If you ask someone who works out – a client, a friend, anyone really – if they’d like to lose fat or gain muscle, a lot of the time they’ll say, “Both!” And of course they do! Weight loss and muscle gain: that’s the ideal situation for almost everyone.
However, if you’re like most people struggling in the gym, trying to do both at the same time is extremely difficult, verging on impossible. That’s because your metabolism is made up two different processes: catabolism and anabolism.
Catabolism is focused on the breakdown of cells for energywhile anabolism is the process of building simple cells into more complex cells. Note that we didn’t specify between fat or muscle cells. Your body will either being in a catabolic state in which you are burning fat and calories or an anabolic state where you are building muscle mass. We will go more in depth on these two states down below.
From what we understand about metabolism, we should look at losing fat and gaining muscle as two separate fitness goals. It sounds pretty complicated, but if you’re measuring your weight loss/weight gain and tracking your progress with your body composition results,you can fine-tune your fitness program and nutrition to avoid unwanted fat gain and muscle loss depending on what state you are in. Here’s a three step guide on how to do that:
Step 1: Decide Which Goal Comes First
