Is It Possible To Gain Muscle and Lose Body-fat at the Same Time?

This is a question I would bet every lifter has pondered at some point in their journey, and even to ponder it in the first place is a good thing. It demonstrates some level of experience, given that most people believe that lifting weights can lead to becoming too big and bulky. It isn’t long until we learn the harsh reality that gaining muscle mass, is not at all that easy. For a natural lifter, it takes a lot of time, a lot of patience, and a constant feeling that you’re not where you aim to be. What’s worsened this is social media, where once the algorithm recognises that you follow fitness accounts, all you will see are countless examples of individuals who are not just large, but also shredded. And so the question which has been resolved so many times over the decades continues to circulate. Is it Possible to Gain Muscle and Lose Body-fat at the The Same Time?

The Answer

There are several answers. The objective truth is that, yes, it is possible. The caveat is that there are specific non-ideal circumstances under which it is possible, and the metaphorical truth is no, and that it is better to bulk and then cut.

When It’s Possible

1. Newbie Gains

   The gains you can experience when you are a new lifter are insane compared to the realities beyond your first year of lifting. The first three to six months, in particular, can yield impressive gains, even when losing body fat. However, when coaching new trainees, I still advise the opposite approach: to bulk, accept some gains in fat mass, and maximise the return from the newbie gains phenomenon. You will only get this opportunity once, so make the most of it.

2. A Return to Lifting

   If you have returned to lifting following a long break, you will see your gains return quickly due to muscle memory. Building muscle once is tough, but regaining it is much easier thanks to the principle of reversibility, which thankfully works in both directions. Simply put, if you stop training your muscles, you will lose muscle quickly, but if you resume activity, that muscle will return just as quickly. This also means that when you restart training in a deficit, you can rebuild a good portion of your muscle mass, if not all, when in a calorie deficit.

3. Performance-Enhancing Drugs (PEDs)

   Even competitive bodybuilders who use PEDs will still rely on traditional bulk and cut cycles to get stage-ready, but there is one class of athlete in particular, who relies on them to stay beach lean, all year round; The Instagram Fitness Influencer. Over the years, the list of influencers I think to be natural has been ever shrinking. The fake-natties of the internet provide the perfect case studies for how PEDs can simultaneously enable fat loss and muscle mass accumulation.

4. If You Came From a Very High Body Fat Percentage

   This, I think, is one of the most under-appreciated ways in which this is possible. The principle of energy balance means that an energy surplus will be required to build new muscle mass. However, accumulated body fat can act almost as a savings account for the energy-in side of the equation, even when eating in what is technically a calorie deficit. Over the years, I have noticed too many anecdotal examples of this occurring to ignore. Thus, I always try to encourage overweight and obese beginners to focus most of their efforts on resistance training rather than trying to lose weight too quickly through excessive cardio

My Recommendation

Ideally, you are in none of the four categories above because none are ideal. To optimise hypertrophy, it is best to skip the shortcuts and stick to the process that has repeatedly worked for countless competitive natural and non-natural bodybuilders, time and time again. Even if you never intend to become a bodybuilder, the sport has proven what works; extended gaining phases with the acquisition of fat mass, followed by a cutting phase, to preserve muscle mass while losing fat mass.

Ideally, your gaining phases should increase by 0.75 - 1% of bodyweight per month, with a fat gain: muscle gain ratio of 1:1. Whilst, in your calorie deficits, you lost approximately 0.75 - 1% of body weight per week, with a fat loss to muscle loss ratio of 9:1. The result is a net benefit of additional muscle mass, every time you complete this cycle. While the duration of each gaining and cutting phase may change, the process does not.

This is one situation where attempting to reinvent the wheel, only leads to lost time, and lost gains.