“How
can I gain muscle and lose fat at the same time?”
That’s right up there with “How do I get six pack abs” as one of the
most frequently asked fitness questions of all time.
The problem is, when you ask it, you get all kinds of conflicting
answers – even from experts who are supposed to know these things.
So what’s the deal? Is it really possible to lose fat and build
muscle simultaneously?
Short answer:Yes it’s
possible to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time.
Long answer: It’s
difficult and it’s complicated, unless you really know what you’re
doing. Allow me to explain….
First we have the issue of whether you really lose fat and gain
muscle at the “same time.”
Well, yes, if your definition of the
“same time” is say, a month or 12 weeks. But in that case, you’re
probably not gaining muscle at the “same time” literally speaking, as
in, right now this very moment you are reading this, or 7 days a week,
24 hours a day for months in a row.
The best explanation for what’s really happening is that you alternate
between periods of caloric surplus (anabolism) and caloric deficit
(catabolism) and the net result is a gain in muscle and a loss in body
fat.
You see, if you stay in a calorie surplus, it’s the body’s natural
tendency for body fat and lean body mass to go up together. And if you
stay in a calorie deficit, it’s your body’s natural tendency for body
fat and lean body mass to go down together.
There may be exceptions, but the general rule is that it is usually very
difficult to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time – the mechanisms
are mostly antagonistic to one another. When big increases in muscle and
big decreases in fat are seen at the same time, it’s almost always the
result of “unusual conditions” – I call them X factors.
The 4 "X-Factors"
The first X-factor is “training age” . Ever hear of “newbie gains?” The
less trained your body is and the further you are from your genetic
potential, the easier it is to gain muscle. The reverse is also true –
an advanced bodybuilder with 20 years experience would be thrilled just
to gain a few pounds of solid dry muscle in a year!
The second x factor is muscle memory. It’s easier to regain muscle
you’ve lost than it is to gain new muscle in the first place (ergo, the
fat out of shape semi retired bodybuilder who starts training again and
blows up and gets ripped “overnight”).
The third X factor is genetics (or somatotype). Ever heard of the
“genetic freak?” That’s the dude who sprouts muscle like weeds even when
he’s on the “50-50 diet” (50% McDonald’s and 50% pizza)… and he never
gets fat. (That dude chose the right parents!)
The fourth X factor is drugs. It would stun (or sadden) you if you knew
how many people take performance and physique-enhancing drugs. I’m not
just talking about pro bodybuilders, I’m talking about “Joe six pack” in
the gym – not to mention those fitness models you idolize in the
magazines. How did some of them get large muscle gains with concurrent
fat loss? Chemicals.
I’m not a gambling man, but I’ll place a wager on this any day: I’ll bet
that in 99% of the cases of large muscle gains with concurrent large fat
losses, one or more of these x factors were present.
That’s not all! There are actually 5 more X factors related to your body
composition and diet status (the X2 factors). I talk about those in my
new program, the Holy Grail Body Transformation System. More on that
later.
So you’re not a beginner, you don’t take roids, you’re not a genetic
freak and you have no muscle memory to take advantage of. Are you S.O.L?
Well, I do want you to be realistic about your goals, but…
There IS a way for the average person to gain muscle and lose fat at the
same time.
The Secret: You have to change your “temporal perspective!”
Traditionally nutritionists and fitness pros have only looked at calorie
balance in terms of 24 hour periods. At midnight, you could tally up the
calories like a shopkeeper closing out his register, and if the balance
were positive, you’d say you were in a surplus for the day. If the
balance were negative, you’d say you were in a deficit for the day.
But it’s entirely possible that you might pass through periods of
“within-day” surplus where you were in a highly anabolic state (for
example, you eat the biggest, highest carbohydrate meal of the day after
your workout), and you were in a deficit the rest of the day.
Furthermore, exercise changes everything. Certain types of training will
alter your hormones and physiological response to how you handle
calories and nutrients.
If you did intense weight training, and you timed your nutrient intake
just right, isn’t it possible that you could gain a small amount of
muscle during those anabolic hours, while losing fat the rest of the
day? Granted it might only be grams or ounces – but what if you kept
that up for a week? A month? Three months?
As you pan out and look at the bigger picture, what if most days of the
week you were in a deficit for the entire day, and on some days of the
week you were in a surplus? If so, then isn’t it possible that over the
course of the week, you’d have a small net gain of muscle and loss of
body fat as a result of the caloric fluctuation?
These within-day and within-week phases are what I refer to in my new
body transformation program as nutritional microcycles and mesocycles.
If you also had a primary goal with a longer term focus of several
months, say 12 weeks or 16 weeks, that would be a nutritional macrocycle.
What I’ve just described is nutritional periodization. Some people call
it cyclical dieting. It’s where you manipulate your calories (primarily
by fluctuating carbohydrate intake, hence “carb cycling”) in order to
intentionally zig zag your way through periods of surplus and deficit.
The end result: muscle gain and fat loss during the same time
period!
I know that someone out there is having a hissy fit because I’ve only
talked about calories: deficits and surpluses. Rightfully so. Calories
matter but there’s more to it than calories – most importantly, hormones
and “nutrient partitioning.”
If you’re in a calorie deficit you are going to pull energy from your
body. The question is: From WHERE? If your hormones are out of whack
because you’re eating crap and you’re living an unhealthy lifestyle, you
could lose more muscle than fat in a deficit and gain almost pure fat,
not muscle, in a surplus!
But WHAT IF you could manipulate
within day energy balance, use nutritional periodization AND control
your hormones with food and lifestyle strategies?
NOW we are seeing how concurrent
muscle gain and fat loss are starting to look possible!
Make no mistake – concurrent muscle gain and fat loss is a difficult
goal to achieve. It’s the “Holy Grail of Fitness Goals.” The good news:
difficult does not mean impossible. Or as George Santayana said, “The
difficult is that which can be done immediately, the impossible, that
which takes a little longer.”
If you’d like to learn more about losing fat and gaining muscle at the
same time, I just recorded a fantastic introduction to the subject in a
one hour interview and you can get it for free as a gift from my new
website because I want to get the word out about my brand new Holy Grail
Body Transformation System.
In my new program, you’ll hear all the details about nutritional
periodization, cyclical dieting, hormonal manipulation, within day
energy balance, nutrient partitioning, AND the all the X factors,
including the 5 “X2-Factors” – which are the keys to gaining muscle and
losing fat at the same time.
You’ll also get my new “TNB” training system, which was originally
published as a workout in Men’s Fitness magazine. Then I expanded it
into a total program that has never been seen before except in my
member’s only inner circle.
My new free report that you can download now in PDF (transcript) is
available for a limited time this week over at The Holy Grail website.
It’s a great introduction to the program and you’ll pick up some great
tips just from this free report alone.
Since 1989, he has been involved in
virtually every aspect of the fitness and weight-loss industry: personal
trainer, nutrition consultant, motivation coach, fitness model, health
club manager,writer, and bestselling author of the popular
eBook Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle.
