Many people know that to build muscle you need to be in a calorie surplus, resistance train and have a high protein diet. They also know that to lose fat they need to be in a calorie deficit. You know what both of those are 100% correct but what if I told you that you could build muscle and lose/maintain your levels of fat at the same time. And no I'm not going to sell you any skinny foods or magic mushrooms.
Now bare with, this is going to involve some math to prove my point.
1kg muscle = 1800 kcal
1 kg fat = 9400 kcal
So if you want to gain 2kg of pure muscle over a 6 month program and also lose 1 kg of fat
+2kg muscle = 3600 kcal gained
-1kg fat = 9400 kcal lost
deficit = 5800 kcal
divide by 180 to get a result of -32 kcal/day which means you can build muscle in a deficit.
Who can it apply to?
1. Are you a new lifter? Beginners can gain muscle and lose fat easily making it easier to follow body recomposition. You're most primed for muscle growth when you start as your body can pull calories from fat to fuel muscle building.
2. Overweight people. As mentioned the body can use fat stores as energy so overweight people have large energy reserves which they can utilise.
3. Detrainees. People who have stopped over a long time due to injury or other reasons. Due to muscle memory they can build muscle back very quickly and very easily.
And even if you've been training for a while you still may fall into the new lifter category. You could have been doing the same workout for a while and not really testing and pushing yourself. Therefore under a new program where you aren't 'lazy' you'll experience body recomp (with the correct nutrition). You maybe going to the gym but be scrolling Instagram and taking selfies in the mirror rather than training. Another area is if you've not trained a body part before even though you've trained other muscles that particular muscle is deemed as 'new'. So think about it, most people will fall into these three categories.
So who doesn't it apply for? Well perfect people lets be honest, people who nail their nutrition and training already and are already fully primed. So a tiny proportion of the population of people who go to the gym.
How do we achieve body recomp?
1. You need a proper training program. Think of it as a car. The training is the engine and nutrition is the fuel. Better fuel means better the performance. But without the engine the car is useless. Other factors such as sleep and stress can can come into play to help maintain the car (oil). When training focus on progressive overload and form to make sure you get the most benefit out of it.
2. What's your goal, I know you can do both at the same time but you need a primary goal. It'll depend on whether you're in a slight surplus or slight deficit to whether you want to build muscle or lose fat.
3. Set a macro target. First being key is high protein. The leaner you are the higher your protein intake needs to be. Check out my blog on macros if you need a bit of help.
4. Finally pay attention to details. This can involve things like sleeping more (see my blog post on sleep to see why its so important) and timing of nutrition pre workout and post workout. You want to get as much benefit from areas of your life as possible.
Conclusion
So it is possible to build muscle and lose fat, but it's by far no means easy. It requires you tracking your calorie and macro intake to make sure you hit your specific goals. It maybe not for everyone as people may prefer the traditional bulk and cut. However hopefully it's something new you've learnt.
Enjoy your day everyone, as always subscribe if you enjoyed the blog!
Thanks
Cameron
Additional Sources
Jeff Nippard - How To Build Muscle And Lose Fat At The Same Time: Step By Step Explained (Body Recomposition)
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4K0s792wAU&t=2s)
Bigggggg credit to Jeff, where I got my information from and he links all the sources and studies he used.