Are You Trying to Lose Weight While Maintaining Muscle?

Individuals have different body composition goals, but the most common goal is to increase lean muscle mass and decrease fat. This may seem difficult, but when you consistently strength train and increase your protein intake as you cut calories, you create a state in which your body builds muscle as you shred excess fat. The process takes consistency and effort, but it’s worth it to transform your physique and your health. 

Step 1: Reduce your caloric intake to lose fat 

You’ll need to downsize your calorie intake to lose fat. First, compute the number of calories you need to maintain your weight by using an online calculator that figures in your age, gender, size, and activity level. Then, from this number, subtract between 250 and 1,000 calories to create a calorie deficit that yields a 1/2- to 2-pound per week weight loss. Since 3,500 calories theoretically equals a pound of fat, subtracting 500 calories a day from your intake should help you lose a pound a week.

Step 2: Eat a diet high in protein

To lose fat and gain lean body mass, you need to eat enough protein. A high-protein intake contributes to the preservation and growth of lean muscle when you're reducing calories to lose weight, showed a study in a 2016 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Aim to consume about 0.9 grams per pound of your body weight daily; for a 150-pound person, this amounts to 135 grams spread out over all your meals and snacks.

Step 3: Strength train to gain lean body mass

Strength training helps you maintain lean muscle as you reduce calories and is essential to adding more muscle. If you're brand new to weight training, start out with light weights and just two workouts per week. Do at least one set of eight to 12 repetitions of an exercise to challenge each of the major muscle groups. Options include pushups, pull-ups, rows, squats, lunges, shoulder presses and hip hinges.

Step 4: Eat protein after workouts 

Protein should also feature prominently in your post-workout snack. Consuming a 20-gram serving of protein from whey, meat, soy, eggs or dairy as soon as possible after you strength train promotes muscle growth and repair. Although whole foods are your best options, the International Society of Sports Nutrition notes that you may reach for a protein supplement, such as whey protein powder, because it's convenient and offers an optimal amino acid profile, especially after exercise.

Step 5: Participate in HIIT workouts 

During high-intensity interval training, or HIIT, you alternate bursts of intense cardiovascular exercise with short bouts of lower intensity work. This type of exercise helps you lose fat more effectively than cardiovascular exercise performed at a steady pace, showed a paper published in a 2011 issue of the Journal of Obesity. An example of a 30-minute HIIT workout is warming up on a treadmill for 5 minutes and then alternating 1 minute of all-out sprinting with 1 minute of easy jogging, repeated 10 times. Cool down for the last 5 minutes.

If you need help achieving your body composition goals, please contact me!