Gain Muscle & Lose Fat - It's Called Body Recomposition

Confused on this topic? Do you often question how in the world do I gain muscle and lose fat at the same time? Muscle gain requires a calorie surplus and fat loss requires a calorie deficit. 

Impossible no more, it is possible to gain muscle and lose fat if you have a balanced approach in regards to nutrition and you have an exercise regimen that compliments it. Both of those are needed to help achieve this goal.

Below we have some strategies to help you determine the ideal approach for you to eat and exercise to meet this goal.

What’s the appropriate calorie balance?

This is a part that is often tricky because enough calories are needed (surplus) to gain muscle but also not too many extra calories to promote body fat. Gaining lean muscle mass is difficult if you are in a calorie deficit but on the other side of things, eating an excess amount of calories will increase body fat stores. 

A population method, coined body bulking, is where someone eats in a calorie surplus beyond their needs and participates in intense weight training. This method works for gaining muscle but not necessarily fat loss. 

While you want to be in a surplus to gain muscle, we only want to be in a slight surplus - not an 800 calorie or more surplus to meet your goals. 

In fact, one study found those who maintained a slight calorie surplus gained the same amount of muscle as those who maintained a close to 600-calorie surplus after 8-12 weeks. 

Furthermore, the large surplus calorie group didn’t gain significant amounts of extra muscle but did gain significantly more fat than the slight calorie surplus group. Recommendations from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics suggest a daily increase of 200 calories per day to help build muscle.

Daily Allotment of Protein

Protein plays a critical role in building muscle because amino acids found in this macronutrient help to maintain and repair muscle tissue. Training hard in the gym can only go so far if you are not providing your body with the correct fuel to create muscle gain. 

This brings up the question of how much protein do you need to gain muscle and lose weight? Protein needs have often been the subject of critical review with conflicting information out there but the International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN) states aiming for 1.4 to 2.0 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight is sufficient for most exercising individuals to help promote muscle growth. To get your weight in kilograms divide bodyweight in pounds by 2.2. For example, a 150 pound person is 68.2 kilograms. 

Adequate protein intake supports you in your physique transformation though multiple avenues. Protein can help us feel fuller longer and one  study discovered that a diet high in protein was linked to overall lower body fat percent and a higher muscle mass among athletes. It is also best to discuss your protein needs with a registered dietitian so that it can be tailored to your goals and your current training regimen. 

Whole food sources of protein that are helpful include chicken, fish, beef, eggs, nuts, soy and beans. Then we can add in protein supplements. The whole food version of protein provides essential vitamins and minerals that can support your other health related goals. 

Debunked, excess protein research has found is not stored for energy like carbohydrates. This means we want to spread out protein intake throughout the day, ideally every 3-4 hours if possible, so you can optimize muscle growth.

Be Nice To Carbohydrates

With carbohydrates on the chopping block for so many, it may be tempting to try to go low carb when trying to lose weight and gain muscle. However, this hinders your progress and often leads to unwanted side effects of potentially bingeing these foods. While protein is the obvious choice in helping to build muscle mass, carbohydrates play an important role as well.

Allowing yourself to eat adequate carbohydrates throughout the day will enable protein to do its job by helping to rebuild and repair your muscle tissue. By restricting carbohydrate intake, protein will be used as an energy source. But to gain muscle we need carbohydrates so protein can restore and rebuild lean muscle mass. Intake of protein and carbohydrates are important to recovery post workout.

But before loading up on just any carbohydrate source, keep in mind that high-quality carbohydrates that reach your bloodstream slowly will provide the sustained energy that you’re looking for. So, let’s pause on that giant piece of cake post workout and think about some better options.  These include whole grain bread, brown rice, quinoa, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, and fresh fruit. These food items generally provide fiber as well which can improve digestive and cardiovascular health.

Now, the question is how much carbohydrate do you need to aid your performance in the gym.  According to current guidelines, The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND), Dietitians of Canada (DC), and the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommend that moderate exercise requires around 5 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight per day. There is a linear relationship in which as your exercise intensity and duration increases your carbohydrate requirement also increases. 

If participating in moderate to high intensity exercise (1-3 hours per day) you may need 6 grams and in some instances (endurance exercise) up to 10 grams of carbohydrates per kilogram of body weight per day. A dietitian can help you with these calculations or if you are struggling to define what type of exercise you participate in, think about a sit down chat with a dietitian.

Focus on weight training but don’t forget about cardio

We’ve hit the nutrition focus but now let’s focus on exercise and its relationship for gaining muscle and fat loss. Resistance training aids in muscle gain by stressing the muscle fibers so they can rebuild stronger than before.

If you are new to strength training or have been mostly doing fitness classes, consider meeting with a personal trainer for some 1-on-1 personalized advice about meeting your muscle gain and fat loss goals. For muscle gain, hitting the gym around 3-5 times per week is generally enough.

Cardiovascular exercise like spinning, jogging, or walking is an additional way to help decreased body fat. Look at your strength training schedule and add in 1-2 days of cardio per week to help maintain a healthy weight and improve heart health.

As a general rule of thumb or if you are new to strength training you’ll want to choose three to four exercises per muscle group and perform three to four sets of 8 to 12 reps of each exercise.

Rest & Rest Days

It might make you laugh but rest is an important part of losing weight, gaining muscle and supporting your overall health and well-being. While sleeping, the body releases human growth hormone, an important chemical that helps support tissue repair, muscle growth, metabolism, and stress management.

Research demonstrates that adequate sleep and overall improved sleep quality can aid in performance enhancements, lead to improved endurance, and reduce the risk of injury. 

Similar to training, getting adequate sleep takes commitment and time management skills. See some trends here? The goal is to aim for 7-9 hours of sleep per night to allow your body ample time to rest and repair itself for the day ahead.

In addition, the idea of training hard 7 days a week seems like it’s what is needed but don’t forget about rest days where there is some form of light activity such as yoga or a simple walk. Rest days are crucial because they allow the muscles worked to rest, repair, rebuild and increase in strength.

 The American Council on Exercise (ACE) advises that you should have a rest day every 7 to 10 days if you participate in high-intensity physical activity. However, this will depend on your individual training schedule and if your body is screaming at you to take a rest day, it’s not bad thing. 

Conclusion

You don’t have to choose muscle gain or fat loss. The two can be accomplished together by finding the right balance of calories with appropriate amounts of protein and carbohydrates. You will also want to structure your training program to include some weight training, cardio, and scheduled rest days.

While gaining muscle and losing fat are daunting, with a proper training schedule and adequate consumption of various nutrients, building muscle while being lean is a do-able goal!