During weight loss, fat is converted into usable energy and byproducts. To lose fat, the body must be in a calorie deficit. You can achieve a calorie deficit by increasing your physical activity, eating fewer calories, or a combination of both.

A modest increase in physical activity and decrease in calorie intake is most sustainable 16 , Consuming mostly minimally processed, whole foods rich in fiber , healthy fats, and protein will help you achieve a calorie deficit without feeling deprived or hungry 16 , Examples of moderate intensity cardio include walking, running, or biking for over 20 minutes while still being able to talk with limited struggle.

This means that even after a good strength training session, your body will still burn extra calories 18 , Thus, combining these two forms of exercise along with a minimally processed, whole food diet will support the body in achieving a calorie deficit. Strength training combined with a high protein diet helps build new muscle cells through a process known as muscle protein synthesis.

Most experts recommend at least 2—3 strength training sessions per week that target multiple muscle groups, along with adequate rest days to allow for muscle rebuilding Muscle is built from a diet high in dietary nitrogen, mostly found in protein-rich foods.

Protein from food is broken down and converted into amino acids to support muscle building 23 , 24 , To maintain muscle during weight loss, be sure to eat enough protein and avoid a large calorie deficit. Most people should aim to get 0. Sustainable fat loss while preserving muscle includes eating at a moderate calorie deficit, consuming adequate protein, and engaging in both cardio aerobic exercise and strength training 5—7 days per week.

During weight loss, fat is taken from fat cells and used to produce energy in the body along with other byproducts.

Ideally, muscle is preserved through strength training and consuming a protein-rich diet. For sustainable, long-lasting weight loss, try to incorporate both cardio and strength training into your routine at least 5—7 days per week and eat a diet comprising mostly whole, minimally processed foods.

While losing weight and gaining muscle requires dedication, the good news is that with a little effort, the body will adjust accordingly. Our experts continually monitor the health and wellness space, and we update our articles when new information becomes available.

Does muscle really weigh more than fat? Excess belly fat is very unhealthy. It can drive diseases like heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Here are 11 things that can make you gain belly fat. Targeting heart rate zones as you exercise is one way to maximize the benefits you get from your workouts.

Learn about your different heart rate zones…. There are several causes of numbness in your toes and feet when you run, ranging from poor-fitting shoes to health conditions like diabetes.

For people who run or do other aerobic exercises on a regular basis, starting up a low heart rate training program may be frustrating at first. The average 5K time depends on a few factors, including age, sex, and fitness level.

But, you can expect to finish a 5K in roughly 30 to 40 minutes. Thinking about using an AI tool like ChatGPT to help you get in shape? Here are the pros and cons health experts say you should consider.

We're testing the Lululemon product for you and weighing in on whether the trend has past or if it's still worth the hype. When designing a workout, it's important to move in all of the body's planes.

What are they? Here's an anatomy primer to help. The cubital tunnel is located in the elbow and encases the ulnar nerve.

Compression of this nerve can cause pain, but certain exercises can help. A Quiz for Teens Are You a Workaholic? How Well Do You Sleep? Health Conditions Discover Plan Connect. Get Motivated Cardio Strength Training Yoga Rest and Recover Holistic Fitness Exercise Library Fitness News Your Fitness Toolkit.

Nutrition Evidence Based Does Fat Turn into Muscle? What to Know. Medically reviewed by Jake Tipane, CPT — By Katey Davidson, MScFN, RD, CPT on March 2, So we doubled down, extending our bulking pact for another three months.

Oftentimes, there would be a photo of a somewhat overweight guy who cut off a lot of body fat and came out looking ripped. Kudos to them. As I learned more, I only became more skeptical. With a lot of these bulking transformations, guys would lose weight for some reason or another—travelling, sickness, stress—and then take a photo at their lowest point, using it as a before photo.

In reality, it was a muscle regrowth transformation. A famous example of that is when Tim Ferriss lost muscle mass while travelling and then regained all of it in a single month:.

Tim Ferriss clearly outlined his training history. He was always upfront about the fact that he was just regaining lost muscle mass. And I like Tim Ferris. He seems like a good guy.

Not always dishonestly. We were tired of all of that. We wanted to see what would happen if two everyday skinny guys—graphic designers working desk jobs—decided to document their progress as they bulked up.

We decided to take our photos clinically:. Here I am at 21 years old wearing a size small t-shirt:. On the very best of days, that put my BMI at That brought me from pounds up to pounds.

From a BMI of I was no longer clinically underweight! The other nice thing about having already gained 20 pounds was that I knew a little bit about how to bulk up. I promised my roommate, Jared, I could teach him how to build muscle.

I weighed pounds. Jared weighed At pounds, my neck had been just under 14 inches, my biceps had been just under 10 inches, and my shoulders had been just under 39 inches. I had tried squatting and deadlifting , but my technique was horrible… and I had given up on it.

We needed a muscle-building routine to follow. We had to find a workout program designed to stimulate muscle growth and a good bulking diet designed for gaining weight. We also had to learn how to fix our unhealthy lifestyles. At first, it was a little discouraging because all of the online information at the time was targeted at overweight people looking to lose fat, not at skinny guys trying to build muscle.

