Should You Lose Fat or Build Muscle First?
Should You Lose Fat or Build Muscle First? This article will help you decide which goal to pursue, and how to set yourself up for success.
If you’ve ever looked in the mirror and thought, I need to lose some fat or I wish I had more muscle, you’re not alone. One of the most common fitness questions is whether you should focus on losing fat first or building muscle first.
And, like most things in fitness, the answer isn’t one-size-fits-all.
Choosing the right approach depends on a few key factors—your current body composition, personal preference, and what you’re willing to do. Getting this decision right can mean the difference between months of frustration and making real, noticeable progress.
In this article, I’ll break down how to determine whether you should lose fat or build muscle first and how to set yourself up for success. By the end, you’ll have a clear roadmap to help you move forward with confidence—no more second-guessing or spinning your wheels.
Let’s dive in.
Understanding Body Composition
Before deciding whether to build muscle or lose fat first, it’s important to understand body composition—the ratio of muscle, fat, bone, and water that make up your body. When most people say they want to “get in shape,” what they really mean is that they want a better body composition: more muscle, less fat, and a leaner, more defined physique.
Body Composition: Why It Matters
Muscle and fat have very different effects on your appearance, health, and metabolism:
Muscle gives your body shape and definition. Whether you want to look “jacked”, “lean”, “defined”, or “toned”, you need to have a good amount of muscle. Even if you’re lean (have little body fat), your definition will not be there if you don’t have enough muscle to begin with. This is a common frustration people have with their abs at lower body fat percentages. When your muscles are underdeveloped, there won’t be much to show when the body fat percentages are low (that rhymed).
This is something my client Catherine was frustrated with before we started working together. She wasn’t overweight, but she was feeling “flabby” and wanted a change. 9 pounds of lean body mass gained and 6 pounds of fat lost later, she had the muscle definition, confidence, and strength she was looking for.
Fat sits on top of your muscle. The more fat you have, the less visible your muscle definition will be.
Muscle increases your basal metabolic rate (metabolism). More muscle means your body burns more calories at rest, giving you a bigger calorie budget, making fat loss and weight management much easier.
Excess body fat and too little muscle affect hormone levels and health. Carrying too much fat—especially around your midsection—can increase your risk for health issues like insulin resistance, inflammation, and metabolic disorders. Carrying too little muscle increases your likelihood of all cause mortality and injury.
Why Body Composition Is More Important Than Weight
Though I’m a big fan of using the scale to assess trends in weekly average weight, you can’t put all your eggs in the scale basket, so to speak. The number on the scale doesn’t tell the full story. Two people can weigh the same but look completely different based on their muscle-to-fat ratio.
For example:
A 170-pound man with 12% body fat will look lean and muscular.
A 170-pound man with 25% body fat will likely have less definition and appear “soft.”
A 140-pound woman with 20% body fat will have a toned, athletic look.
A 140-pound woman with 30% body fat will have less muscle definition and a softer physique.
This is why it’s important to understand that the scale is a tool to be used to assess progress, but not as the only judge of body composition improvements.
For example, if you’re eating in a calorie deficit and the scale is going down over time, there’s a 99% chance you’re losing fat. But, it doesn’t tell you how much fat you’ve lost or how much muscle you’ve gained or lost.
Bonus tip: The more often you weigh yourself, the more likely you are to lose fat and keep it off. Weigh yourself fir thing in the morning, after using the restroom, and before eating/drinking. Calculate the average for the week and take a look at the trend over time in order determine whether or not you’re losing fat.
Now that you have a better understanding of body composition and why it’s so important, let’s figure out whether you should lose fat or build muscle first.
Should You Build Muscle or Lose Fat First?
If You Have a High Body Fat Percentage (Over 20% for Men, Over 30% for Women)
If you’re carrying excess body fat, you should focus on fat loss first for the following reasons:
You’ll improve insulin sensitivity, improving overall health, reducing your risk for type 2 diabetes, and you’ll make future muscle-building phases more effective.
You’ll enhance muscle definition and look more “toned” even without gaining much extra muscle. This will also help you get a better understanding of how much muscle you may want to build once you see yourself at a lower body fat percentage.
You will likely be healthier across the board, improving blood markers, sleep, inflammation, and overall fitness.
You’ll avoid gaining even more unnecessary fat from trying to build muscle.
If You’re Lean But Lack Muscle (Under 15% for Men, Under 25% for Women)
If you’re already relatively lean but feel “skinny” or just don’t have much muscle, focusing on building muscle first may be the better option.
If You’re Somewhere in Between
If you’re in the middle—not super lean but not overweight—you might not need to choose a bit of both, which takes us into the next section.
Can You Lose Fat and Build Muscle at the Same Time?
Yes, it’s possible to build muscle while losing fat, and if you were to ask me about this topic years ago, I would have told you that it requires a very specific approach, and it was only for you if you’re brand new to strength training, or have taken a significant amount of time off (months or years) from lifting.
