How To Optimise Training And Nutrition To Build Muscle and Lose Fat
When you first start training it is key to have a goal in mind:
Something to motivate you.
Something you can create an emotional connection with to help keep up consistency.
Something that will keep you motivated during times when motivation is scarce.
Everyone has different goals, with an aesthetic focus tending to be the most popular i.e;
Wanting to lose body fat.
Increase muscle size.
Look more toned.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with having an aesthetic goal. If anyone tells you that they go to the gym and do not have an ounce of care for aesthetics, then I would question that.
It is easy to get lost in the vast amount of information and training plans readily available on the internet and on social media where everyone and anyone can be a coach.
Buying these ready-made, cookie-cutter training plans that your favourite Instagram or TikTok ‘coach’ has offered you as a means to achieve great results raises a few questions:
When did you have a conversation with this person to discuss your goals?
Did you break down what you have tried in the past?
Did you explain to them your current level of lifting and nutritional experience?
From these three questions, if you answered no to any of them then 9 times out of 10, the plan you are doing will not yield you the desired results you initially signed up for.
Goal Setting
The first stage of having a better training experience is to establish a goal. This goal should be detailed rather than the usual vague goals that float about.
For example, instead of saying ‘I want to lose weight’ make the goal ‘I want to be jeans or dress size lower within the next 2-3 months.’ another example ‘I want to build size and strong’ a more specific goal would be ‘I want to get build some size in my body so I feel confident when topless and I want to be able to do 10 full body push-ups within the next 2-3 months
Let’s break down the differences between a vague goal and a goal with detail.
The main difference we can see is the specificity of what we are measuring. Fat loss is not always visible at first, but having a marker such as clothing which will allow you to see the fruits of your labour will provide much more motivation to stick with the process. There is also a respectable time frame to achieve this goal because most timelines are not realistic, having a realistic timeline sets you up for success rather than disappointment.
Now that you are aware of what you want to achieve, how you will track your progress, and have a rough estimate of how long you want to work to achieve this goal, you should then ask yourself why you want to achieve this. Creating that emotional connection.
Studies have shown that building an emotional connection with something will put you in a better position to stay committed and stay consistent even during times of low motivation. Once you understand your goal and have built this connection to it, you can then begin to formulate your training and nutrition which will be the pillars of progress.
Nutrition
Calories
Everyone has different nutritional needs and requirements due to allergens, preferences, culture, etc. with this in mind I am not the biggest fan of supplying meal plans to my online clients, but I do like to introduce them to tracking calories and protein for some time and then we revisit this method and asses how they find it and if they wish to continue tracking.
Calories are not bad; they are your source of energy to help you get through the day and fuel your training.
A reasonable calorie goal for women is around 2k+/- calorie and for men around 2.6k+/- calories, although please understand that these are not set-in-stone figures, for a more accurate calorie goal click here this calorie tracker breaks down how many calories you should roughly be eating to maintain, increase, or reduce your weight.
This Calorie goal changes depending on your goal. If you are looking to lose fat, then your calorie goal will be lower than your calculated maintenance goal. Gender can also play a factor, women will consume fewer calories than men due to physiological requirements such as muscle mass, muscles require the energy produced from calories to function and men naturally have greater muscle mass than women. Daily activities also play a factor in calorie consumption. Lisa is someone who is very active in her day-to-day life and will need to consume over 2k calories a day to help her cope with her daily tasks in comparison to Jane who lives a more sedentary lifestyle and works mainly in a seated position.
Calorie Deficit
For you to lose weight you need to be in a calorie deficit, this is when you are burning more calories than you are consuming. If Jane is consuming 1.8k calories a day, she would need to be burning 1.9k+ in order for her to lose weight and lose fat as well. There are different methods you can employ to help with this process. As long as the method you choose is sustainable and does not restrict you from enjoying the foods you like.
As previously mentioned, Jane lives a more sedentary lifestyle and her work does not offer much movement as well. In order for her to increase her metabolism she would need to introduce resistance training as well as start making a more conscious effort to start moving more.