It took me quite a while to even figure out what our body type was. As a result, most skinny guys fail to gain weight, and so they fail to build muscle, and so they assume they have poor muscle-building genetics.

We just need to combine a good workout program with a good bulking diet. We need to focus on both aspects at once. One guy can have 4. There are also differences in bone structure. Someone with thicker bones in their arms can build much bigger biceps and triceps. Someone with longer collarbones can build a wider chest.

So the takeaway is: muscle will come easier to some than others, and everyone will look a bit different in the end, but everyone can build muscle. Not everyone can become a famous powerlifter, bodybuilder, or fitness influencer, but everyone can look great.

We treated all of this as an experiment. Partly because that gave us an excuse to track and photograph everything. But mainly because we were too ashamed to tell our friends and family that we were actually, genuinely trying to build muscle. We were building muscle quite fast.

As we gained more and more muscle, we started getting a lot of attention on YouTube and in fitness forums. Plenty of people were building muscle, but it was rare to see such skinny guys gaining weight so quickly, building muscle so leanly.

Some of the attention was good, some bad. But on the good side, we also got falsely accused of taking steroids, proving that something masculinizing was happening.

And other skinny guys started emailing us, following along, bulking up with us. It was really cool! A couple of months into our bulk, even the personal trainers at the gym were starting to notice how quickly we were growing.

We had been fairly embarrassed during our first few trips to the gym, so getting congratulated by the staff felt amazing. We had started off as these skinny, nerdy outsiders, and now we were being applauded by the college football and basketball players who used the university gym.

We may not have had the best form, and we may not have been doing the best exercises, but we were persistent. No matter how busy we were, we always found a way to get our workouts and meals in.

We only lifted weights three times per week, and each workout only took about an hour to complete. There was this old mass gainer supplement called Myoplex that was popular at the time.

We were running our graphic design firm back then, and I remember driving to meetings with servings of Myoplex in the glove box. It gave us the protein, carbs, and calories needed to build muscle and gain weight. We were determined not to miss our workouts, either.

One week the gym shut down for renovations, so we made a makeshift home gym in our little design office aka our living room out of a rickety bench press and non-Olympic barbell that we found on the side of the road. Our hard work was paying off. We were building muscle. I remember looking at these and thinking that my arms looked insane.

It was working, yes, but only through sheer force of will. The muscle soreness was crippling, we felt lethargic from perpetually overeating, and our muscle and strength gains were already beginning to plateau.

Most bodybuilding programs are popularized by professional bodybuilders. But is that an effective way to train? Not really. When we stimulate a muscle, muscle-protein synthesis rises for around 48 hours at least for beginners.

That means if we stimulate our chest on Monday, it will grow until Wednesday. And then the growth will stop until we train our chest again. So if we want to stimulate maximal muscle growth, we should train each muscle around three times per week.

So why were these bodybuilding routines only stimulating our muscles once per week? In a study by McLester , the researchers took experienced male lifters and put them on a workout routine made up of three workouts per week.

Both groups did the same exercises , the same number of sets, and the same number of repetitions per set , giving them identical training volume.

The only difference was that one group had their lifts organized into full-body workouts, whereas the other group was doing a chest day, back day, and leg day. By training each muscle three times per week, these study participants got steady growth throughout the week.

By doing fewer sets per workout, the muscle damage was no longer crippling, resulting in less muscle repair and more muscle growth.

Now, to be fair, more recent research by Brad Schoenfeld, Ph. The participants doing full-body workouts did get significantly greater muscle growth, but not eight times more. And a third study , again, favoured full-body workouts. We were excited to improve our training, and we thought this could be a good way to do it.

Interestingly, in the 40s and 50s, all the best bodybuilders, strongmen, and athletes were doing full-body workout routines three times per week. And so they started splitting up their workouts to allow for longer recovery periods.

The next question was whether doing more than three full-body workouts per week could speed up muscle growth. In some circumstances, it can. But for skinny guys who are still relatively new to lifting weights, training a muscle group more than three times per week seems to reduce muscle growth study , study.

On the bright side, as we were learning about the problems with our workout routine, our bulking diet was going quite well. So, largely due to good luck, our bulking diet was pretty good. We had picked up a few weird restrictions. But whatever. We had also stumbled upon a few tricks that helped us eat more calories without feeling as awful:.

We also made our meals in bulk, cooking a big pot of chili or casserole on Sunday and reheating it during the week. That made our bulking diet a little easier to follow. These bulking recipes were so helpful that we include an entire bulking recipe book in our Bony to Beastly Program.

Anyway, because our bulking diet was so good compared to the diets most beginners follow, it helped to make up for our subpar workout program.

Combined with a good bulking diet, even our mediocre training program was yielding fairly good muscle growth. Eventually, an old friend from high school told me that I should reach out to the strength coach his university football team had hired.

He was telling me that this guy was naturally skinny, had gained over sixty pounds of muscle, and was known for being able to help athletes bulk up in a hurry. I laughed.