[0:00] can you lose fat while gaining muscle at
[0:02] the same time this is one of the age-old
[0:05] fitness questions that people continue
[0:06] to be curious about and for good reason
[0:09] these are both excellent goals for one's
[0:11] overall health and fitness but there can
[0:13] be a little bit of confusion with this
[0:15] many say that you can lose fat and gain
[0:17] muscle at the same time While others say
[0:19] that you can't and need to alternate
[0:21] between phases of bulking or muscle
[0:22] building with phases of cutting or fat
[0:25] loss so which is correct well it is
[0:28] possible to lose fat and Gain muscle at
[0:30] the same time but it depends on multiple
[0:33] factors it doesn't work well for every
[0:35] single person so today we're going to
[0:37] discuss what type of person this can
[0:39] work well for talk about the best
[0:41] strategies on how to do it from calories
[0:43] to strength training and even get into
[0:45] if cardio is a good idea for trying to
[0:47] lose fat and gain muscle at the same
[0:49] time so let's get into this anatomical
[0:52] and physiological
[0:58] awesomeness losing fat and gaining
[1:00] muscle at the same time is known as body
[1:03] recomposition you are changing the
[1:05] composition of your body tissues and in
[1:07] this case decreasing the amount of fat
[1:09] while increasing the amount of muscle
[1:11] now some may Define true body
[1:13] recomposition as changing the
[1:15] proportions of these body tissues while
[1:17] maintaining the same total tissue Mass
[1:20] so in other words if you had a 180 lb
[1:22] person that person would stay at 180 lb
[1:25] but eventually less of that weight would
[1:27] be coming from fat and more of that
[1:28] weight would be coming from mus muscle
[1:30] but again you'd stay at 180 lb however
[1:32] there are situations where people may
[1:34] not want a complete pound-for-pound swap
[1:37] of fat for muscle and I'll give an
[1:39] example of that a little bit later on
[1:41] but what are some of the challenges with
[1:43] losing fat and gaining muscle at the
[1:44] same time well first losing this stuff
[1:48] atap POS tissue or fat requires a
[1:50] calorie deficit you need to burn more
[1:52] calories than you consumed so that your
[1:54] body starts to tap into the stored
[1:56] energy that is in the fat and as a
[1:58] reference a pound of fat F contains
[2:00] about 3500 calories so if you wanted to
[2:02] lose a pound of fat each week you'd want
[2:04] to average a calorie deficit of about
[2:07] 500 calories per day however building
[2:09] this tissue skeletal muscle tissue
[2:12] typically requires a calorie Surplus
[2:14] giving your body extra calories and
[2:16] energy to repair and grow muscle tissue
[2:18] after workouts and so obviously these
[2:21] seem to be contradictory goals because
[2:23] you can't be in a calorie deficit and a
[2:25] calorie Surplus at the same time another
[2:28] reason why body Rec composition is a
[2:31] difficult goal is because you can
[2:32] usually burn fat at a faster rate than
[2:34] you can build muscle just go back to
[2:37] that example again of losing fat if you
[2:39] were in a calorie deficit of 3500
[2:41] calories per week for 8 weeks you could
[2:44] potentially lose 8 PBS but imagine
[2:46] trying to add 8 lbs of muscle in that
[2:49] same 8we period that's difficult to do
[2:51] even in a calorie Surplus when someone
[2:53] is not trying to lose weight however
[2:56] there are situations where body
[2:58] recomposition does work and so let's
[3:00] cover some of those situations there are
[3:02] pretty much three categories of people
[3:04] that body recomposition works pretty
[3:05] well for the first category is beginners
[3:08] to resistance training and if that
[3:10] beginner is also a young person like in
[3:12] their teens and early 20s that further
[3:14] gives an advantage because of those
[3:16] raging pubescent hormones but with any
[3:18] beginner their bodies are so primed for
[3:20] muscle development because when the body
[3:22] is first exposed to such a powerful new
[3:24] stimulus like resistance training it
