Build Muscle & Lose Fat. Is it possible?

You walk into a consult with your new coach and you tell them "i would like to lose fat around my stomach, legs and arms but also build some muscle in the process"..

Now, let's look into this. This is called "Body recomposition" and in fact is possible to a certain degree. Most will think it is impossible as a calorie surplus is needed for muscle gain and a deficit is needed for fat loss. Not wrong as these are the correct pathways to achieving the desired goal, although it is not impossible to lose fat and build muscle simultaneously.

There are a few groups that can get away with this phenomenon. Unfortunately, not everyone fits into these categories.

Firstly is HVT. High Volume Training. When an individual is highly sensitive to HVT they tend to respond quite well to this training and build muscle, while losing fat.

QUICK TIP: THIS IS A VERY SMALL MINORITY.

There is a caveat to this. The caveat being training age. As you age (in training years) you will then adapt to the stimuli and therefore lose your sensitivity to this training method.

The list below is going to outline what scenarios or individuals can ideally do both:

Lose fat and Build muscle | Body re-comp:

• Untrained individuals

• Individuals who have been training 3-12 months

• Individuals who have been training consistent for 12 months or more with poor nutrition habits.

• Individuals who have been training with fairly low volume and begin to train with High volume training (HVT).

• Individuals who have a long period off training due to an injury or holidays etc.

• Use of PEDs or anabolic steroids may help, although we will not be covering this in this article.

So, how does our body in fact build muscle and lose fat in a Calorie deficit/Maintenance?

SCIENCE TIME!

After a workout, we elevate our Muscle Protein Synthesis (MPS) levels which is the body's signal to commence building muscle.

So with the stimulus of High Volume Training placing high levels of stress on our body, which causes homeostasis disturbance, it forces the body into the only option of adapting and growing.

MPS is an energy demanding beast. It needs energy (calories) to be readily available for new muscle to be built. So when the body is in an energy deficit the body does not like sharing too much of whatever amount of calories is available for non-essentials. It utilises calories for essential needs, which is why a calorie surplus is the optimal scenario for muscle growth.

So, when they body only wants to use the calories available for other reasons, where can the body look for energy to fuel the muscle growth process?

If you guessed: Stored fat mass, YOU ARE CORRECT!

As we can see, it is possible and growing muscle also comes with losing fat!

Now we need to remember, you need to fall into one of the categories above for body re-comp to occur. Now, before we close out i just want to ensure you are not thinking that the fat mass being used is not FAT turning into MUSCLE. It is fat used as energy to fuel MPS with the end result being more muscle tissue and less body fat.

To understand where you should start, Calorie deficit, maintenance or surplus, ensure you are following us on socials https://www.instagram.com/_frontlinefitness_/

for an info-graph of where on our energy balance spectrum you best fit!