But after seeing dozens of people lose fat and build muscle without fitting into either of those categories, I’ve since changed my views on losing fat and building muscle at the same time.
Whether you’re someone who’s been lifting for a long time or brand new to lifting, you should expect to build some muscle while losing fat if you’re following a proper resistance training program. However, those who are new to lifting will see much more dramatic changes compared to someone with experience who is closer to their genetic potential.
How to Successfully Go Through a Fat Loss Phase
If you find yourself with excess body fat and you aim to lose fat first, you’ll want to focus on the following:
Calories
You should be eating in a calorie deficit (eating fewer calories than your body burns in the day) to lose body fat.
Rather than focusing on a calorie amount (300-500 calorie deficit) like most general recommendations give, you want to focus on percentages.
After all, a 500 calorie deficit for a 200 pound, active individual is a much smaller percentage than a 150 pound inactive individual.
In other words, eating 500 fewer calories per day is no big deal for someone who needs 3,000 calories per day to maintain their weight. But for someone who only needs 1,800 calories to maintain their weight, that is a steep deficit.
You want to pick your calorie deficit based on two things:
What will allow you to lose the most fat without losing muscle.
What you’re willing to tolerate. A larger calorie deficit will require more sacrifice (more activity, more calorie restriction, less room for error, etc.) Always make sure you select a goal or deficit based not only on what makes sense, but what you’re willing to commit to.
With that said, here’s a chart you can use to determine what approach to take when aiming to lose fat:
*Original Table from Hensemans PT Course
I have most of my clients go into a 20-40% deficit depending on their tolerance and timeline for their fat loss goals.
Note that those who are in the overweight and obese categories may want to consider a steeper deficit upwards of 50%. Though it is possible and will lead to significant fat loss, I don’t recommend it unless advised and supervised by your doctor or dietitian.
Macronutrients
Macronutrients consist of protein, carbohydrates, and fat.
They are nutrients our bodies need in large quantities (hence “macro”) and contain calories.
Although you could pay attention to your intake of all three, I’ve found it most beneficial to focus solely on protein for body composition purposes.
Manipulating carb and fat intake may make sense for someone who is trying to compete in a bodybuilding or figure competition, but for those of us who just want to look better naked and feel more confident in the way our body feels and moves, tracking specific carb and fat goals is a lot of mental energy for very little return.
Protein intake is the opposite. It’s one nutrient that has a massive impact on your results.
As I mentioned earlier, it’s generally a good idea to aim for a minimum of .7g per pound of bodyweight per day.
You can also use the goal of a minimum of 1g per pound of goal bodyweight per day.
Again, don’t worry about how many grams of carbohydrates you get.
Since fat is an important nutrient for health, be sure to have no less than 25% of your calorie intake come from fat.
If you’re eating a whole food diet and aim for a solid amount of protein, getting that amount of fat in your diet should happen without a thought.
Aside from calories and protein, I recommend paying attention to your fiber intake as well.
Though fiber doesn’t have a direct impact on body composition like protein and calories do, it’s very beneficial for health, and I’ve found tracking a fiber target is a very easy way to make drastic improvements in someone’s diet.
Aim for at least 14g fiber per 1,000 Calories consumed. So if you need 1,600 Cals per day to lose fat, aim to get at least 22.4g of fiber from whole natural foods.
It’s very difficult to hit a fiber target while eating a diet dominated by ultra processed foods.
Activity
When aiming to lose fat, your activity plays a huge role in your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE), especially your NEAT.
NEAT stands for Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis and consists of all the non formal activity you do (fidgeting, chores, standing, walking, etc.)
Depending on the individual, NEAT can account for 10-30% off the calories you burn daily.
This is why it’s so important to make a daily step goal.
I have my clients aim for a minimum of 10,000 steps daily, unless it’s simply unrealistic and we need to throw some formal cardio into their workouts.
Walking is easy to do, doesn’t need any skill, and it’s little to no stress on the body, meaning it really doesn’t need any recovery.
Strength Training
Though this article isn’t about how to put together the ideal strength training routine, I wanted to include a brief section to highlight the importance of it even when you’re wanting to lose fat.
Strength training is extremely important not only for body composition change, but health and longevity as well.
When you consistently follow a strength training routine while you aim to lose fat through your calorie deficit, you will at worst maintain muscle and at best gain muscle as you build that defined physique you’ve always wanted.
You will also increase the amount of calories you burn at rest, improve your bone density, increase your strength, improve your resilience both in the gym and in life, and dramatically increase your confidence.
Your strength training routine should include the following:
Training muscle groups (chest, back, biceps, quads, glutes, etc.) twice per week
3-4 sessions per week. You can do more if you’d like, but I haven’t needed to put a single client on more than a four day routine to make dramatic progress.
Progressive Overload: Each time you repeat a workout, you are aiming to lift more weight for the same reps or the same weight for more reps each time.
A strength-focused intention. You’re not in the gym to burn calories, get sweaty, sore, tired, or out of breath. Those may be completely acceptable byproducts, but they are not the main intention. The intention of your workout should be to get stronger and stronger over time.
