Why It’s Time to Focus on Muscle Gain Over Fat Loss

The Paradigm Shift: Muscle Gain vs. Fat Loss

Lots of people have, or should have, the goal of building more muscle.

As Dr. Gabriel Lyon says “We are not overfat, we are under-muscled.”

I love this shift in mindset in thinking about our body composition.

There is a lot of focus on the amount of body fat many people are carrying around. There is no doubt that excess body fat is a problem, but what if instead of focusing on losing body fat we focus on adding muscle instead?

Why Muscle Matters More Than Fat

Why should we focus on building muscle instead of losing body fat?

Losing body fat does not guarantee health.

Lots of people walk around looking relatively lean and their weight is “normal” but they can be just as unhealthy as someone who’s weight puts them in the obese category.

How is that possible?

Just because someone weighs less doesn’t say anything about the composition of their weight. If the normal weight individual is severely under muscled their percentage of body fat they have when compared to their weight could be exactly the same as the obese individual. This means the normal weight individual could suffer from the same exact negative health outcomes as the obese individual.

Another way of illustrating this point is to say the normal weight and obese individual have the same body fat percentage but the obese individual starts strength training and manages to add muscle while keeping their weight exactly the same.

Now the obese individual has a BETTER body composition than the normal weight individual and they have just drastically improved their health in the process!

What really can make a difference in your overall health is not the amount of body fat you have but instead the amount of muscle you have.

The Power of Muscle: Protecting Mental, Physical, and Physiological Health

That is because muscle protects our mental, physical, and physiological health!

This is why Dr. Gabriel Lyon has a great point when she says we are not overfat, we are under-muscled.

Besides the health benefits of focusing on building muscle instead of losing body fat, there are also some mental and lifestyle benefits that come along with this shift in mindset.

When we focus on body fat it leads to restrictive diets. We have it in our heads that we must suffer in order to lose weight. Forget about the occasional indulgence on that night out with your significant other, YOU MUST BE DIALED!!!!

If we instead focus on building muscle and not on losing fat this mindset shifts 180 degrees.

Strength Training: The Key to Muscle Building

The reason is because in order to build muscle our main focus is no longer on diet instead the main focus must be strength training. No matter how “good” your diet is you have no chance of building muscle if you do not properly strength train.

With the focus now on strength training this has several other downstream effects because lots of other things will impact your performance in the gym.

Sleep is a good example of this. If your sleep is garbage your performance at the gym will be garbage. Poor sleep not only negatively impacts your performance at the gym but your recovery from the workout as well. When you hinder performance and recovery you are hindering your chances of building muscle.

Rethinking Diet: Fueling for Performance

This is not to say that diet is not important in building muscle, it does play a role but again how you think about your diet completely shifts. Instead of trying to figure out how little you can eat, you are focusing on eating in a way that allows you to build the most muscle and properly recover from your workouts. In many cases this will mean focusing on eating enough to fuel high quality workouts and not eating foods that hinder your performance.

You are no longer thinking about how little you can eat and instead of focusing on eating in a way that supports your performance goals. This might mean increasing your total calories or adding in some carbs to help performance a little…shocker I know!

In addition, when you are focusing on fat loss you might squeeze in foods that don’t serve you because you have room in your calories to do so. You can have a couple of drinks and still be in a caloric deficit. However if you have a couple drinks and you feel like garbage the next morning in the gym or don’t sleep very well you might think twice about having those drinks.

Since fat loss is primarily about diet, it does little to encourage you to exercise. You can lose all the weight you want just by diet so why go to the gym? Those that fall into that mindset are really not doing themselves any favors because it is likely they are LOSING muscle as well as fat, that is no good. When we focus on building muscle we must exercise, there is no way to avoid it!

The Domino Effect: How Muscle Focus Leads to Fat Loss

The best part of all of this…

By focusing on building muscle instead of losing fat all the downstream effects of doing so that we talked about above will likely LEAD TO FAT LOSS AS WELL!

Think about it…

To build muscle you need to:

• Exercise
• Sleep well
• Improve your diet

These are all things you need to do to lose body fat AND you can do this without feeling completely restricted.

At the end of the day switching your mindset from fat loss to muscle building will actually get you to where you want to be and do it with better results and in a much more enjoyable way.

Getting Started: Resources for Your Muscle-Building Journey

Ready to get started?

Great, here are some resources for you to get you going!

Why Muscle And Strength Are Key To Health And Longevity

Essential Lower Body Resistance Training Movements

Essential Upper Body Resistance Training Movements

Building Your Own Resistance Training Program
Achieving Optimal Body Composition Via Diet Quality Improvements

Ditch The Low Carb Diet And Start Building Muscle

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