Build Muscle or Burn Fat: Which Should Come First?

Over this past week I have been meeting with potential clients at the coffee shop close to my place. It's a great spot to build relationships and have great conversations. During those conversations, I noticed a lot of questions were shared between the various people I was speaking with. One of the most common questions asked was: "If my goal is to build lean muscle tissue, should I try to build muscle first, or lose body fat first?"

My immediate answer is this: It depends. It depends on what your ideal body is, where you're starting, and whether you're male or female. Having said that, I am going to speak for the male readers out there. Don't worry ladies, all of this applies to you as well, just round up 7-8 percentage points when I'm speaking of body fat percentage. 

Now, I want to take the time to explain how you can figure out what to do first on your fitness journey. 

Starting Points

All of our starting points are different. We have different genetics, different body compositions, and different goals. So in order to properly assess the best initial goal, we need to first figure out where we're at with our body composition. Figuring out what goal to attack first is dependent on the individuals starting body fat percentage. For the sake of the topic, I'd like to use 15% body fat as a good place for middle ground. If I'm looking to gain lean muscle tissue, I must first accept that there will most likely be a little extra fat put on during that phase, although It is possible to burn fat and build muscle at the same time, especially when you are just starting an exercise program for the first time. But for those of us out there who have been training for a while, it is an extremely hard goal unless you are counting each and every calorie, which can be hard with busy schedules, kids, travel, "lack of time", etc. 

Once we have accepted that some fat may be added to the pounds on the scale, we can now properly assess the direction we must take. If we start out at a lower body fat percentage (lower than 15%) I would strongly consider building muscle, since we won't get close to that 20% range which is what we want to avoid. Going off of that, we would aim to burn fat first if our body fat was 15% or higher because 20% body fat is not where we want to be if our goal is to be lean and healthy. 

Ultimately, it comes down to knowing what body fat percentage we currently have. There's a question that still stands, though. Why do we need to avoid 20% body fat? Why can't we just get to 20-25% and work our way down? Let me explain.

TAKE CAUTION

As I stated before, 20% body fat is what we want to avoid because it is easier to let yourself go and not worry about the additional fat gained. It's harder to see that fat gain because there isn't any initial muscle tissue to look at anyway. You could be at 30% body fat before you know it. 

LEAN DOESN'T MEAN SMALL OR SKINNY

When I started leaning out for the first time, I was absolutely terrified. I was at my biggest and strongest at that point. I had nearly 240 pounds on me and I felt great about it. I knew I had a decent amount of body fat at the time, but I wasn't concerned, really. As I got leaner and leaner, people kept saying that I was looking bigger, that my muscles looked fuller, and I was more vascular. People told me stories of others looking bigger as they leaned down and I thought it was complete garbage. How could I possibly look leaner if I was losing weight? Muscles. That's why. I began to see the muscles that I had developed over the years and they looked bigger without all of that fat around them. Now that I'm in a stage of maintenance with plenty of food and a lean composition, people are saying I look bigger and leaner than ever. I'm only 212-215 pounds on a 6'2" frame, which isn't anything jaw-dropping. 

Additionally, it's extremely difficult to gauge what we want to gain because we can't actually see what our lean muscle mass actually looks like under all of that fat. If you have 25% body fat, you may want to gain 10 pounds of lean muscle, but I am willing to bet that if you see yourself at 10-15% body fat, you'll be pretty happy with what you're workin' with. 

To conclude, burning fat first is always a good option, unless you're completely new to working out and your body can handle two things at once, or you body fat is low and you can visually see your lean muscle mass. 

If you have any questions like this, please send me an email at adam@poehlmannfitness.com, or send me a message after you "like", and follow me on the socials!

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My Opinions on Intermittent Fasting

If you haven't heard yet, intermittent fasting is all the buzz in the fitness and nutrition world. As history has shown with any other type of nutritional approach, some people are big fans, and some can't stand it. In today's article I'd like to take the time to inform you on IF (intermittent fasting) and state whether or not I think it's a good idea to implement it into your program. 

WHAT IS IT, AND WHAT'S THE IDEA?

Before we head into the details of IF, we need to know what it is. IF is a term used for diets that go back and forth between stages of fasting and non-fasting. IF is well-known for it's lengthened periods of calorie deficit phases. These fasted periods can last 16-24 hours (sounds like hell if you ask me). 

When it comes to IF, the big picture idea is to deplete an individual's calorie consumption. This is similar to any other weight loss diet. It all comes down to calories in vs. calories out. Deplete the body of calories, and weight is lost. It's not that special, but it does have a twist unlike any other nutrition plan out there.

Rather than taking down calorie consumption on a slow consistent basis like most plans, IF calls for severe restriction, just like fasting. As I mentioned before, said individual would fast for a 16-24 hour period, then return to normal (dependent on the goal) eating for 8-24 hours. I'll admit, when I first heard of IF, I thought it was completely bogus, especially since the people I knew that were doing it weren't making any changes to their physique whatsoever. It turns out there is some science that can show positive effects to both health and physique while fasting.

WHAT DO WE KNOW?

Before I looked at any of the science behind IF, I was extremely against it for the following reasons: 

1. IF calls for me to fast. Forget that garbage. Food is good. I will eat food. All the time. 

2. I have used different methods with my clients and they all have worked tremendously.
3. I had a hunch fasting for that long can lead to protein breakdown and catabolism.

