Can you lose body fat and build muscle at the same time?

By far, one of the most common questions I get…On the daily.

My answer is…As usual …”It depends”.

If you have a lot of body fat to lose, and you are relatively new to structured, well programmed resistance training (which you are here at R1), then YES…Absolutely!

But this is somewhat short lived…As in…

If you are losing body fat, and resistance training, you won’t be in this position of having excess body fat…And newly stimulated aka very sensitive muscle for long.

I term it the ‘honey moon’ period.

On the flip side…

If you are very lean and you have 5+ years of resistance training experience under your belt, then it is highly unlikely you’re going to build a significant amount of muscle, without being in a calorie ‘surplus’.

Side note:

Surplus doesn’t mean you have to massively increase your calories…And put on an uncomfortable amount of weight.

In my opinion, that is counterproductive…Why?

You’ll be more likely to want to ‘diet’ again before you’ve had a chance to put on any muscle.

I suggest about 10% above ‘maintenance’ calories…That’s usually adequate.

Give it a go, and let me know how you go.

Or, hit me up for some advice.

Coach Gab