Fat loss = muscle maintenance

Once we’ve been lifting for a little while (say regularly for 6-12 months), it’ll be nigh on impossible to gain muscle and lose body fat a the same time.

If we don’t eat enough food (caloric surplus) we won’t have the raw materials to actually build new muscle as muscle is energetically VERY costly to newly build and maintain.

It makes sense to choose then, is it muscle gain, or fat loss we want most?

If it’s fat loss, then we want our muscles to stick around, lest we get lighter but see a drop in performance and aesthetic appearance.

Muscle is the “fire” that burns the “fuel” you throw on it. Ie, muscle burns fat, and without it, we’ll have a much harder time losing fat.

So, if your principal goal is fat loss, then you want to maintain lean muscle mass.

This makes strength training the key to any fat loss approach.

Yesterday I started a 12-week fat loss phase personally. I will share some tidbits from my training plan, nutritional strategies, lifestyle restructure, and stress management strategies on my Instagram in hopes that you can draw parallels or glean takeaways in your own endeavors.

Here I will write on the above concepts more thoroughly and give a full data dive into the plan, progress, and adjustments.