If you think about it, you'd instantly say that it's an impossible feat. Why? Because losing and gaining are two contradicting words.
And we know the drill, right? If you want to lose weight, you need to need to undergo a caloric deficit - in other words, eat fewer calories than what your body requires to maintain its weight. While gaining muscle mass requires you to observe caloric surplus. See the difference?
However, you have to understand that our bodies are more complex than what you think of, and gaining or losing weight is not just about counting calories. And to burst your bubble, yes, it's actually possible to build muscles and lose weight.
Here are 3 things that you can do to lose body fat and build muscle at the same time:
Aim for Caloric Neutrality, But Eat Enough Protein
To shed body fats, you definitely have to revise your meal plan and adopt a caloric neutrality. However, you have to provide your body as well with enough protein to rebuild its muscle. When you eat too much, the excess calories are then stored as a body, so it is really important to eat less instead of burning consistently.
If you want to lose fat and build muscle at the same time, you will have to increase your intake of protein. As a matter of fact, trainers suggest that around 30% of the calories that you get in a day should come from protein.
Increase Activity Level, and Focus on Weightlifting and HIIT
Doing modifications on your diet is not enough for you to reach your target, you also have to increase activity level – in other words,you have to work out more. But instead of continuing your usual fitness routine, you need now to consider doing exercises that can help you accomplish muscle gains and fat loss at the same time.
Let's take for instance weight training. Doing weights can actually help you burn more calories and at the same time put on more muscle mass.
Doing a 15 to 20 minutes of HITT workout is also a nice addition to your routine as it's considered as an efficient way of burning fat. A 15-minute HITT exercise can burn calories as much as an hour's worth of jogging.
Get Enough Sleep and Stay Hydrated
Both nutritionists and body experts have stressed out that poor sleepers won't burn fat efficiently, and not just that, building muscle is also much harder to achieve when we are not getting the sleep that we need. Nutritionists have pointed out that most of the time, people who do not get enough sleep are always hungry, and that means that they are prone to consuming above their calorie count daily.
And not just that, hydration has always played an important role in body recomposition. With that being said, it's hard for your body to build muscle if it has not recovered yet properly. Therefore, you have to make sure that you are hydrated all day long and get enough sleep daily for you to be able to see the drastic changes in you getting muscles and burning fats.
Now that we’ve answered the question, it’s time to start putting things into action!