How to Successfully Build Muscle
If you find yourself lean and mean already and you want to build muscle, you can use the following recommendations:
Calories
Unlike losing fat, you will need to be as close to maintenance calories as possible. Perhaps even in a slight surplus (eating more calories than you need to maintain your weight).
A common misconception is that the more you eat, the moe muscle you will build. Unfortunately this is not true.
After a certain amount of calorie above maintenance, the only extra tissue that is gained is body fat.
So there’s no benefit to eating way more calories than you need.
I generally recommend eating no more than a 5-10% surplus. This means your calorie goal is 5-10% more than what you need to maintain your weight.
If you need 2,000 calories to maintain, a 5% surplus would be 2,100 calories.
Again, you can use my free calorie calculator to determine how many calories you need to build muscle.
Macronutrients
You can use the exact same guidelines from the fat loss section.
Aim for at least .7g protein per pound of bodyweight.
Aim for at least 14g fiber per 1k Cals consumed.
Don’t worry about carb or fat targets. Just make sure your fat intake doesn’t consistently go below 25% of your calorie intake.
Activity
Though steps aren’t going to be nearly as important for building muscle as they are for losing fat, I still recommend getting a lot of steps in throughout the day for the following reasons:
You will have a bigger calorie budget, allowing you to git in more “fun” foods and social events
You will minimize the risk for fat gain as you pursue building muscle
You will create a lifestyle habit that will benefit your health for the rest of your life
Strength Training
Believe it or not, my recommendations for strength training are the exact same whether you’re wanting to build muscle or lose fat.
The only big difference between the two approaches is the nutrition, specifically your calorie intake.
Before you going on your muscle building or fat loss goals, let’s talk about some common mistakes to avoid.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Mistake #1: Aggressive Calorie Defici
Many people will tell you that cutting your calories too aggressively will lead to weight regain and the only way to approach fat loss is slow and steady.
Though this isn’t entirely true, being moderate with your deficit is generally best in order to avoid muscle loss.
The more aggressive your deficit is, the more at risk you are for muscle loss unless you are at a very high body fat percentage. The leaner you are, the more conservative you want to be with your deficit.
Mistake #2: Aggressive Calorie Surplus
Though I went over this earlier, it’s worth mentioning again.
More calories does not mean more muscle gain. After a slight surplus, the only thing you’re going to gain as you increase your calories is fat.
When aiming to build muscle, eat in a small surplus and dedicate all of your muscle building attention on being as strong as you can in the gym.
Mistake #3: Ignoring Protein Intake
Though calories dictate the large majority of the fat you’ll lose and the muscle you’ll gain, protein intake may as well be tied with it.
Protein is extremely important whether you want to lose 50 pounds of fat or gain only 2 pounds of muscle.
Do anything you can to structure your diet in a way that allows you to easily hit your minimum protein target every day.
Do not underestimate the power of a high protein diet.
Mistake #4: Neglecting Strength Training During Fat Los
The only thing you’ll end up with when you neglect strength training while losing fat is disappointment.
Instead of having that lean, toned, defined look you wanted, you’ll likely feel skinnier and flabbier than you anticipated.
This is a point of frustration my client Jerome had after a couple months of overlooking his strength training. After having an encouraging “come to Jesus” conversation with him, he started prioritizing his lifting and made dramatic progress.
Your strength training is just as important when you’re losing fat as it is when you’re building muscle.
Do not neglect it.
Mistake #5: Lack of Patience
Losing fat takes time.
Building muscle takes even more time.
Be patient.
The worst thing you can do is switch back and forth between different goals every month.
Stick with one pursuit for at least 12 weeks before changing things.
If you’re not seeing fat loss progress within the first 4 weeks, you need not switch goals, but take a closer look at the following:
Your calorie goal
Your activity
How you’re tracking your food intake
How you’re measuring your progress.
If you’re stuck with fat loss and you’re not sure what to do, here’s how I can help.
Conclusion
Whether you should lose fat or build muscle first comes down to your starting body fat percentage.
If you are higher than 20% as a man or 30% as a woman, you need to prioritize fat loss first.
If you are lower than that, you can do either.
If you’re lean but lack muscle, focus on building muscle for a period of time.
No matter what path you take, the key to success is consistency. Pick a goal, commit to it for a few months, and adjust based on progress.
All you have left to do now is take action.
Let’s get to work.
How Do You Know If You’re Lifting Enough Weight?
You know you need to work hard, but how can you know when you’re lifting enough weight?
Let’s be honest.
You’re not in the gym to putz around, going through the motions.
It may feel like that some days, but it’s not your intention all the time.
You’re there to get a specific result.
You’re there to get stronger, build some muscle, make fat loss easier, and improve your muscle definition.
Maybe you’re in there to improve your performance and mobility, too.
But more likely than not, the reason you’re in the gym is because you want to change the way you look by building some muscle and losing some fat, so that is who I will speak to today.
