Most people want to accomplish one thing: burn fat and build muscle.

It’s the perfect combination, right? Slim down, but look muscular. Have a great physique that everyone wants.

Most people want to do both of these things at the same exact time. And most of the time, you’ll hear one of these two claims:

1. It’s impossible.
2. There is a “magic formula” to do both!

Facts are facts. It’s not impossible to do both at the same time. There is no “magic formula” to accomplish it. But it will be challenging.

There are some specific groups of people that normally have an easier time accomplishing both of these feats:

• Those brand new to lifting and/or fitness.
• Overweight or obese individuals.

If you fall into one of those categories, you’re in luck. If you can get into a regular routine of lifting weights, doing cardio, and eating right, it’s gonna happen for you over time. You’ll build muscle, burn fat in the process, and see your body change from month to month.

However, if you don’t fall into one of those groups, it’s not a lost cause. That’s exactly why I’m writing this article, because along with the important items mentioned above — lifting weights, cardio, eating right — there’s a fourth factor that can truly maximize your ability to both burn fat and build muscle.

SLEEP.

That’s right, it’s sleep.

Sleep may not be the first thing that comes to mind. So many of us are conditioned to believe that all fitness gains are made through voracious training and starving yourself.

Not true.

Yes, you need to train hard. You should be pushing yourself in the gym on a consistent basis in order to get the stimulus needed to build muscle. Without this, you’ll struggle.

Yes, you need to have a solid nutrition plan. You should be eating mostly quality, whole foods and providing your body with the right amount of calories and macronutrients (specifically protein) to be able to build muscle while burning fat. Without this, you’ll struggle.

But even with both of those dialed in 100 percent, you’ll still likely struggle without getting the proper amount of sleep.

According to the National Sleep Foundation’s 2018 statistics, 41 percent of Americans admit to rarely taking into account how much sleep they need in planning for the next day. Overall sleep quality in our society is disappointing, and the Sleep Health Index indicates Americans are not falling within the recommended range of sleep.

Just 27 percent of Americans are getting the recommended 7 to 9 hours of sleep a night. That’s an absolutely astounding and disturbing number.

I share all of that to create awareness and confirm that, most likely, you’re not getting enough sleep.

If you’re committing to your fitness and nutrition, you ought to be committing to your sleep as well. That is, if you truly care about reaching and accomplishing your goals.

So I’m telling you about how important sleep is, but where is the evidence that it helps accomplish this feat of both burning fat and losing muscle?

A 2018 study sheds some light on this specific topic.

In the study, participants were broken into two groups:

1. A group that restricted its daily calories in order to be in a calorie deficit, as well as slept within the normal range.
2. A group that was both in that same calorie deficit, but also restricted sleep by 60 minutes per day during the work week and added 60 minutes of sleep on the weekend.

The second group is likely most representative of our American society. During the work week, which is five days for most of us, we sleep less than we need to. Then, we try and catch back up over the weekend.

Well, the results of the study showed that both groups had similar weight loss, but the group that slept normally lost considerably more weight from fat while the group that had sleep restriction lost considerably more weight from muscle.

Getting normal, consistently good sleep made a huge difference.

Need more to be convinced? Then I’d highly recommend reading this three-part series by Michael Priola about sleep, its benefits, and how you can develop and maintain better sleep habits.

Application and Takeaways

In this section, I normally provide insight into how I coach clients to implement the topic or strategy we’ve discussed. For this one, it’s pretty straightforward.

You have to commit to sleep. Just like I mentioned earlier, if you’re going to commit to training and nutrition, you’re just being silly to not commit to better sleep as well. The evidence is there, and the information is pretty straightforward.

I understand why we struggle so much with sleep. We live demanding lives. Between work, social life, hobbies, interests, kids, family, etc. there are a lot of things pulling at our attention each day. Depending on which of those (or other) life elements are part of your own equation, changing your lifestyle can be difficult. I’d suggest taking care of the easy things first.

If something like your favorite TV show, sporting event, or social media are keeping you up too late and disrupting your sleep, cut that out immediately. Technology makes it pretty easy to record and/or catch up on stuff like this pretty quickly and easily the next day or over the weekend.

There are other things you can do to free up time to dedicate to your sleep, such as taking care of your to-do items for tomorrow immediately after you return home from school, work, etc. Pack up your work bag right when you get home. Put together your food for the next day immediately. Go straight to the gym before returning home.

Basically, do whatever you have to do before hitting that couch and vegging out. Get it all done so you can truly wind down at the end of the day. Create an earlier bed time for the kids if you need to (they’ll get over it), and for the entire family.

And then, make sure you don’t veg out on that couch for too long. Resting is not sleeping. Set a bed time, and get to bed. You’ll thank yourself in the morning.

Accomplishing this and working towards your goal of building muscle and burning fat is all about dedication and commitment. It’s a hard feat to accomplish, but you can absolutely do it. You have to commit fully.

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Thanks for reading! I hope you found this article interesting and/or useful. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments.

Navigating something like this can be challenging, and oftentimes having a coach to guide you through the process can be beneficial. If coaching is something you’d be interested in, check out my coaching services page and fill out a coaching application form to begin the process!

CGF