How to Lose Fat and Build Muscle at the Same Time

Can you really build muscle and lose fat at the same time? Is this actually a real thing?

The answer is yes, and it’s called Body Recomposition.

Body recomposition is great for beginners and most certainly overweight and obese people.

By following the principles laid out in this article, you’ll learn actionable steps to balancing fat loss and muscle gain simultaneously.

What is a Body Recomposition?

Body recomposition, or recomp for short, is when you gain muscle at the same time as you lose fat instead of focusing on building muscle OR losing fat at one time.

This is achieved through a strategic combination of nutrition and exercise.

Who Can Benefit Most?

Beginners or newbies to fitness and exercise have loads of fat loss and muscle growth potential. Everyone loves the newbie gain phase where, in the beginning, it seems like you pack on muscle and transform your body at a rapid pace.

Nutrition for Recomposition

Calories consumed are either burned for energy or stored as fat/muscle. By being in a mild calorie deficit, your body is forced to use stored fat as fuel while the right training and protein intake promotes muscle growth.

Prioritize Protein

Protein is essential for body recomposition. Protein supports muscle repair, aids in recovery, and will help keep you feeling full.

You’ll want to include in your diet protein sources like chicken breast, fish, beef or other lean meats, eggs, Greek yogurt, beans, and tofu to name a few.

Aim for 0.8-1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. If you’re overweight, use your lean body mass number instead of your total body weight.

So for example:

If you weigh 200 pounds, aim to eat 160-200 grams of protein a day.

If you are overweight, use your lean body mass number. To find out how much lean body mass you have, find out your body fat percentage. You can do this by getting a DEXA scan, using a skinfold test, using a BIA (Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis) scale, or even soft tape measurements to name a few methods.

To find your lean body mass (LBM), use your weight and body fat percentage. Convert the body fat percentage to a decimal (e.g., 25% = 0.25), then multiply it by your weight to find fat mass. Subtract fat mass from your total weight to get LBM.

For example, if you weigh 200 lbs with 25% body fat, 200 × 0.25 = 50 lbs of fat, and 200 – 50 = 150 lbs of LBM. This shows how much of your weight is non-fat tissue.

You can determine if you’re overweight or obese by your body fat percentage. For men, overweight is 20-24%, and obese is 25% or higher. For women, overweight is 30-34%, and obese is 35% or higher.

Calorie Target

You’ll want to eat in a slight caloric deficit. Eat about 10-20% below your maintenance calories. This ensures you lose fat without sacrificing muscle as you lose weight.

If you don’t know what your maintenance calories are, you can use any TDEE calculator and start by using the number of calories it spits out. Test it out for a week or two and monitor if you’re gaining or losing weight and then adjust from there. If you’re gaining weight using that number, cut about 250 calories from what you’re currently eating and monitor for another week or so. The same goes for if you’re losing weight, add 250 calories and see if your weight stables out for over a week. All while keeping up the same amount of activity.

Once you’ve stabilized your weight for a period of time, maybe about 2 weeks, then you’ve found how many calories you need to eat each day to maintain your current weight.

Muscle Protein Synthesis (MPS)

Muscle Protein Synthesis is a process where your muscles repair themselves and grow stronger over time.

Strength training and protein intake can stimulate MPS.

To optimize this, you’ll want to ingest at least 25-30 grams of protein every 3-5 hours. It’s not super important to your body recomp, but it definitely helps.

Why a Severe Deficit Won’t Work

Extreme calorie deficits lead to muscle breakdown due to your body lacking enough energy to repair its tissues.

Low energy levels also hurt your strength and endurance, which will stall your progress in the gym.

Lastly, severe dieting can disrupt your hormone production with hormones like testosterone and cortisol, which are crucial for muscle growth and fat loss.

Strength Training is Non-Negotiable

Focus on Compound Movements

Compound movements maximize overall muscle growth due to having to use multiple muscle groups to complete the exercise. They’re more bang for your buck with your time and energy versus using only isolation exercises.

Compound movements are exercises that work multiple muscle groups simultaneously.

Some examples of compound movements would be:

Squats
Deadlifts
Bench Presses
Rows
Pull-Ups
Overhead Presses

Progressive Overload: The Key to Growth

Progressively overloading your workouts is the process of gradually increasing the difficulty of your workouts over time.

There are many ways to apply overload to your workouts:

Adding 5 to 10 pounds to your lifts every 2-3 weeks
Increasing your reps within the same weight range
Shortening your rest periods in between sets
Slowing your rep tempo during your lifts
Adding another set to your workout

Cardio: A Complement, Not the Focus

Cardio’s Role in Recomposition

Cardio helps with fat loss by burning additional calories to maintain a slight deficit.