Now that I've looked at the research, I don't have so much hatred towards it. Thus far, the effects on body composition, performance, and mental health are not extreme in either direction. Let's look at the details.

BODY COMPOSITION

As I talk about body composition, it must be known that I am speaking in terms of individuals who are overweight. Unfortunately, there isn't a lot of body composition research on those who aren't. Taking a look at a 2011 study (which was only conducted on women), we see that IF is just as effective for weight loss as continued calorie restriction. Unfortunately, there was another study conducted that showed possibility of increased protein breakdown. If you're like me, and you've spent years building lean muscle tissue, the last thing you would want is some crazy fasting plan ruining all of that. It's possible to put those effects at a halt by taking supplements out there that you can use to try to stop those effects such as BCAAs. It's not guaranteed, though.

PERFORMANCE

There isn't a lot of research on IF and performance, but there are a couple studies out there that show decreased power. Additionally, it is shown that individuals might feel fatigued, even if their strength and endurance isn't down. Personally, I don't want to feel fatigued in the gym. If I'm pushing 100s on the dumbbell bench while fasting or not, I would prefer to feel fully energized.

MENTAL HEALTH

When I don't eat, I get extremely hangry (hungry and angry). I'm no fun to be around and I turn into a complete diva. Fortunately for the individuals in a specific study, they decreased their binge eating or emotional eating while on an IF diet, and improved their healthy restrictive eating. How? I have no clue. 

MY FINAL STATEMENT

Based upon the research and studies that have been conducted thus far, it seems to me that IF isn't too bad after all. It has been shown to decrease body fat as well as upkeep performance. BUT, I wouldn't touch IF with a ten foot pole. I enjoy eating when I'm hungry and when I'm not hungry. Anyone that asks me to go without eating for more than five hours is no friend of mine. Additionally, I work too hard to risk losing lean muscle tissue that I've built. I hope you feel the same way. Having said all of this, I want to be clear that this is my stand and my opinion based on my preferences and goals. I can definitely see how this could be a great plan for an individual who claims they have no time to eat and is only wanting to lose body fat. It's completely up to you. Your body is your own and no one else's. You shouldn't expect everything to work the same for every individual.

For any other questions regarding diets, fasting, or fitness in general, send me an email to adam@poehlmannfitness.com or message me on the following!

Thanks for reading!

References

Harvie, MN, et al. “The Effects of Intermittent or Continuous Energy Restriction on Weight Loss and Metabolic Disease Risk Markers: A Randomized Trial in Young Overweight Women.” International journal of obesity (2005). 35.5 (2010): 714–27. Web. 23 Aug. 2016.

Tsalikian, E, et al. “Increased Leucine Flux in Short-Term Fasted Human Subjects: Evidence for Increased Proteolysis.” The American journal of physiology. 247. (1984): n.pag. Web. 23 Aug. 2016.

Why Whey?

Whey protein has been all the buzz for quite some time, and it should be for many reasons. Why, though? With all the other kinds of protein on the market like casein, soy, milk, and egg, what makes whey so special? In today's blog I'll keep it short and sweet. Here's why you need to have some whey protein in your diet.

WHAT IS IT?

When making cheese, there is a watery portion that separates from the curds. Curds is such a gross word to me. Curds...

Anyway, the watery portion is whey, and whey protein is taken from that. The protein is made up of all nine essential amino acids and has very little lactose. Over the years, we have been able to develop filtering systems to create more high-quality whey concentrates.

WHAT DOES IT DO?

Whey protein is used for many reasons, but the place it is used the most is in the fitness realm. And no, I'm not just talking about meatheads that train biceps every day of the week. A lot of people use whey and here's why. 

Whey protein aids in maintaining and increasing muscle mass. After training, your muscles are in a catabolic (muscle depleting) state. In order to keep our body away from that state, we need to feed it amino acids and proteins to put it in an anabolic state. Whey is perfect for the reason I discussed before. It has the nine essential amino acids, and your body absorbs/uses it much faster than other forms of protein like casein.  

But what's so special about the protein powder itself? Why can't any other form of protein be consumed after a workout? Well, any form of protein can be consumed after a workout, but whey protein exceeds all other forms in that it is absorbed by the body much quicker. When mixed with water, it is easy for whey to travel to our muscles and keep them from staying in that catabolic state. This is why I have all my clients take whey protein with water in between their resistance training and their cardio. The cardio and increased blood flow will aid in shuttling the protein throughout the body. 

Whey has also been shown to aid in weight loss. When I say "weight loss", I'm talking about good weight loss. A loss of body fat. Protein aids in boosting your metabolism as well as calories burned because it takes the most amount of energy to digest proteins in comparison to carbs and fats. 

COOL STORY, BRO

The information is good to know, but you still need to make a decision when you go to the store. So what whey protein should you buy? To be honest, I think most products are the same across the board. It might take you time to figure out what you like most. There are a lot of factors that will influence your decision like taste, ability to dissolve, etc. My one piece of advice is this: AVOID proprietary blends. Another word for proprietary is: SKETCHY. Proprietary blends don't tell you exactly what's inside, and that should raise a big red flag for you. Make sure that the product lists every single ingredient as well as it's amount. If you see something like, "monstrous post-workout matrix... 700mg", that's freaking sketchy, and you shouldn't trust it. Do your research, educate yourself, and make good choices.

BOTTOM LINE

If you're not including whey protein in your diet and training regimen, I highly recommend doing so (with your doctor's approval). It could make a big difference in the overall composition of your body at the end of an exercise program. 

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