[3:26] creates an extremely strong drive for
[3:29] protein synthesis that it's almost as if
[3:31] the person is on natural steroids and
[3:33] you've probably seen someone or maybe
[3:35] notice with yourself that you gain
[3:36] strength and size very quickly in the
[3:38] beginning beginners can follow almost
[3:40] any resistance training protocols and
[3:42] get great gains in strength and size and
[3:45] so because of this strong drive for
[3:46] protein synthesis that beginners benefit
[3:49] from even in a calorie deficit the body
[3:52] will continue to liberate the energy
[3:53] from the fat in order to continue to
[3:56] provide the energy and resources to
[3:57] promote muscle growth begin could
[4:00] successfully burn fat and gain muscle
[4:01] for over a year in some cases but
[4:04] eventually this is going to be harder
[4:05] and harder to do which we'll address in
[4:07] just a second but the second category
[4:10] would be people that are returning to
[4:11] training so if you took a long break
[4:13] from exercise when you return you kind
[4:15] of benefit from those beginner gains
[4:17] again but this doesn't last as long as
[4:19] those true initial beginners gains
[4:21] because you typically gain muscle back
[4:23] more quickly than when you first gained
[4:25] it you could consider this a form of
[4:27] muscle memory and we actually have a
[4:29] whole video video explaining how you
[4:30] gain muscle back faster in our muscle
[4:32] memory video that I'll link at the end
[4:34] of this video the third category would
[4:36] be individuals with higher percentages
[4:38] of body fat if you have a higher
[4:40] percentage of body fat you'll obviously
[4:42] have more stored fat and in a way your
[4:44] body isn't going to respond to a calorie
[4:47] deficit the same way as if you had like
[4:49] 15% body fat with the extra fat your
[4:52] body can more easily tap into those fuel
[4:54] reserves while still building muscle and
[4:57] again if this person is highly
[4:58] overweight or obese most of the time the
[5:01] person usually isn't looking to do a
[5:03] pound-for-pound swap of fat for muscle
[5:06] usually the goal is to lose much more
[5:08] fat than the amount of muscle that they
[5:10] want to gain which also makes this body
[5:12] recomposition more doable in this
[5:14] particular situation but with all these
[5:16] situations they will only take you so
[5:18] far because as someone has less fat to
[5:21] lose and gets more and more advanced or
[5:23] in other words those that have been
[5:25] building muscle for an extended period
[5:26] of time these people know that it takes
[5:28] much more effort to continue to gain
[5:30] muscle even in a caloric Surplus let
[5:33] alone in a caloric deficit and so this
[5:36] is where it starts to make much more
[5:37] sense to focus on one goal at a time or
[5:40] shifting to this idea of going on a
[5:41] bulking phase where the focus can be
[5:44] purely on building muscle alternated
[5:46] with a cutting phase where the focus
[5:48] could be purely on losing fat and
[5:50] maintaining the muscle that was gained
[5:51] during the bulking phase because it is a
[5:54] much easier task to maintain muscle
[5:56] during a caloric deficit than it is to
[5:58] build muscle but if you find yourself in
[6:01] one of these three categories where
[6:02] losing fat and gaining muscle is
[6:04] feasible there are a few things that
[6:06] need to be done while attempting this
[6:08] first you must do resistance training
[6:10] now I know that seems like one of the
[6:12] more obvious ones but I've got to be
[6:13] thorough here because you could lose fat
[6:15] from a caloric deficit without working
[6:18] out but that would do nothing for your
[6:20] muscles and you would actually likely
[6:22] lose some muscle with the fat if you
[6:24] didn't combine the caloric deficit with
[6:26] resistance training because there is no
[6:28] way to get significant muscle growth
[6:30] without a strong stimulus and again that
[6:33] strong stimulus is lifting weights
[6:35] compound movements are going to be your
[6:36] biggest bang for buck here such as
