Lose Fat AND Gain Muscle - Is It Possible?
We get this question all the time here at BodySpec - can you lose fat and gain muscle at the same time?
The answer is YES - with the proper nutrition and exercise programming. We will let these results from a BodySpec client illustrate this.
This client did his baseline scan in June, then got after a low calorie, low carb diet plus exercising for 3 months. He had moderate success losing fat, but also lost muscle mass as shown in his second scan.
He then set up a nutrition coaching call with our health coach, Johanna, and made some dietary and exercise modifications. These included increasing carbs in the diet and adding in some HIIT training workouts. 6 weeks later, he'd lost another 13 pounds of fat AND gained back over 5 pounds of muscle!
You can visually see the drastic difference in his waist on that third scan image:
Here's the full numbers breakdown:
| Date | Total Body Fat % | Total Mass | Fat Mass (lbs) | Lean Mass (lbs) | Android Fat % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6/2/2016 | 31.1% | 199.6 | 62.1 | 131.1 | 39% |
| 9/19/2016 | 29.3% | 185.6 | 54.3 | 124.6 | 34.4% |
| 10/31/2016 | 23.2% | 177.8 | 41.2 | 130.2 | 23% |
Notice that last column, android fat %. This is fat located in the stomach and it is associated with metabolic disease. On a low calorie, low carb diet, this client lost 4.5% from his stomach over 3 months; but after tailoring his diet to fit his needs better, he lost an additional 10% of his stomach fat over 6 weeks. Now his android fat percentage is in line with his average body fat percentage, which means a much better health profile.
Here's what he had to say:
"This exceeds my highest expectations. I thought I would have another month at least to reach 25%, nevermind 23%. And I was skeptical that my muscle mass would be coming back. I'm so thrilled with this."
It IS possible to lose fat and gain muscle with the proper nutrition and exercise programming - and it doesn't even require a crazy "diet". Book a consultation to find out more!
