Can I Lose Weight While Building Muscle?

As a fitness coach, one of the most common questions I get from my weight loss clients is, “Can I lose weight while building muscle?”

Not only am I going to answer this exact question with a resounding “Yes!” but also I am going to tell you all the reasons why you should be building muscle regardless of what your weight loss goals look like.

Specifically, we’ll be covering:

Why It’s Not Just About Losing Weight
The Benefits Of Building Muscle (Aside From Being A Bodybuilder)
How Building Muscle Actually Speeds Up Weight Loss
Common FAQs And Myths About Losing Weight While Building Muscle
The Exact Blueprint To Losing Weight While Building Muscle

Without further ado, let’s dive in and talk about…

Why It’s Not Just About Losing Weight

Before we talk about building muscle, we need to make something abundantly clear because, without this mindset in place, you’re not going to truly achieve what you want.

Let’s be completely honest with each other here, because honesty is the best policy, right?

You don’t just want to lose weight.

You may think or say you do, but it’s about so much more than that.

You want to specifically lose fat around your stubborn areas and feel better and perform better in your body so that you can regain that lost confidence you once had.

Whether that means being able to look at yourself in a picture without feeling ashamed, being able to rock clothes or bathing suits that you haven’t worn in a while, wanting to look and feel your best at an upcoming big event like a reunion, wedding, etc., or all of the above.

So again, let’s be honest, if you could magically snap your fingers and have your dream body, would you really care what the number on the scale said?

Most likely not…

But don’t take this the wrong way, that isn’t to say that the scale doesn’t matter at all.

It is simply just another tool to measure progress. Nothing more.

However, even, let’s say, your goal isn’t to improve your body aesthetics.

You just want to lose weight and improve your health and don’t care at all about what your body looks like.

Here are a few reasons why building muscle is important for overall health and wellness.

Can I Lose Weight While Building Muscle? – The Benefits Of Building Muscle (Aside From Being A Bodybuilder)

There’s a misconception that building muscle is exclusively for people who want to look better or look like a bodybuilder, but this is simply untrue. As discussed in my other article, The Best Exercises For Weight Loss, here are just a few other benefits to building muscle that has nothing to do with aesthetic reasons.

Boosting your resting metabolism
Reducing chronic pain as your musculature takes away from strain from tendons, ligaments, and bones
Enhances nervous system and proprioception – neuromuscular control that allows you to have more control and awareness of your body in space
Increases strength & endurance – so that you can carry all of your groceries in one trip, walk up a flight of stairs without getting winded, and, my personal favorite, being able to squat up and down off a toilet even as I get older (because I definitely wouldn’t want to rely on someone else for that)
Increased muscle mass also leads to improved insulin sensitivity, blood pressure, overall heart function and health, hormonal balance, and reduced risk of disease
The act of exercising and moving your body provides better feedback for sleep quality and stress relief

This isn’t an all-inclusive list by the way, but as you can see there are a ton of benefits.

But as far as this article is concerned, what does building muscle specifically do for weight loss?

Can I Lose Weight While Building Muscle? – How Building Muscle Actually Speeds Up Weight Loss

A common complaint from people who are trying to lose weight is that they have a “slow metabolism” and they want to find ways to speed it up.

Firstly, let’s discuss and break down what your metabolism is comprised of.

Here’s an excellent graphic from ABS Science:

Of course, this is going to vary slightly from person to person but it is mainly comprised of three components.

Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR): Basically, if you were in a coma and lying in bed, this is how many calories your body would be burning just simply keeping you alive and functioning.

Thermic Effect of Food (TEF): All of the calories it takes to chew, digest, and process the food you’re eating into a usable form for your body.

Activity Energy Expenditure (AEE): The calories you burn any type of movement. This is also further broken down into:

Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (EAT) – the number of calories you burn through intentional exercise like the times you plan to go to the gym to do cardio, lift weights, go on a run outside, etc.
Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) – the number of calories you burn through unintentional exercise like when you walk from your car to the grocery store, take the stairs instead of the elevator, mow your lawn, wash dishes, vacuum, cook & clean, etc. You don’t necessarily think about these things as “I’m doing these to exercise more”, but they do count towards energy expenditure.

Now that we have all that covered, let’s talk about how building muscle can speed up weight loss through these components.

With RMR, when you have more muscle mass, you will actually burn more calories just sitting existing because muscle takes more energy and to maintain at rest than other tissues in your body. This means that the more muscle you build, the more calories it will take just simply maintaining your body weight.
With AEE, when you have more muscle mass, as previously explained, you will have more strength and endurance which means that your workout sessions will actually be more productive and burn more calories in the same amount of time as you build more muscle. Furthermore, the more strength and endurance you have, the more likely you will go and do active things. While working out may use up a lot of energy, your body will adapt and will leave you with even more energy. Think about a plane versus a car, while the plane does use more fuel overall, it does so because it’s able to carry a lot more fuel and is able to go farther and faster than a car ever will.