Those changes, specifically building some muscle and gaining strength require a specific intention with the weight you’re lifting.
The question is, how do you know you’re lifting enough weight? How do you know when your intention is in the right place?
That is what we will seek to discover together today.
Building Strength and Muscle: A Brief Overview
Strength and muscle gain are the result of a lot of interesting things that happen in the body when exposed to a challenging resistance.
To spare you the exercise science lecture, let’s keep things simple.
In order to build muscle and strength, you need to challenge your muscles with enough resistance in order to create something called mechanical tension, which is the primary driver of muscle growth.
Think of it like this: Your muscles are a team of workers pulling on a heavy rope. If the weight (the resistance they’re pulling with the rope), is too light, they barely have to work. If they barely have to work, there is no need to adapt and improve in order to make the rope easier to pull. It’s already easy enough.
But if it’s heavy enough, they will struggle, pull harder, and call in more workers (build more muscle) to have an easier time pulling the rope.
In a nutshell, as you lift more challenging resistance, you will build more muscle and as a result gain more strength over time.
But this brings us back to the first question: How do I know if the resistance (the weight) is challenging enough to create that response?
Reps in Reserve (RIR)
Reps in reserve is another exercise science term that is used to refer to the amount of reps one has left in reserve (reps left in the tank) at the end of a set.
Let’s say you’re doing push-ups, and you fail after 10 reps. Failing means you literally couldn’t push yourself off the ground no matter how hard you tried. That would be considered 0 reps in reserve (RIR) because you didn’t have any reps left in the tank.
If you completed 10 reps knowing you could’ve only done one more if your life depended on it, that would be considered 1 RIR because you stopped the set with 1 rep left in the tank.
I generally recommend my coaching clients stop their sets with 1 RIR, meaning they stop their set when they know they only have one rep if they were to give every ounce of effort they’ve got.
Problem is, this leads us to another question: How do you know when you only have one rep left in the tank?
Experience
The best teacher with RIR is experience. The more you’ve worked out, and the harder you’ve pushed yourself, the more in tune you are with your body and what it’s capable of doing.
One of the best ways you can gauge how close you are to failure is to actually go to failure. However, I only recommend doing this with exercises that are more stable and secure, and if not, have a training partner to spot you.
For example, going to failure on a belt squat machine is far more forgiving than a barbell back squat.
Force Velocity
The next best teacher is force velocity.
This is nothing more than a fancy term to describe the speed of your reps.
When you first start out, you’re fresh, and you’re able to move the weight at a decent speed.
As you progress through the set, the speed of those reps should begin to slow down.
The more your reps slow down despite your hardest effort, the closer you are to failure.
Here is an example of what this looks like:
Now looking at the video, I should have pushed for one more rep. I think I had another rep left.
So, if you watch a video of yourself going through an exercise, and you notice that the speed of the reps is pretty similar during the last rep compared to the first rep, you know you’re not anywhere close to failure.
That last repetition should be an absolute grind.
The tricky thing to be aware of with force velocity is that it’s very easy to trick yourself into feeling like your reps are slowing down, by intentionally slowing them down.
A common sign of this is a drastic difference in speed between one rep and the next.
It should be a gradual decrease in speed from one rep to the next.
So be mindful, and remember that as you get more fatigued, as you feel more of a burn in your muscles, you will be tempted to slow your reps down intentionally in order to help yourself believe you’re pushing yourself harder than you actually are.
This is where it becomes extremely helpful to have actually practiced going to failure in order to have more of an objective measuring stick, so to speak.
Decreasing Reps With Each Set
The next thing to look for to know if you’re lifting enough weight in your workouts is to see how many reps you’re doing from one set to the next.
As you train hard in each set, you are accumulating fatigue. The more that fatigue accumulates, the lower the chances are that you will be able to lift the same weight for the same reps, even if you’re resting a long time in between sets - which you should be.
Whenever I go through my client’s workouts, this is what I look for:
As you can see in this client’s seated leg curl, they have the same weight performed for the same reps each set.
This is a clear example of not pushing close enough to failure during the first set, which is what we call our benchmark set.
To be clear, this doesn’t mean they are wasting their workout, or not getting results.
Here’s how I described it to my client:
Imagine you are in the gym giving a 6 out of 10 effort, for a 4 out of 10 return. That’s what’s going on when you’re lifting the same weight for the same reps every set. You’re getting results, but relative to the work you’re putting in it’s not much.
If you were to bump up to a 8 or 9 out of 10 effort, you would get a 7 or 8 out of 10 return. A little bit more work for a much bigger return.
Here’s what it would look like from one set to the next if you were to increase the intensity (the weight you use) in the first set.
If that first set is performed just shy of failure, the remaining sets should decrease due to fatigue, looking something like this:
Set 1: 10 x 125
Set 2: 8 x 125
Set 3: 8 x 125
Or
Set 1: 10 x 125
Set 2: 9 x 125
Set 3: 7 x 125
It doesn’t matter how they’re decreasing necessarily, but just that they’re decreasing in general.
