Health Experts Share How They Help Clients Lose Fat And Gain Muscle At The Same Time
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When you're losing weight, you ideally want those dropped pounds to be from fat, not muscle. That’s why it’s nice to know that you *can* lose fat and gain muscle at the same time.
And if you're happy at your current weight, you may be interested in what's known as body recomposition, which is when you trade fat for muscle while staying at relatively the same weight. “It’s probably the thing I work on most with clients," says Phil Catudal, a NASM certified personal trainer. The best way to approach this, Catudal says, is by focusing on your calorie and protein intake—we’ll dive into all of that in a sec.
This isn’t necessarily an easy thing to do, but it’s definitely possible to add muscle while losing fat. In fact, going this route can help you give your metabolism a boost to make your goals easier to achieve, says Fatima Cody Stanford, MD, MPH, MPA, an associate professor of medicine and pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and an obesity medicine physician at Massachusetts General Hospital. “You improve your overall metabolic health when you lose fat and gain muscle,” she says. “You reduce your risk of chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.”
So, how can you make this work for you? We tapped nutritionists, weight loss doctors, trainers, and a sports medicine physician for more.
Meet the experts: Phil Catudal is a NASM certified personal trainer and nutrition expert. Erin Oprea is a certified personal and celebrity trainer and founder of the Pretty Muscles workout app. Dina Khader, RD, CDN, is a registered dietitian and integrative nutrition consultant. Bryant Walrod, MD, is a sports medicine physician at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and head team physician for The Ohio State Buckeyes football team. Mir Ali, MD, is the medical director of MemorialCare Surgical Weight Loss Center at Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, California. Fatima Cody Stanford, MD, MPH, MPA, is an associate professor of medicine and pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and an obesity medicine physician at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Benefits Of Losing Fat And Gaining Muscle
“The benefits of body recomposition are numerous—improved cardiovascular health, decreased risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events, improved blood pressure, lipids and blood sugar control, improved mood and decreased musculoskeletal ailments such as arthritis and potential falls,” says Bryant Walrod, MD, a sports medicine physician at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and head team physician for The Ohio State Buckeyes football team.
At baseline, your muscles are important to help you do everyday normal activities and keeping them toned and in good working order is never a bad thing, points out Mir Ali, MD, medical director of MemorialCare Surgical Weight Loss Center at Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, California. “But muscles also have a higher metabolic rate than fat,” he says. “The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn at a resting state.”
Meaning, adding more muscle to the mix can help you to burn more calories—and ultimately lose more fat—when you're not exercising than you did before you built up your muscle strength.
How To Measure Fat Loss And Muscle Gain
There are body composition scales that can break this down for you, but Dr. Ali points out that it can be tough to know how reliable they are. Similarly, Dr. Walrod says a formal body composition test can help—but these can be expensive and time-consuming.
To track your fat loss, Dr. Stanford suggests getting a simple tape measure and checking your waist circumference. (The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has detailed information on exactly where to measure yourself.)
A waist circumference of greater than 35 inches could mean that you have a higher risk of developing obesity-related conditions, the CDC says.
“Muscle gain is harder to track,” Dr. Stanford says. “However, you can gauge this by your ability to perform strength training exercises.”
As far as timeline goes, you should start to see results within four weeks if you've been consistent. Within a few months, other people will start noticing. And in six months, you'll see drastic changes. “It’s not easy, but it’s worth it,” says Erin Oprea, certified personal and celebrity trainer.
Pro tip: Unlike in weight loss where you're focused on numbers, body recomposition focuses on distribution. So, "don't obsess over the scale," Oprea reminds. Your volume of fat will decrease as you build muscle. But muscle is more dense than fat, which means it takes up less space. So it's the same weight, it just appears differently.
The Best Workouts For Fat Loss And Muscle Building
Weightlifting and HIIT training are key for muscle gains and shedding fat. “Don’t be scared of weight training,” says Oprea. It's actually a major part in accomplishing fat loss and muscle gains at the same time.
"Weights help you to put on more muscle mass and the weights also help you to burn more calories," says Dina Khader, RD, CDN. How? Because muscle burns calories but body fat does not. "People think, 'I don’t want to put on muscle because I don’t want to get bulky'—but that’s not true. Lifting weights helps you to burn more fat more efficiently," Khader says.
There are a few different workout schedules that the experts recommend for body recomposition. Catudal recommends three to four days a week of 45–minute strength and weight-training workouts with 60-second rests in between exercises.
HIIT workouts are also a home-run for losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time. "HIIT is the most efficient way of burning fat," Catudal says. Oprea's go-to is a Tabata workout where each round lasts four minutes. You'll do 20 seconds of all out intensity, followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated eight times.
Aerobic exercise can be helpful, too, Dr. Ali says. “It’s a good idea to have a combination of aerobic and resistance-type exercises,” he says. “Aerobic can help you burn calories and is good for cardiovascular health, while resistance training helps to build muscle.”