Click Here to see tips and tricks to move more whilst at work
Protein
When losing fat, it is key to keep our protein intake high, a general rule of thumb to calculate how much protein you should be consuming is 0.7-1.25g of protein x your body weight (lb). When introducing my online coaching clients to protein intake there is always an initial shock, but the great thing is there are many different foods, snacks, and treats available that have a high amount of protein in them. This help plays a big role in increasing protein intake.
Protein intake calculation example: Lisa weights 60kg (convert kg to pounds) 60x2.25=135lb
1-1.25g x 135lb= 94.5g-170g of protein per day
You hear all the time about the importance of protein, but you might not be aware of what protein is and how it helps us. In a nutshell, proteins are found in the muscles, when we exercise these proteins break down to assist with the task at hand.
Consumption of protein promotes a process called protein synthesis which allows the body to rebuild the proteins plus more which leads to an increase in muscle size and strength (Hypertrophy). During a calorie deficit, it will be essential to keep the source of the muscle rebuilding high as you are reducing your general food intake.
The term ‘toning’ is used often to describe this process of fat loss and muscle building. It is key to understand that you cannot ‘tone up’ without building muscle and building muscles does not equate to you becoming a bodybuilder. Bodybuilding is a profession that takes many years of high-volume training and strict nutritional diets.
Training
As mentioned previously, to achieve this ‘toned’ look you will need to begin lifting weights and resistance training. However, just lifting weights is not enough to achieve the goals you want, there needs to be structure behind this.
We want to place a stimulus on the body that will make it react and develop. This is done by resistance training, however, the body starts to get used to this stimulus, meaning that progress slows down.
The way you counteract this is by progressively overloading your training. There are a variety of different ways to implement progressive overload, but the two main modalities discussed will be weight and repetitions.
Progressive Overload: Weight
To progressively overload is to gradually increase the demand/stimulus placed on the body. How we do that with weights is by gradually increasing the weights we lift on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. An example of this could be on barbell back squats, if you have been doing 3x12 (3 sets 12 reps) at 60kg with relative ease, then next session aim to do 65kg.
The reason we want to increase the weight is because the body has already adapted to the 60kg load and it will not develop much, if at all, by staying with that same weight. The increase in weight will be a new stimulus for the body to adapt to.
Progressive Overload: Sets and Repetitions
Progressively overloading the reps and sets follows a similar structure as the weights. It will not always be the case that you can increase the weights you lift, but you can still offer a challenge to the muscles by manipulating the reps and sets scheme.
Using the previous example of the squat, if you are performing 60kg for 3x12 and that is not feeling as challenging then a means to progress this could be to add an extra set, which will make it 60kg for 4x12. It may seem insignificant but think how challenging it is to do 3 sets, the introduction of the 4th set will be sure to challenge the body to perform the required reps and place more load on the muscles to facilitate more growth.
The same can be done for the reps, you can have a rep goal, and each week you can increase the reps until you hit that rep goal. For example, barbell bench pressing 30kg for 3x8, and your rep goal is 12 reps. Next session you aim to do 30kg for 3x9 and continue in this manner until you hit the 12-rep goal.
You can couple this with the aforementioned weights progression. Continuing with the same example, when you reach your rep goal of 12 reps, then you can reset back to 8 reps, but this time, increase the weight on the bar from 30kg to 35kg.
A mixture of both modalities will offer you more benefits to your strength and physique than just sticking to one means. If you currently do not have a workout plan to follow to apply this to then click here to send me an email to receive a training plan that will help you implement what we have discusses here and help you out with a structured approach from a coach with online and in-person experience, working with numerous clients from different populations with different needs.
Some Things To Avoid
Training every day for 2+ hours
Doing HIIT sessions until you are sick
Not having rest days
Prioritising weight over form
Conclusion
From reading this I hope it gives you a better understanding of the steps that need to be followed to maximise your training and ultimately improve the process of building muscle and losing fat.
It may seem daunting as there are a few things to remember, but my advice to you is to integrate things slowly rather than trying to do it all at once.
Maybe start with the one you find most challenging. If you find it hard to train consistently through the week then make that your primary focus before trying to work on nutrition and progressively overload your training.
Hope this helped!
Till next time
Myles
