Should You Lose Fat First Before Building Muscle?

“I just want to burn fat, not build muscle” This is a phrase that I often hear from people when they start their fitness journey!

Is losing fat and building muscle two separate processes? The short answer is no!

Losing fat and building muscle can and should be done at the same time. This will really help you boost your metabolism and get you results much faster than trying to separate “losing fat” and “building muscle”

Let’s take a closer look at what can happen if you go about losing fat the wrong way.

Heading down the wrong path

I often see and hear about people who are completely focused on losing bodyweight and don’t think about a complete program. They focus solely on losing weight off the scale. This is the one metric that so many people depend on to tell them if they are improving or not.

First off, the scale only tells us our body mass and only gives us a single number! If you’re going to go on a complete body transformation journey, don’t utilize the weight scale as your success measure! It doesn’t tell us a thing about our body composition, how much fat we have versus how much muscle.

A few problems I see when people focus only on weight loss is:

• They cut calories to drastically low amounts. In the long term, this is unsustainable and will do harm to your metabolism. Cutting calories too low will depress your metabolism.

• They exercise like crazy with the wrong type and amount of exercise. People often flock to the cardio exercise when trying to lose weight and they spend hours conducting ineffective cardo training that creates the wrong hormonal profile and can further depress their metabolism.

• They do not eat with metabolic precision. This means that along with cutting calories to very low levels; they don’t consume meals with the right combination of protein, carbohydrates and fats. A metabolically precise meal is one that combines the amount and type of protein, carbohydrates and fats that will aid recovery, enhance health, energy levels and speed fat loss.

• I often see people burn out when they focus only on weight loss and don’t understand the “big” picture. After 3-4 weeks of going down the wrong path; people don’t see any progress and start to get frustrated. People usually think that execising isn’t for them, or that they are OK for their age and make up excuses. They will then revisit this whole cycle again down the road when they want to get in shape for something special (e.g. wedding, reunion, etc.)

Build muscle and shedding fat together!

I highly recommend when you start your fitness journey; you take an holistic approach and focus on building muscle and shedding fat together.

• First off; building lean muscle tissue is absolutely crucial to our long-term success.Muscle mass comprises 66% of the total calories we metabolize (i.e. burn) each day. A FIRE (Focused Intense Resistance Exercise) program should be the cornerstone of your complete body transformation program. FIRE is a crucial part of a complete Metabolic Precision program.

• Building muscle will enhance your metabolism and will shed the fat. This will set you up for achieving results and keeping them permanently. In addition to enhancing your metabolism, building muscle will increase strength, bone mass, functionality, immune system and much more.

• It’s crucial to conduct the right type and amount of exercise each week to ensure progress will occur and not cause your metabolism to become depressed. Along with FIRE, ICE (Intense Cardiovascular Exercise) should strategically fit into your weekly training program.

Also, knowing where LIA (Lower Intense Activity) fits in to enhance recovery and still burn some calories is important. Metabolic Precision utilizes a research-based approach to conducting the right type and amount of FIRE, ICE and LIA according to your specific metabolism and starting point.

Along with the right type and amount of exercise, knowing how to eat to shed fat and enhance recovery is crucial! Eating with metabolic precision means that you are teaching your body to shed fat, enhance health and energy levels and create the right metabolism for long-term success.