In terms of recovery, of course your post-workout carbs and protein will take care of some of that, but Khader also recommends some natural remedies. "If your muscles get sore from working out, when you have a lot of soreness or inflammation you will not burn fat or put on muscle as easily," Khader says. Instead the body will focus on taking care of the inflammation. That's why she recommends using weekly Epsom salt baths to help relax and provide extra recovery to those muscles. Carving out time in between tougher workouts for active recovery activities will help expedite the healing process too.
How should I eat to lose fat and gain muscle?
Remember, calories give your body the energy it needs to function, but can also be stored as fat. To keep that from happening you have two options: Reduce your calorie intake or increase your physical activity.
You might consider starting with the latter, aiming for calorie neutrality while increasing your activity level. That means keeping your caloric intake at exactly your body's needs and sometimes just a bit higher, according to Catudal. It's a smart eating strategy to lose (or metabolize) fat and gain muscle at the same time.
So, if you usually consume 1,800 calories a day, you'd stick to that on days you're not working out. Then, you'd up that by 200 to 300 calories on workout days, which is within the range recommended by the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM).
By doing this, you're feeding your body enough food to operate at 100 percent. But since you'll also be increasing your strength training and HIIT training, when you do recover your calories, you'll be recovering more muscle than fat, Catudal says.
If you're looking to lose weight (rather than stay at the same weight but increase muscle while decreasing fat), you may want to consider creating a calorie deficit simultaneously. You'll first want to determine the baseline number of calories per day your body needs. If you want a more specific analysis, Khader recommends having a dietitian perform a bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), a highly accurate test for body fat and muscle mass done through electrodes to determine how many calories your body needs. "You don't want go below 1,200 calories a day, because then you also start to break down muscle," says Khader.
Then, you'll subtract calories from there to get into a deficit. It's always wise to talk with a dietitian or your health care provider to get more personalized advice, but, "when people are trying to lose body fat or weight the typical rule of thumb is a 500-calorie deficit," Catudal says.
You can also try calorie cycling, which involves alternating how many calories you aim to eat every day. “Calorie cycling could help,” Dr. Walrod says, but every method is different and it’s hard to know which will work for you. (Some examples include eating more calories on the weekends or alternating days of higher and lower calories.)
“The whole idea is to be in a calorie deficit overall,” Dr. Ali reiterates. “You can do that intermittently, but [everything] works differently for different people.” For some, it’s better to be in a calorie deficit every day; For others, calorie cycling feels more approachable, he says.
If you don't want to focus too heavily on calories, that's definitely an option too, according to Oprea. "I never want my clients to be obsessing over their calorie intake," she says. “I personally don’t count calories and numbers, but I focus on correct serving size and to make sure every time you eat, you get a complex carb and a protein."
Protein should be a major part of your diet.
You probably need to up the amount on your plate if you're trying to build muscle and lose fat at the same time.
Why? "If you're not getting enough protein while doing heavy weight training, you will not recover from your workouts enough to perform well, which means that you will not put on as much muscle or burn as much fat," Catudal says. The trainer suggests that around 30 percent or more of your calories should come from protein.
Let's go back to that 1,800-calorie diet example. If you want to consume 30 percent of that in protein, you'll multiply that number by 0.30 to get 540 and then divide it by four (4 calories equals 1 g of protein) which will put you at 135 grams. Most people aiming for 30 percent of their calories from protein will have a protein intake of 100 to 150 grams a day, Catudal notes.
And you'll want to sprinkle those proteins throughout your day. "Having protein at every meal is key. As for carbs, you'll want to put them before and after your workout," Catudal says. It will help to fuel for the workout and fuel after to replenish. You'll also want to intake protein after a workout to rebuild your muscles.
While there are plenty of proteins to chose from, Khader prefers plant-based proteins (think: pea or sprouted rice protein powder). If you're a meat and fish kind of person, Khader recommends lean meats like chicken and turkey. Other great protein sources from the experts include wild fish and beans. If you want to do red meat like beef, do so occasionally considering the fat consistency—Oprea suggests once a week.
Need vegan protein ideas? Check out this video:
Oprea also loves to add in some eggs and for clients worried about boredom, she recommends focusing on seasonings. Her secret sauce? Coconut aminos. "It has a similar taste to teriyaki sauce."
Sleep and hydration are also key to seeing results.
"If people are poor sleepers they will not burn fat as efficiently and it's much harder to build muscle," Khader says. 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.
And of course hydration is also super important, in body recomposition and in everyday life. "You can't build muscle if your body is not recovered from the day before in normal life," Catudal say. "Being hydrated and sleeping are so critical to basic human function. If you do all these things and you're not drinking water or you're sleeping four hours a night, it's either not going to work at all or work so much slower than if your body is in a good state."
Where To Go For Extra Help
While you may be able to tackle all of this on your own, you also may want some personalized guidance to help get you started and see you through.
Your primary care doctor can make sure you’re healthy enough to go on a new exercise and diet plan, while a fitness trainer can help you find specific exercises that feel right for you, Dr. Ali says. (Most local gyms will offer an introductory session for free to get you started.) A nutritionist can also help you to come up with an eating plan that meets your nutritional needs while feeling doable for you, he says.
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