Now you may be wondering, “Well Adam, if I need to do 10 reps, shouldn’t I be doing 10 reps in every set?
Nope.
Your body doesn’t care or know how many reps you’re doing.
Your muscles don’t respond to reps.
They respond to load (overall weight) and proximity to failure.
Whether you’re doing 6 reps, 10 reps, or 15 reps, they will respond when they experience a real challenge, which is what happens when you push near failure.
This is a concern my client, Jerome had when we were first working together. He was super consistent with his workouts, but the muscle definition just wasn’t coming in like he wanted.
We did an in depth dive into his workouts, and it was clear he just wasn’t pushing himself enough.
After a great conversation and clarity on how to push himself moving forward, he got in the best shape of his entire life.
You may not have a coach to have that conversation with at the moment. If that’s the case, you’ll have to have that conversation with yourself.
Take a look through your workout log and try to identify exercises where you’re not pushing yourself as much as you could be.
If you don’t keep a workout log, that is your most important homework assignment after reading this article.
You should also consider recording yourself doing your exercises and assess the speed of your reps as you get closer and closer to your rep target. Believe me, there is always a difference between what you perceive yourself to be doing in the first person, and objectively viewing what you’re doing from the third person.
Regardless of what information,data, or feedback you look at, be as objective as you can, and spot any areas where you have room for improvement.
Common Questions
“I don’t want to get bulky. How hard should I push myself if I just want to get toned?”
Whether you want to pack on 20 pounds of muscle, or just a few to improve your definition, you should lift the exact same way. Follow the guidelines I laid out in this article.
The amount of muscle isn’t determined by how hard you push. It’s determined by how often you’re pushing yourself to that point.
So once you get to a point where you’re happy with how much muscle you have, you can reduce the amount of sets you do per week if you’re worried about putting on too much muscle.
For example, let’s say you’re happy with your physique and you’ve been doing 12 sets per muscle group per week.
You can reduce the amount of sets to 9 sets per muscle group per week, if you’d like, as it takes far less training volume (sets per week) to maintain the muscle you’ve already built.
“What are some exercises I can do to practice pushing myself to the limit in order to get a better gauge of what failure looks and feels like?”
You want to use exercises that have very low injury risk.
Think, “can I easily put the weight in its starting position if I reach failure?” If so, that may be a good option for you.
Here’s a list of ideas to get you started:
Push ups
Lat pulldown machine
Belt Squat Machine
Leg Extension Machine
Leg Curl Machine
Machine Chest Press
Any Biceps Curl
Any Triceps Extension
Seated Cable Row
Seated Machine Row
Note the machines are a great option as they are extremely stable compared to free weights, and provide an easier way to control the weight back to its starting position if you reach failure.
Practical Application
Unfortunately, building muscle and strength is much harder than losing fat. Not only does it require good sleep, sound health, and proper nutrition, it requires you pushing yourself hard in the gym. Perhaps, harder than you’ve pushed yourself before.
But the good news is that if you’re already working out, chances are you’re already putting in a solid 6/10 effort with the weight you use and how hard you push yourself.
So all you need to do is bump it up to a 8 or 9 out of 10, and your body will respond like never before.
Here are your key takeaways:
If you want to build muscle, strength, and improve your definition, you should be pushing yourself just shy of failure each set, with about 1 rep left in the tank.
You can get a better understanding of what it looks and feels like by practicing going to failure on more forgiving machines and exercises.
If the speed of your reps is slowing down, with the last rep in your set being an all out grind, you are lifting enough. If the speed of your reps isn’t slowing down much, and you have more reps left in the tank when you hit your rep target, you are not lifting enough.
If you are lifting enough on the first set, you shouldn’t be able to lift the same weight for the same reps in the subsequent sets.
If you are lifting the same weight for the same reps every set, you are not lifting enough weight.
Record yourself performing exercises to assess your intensity and the speed of your reps.
When in doubt, push yourself more. Do one more rep. Then another. Then another. Odds are, you will be able to do much more than you thought you could.
Any questions? Feel free to shoot me an email.
For more information on coaching and what it’s like to work with me, click here.
The Best Diet for Weight Loss
Want to know what the best diet for weight loss is? Find out in this article.
What’s the best diet for weight loss?
You’ve probably heard Keto, Paleo, Mediterranean, Intermittent Fasting, and nowadays, Carnivore.
But which one actually works?
Which one is best?
That is what you’ll learn today.
I will tell you exactly what diet is best for you as you aim to lose weight, and why.
Here’s the thing. Searching for the “best” diet for weight loss is the exact reason people get stuck, or at best, lose a little weight and then gain it all back (80% of people who lose weight regain it within the first five years (1).
You may have experienced the same.
Maybe not.
I don’t know exactly what brought you here. Perhaps you’ve lost weight and you’ve gained it all back. Maybe you’ve been trying to get the weight off but it’s just not working the way you’d like. Maybe you’re just starting out and you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed with where to start and what to do.
