Well, the title kind of gives it away. Yes, you can gain muscle while losing fat at the same time! But how?
It’s true many people lose muscle along with fat when trying to lose weight. Dieting alone or dieting with only cardio exercise often leads to losing muscle along with the fat. Most dieters are totally focused on losing weight and are excited just to see the number on the scale going down each week.
It’s understood when we say we want to lose weight, we really mean we want to lose fat. But I think it could be helpful to mentally and verbally make the distinction. We want to lose fat, not just weight, and certainly not muscle! Let’s take it a step further. We should want to lose fat and GAIN muscle because muscle mass is your friend. If you can gain muscle while losing fat, the extra muscle mass will make your body more resistant to gaining the fat back in the future!
OK, so how? Basically, you need three things to be able to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time: a calorie deficit, strength training, and adequate protein intake. I know I’m glossing over a lot of details here, but the purpose of this article is simply to debunk a common myth.
Here’s a 12 week study done with three groups of overweight police officers: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10838463
All three groups were fed 80% of their daily required maintenance calories. What that means: For example, if an officer normally ate 2800 calories daily just to maintain their weight, during the study they were only fed 2240 calories per day.
For the first group, that was the extent of their lifestyle change. They just ate 20% fewer calories. And no surprise, after 12 weeks they lost body fat, about 5.5 lbs on average. They didn’t lose any muscle, but they didn’t gain any either.
The second and third groups also ate 20% fewer calories, but on top of that they performed a regular program of strength training (e.g. weightlifting, CrossFit, etc…) and also consumed 1.5 grams of protein per kg of body weight daily. For a 200 lb officer, that would be 136 grams of protein each day. The only difference between the second and third groups was the type of protein supplement used (whey vs. casein), but for the purposes of this article I combined the two groups.
So how did the second and third groups fare after 12 weeks? Remember, they had the same calorie deficit as the first group, which lost about 5.5 lbs of body fat. Well, just by adding strength training and extra protein, the second and third groups lost 12.2 lbs of body fat AND GAINED 6.6 lbs of muscle!
Hey, that’s funny! It just occurred to me that 12.2 lbs – 6.6 lbs is almost exactly 5.5 lbs. So, if you were only looking at the scale, all three groups lost the same amount of weight.
Which group would you rather be in? There is a world of difference between losing 5.5 lbs of fat and losing 12.2 lbs of fat while also gaining 6.6 lbs of muscle! This is exactly why ‘losing weight’ should not be the goal! And the scale should not be the measure of our success!
It’s OK to weigh yourself, but it should not be the only feedback you look at. I recommend only weighing yourself once per week. And make sure it's under the same conditions each time, like every Friday morning in your underwear right after your morning trip to the potty.
Taking body measurements, like waist, quad, bicep, etc… is a better way to gauge your progress. Just like with weighing yourself, it's best to do it only once a week at the same time of day each week.
Measuring body fat weekly with calipers is also good. Calipers aren't the most accurate way to measure body fat. But if you are careful and use the same procedure each time, the relative measurements are still valid. Meaning, if you measure 14 mm one week and 12.5 mm the next week, you know you are going in the right direction and making good progress. So, even if you can’t say with great certainty exactly what body fat percentage you have, the measurements are still useful and encouraging!
Another way to gauge your progress is to take a selfie in the mirror each week, or at the very least just take a careful look at yourself in the same mirror with the same lighting each week. And just like with the other methods, do it at the same time of day each week.
My favorite measurement of progress is strength. If I can do more weight or more reps on a given exercise, then I must be going in the right direction!
OK, well as usual I’m off in the weeds, so let’s wrap this up. There are actually many other studies with similar results to back up this one. Studies have been done with women, the elderly, obese, and even lean subjects. And they all show, to differing degrees, that you CAN gain muscle while losing fat!
A few takeaways from my latest ramblings:
You CAN gain muscle while losing fat!
BUT, you must strength train and consume extra protein to do it!
Fat loss and muscle gain should be the goal, not weight loss!
The scale is not the measure of your success!
As always, thank you for reading and I wish you the best! Have a great day!
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