, stick with it, then reassess.

Step 2: Back up your plan with nutrition. Sure, lifting everyday will change your muscle and running a marathon will burn a lot of calories, but read this very carefully: you cannot, and will not out train poor nutrition. If you're already thinking to yourself that it's Christmas soon, and you have so many events which means poor habits will pour into the weekdays... delay your start. There's no better time than now, but there's also no better time than the one that will work for you and allow you to create sustainable habits. If the best time for you to start is now, then come up with a plan. It doesn't have to be an intricate meal plan with meal times and macros. Just put pen to paper, jot down a few meal ideas, and figure out your calories (I recommend using a few calculators and comparing). I have a super simple formula you can follow depending on the goal you've decided to go for.

Fat loss: Find your maintenance calories (Harris Benedict Calculator), track for two weeks to make sure they're correct. Decrease your calories indefinitely until you reach your goal. Start with 15%, increase or decrease based on how fast you want the results.

Muscle growth: Find your maintenance calories (Harris Benedict Calculator), track for two weeks to make sure they're correct. Increase your calories indefinitely until you reach your goal. Start with 15%, train hard and be comfortable with getting a bit fluffy (body fat increase is normal, extreme amounts is not). If you gain weight too fast, your calories are too high, so decrease them.

You probably want to virtually punch me in the face through your screen, and I'm okay with that. I'm okay with that because I've just given you a solution to your problems that is so simple, you probably think I'm hiding something. The reason you might not believe me is because so many fitness professionals gatekeep this information in order to make money. When simple information like this is withheld, it's not because it's so complex that you need to pay for it. It's because it's a money maker, and thousands of dollars are better than none for a lot of people.

Step 3: Be consistent. Be consistent in your training and nutrition, because training once and eating to your targets 3/7 days usually leads to people blaming things like; age, metabolism, gender, hormones and a range of other things. I see right through that crap (except when it's legit). If you can't last a week, your methods are not suited to your lifestyle so later them and find something sustainable. Until you stand in front of me showing me an honest record of your nutrition and training of a month or longer, that shows me you've taken every necessary step and been consistent, I don't want to hear that your body is different or "it just doesn't work for me". If you're not sure how to back up your nutrition with solid training, buy a program or invest in a no BS coach who can guide you. If you can't back up your training with solid nutrition, invest in a nutritionist.

If there's a will, there's a way. It just seems the opposite a lot of the time because the will isn't actually there, and the way is hidden behind a bunch of prepubescent teenage girls selling fat burners.

It really is that simple and I hope that if you have any more questions you'll comfortable enough to message me, because I'm not going to take your money but I will give you information that isn't sugar coated. If all of this made you sigh and roll your eyes, I'm sure I'll talk to you in 6 months when you've exhausted every other method and are ready to try the real thing.

Your coach & friend,

Maddy