No matter what your story or where you’re coming from, you’re here to figure out what the best diet is to help you finally get rid of that weight that is holding you back.
But you see, that right there is the problem. There is no such thing as the one “best” diet for all people.
That’s the reason people get stuck. They’re looking for something that doesn’t exist.
It’s not entirely about the diet itself.
It’s about your consistency.
Simply put, the best diet for weight loss is the one you can stick to consistently while being in a calorie deficit.
The #1 Factor In Weight Loss: A Calorie Deficit
Whether you eat nothing but Twinkies and Ho Hos, or nothing but sirloin and broccoli, a calorie deficit is what is going to get you to lose weight.
If you’re not familiar with a calorie deficit and how it works, let’s go over a brief lesson.
Your body is constantly burning calories. This is what we call your Total Daily Energy Expenditure, or in other words, the total amount of calories you burn throughout the day.
Your TDEE consists of a few different components:
Basal Metabolic Rate (calories burned at rest): this is often referred to as your metabolism
Thermic Effect of Food (TEF): this is the amount of calories your body burns by breaking down and digesting the food you eat. Diet quality is the largest contributing factor.
Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT): this is the amount of calories your body burns from movement that isn’t formal exercise such as doing chores, typing on a computer, walking, etc.
Exercise Activity Thermoenesis (EAT): this is the amount of calories burned from exercise like lifting weights, swimming, cycling, etc.
Fat tissue is essentially stored energy or stored calories (a calorie is a unit of energy).
When you consume fewer calories than you burn in the day, you are in a calorie deficit.
In order to make up for the deficit, your body will use stored energy or in this case, fat tissue.
And that is how fat is lost.
Although all of the special diet influencers want to make it seem like their diet is the only one that causes weight loss due to some special component, the reality is this:
Every diet that works for weight loss is one that creates a calorie deficit.
When you sit back and evaluate all diets out there, nearly all of them help you create a calorie deficit but restricting foods or meal timing.
Low-carb creates a calorie deficit by cutting out calories from foods with carbohydrates.
Carnivore creates a calorie deficit by cutting out calories from foods that aren’t animal based.
Intermittent fasting creates a calorie deficit by shortening eating windows in order to consume fewer calories.
They all do the same thing.
On the flipside, if you do Carnivore and eat more calories than your body needs to maintain weight, you will gain weight.
If you do intermittent fasting and only eat in a 8 hour window during the day, yet eat more calories than you need to maintain your weight, you will gain weight.
Plain and simple.
Now this may seem frustrating.
If all diets do is create a calorie deficit, then no diet itself truly works because of some special reason.
But it’s actually freeing.
Because no diet works for a special reason other than creating a calorie deficit, you are free to eat however you want to lose weight, as long as you are in a calorie deficit.
Take my client Eric, for example. Before working with me, he thought he couldn’t have ice cream. So he followed a strict diet but wasn’t seeing the progress he wanted, because he wasn’t in a calorie deficit.
But while working with me, he was able to enjoy his ice cream and still get in the best shape of his life.
Now, just because you can eat however you’d like in a calorie deficit and still lose weight, it doesn’t mean you should.
There are a few things to keep in mind when constructing the best diet for weight loss.
What Makes a Diet Work?
Adherence
What makes a diet work is you following through with the calorie deficit consistently.
So, when determining what kind of diet you want to follow, I invite you to ask yourself two questions:
1. Do I see myself eating like this the rest of my life?
If you only see yourself eating a certain way to lose fat for a short period of time, it will absolutely work, but once you return to your old ways, the fat will pile right back on.
2. Do I see this diet fitting into the lifestyle I want to live?
You cannot live the same lifestyle that got you in this situation, and expect to get in incredible shape.
There will be certain aspects of your lifestyle that you will need to change. However, your diet needs to be able to find its place in the new lifestyle you want to live with some level of flexibility.
For example, if eating a paleo style diet will work for the next few months because you don’t have a lot of social events coming up, it will not work long term if you intend to participate in the food and drinks that social events have to offer down the road.
But again, there must be some change. You once enjoyed far too much at social events. Moving forward, you don’t need to say “no” to social events, you just need to be more mindful of when indulging is worth the impact on your goals. Sometimes it will be, sometimes it won’t.
Protein Intake
If you didn’t think protein intake played a role in the effectiveness of your diet, think again.
Protein intake is a crucial part of finding the “best” diet for weight loss.
When you are eating adequate protein, along with following a proper resistance training program, you will increase your lean body mass, which will lead to more calories burned throughout the day without any added effort.
When you burn more calories throughout the day, you have a higher calorie budget to elicit the same calorie deficit.
For example, let’s say you used to need 1,600 Cals per day in order to be in a 20% calorie deficit (20% fewer calories than you need to maintain your weight). After gaining more lean body mass, you now need 1,800 Calories per day in order to be in a 20% calorie deficit.