[6:38] squats deadlifts bench press shoulder
[6:40] press pull-ups Etc you can throw in some
[6:43] isolation exercises as well but again
[6:45] the foundation should start with those
[6:46] compound movements you also want to
[6:48] apply the principle of progressive
[6:50] overload which is trying to add a little
[6:52] more weight to the bar every week or so
[6:55] Progressive overload could also come in
[6:56] the form of increasing the Reps and or
[6:58] overall volume
[7:00] and there are multiple ways to fit this
[7:01] into a given week you could potentially
[7:03] pull it off with two days of resistance
[7:05] training a week but those would likely
[7:07] need to be longer sessions 3 days a week
[7:09] is a place that I often start with many
[7:11] of my patients but we have some more
[7:13] detailed videos on how to build muscular
[7:15] size and how to implement this into your
[7:17] routine that I'll link at the end of
[7:19] this video next we need to start messing
[7:21] with the calories and even the
[7:22] macronutrients specifically the protein
[7:25] like we mentioned earlier a deficit of
[7:27] about 500 calories a day will cause you
[7:29] to lose about a pound per week but I
[7:31] usually recommend a 300 to 500 calorie
[7:34] deficit when you're first starting out
[7:36] and of course you need to make sure
[7:37] you're getting enough protein now
[7:39] protein recommendations are anywhere
[7:41] from 1.2 to 2.2 gam of protein per
[7:45] kilogram of body weight per day and the
[7:48] higher end of 2.2 is usually recommended
[7:51] for athletes and bodybuilders that are
[7:52] serious about putting on muscle now many
[7:55] of you may not consider yourself a major
[7:57] athlete or a bodybuilder however since
[7:59] we are in a calorie deficit some of the
[8:02] ingested protein will likely get pulled
[8:04] and utilized for energy instead of
[8:06] muscle building so because of this you
[8:08] would still want to hedge towards the
[8:10] higher end of 2.2 gam per kilogram of
[8:13] body weight which for us non-metric
[8:15] people just a gram of protein per pound
[8:17] of body weight to do the trick now a
[8:19] quick word on cardio I love cardio there
[8:22] are obviously some incredible fitness
[8:24] and health benefits to doing cardio one
[8:26] of those that it can be an effective way
[8:28] to lose fat and again a whole bunch of
[8:30] other benefits so I almost always
[8:32] recommend it however if the main goal is
[8:35] to lose fat while also stimulating
[8:37] muscle growth we need to be a little
[8:39] careful with how we implement the cardio
[8:41] there is such a thing as the
[8:43] interference effect which is if you were
[8:45] to perform cardio and strength training
[8:47] in the same exercise session the cardio
[8:49] could potentially interfere with maximal
[8:52] muscle growth now key word there was
[8:55] maximal muscle growth it's not going to
[8:57] completely blunt all muscle growth so so
[8:59] if you absolutely have to combine cardio
[9:01] and strength into the same workout it
[9:03] won't be the end of the world but we are
[9:06] already adding something else that can
[9:08] blunt muscle growth which is the calorie
[9:11] deficit so it's probably just going to
[9:13] be best to do your cardio and strength
[9:15] training on different days or if you
[9:17] have to do them on the same day try to
[9:19] do them in different workout sessions
[9:20] separated by hours at a time for example
[9:23] there are a couple days a week where I
[9:24] do two a days where I'll go for a run in
[9:27] the morning and then 6 to 8 hours later
[9:28] I'll do some strength training but a
[9:30] split I often start my patients off with
[9:33] is something like strength training on
[9:35] Monday Wednesday Fridays and then cardio
[9:37] on Tuesday Thursday Saturdays and taking
[9:39] Sundays off so hopefully that gave you
[9:41] some useful information on if body
[9:43] recomposition is right for you as well
[9:44] as a good starting point and thank you
[9:46] for supporting the channel let us know
[9:48] what you thought of today's video in the
[9:49] comments and we'll see you soon