Should You Lose Fat or Build Muscle First?
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.