It also helps with heart health by improving cardiovascular fitness. As long as you don’t overdo cardio, it shouldn’t detract from your muscle growth.

Best Type of Cardio

Steady-State cardio will be your best friend. Walking, cycling, and jogging are all great options.

If you like higher intensity action, high intensity interval training (HIIT) would be the way to go.

How to Balance Cardio and Strength Training

Limit your cardio sessions to about 2-3 sessions per week to avoid interfering with your recovery.

You’ll want to do cardio after your strength training or on separate days.

If you want to do any additional cardio, stick to low-intensity walking or look to increase your daily step count.

Track Your Progress Wisely

Tools to Use

Scale for weight tracking
Progress photos every 2 to 4 weeks
Body measurements like your chest, arms, and thighs. At the very least track your waist
Gym performance metrics like your strength gains in the key lifts

If your progress stalls:

Reassess your caloric intake and activity levels.
Ensure your protein intake and training intensity are consistent.
If all else fails, you may need to do a reverse diet and try again after the diet.

Recovery and Rest

Why Recovery Matters

Muscle growth occurs during recovery, not during the workout itself. Insufficient rest also leads to overtraining, fatigue, and stalled progress.

It is absolutely important that you get proper rest! Rest is essential not only to lose fat and build muscle at the same time but also for overall health!

Aim for at least 7 to 9 hours of quality sleep each night. Get a sleep tracker if you have to or give yourself more time in bed to reach 7-9 hours of sleep. For example, if you’re aiming for 7 hours of sleep, give yourself about 8 hours of time in bed to account for the time it takes to fall asleep.

Establishing a sleep routine is incredibly valuable for most people. Create a nighttime or wind down routine set right before bed to ease your body into a good night’s rest. Start by setting a time to start your bedtime routine and do a bunch of activities that will put your body into a restful, relaxing state.

Examples may include:

Drinking chamomile tea.
Dimming your lights.
Wearing blue light-blocking glasses.
Avoiding screens.
Reading a book.
Taking a hot shower or bath.
Stretching.
Not eating or drinking too close to bed.
Cutting your caffeine intake many hours before bed.
Meditation or prayer

Active Recovery Strategies

Including light activity into your fitness routine can promote blood flow and reduce soreness, which will aid in helping you recover.

Activities such as:

Relaxing yoga
Light walking
Stretching
Sauna use
Mobility drills

Add any of these activities to your fitness routine on your rest days and watch your recoverability improve.

Common Challenges to Losing Fat and Building Muscle At The Same Time

Plateaus:

Cause: An insufficient calorie deficit

Solution: Reassess and adjust your calorie intake.

Cause: Lack of progressive overload

Solution: Adjust your training program and increase intensity over time.

Cause: Inconsistent diet adherence

Solution: Add a refeed day (slightly higher calorie day) once a week or every 2 weeks.

For more information about overcoming plateaus, read this article here.

Staying Consistent

Staying consistent with your diet and training can be tricky. A great way to make dieting easier for you is to meal prep all of your meals. Having the correct amount of healthy food on hand or ready to go makes calorie counting, meal timing, and calorie deficit easier to maintain. It also helps keep excuses at bay with unhealthy options knowing that you have a great meal pre-made when you need it.

For your workouts, you’ll want to schedule those in like appointments to maintain discipline. You should treat those as non-negotiable, can’t-miss meetings like you would at work.

Whether it’s for prepping meals or working out, block off that chunk of time and let people know you’ll be busy during that time if you have to. Whatever it takes to get the work done towards taking care of your health.

Key Takeaway: Yes, You Can Lose Fat and Build Muscle At The Same Time

Remember, it’s the small, consistent changes that lead to big results. Whether it’s prioritizing protein in your meals, progressively overloading your lifts, or setting aside time for proper recovery, every step you take brings you closer to your goals. These changes may seem minor on their own, but together, they create a powerful foundation for success.

Take the first step today. Start tracking your food intake, try a beginner-friendly strength training program, or simply commit to drinking more water and getting better sleep. Progress doesn’t happen overnight. But it does happen one choice, one habit, and one day at a time.

You’ve got this. Believe in your ability to create lasting change and achieve the results you’re working toward. This is how to lose fat and build muscle at the same time!

If you have any questions or want to share your journey, leave a comment below. I’d love to hear how you’re progressing and help you stay on track. Let’s build something great together!

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