Can I Lose Weight While Building Muscle? – Common FAQs And Myths About Losing Weight And Building Muscle

“I heard that you must be in a calorie deficit to lose weight and you must be in a calorie surplus to gain muscle though.”

While yes, this is true that you must do so to optimize weight loss and muscle gain respectively, as muscle growth can be an energy-intensive process if you aren’t already relatively lean and have a lot of body fat to lose, the energy required for building muscle can be attained through your body fat stores. The amount of muscle you can build in a calorie deficit is also going to depend on your training experience as explained in my other article, The Best Diet Plan To Build Lean Muscle.

“Can’t I just lose the weight first then focus on building muscle later?”

Of course, you can but now you have to spend more time doing a weight loss phase first and then later switching to a muscle-building phase meanwhile you could have dialed things in from the beginning to lose weight and build muscle at the same time so that you already have a decent base to build from once you decide to really hone in on building muscle.

“Will doing HIIT workouts, cardio workouts, group fitness lifting classes do the trick?”

Nope, if you want to build a meaningful amount of muscle that actually transforms your body, you need to be following a real strength training program. Lucky for you, I already have written an entire article about this HERE. This isn’t to say that cardio isn’t important, you can read everything you need to know about cardio HERE, but a proper strength training program is your best bet to build muscle.

“I’ve been doing everything right, but the scale hasn’t budged! What’s wrong with me??”

Alright, settle down, nothing is wrong with you. Again, the scale doesn’t tell the whole story. You can be making progress like seeing your measurements go down, physically getting leaner in the mirror, but the number won’t have changed much or at all.

Some people might say, “muscle weighs more than fat” but this is untrue. 1 lb of fat is always going to equal 1 lb of muscle. However, it takes up less space which means you won’t see some of those changes until you are consistent for months down the road.

“What if I just want to lose fat without losing weight?”

Follow everything as I said in this article. Personally, I like to use “losing fat” and “losing weight” interchangeably because most people when they say they want to “lose weight” mean they want to “lose fat.” Also, when your focus is to build maximal muscle, the “weight” from the muscle will replace the “weight” you’ve lost from fat. This way you can dramatically change your bodily appearance without losing a lot of “weight.” Everything in this article is designed to help you lose fat while maintaining or building muscle.

Can I Lose Weight While Building Muscle? – The Exact Blueprint To Losing Weight While Building Muscle

I’m going to cover it briefly because I’ve already talked about this in plenty of other articles but it is super simple.

Nutrition

Small calorie deficit so that you can lose fat, but also have enough energy to train hard and build muscle. You can use my free calorie calculator HERE to figure that out.
Eating adequate protein – 0.7 to 1g of protein per lb of body weight so that you can repair muscle tissue and stay satiated while losing weight.
Eat mostly whole, nutritious foods like veggies, meat, seafood, fruits, whole grains, etc. while also having room for flexible dieting.

Training

Follow a strength training routine that regularly trains your entire body by repeating movements
Train with the intent of progressively overloading or getting stronger over time
Incorporate rest days to facilitate proper rest and recovery
Stay active and moving even when you’re not strength training (lower intensity cardio or steps)

Mindset

Don’t get too caught on the number on the scale
Use other forms of progress measures (measurements, progress pictures, workout performance, etc.)
Don’t beat yourself up over going off plan in the short term, just pick up where you left off
Stay consistent even when the times get tough, you can’t control your environment, but you can control how you react to it

Can I Lose Weight While Building Muscle? – Final Thoughts

Aaaaand that’s it!

This is pretty much all you need to know for losing weight while building muscle.

It definitely is something that is possible and something that I highly encourage you to do.

No, you don’t have to wait until you lose the weight. It is something that you can start immediately.

And look I get it, it might be scary to start strength training, to focus on something else other than weight loss because it’s the first thing on your mind, but the sooner you start, the sooner you’ll get comfortable with the process.

Besides, everything you do the first few times in life?

You’re going to mess up and not get it right.

But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t start or even try.

As always, shoot me an email if you need any help or support along the way. I’ll be more than happy to help 🙂

Also, if you want me to take away all of the guesswork for you and tell you exactly what to do, be sure to check out my online coaching program.

Until next time,

-Aus

Can I Lose Weight While Building Muscle? – Your Complete Guide