Losing weight and gaining muscle are two very different things that are often bundled together. Up until recently, it was almost a given that you first had to lose weight to gain muscle mass. However, that may not be a complete truth. Today we’ll discuss various ways of losing weight and gaining muscle, including the concept of body recomposition.
Table of Contents
CICO – The Proven Method of Losing Weight
Our bodies require food to stay alive and operate at peak efficiency. We measure the energy consumed through food by giving it a caloric value. An average person requires around 2000 calories per day to maintain their weight and cover the needs of all their bodily functions.
Any calories you ingest over those nominal 2000 will increase your weight. On a similar note, if you cut down your intake and create a caloric deficit, you will lose weight. This is what we call calories in, calories out, or CICO method of weight loss. This is a proven method that works.
The key to a successful CICO run is to calculate exactly how many calories you need to maintain your weight and then work out an acceptable caloric deficit.
Building Muscle
To build muscle, you’ll need to do two things — push your existing muscle fiber to failure through exercise, and give it enough fuel to rebuild as you sleep.
Resistance training, especially weight lifting, is the only way to build muscle efficiently. You can boost your performance through experimental drugs such as cardarine gw501516, which might give you more stamina and better recovery rates. However, keep in mind that such drugs aren’t FDA approved and come with potential side effects.
If you want to keep it completely natural, stick to the tried and true routine of pushing your muscles to failure, feeding them with enough protein to recover, and then getting enough sleep.
People think that muscles are built in the gym. That’s not exactly true. The work you do in the gym is important, but it is only setting the stage for the actual process of muscle repair and growth that occurs while you sleep.
This is why sleep is imperative. If you spend 3 hours a day in the gym, eat a perfectly balanced diet that hits all macro and micronutrients, but you don’t get at least 8 hours of sleep, you won’t see any gains. In fact, all the work that you’ve done during the day will be for naught.
What is Body Recomposition?
Body recomposition is a fairly new concept. The idea behind it states that you can build muscle and lose weight at the same time. Mind you, this goes against the current dogma of fitness where it is widely accepted that weight loss comes first, followed by muscle building.
Losing weight and then building muscle makes sense from the standpoint of caloric management. Building muscles requires a caloric surplus while losing weight requires a caloric deficit. Hence, you first bring your weight down to a manageable level and then turn a caloric deficit into a caloric surplus to build muscle.
The issue with losing weight without building muscle is that your body doesn’t choose what type of weight it’s dropping. Sure, you’ll be burning body fat as your organism looks for fuel. But you’ll also lose muscle as well.
With body recomposition, you’re essentially preventing that muscle loss. More importantly, you’re facilitating muscle growth.
Here’s how body recomposition works:
- Find your maintenance calories or Total Daily Energy Expenditure based on your BMI and other metrics.
- Instead of creating a caloric deficit of 400-500 calories, create a very slight caloric surplus of around 100 calories or so
- Incorporate a weightlifting routine that will have you improving your RMs every week or every other week
How Effective is Body Recomposition?
Body recomposition is still a new concept, but there’s a decent body of evidence suggesting that it works. By running on a negligible caloric surplus, you’re giving your muscles the extra energy they need to grow and heal.
At the same time, your workout routine is burning calories. It’s not burning many, but it’s doing enough to keep your net caloric intake at a constant deficit, which is important for weight loss.
How to Quickly Lose Weight and Build Muscle?
It’s simple — you can’t. There’s nothing quick about losing weight or building muscles. In fact, losing weight too quickly can cause serious health issues down the road and is generally considered to be a very dangerous thing to do. Take your time, put in the work, and you’ll see the results.
