Body Recomposition: How to Lose Fat and Gain Muscle at the Same Time

On the flip side, the longer you’ve been strength training the more difficult it is to build more muscle. People will often claim that they want to gain muscle, but they don’t actually want to gain weight overall. So, what they really mean is that they want to build lean muscle by changing their body composition. You may lose fat and gain muscle at the same time—without seeing major weight changes.

Science-Backed Fitness & Nutrition Programs

If you lift four or more days/week, alternate between upper and lower body each day. Determine your nutritional needs using your TDEE, create a diet plan, stay consistent, monitor progress, and adjust accordingly. If you have back problems, osteoporosis or other health concerns, talk to your health care professional before doing these core-strength exercises. Take our quiz today to receive your free personal trainer consultation and get the support you need to take control of your health. Ultra-processed foods are essentially any foods that are not in their original form.

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Keeping your caloric intake around maintenance levels will give your body enough energy to build muscle while simultaneously burning fat. This approach, combined with regular strength training and high-protein diets, is ideal for individuals looking to achieve a leaner, more muscular physique without extreme dieting. A lot of times, people will claim they want to gain muscle but they don’t actually want to gain weight overall. So what they really mean is that they want to get shredded by changing their body composition. Changing your body composition is any measure that involves losing body fat and/or increasing lean body mass without major changes in body weight. However, sometimes body weight will decrease if large amounts of fat are lost.

What to Eat to Build Muscle and Lose Fat Simultaneously

“Compound lift movements incorporate ton of muscles. You need to recruit a decent amount in order to elicit that hypertrophy response,” Ellis says. More muscle recruitment also means more calorie burn—a win for fat loss. Boyce suggests aiming to consume at least 1 gram of protein per pound of your body weight. Do this with real food sources, like chicken, turkey, and tofu, as much as possible, and make up the difference with supplements, like protein powders. If you follow the right steps, focusing on muscle building may help to bring about the fat loss you’re also looking for even more quickly.

Grass-Fed Protein+ Bars

But muscle and fat are two very different materials, and working with each requires a different approach. At The Lift Gym, we track the rate at which you build strength, gain lean muscle mass, and lose fat with our T3 Test Protocol, ensuring you’re making measurable progress toward your goals. In fact, some research suggests that protein needs may be as high as 1.4 grams per pound of body weight to maintain existing mass. Trying to build muscle and lose fat simultaneously can be difficult to achieve, and it’s not always well understood by those looking to achieve this unicorn of fitness goals.

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You may also want to consider using a quality protein powder like 100% grass-fed whey protein isolate and creatine monohydrate before or after your workouts to stimulate muscle recovery and solidify strength gains. If learning how to lose fat and gain muscle were easy, everyone would do it. Unfortunately, it’s not a straightforward concept, with the methods used to achieve either objective often working at odds with one another. The 1UP Fitness App provides customized calorie and macronutrient targets based on your goals and preferences for FREE! You’ll even gain access to customized training plans to help you shed fat, build lean muscle, and sculpt a lean, toned physique. You can lose 1-2 pounds a week by consuming 500 to 1,000 calories less than your daily intake.

How Much Protein Do You Really Need?

Also, ensure that you’re ingesting adequate pre AND post workout protein + carbs in a timely manner. Not only is simultaneously losing fat and gaining muscle likely the most commonly requested body transformation of all time, it’s also physiologically impossible at first glance. You can also try calorie cycling (sometimes referred to as metabolic confusion), which involves changing up how many calories you aim to eat every day.

Meal Frequency: How Often Should You Eat?

Most research has demonstrated that eating protein before and/or after a workout is effective for building and maintaining muscle mass. Eating protein before a workout makes amino acids from the protein available during the workout to slow or limit protein breakdown. Eating protein after a workout means amino acids will be available to help speed recovery. A typical recommendation is to consume 20 to mad muscle review 40 grams of carbohydrate for 20 grams of protein within one hour before or after a workout. This could be a protein shake, smoothie, Greek yogurt with fruit, or the like.

Follow This Strategy to Lose Fat and Build Lean Muscle During 2026

The goal within the first 10 days was to maintain their current body weight, yet grow accustomed to consuming a higher amount of protein. After 10 days, the subjects among all groups followed a calorie-restricted diet along with a supervised exercise program, to elicit an average weight loss of two pounds per week. To control for any confounders among the subjects, researchers provided all meals and supervised all exercise sessions. Protein is essential for overall health, well-being and longevity, and it plays a pivotal role for fat loss and muscle gain. To gain muscle, you need to be incorporating resistance training into your exercise routine.

• With these qualities, it can feel easier to stay in a calorie deficit.
• Hopefully, this body recomposition guide has given you the information and tools to help you lose fat and gain muscle without unnecessary restriction.
• If weights are new to you, start with six total-body exercises, two to three days week.
• Another small 2018 study of women found that those who ate a high-protein diet while resistance training lost more fat and built more muscle than those who consumed less protein.
• A good rule of thumb is to determine your daily baseline calories to maintain your weight, then subtract 500 calories from that to get your calories for weight loss.
• Designed to boost your energy levels whilst targeting fat loss, Burn is perfect to help get you through those heavy sessions.

Can You Lose Fat And Gain Muscle At The Same Time?

However, weight loss can include losing muscle mass as well as fat. In order to lose weight, “the whole idea is to be in a calorie deficit overall,” Dr. Ali notes. “If people are poor sleepers they will not burn fat as efficiently, and it’s much harder to build muscle,” says Khader. The nutritionist also pointed out that people who don’t get enough sleep are always hungry, which means they are at risk for consuming above and beyond the amount of calories they really need. Overweight individuals have very large energy reserves stored in body fat. They can eat in a caloric deficit and still have plenty of stored energy to fuel the muscle-building process.