By: Chris Gates
Build muscle, burn fat, and look great. It’s what everybody wants, right?
Well I’ve got good news for you: you’ve come to the right place. In this article I’m going to outline exactly how to increase muscle mass while losing fat.
Whether you’re a complete beginner to fitness and nutrition, or a seasoned veteran, we’ll go through multiple different scenarios in this article that you can apply to your daily lifestyle to build muscle and burn fat.
There’s a specific name for this type of goal — body recomposition. So first, let’s talk about what that is. Then, I’ll outline what you should focus on with your exercise routine and your nutrition to really maximize your results!
Before we do that, though, here’s a look at some of my clients who have put the information in this article into practice to see incredible results!
What is Body Recomposition?
If you’re asking how to increase muscle mass while losing fat, what you’re really asking is: “How can I successfully change the composition of my body?”
That means change the ratio of body fat to muscle.
This can be done in phases (which I’ll describe in more detail later in this article when we talk about beginner vs. advanced) or it can be done at once, over time.
To successfully do body recomposition means you’ll need to focus on both training and nutrition equally.
- You’ll need a proper balance of strength training (lifting weights) and cardiovascular exercise.
- You’ll also need to set some goals related to the amount of calories you’re eating each day, and specifically prioritize protein.
I’ll map all of this out for you so that it’s paint-by-numbers easy to understand and apply.
First, let’s talk about how you should be training.
Strength Training
The major key to increasing muscle mass while losing body fat, from an exercise standpoint, is prioritizing strength training.
Strength training can often be categorized as lifting weights, but really what you need to do is challenge the muscles throughout your body in some way — whether that be with weights, resistance bands, or bodyweight exercises.
To build muscle, you need to challenge your body in ways that force your muscles to grow. Your body responds by adapting to the stimulus from strength training. So if you challenge your body through strength training, it’s going to react by building muscle to better handle that same stimulus in the future.
You need to be progressively training harder and harder over time to encourage your body to continue to make those adaptations.
This can happen in a variety of ways. The easiest approach is to focus on taking baby steps and add a little bit to your strength training routines each week.
That can be done by adding an extra rep to each set, or adding an additional set to certain exercises, or even adding in new exercises if it makes sense. I’ve written an article about lifting for muscle growth, and how you can build progression into your routine. Give that a read if you want to learn more.
For some basic guidelines on how to set up a good starting point for your training, here’s a quick reference guide:
| Training Experience: | Amount of Strength Training: |
| Beginner (Less than 6 months consistent training experience) | 2-8 hard sets per muscle group |
| Intermediate (Consistently training for a year or more) | 8-15 hard sets per muscle group |
| Advanced (Several years of consistent training experience) | 10-20 hard sets per muscle group |
“Hard sets” means you’re truly pushing yourself. You don’t have to be going to failure on everything (meaning going until you physically can’t do any more), but getting within a few reps of failure is going to be best for promoting muscle growth.
Setting up your own program correctly can often be difficult, though, especially as you try to balance building muscle with burning fat. Hiring a coach is always an option to take the guesswork out of program design. One of the main pieces of feedback I get from my clients is how much they appreciate not having to figure out their routine each week, and each month, while they chase their goals.
Cardio
Strength training should be your priority, but that doesn’t mean cardio can’t, or shouldn’t be part of the process as well.
You should absolutely do cardio each week, but let’s establish why you’re doing it…
You’re not doing cardio to try and burn fat. This isn’t a means to burn as many calories as possible. Not when you’re attempting to increase muscle mass while losing fat.
Rather, cardiovascular training has incredible health benefits, and it can also aid in recovery from your strength training when done properly.
Plan to include some regular, low-intensity forms of cardio into your routine each week. Anywhere from 2-5 days a week is great. Your best bet is to smart small and add over time as you find you can do more.
Consistency and adherence are king with cardio, so don’t go overboard. Don’t start with more than you think you can handle.
Some great forms of low-intensity cardio:
- Walking
- Biking
- Light jogging
- Swimming
- Rowing
Nutrition Matters Most
We kicked off this article talking about training, and for good reason. Without the right exercise program, you’re going to struggle to increase muscle mass while losing fat.
But here’s the kicker…
Nutrition is what makes this all come together and actually work.
You can’t build muscle without adequate protein and calories. And you can’t burn fat without being in a calorie deficit (in most cases).
So even if you have the most perfectly dialed in exercise program of all time… It’s meaningless if your diet doesn’t match your goals.