Not only will more protein lead to higher lean body mass and therefore a high total daily calorie expenditure, but it will lead to a higher thermic effect of food as well.
The thermic effect of food (TEF) is the amount of calories your body burns by breaking down and digesting the food you consume.
Believe it or not, your body burns roughly 20-30% of the calories from protein during digestion, compared to 5-10% for carbs and 0-3% for fats (1).
A higher calorie budget makes your calorie deficit far easier.
Adequate protein intake will also make your diet far more satiating.
If you’ve tried to lose fat before, you know that hunger management is the name of the game. The more satiated you are, the less you need to rely on fighting your way through hunger.
As a macronutrient (a nutrient that your body needs in large quantities), protein has quite a few foods that are high on the satiety index.
“How much protein should I be eating?” you may wonder.
The RDA for protein intake is .8g per kg of total body weight. But the RDA is designed to prevent deficiency, rather than optimize muscle mass, health, and quality of life.
It’s generally recommended that you consume a minimum of .7g per pound of bodyweight each day.
Nutrient Density
Speaking of protein, the overall quality of your diet is another factor that will impact its effectiveness for weight loss.
Though a calorie deficit is the single more important factor, it’s important to make sure you create that deficit with a diet full of whole, natural, nutrient dense foods.
Unfortunately, roughly 60% of the American diet is made up of ultra-processed foods that are low in micronutrients, protein, and fiber.
A high fiber diet from whole foods will lead to greater weight loss and weight management long term, as those who eat more fiber generally eat 100 fewer calories per meal without even trying (2).
Simply put, your energy, satiety, health, mood, digestion, and body composition will all be better off when whole foods make up the majority of your diet, no matter what kind of dietary approach you choose to take.
Turns out the age-old advice of eating lean proteins and an abundance of fruits and veggies had a lot of truth to it.
Yet people thought it was too simple to be true.
Flexibility
Flexibility is arguably one of the most important elements of what makes a diet work long term.
If it’s too rigid, you will create meaningless and useless food rules that do you no good.
You will feel like you “cheated” your diet if you went “off plan” and that can lead to further binging and yo-yoing.
The best approach is a flexible approach. Without beating a dead horse of flexibility, keep the following things in mind when thinking through the best diet for weight loss.
Do I enjoy this diet?
Does this diet allow for wiggle room for indulgences, social events, etc.
Can I enjoy those things and still reach my goals?
Do I truly see myself eating this way the rest of my life?
Will this diet help me feel good as well as look good, or will I have to sacrifice how I feel to appease my physique for a short stint?
The Best Diet For Weight Loss: A Practical Approach
In an effort to reduce overwhelm from information overload, I wanted to include a section breaking down a simple and practical way to approach a healthy, sustainable diet in your everyday life.
First and most importantly, no matter what style of diet you choose, make sure you are in a calorie deficit, eating fewer calories than you need to maintain your weight. It doesn’t matter how healthy you eat, if you’re eating too many calories you will not lose fat.
Secondly, focus on 80% of your calorie intake coming from whole, natural, nutrient dense foods. I like to tell my clients to make sure that 80% of what they eat came from the ground or something that had a face before it was on their plate. If you are aiming to eat 1,600 calories per day to lose weight, 1,280 calories per day should come from whole foods, and the remaining can come from whatever else you’d like.
Ensure that you are able to be flexible with your approach. If you feel restricted in any way, it won’t work. If you find yourself saying things like “I can’t have ____”, you’ve created a meaningless rule that is too rigid.
By the way, if you want to avoid certain things out of choice, that is entirely different. It’s one thing to say “I can’t have that cake” when you really want it. It’s another thing to say “I choose not to have that cake” when it doesn’t align with what you want out of your diet.
Choice is everything.
Lastly, prioritize protein and fiber. I hardly ever have my clients aim for carbohydrate and fat goals, simply because it’s far too much mental energy spent on things that have very little return. Paying attention to calorie, protein, and fiber targets will make dramatic changes not only in your health, but in your body composition as well.
I don’t believe I’ve mentioned this yet, but a good rule of thumb is to aim for 14g fiber per 1,000 calories consumed. This means a 2,000 calorie diet should have 28g fiber from whole foods.
Here is a list of whole foods that can and should be regularly included in your diet, unless you have an intolerance or allergy:
Healthy Go-Tos: These are foods you should regularly consume for an overall healthy diet:
Berries
Nuts and Seeds
Avocados
EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)
Olives
Seafood
Non starchy vegetables
Herbs and Spices
Healthy Additions: These are foods that can be regularly incorporated into a healthy diet:
Whole fruits
Poultry
Keifer and Greek Yogurt
Potatoes
Whole Grains
Dark Chocolate
Healthy in a Balanced Diet: These are foods that can a part of a healthy diet:
Red Meat (unprocessed)
Non-Fermented Dairy and Cheeses
Eggs
Coconut Products
Soy Products
Foods to Limit: These are foods that are not necessarily off limits, but should be consumed sparingly for overall health:
Processed Meats (lunch meats, hot dogs, etc.)
