Your Step-by-Step Guide to Building Muscle & Losing Fat

The other day, I spoke to someone whose goal was to lose a lot of weight fast.

He wanted to lose between 5-7lbs a week..

I didn't want to rain on his parade, but I couldn't help but ask why?

He had a friend's wedding coming up, and he wanted to be the person that shocked everyone.

Fair enough, I liked the idea of that, apart from one thing...

This is the mistake that a lot of people make. They forget they actually have muscle, just because they can't see it. They want to speed up weight loss and sacrifice a lot of muscle.

Usually, they are unaware of something that most people I ever work with can benefit from...

The ideal scenario of losing fat and building muscle. Leaving a well toned and shaped body that messes with your head.

This is the kind of transformation that I aim to get all clients, like Hosam's transformation in the main picture.

He lost fat and built muscle!

At first, this is going to sound confusing, but I encourage you to read this article until the end.

''Traditionally'', depending on your starting point, you have a few options.

If you’re skinny fat, you can focus on bulking up, adding as much muscle as possible, followed by a weight loss phase (a cut): focused on getting rid of your excess body fat.

Or, if you have too much body fat, you can focus on a cut – then a bulk.

There is nothing wrong in either of these methods, but, in my view, if you have excess body fat, and you're new to a structured well-thought-out resistance training plan, there's a better way.

Doing both at the same time is known as a body recomposition.

Of course, to lose fat you have to be in a calorie deficit, and to build muscle your body will need extra fuel.

When doing a body recomposition, your body will use stored body fat to fuel muscle growth, so you can actually still be in a deficit, but your body will have enough fuel to support muscle growth.

The only catch, not everyone can do a body recomposition!

Who can benefit from a body recomposition?

1. Beginners, as a beginner, you are more sensitive to the stimulus from resistance training, so you can build muscle with a lot less.
2. Those with a lot of fat to lose - around 25% body fat and above.
3. Anyone coming off an extended period of time without training due to an injury or jus general time off.
4. Those of you who have never taken training that seriously. You may have trained, but you've never followed a well-structured resistance training program before.

So, if you fit one of those categories, keep reading and I will walk you through how.

Set up your nutrition

To lose fat, you do have to be in a calorie deficit, which is a state where you are burning more than you're consuming. But, if that deficit is too large, i.e. you're not eating enough, you will reduce your body’s ability to maintain muscle, let alone gain it.

When you exercise and keep all things the same, you will natural create a deficit, and that can be enough to start losing fat. But, there will be a point where you will have to look at your nutrition. I like to do this within the first few weeks.

You have a few options here, you can track your calories and get everything looking optimal, follow a meal plan, or you can ease yourself into it by making habit changes.

The approach I recommend, depends on what you are ready, able, and willing to do. Meal plans can be a great start if you are really busy, and you want the guesswork removed.

Ultimately, you want to create a calorie deficit that is around 15-25% - that is 15-25% less than your maintenance calories.

This depends on how much weight you have to lose. You can be more aggressive (25%) if you have a lot of fat to lose.

If you want to work out how many calories you need, use this calculator:

https://www.leighpeele.com/mifflin-st-jeor-calculator

Then either multiply your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure), the final out put by one of these numbers:

0.85 for a 15% deficit

0.80 for a 20% deficit

0.75 for a 15% deficit

If you're not tracking, you can get a rough estimate of your maintenance calories by multiplying your bodyweight in lbs by 15. For your deficit, multiply your bodyweight in lbs by 12 or 13 (roughly a 20/25% deficit).

A lot of people will start treating themselves like athletes here - trying to get the EXACT ratio of carbs and fats, when in reality the 2 things that matter most here are calories and protein.

Getting enough protein to support muscle growth and recovery is key. For most people, this looks like 0.7-0.8g per lb of body weight if you don’t have much body fat to lose, and around 0.8-1g per lb of your goal body weight if you have a lot to lose.

But, as I mentioned earlier, to begin with, you're probably not tracking, so it's important to focus on a few principles that will help you get in enough protein.

• Know your high protein foods, spend some time understanding what foods contain protein and what foods are highest in protein.
• Make sure each meal you have contains protein - roughly 30-50g of protein 3–4 times a day is more than enough for anyone reading this. Remember, it doesn't have top be that exact distribution. Recent research has shown that to be the case.
• Know how to get protein when you're out and about. This can be tricky, especially if you're travelling. A protein powder will make it a lot easier, as will some beef jerky, deli meats, or even a protein bar if needs be.

Train to Build Muscle

You can resistance train and not build muscle - I have seen it before.

What you want to do is to make sure your workouts are stimulating muscle growth. Without complicating it, you want to make sure you're training with enough intensity, and you are progressing your workouts.

I want you to be able to apply this knowledge and get results, so I am going to give you an example. It is important to understand, it is all about where you're currently at. Of course, you can get some results doing virtually any program, but we are looking for consistent results that don't require you to dedicate your soul to the gym, only to get injured a few months later.

At a gym

Follow this link , make a copy and download a FREE time efficient plan to build muscle.

Training from home

You're currently doing push-ups, you do one set every day, you don't know how many you do. I love exercise, so something always beats nothing, but if you want to build muscle using say push-ups, you want to first track them, see how many you can do.

Then group them in sets of 2-4, 3 times a week. Once you know how many you can do, you want to use that as a target to beat over time. A set would be any time you do press-ups, say if you do 15 (it could be whatever number), that would be 1 set. Allow 2-3 minute, then repeat another set.

But, each time you complete a set, you want to go to the point you could only do 1-2 more reps - this is your intensity. Over time, they will get easier and if you can do 30 press-ups straight, you can change up the angles, add weight, slow it down, improve the way you do them, do another set.

You will have heard me and other fitness professionals talk about the research for muscle growth. That you need, 10-20 sets per muscle group to maximize muscle growth, this known as training volume.

Remember, the key word here being MAXIMIZE. To begin with, you can build most of your muscle with a LOT less, and that is what I recommend.

You can increase the volume when you are READY, and NOT just because you're trying to optimize.

2-3 sessions a week when you're starting out, is more than enough for most people. A well-designed program can take anywhere from 15-60 minutes a time, it all depends on you and your schedule.

Once you get your training and nutrition aligned, you'll be off to a flying start, but you must remember to monitor what is going on and make changes accordingly along the way.

Any questions, let me know in the comment section.

Have the best day and we'll talk soon!

Adam