There are two main things you should focus on with your daily nutrition:
- Controlling your daily calories
- Eating adequate protein
Let’s start with daily calories. And I’ve got an immediate action item for you.
If you haven’t tracked your nutrition before, now is the time to start. I’ve got a complete breakdown of how to do that in my article on how to track your macros. Give that a read. This video on how to weigh and measure your food will help, too.
Tracking your nutrition for a few weeks will give you a great idea of, on average, how many calories you eat each day. And if you combine that with properly tracking your bodyweight, you’ll have a great understanding of whether or not you’re in a calorie deficit, surplus, or at maintenance.
There’s no exact science to getting your daily calories set up, other than to go through a little bit of trial and error, learn about your diet, and learn about how you can manipulate it to fit your goals.
For the purposes of increasing muscle mass while losing fat, you’re going to be best served by being in a slight calorie deficit — somewhere around 300 calories below maintenance each day.
In terms of eating adequate protein, this one is pretty simple. There are three primary ways you can prioritize protein in your diet. I’ve provided them in the table below, so choose the one that best fits you right now.
| Is This You? | Protein Goal |
| If you don’t each much protein at all | Try to get to 100 grams a day |
| If you eat protein regularly and are at/near a healthy bodyweight | Aim for 1 gram of protein per pound of your bodyweight |
| If you regularly eat protein and are very overweight or obese | Calculate your height in centimeters and eat that many grams of protein a day |
If you’re person No. 1, try to get to 100 grams a day and gradually continue to increase your protein intake to the level of No. 2 or No. 3.
Protein is absolutely critical to increase muscle mass while losing fat. If you’re not eating enough protein, your body won’t be able to adequately adapt and grow to the strength training you’re doing.
How to Increase Muscle Mass While Losing Fat — Beginner
If you’re a beginner to strength training, or if all of this stuff is relatively (or completely) new to you, I’ve got some good news…
This is probably going to be easier than you think.
That’s not to say it will be effortless. Not at all. You’re going to have to put the work in and try legitimately hard.
But if you put that work in, try legitimately hard, and are consistent, you’ll likely be able to experience a ton of progress.
There’s a term for the progress beginners can experience when diving into strength training. It’s called “newbie gains.”
That term refers to the rapid progress new lifters experience when starting strength training for the first time. The body essentially kicks muscle protein synthesis into high gear, and muscle gets built in a hurry.
So as long are you’re focusing on the main compound exercises (presses, rows, squats, pulls) and eating adequate protein consistently, you WILL increase muscle mass while losing fat — and probably do it in a hurry — for 3-6 months before things get a little more challenging.
Take advantage of that, get to work, and be as consistent as you possibly can!
How to Increase Muscle Mass While Losing Fat — Advanced
For those who are a bit more advanced and experienced with strength training and nutrition, this process may take a little bit longer and it may need to be a bit more of a carefully crafted process.
Typically, I recommend approaching this in phases for a more advanced person. Here’s what those phases look like:
| Phase: | Description: |
| Lean Bulk | This involves you being in a slight calorie surplus to build muscle. |
| Cutting | You’ll be in a slight calorie deficit to preserve muscle mass and shed body fat. |
| Maintenance | This is geared towards weight maintenance. |
Spending 3-6 months at a time in each phase is typically ideal in order to promote the most optimal changes in body composition and lead to success with increasing muscle mass while losing fat.
For example, if you’re slightly overweight it may be beneficial to jump into a cutting phase for a few months to get started and shed excess body fat. That cutting phase can be followed by a period of time at maintenance before diving back into another cutting phase. This helps with your metabolism along with preventing diet fatigue.
Another example could be if you haven’t built a lot of muscle yet, but you have body fat you’d like to burn. In this scenario, it might make the most sense for you to start with a lean bulking phase to put on a few pounds of muscle before transitioning into a cutting phase to burn body fat.
However you approach it will be specific to your current body composition and goals.
—
As you can probably see, this is a very nuanced topic and there are lots of factors to consider depending on who you are, what your experience level is with fitness and nutrition, and what your ultimate goal is. If you want to learn how to increase muscle mass while losing fat while receiving guided help along the way, I offer customized online personal training to clients all over the world. I’d love to help!
Visit my coaching page to learn more about what online personal training is like, and fill out a coaching application form if you’d like to discuss your goals and talk about what a program might look like for you!
Thanks for reading 🙂
~ Chris