Added sugar
Syrups
Refined grains
Fried Foods
Alcohol (I would limit alcohol more than anything else, but that’s for another article)
At this point you may feel ready to turn your diet around for the better with simple changes, rather than continuing to dig for the “best” crash diet for weight loss. If so, I’ve done my job. However, I would regret not sharing some tips on how to avoid very common mistakes to help you keep them from happening.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Chasing Outcomes Over Behaviors
If there’s anything I’ve learned about fitness, nutrition, and how humans interact with the two, it’s that behaviors and actions are far more important than outcomes.
Weight loss is important for most people to be healthier, and I understand that it is an outcome. By no means am I suggesting that you shouldn’t pay attention to your weight.
What I will say, though, is to make sure that your pursuit of weight loss doesn’t cause you to lose sight of your actions and behaviors.
You will not lose weight every week. In fact, you may not lose weight for a few weeks in a row. Oftentimes, this will lead people to believe that what they’re doing isn’t working. Yet, their choices are better, their habits and routines are better, their energy is better, their libido is better, their workouts are better, their sleep is better, and their quality of life is better. Weight loss may be your end goal, but it’s not the only thing that comes from a quality diet.
Focus on your actions and behaviors, and the outcomes will take care of themselves.
Eating Healthy Yet Overeating
Study after study shows that we can drastically underestimate how many calories we eat in a day.
One study found that individuals who thought they were consuming 1,200 calories per day were actually consuming more than 2,000 calories per day (3).
Even nutrition professionals have been shown to underreport their food intake by hundreds of calories per day (4).
The solution?
Track your food.
Though tracking isn’t necessary for weight loss, it is too powerful of a tool to ignore, especially since we notoriously eat far more than we think we do.
Lucky for you, there are tons of apps that make food tracking easier than ever before.
MyFitnessPal, Chronometer, FatSecret, and MyNetDiary are all great options, to name a few.
Food tracking is not a way of life. You don’t have to do it forever, but you can if you want to.
Households have a budget when their finances need to be under control.
Businesses have accountants to make sure things don’t get out of hand.
Your body is no different. It has a calorie budget, and if you choose to ignore it, the stats show the fat could start to pile on.
The “All or Nothing” Mindset
If you’re someone who has a hard time with the all or nothing mindset, I have some tough love for you.
The all or nothing mindset is an excuse.
Why?
Because you never do anything perfect.
Yet, all or nothing individuals will find themselves saying “either I do it perfectly or I don’t do it at all”.
Not true. You actually do everything imperfectly. The same goes for your nutrition.
“All or nothing” is usually a smokescreen for something else.
The good news is that you can finally let go of this mindset.
“But Adam, I do tend to go off the rails when I slip up.”
I hear you. In order to avoid that, making sure your diet allows for flexibility will largely address that.
However, there are a couple of things you can keep in mind to prevent you from going off the deep end should you make a decision that wasn’t a part of your plan.
The first is a story.
Let’s say you’re driving down the road, and you get a flat.
Would you proceed to get out of the car and say “you know what? If I can’t drive with all four tires, I may as well drive with no tires” and then begin slashing the other three tires?
No.
That would be stupid.
The same concept applies to your nutrition.
If you made a decision that was off plan, you simply move on with your life and make a sound decision next time. Not the next day, not the next week, but the next meal.
Here’s the second: never miss twice.
Though I’m not a huge fan of rules, I do like this one.
Never miss two meals in a row of on plan eating. Never miss two workouts in a row. Never miss two days in a row. Whatever your “two” is, never miss two of them in a row.
Will you at some point? Yes, because you’re imperfect.
And when you do, you’ll remember that there’s no point in sabotaging the rest of the day, and you can make a sound decision next time you have the opportunity.
How to Start Today
Here’s your step by step guide to finding the best diet for weight loss, starting today.
Track your intake for two weeks straight. If you’re not willing to weigh and track your food, at least write down what you eat and drink every day for two weeks straight. At worst, your awareness of your habits, good and bad, will drastically increase.
Set a protein target, and aim to hit it each day through whole foods, and some protein powder if needed. Remember, .7g per pound of bodyweight is the minimum to shoot for.
Set a fiber target, and aim to hit it each day through whole foods. Aim for 14g per 1,000 calories consumed.
Stick to a rough meal schedule. Each eating window can be about two hours. For example, breakfast happens sometime between 7-9am, lunch from 12-2pm, and so on. Your body loves routine.
Make sure you’re eating in a calorie deficit. You only know if you track, and/or see fat leaving your body. Use my free fat loss calorie calculator here
Focus on sustainability and enjoyment, not perfection.
With that, you have your “best” diet for weight loss.
Thanks for reading. I hope this helps. :)
Should you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them below, or send an email to adam@poehlmannfitness.com. I read every one of them.
To your health,
Adam
PS. You’ve got this. But if you’re tired of trying on your own, or want to team up with me and work together, you can find more information here.