Can You Lose Fat and Gain Muscle At The Same Time?
| The answer is YES!!! This is different from the old way of first getting bigger (adding muscle and fat) and then getting smaller (losing fat). Drip’s 10 Week Body Recomp Challenge tries to do BOTH at once! In short, body recomp means changing your body’s fat and muscle amounts. In case you didn’t know, your weight is made up of the following: Muscle Mass, Fat Mass, Bone Mass, Water, Organs, and Other Tissues (like skin and connective tissue). Out of these, the focus is on LOSING FAT MASS AND INCREASING YOUR MUSCLE MASS. This is the reason why during your body recomp challenge, your weight may stay the same or even go up. This is because muscle is denser than fat. So, as you lose fat and gain muscle, your body will look different… you’ll appear more toned and firm. Your clothes may fit differently, and you might feel stronger, but the scale might not show much change. Here is the thing about body recomp… it doesn’t happen quickly. It needs TIME and PATIENCE. Since you are trying to lose fat and gain muscle together, you won’t see fast changes like with crash diets. Both healthy fat loss and muscle gain happen slowly. By doing both, you would be choosing a slow but steady path to lasting results. This is why we need a minimum of 10 weeks for this challenge!!! How does this Happen? It requires a careful balance of DIET and EXERCISE!! To lose fat, you need to create a calorie deficit. This means eating fewer calories than your body burns. To build muscle, you need to challenge your muscles through strength training and eat enough protein. The key is to aim for a small calorie deficit while increasing your protein intake and doing regular strength training. This allows your body to use stored fat for energy while giving it what it needs to build muscle. This process is usually slower than just trying to lose fat or gain muscle separately and it can be harder for people who are already lean or very fit. Remember, everyone’s body responds differently. Factors such as age, gender, fitness level, and genetics all play a role. Body recomp can take several months to show BIG results. Consistency in both diet and exercise is a must for seeing desired results. What’s Next? We know many of you have gotten your body composition analysis completed and are wondering, “what now”? In the coming days/weeks/months, Drip will be sending out things you need/can do in these 10 weeks to help accelerate this process. Don’t worry, you don’t need to know all the answers just yet to get started! For now, it’s more important you understand all the terms and acronyms we will be using to promote clarity. This will hopefully clear up any questions you may have in regards to all the information you were given during your testing. Body Fat – The scientific term for body fat is “adipose tissue.” Adipose tissue serves a number of important functions. Its primary purpose is to store lipids from which the body creates energy. In addition, it secretes a number of important hormones, and provides the body with some cushioning as well as insulation. Body fat includes essential body fat and storage body fat. Essential body fat is a base level of fat that is found in most parts of the body. It is necessary fat that maintains life and reproductive functions. The amount of essential fat differs between men and women, and is typically around 2-5% in men, and 10-13% in women. Storage fat is fat that accumulates in adipose tissue, be it subcutaneous fat (deep under the dermis and wrapped around vital organs) or visceral fat (fat located inside the abdominal cavity, between organs), and references to body fat typically refer to this type of fat. While some storage fat is ideal, excess amounts of storage fat can have serious negative health implications.Excess body fat leads to the condition of being overweight and eventually to obesity given that insufficient measures are taken to curb increasing body fat. Note that being overweight does not necessarily indicate an excess of body fat. A person’s body weight is composed of multiple factors including (but not limited to) body fat, muscle, bone density, and water content. Thus, highly muscular people are often classified as overweight. Ha! Body Mass Index (BMI) – BMI is a measurement of a person’s leanness or corpulence based on their height and weight, and is intended to quantify tissue mass. It is widely used as a general indicator of whether a person has a healthy body weight for their height. Specifically, the value obtained from the calculation of BMI is used to categorize whether a person is underweight, normal weight, overweight, or obese depending on what range the value falls between. These ranges of BMI vary based on factors such as region and age, and are sometimes further divided into subcategories such as severely underweight or very severely obese. Being overweight or underweight can have significant health effects, so while BMI is an imperfect measure of healthy body weight, it is a useful indicator of whether any additional testing or action is required. Lean body mass (LBM) – LBM is a part of body composition that is defined as the difference between total body weight and body fat weight. This means that it counts the mass of all organs except body fat, including bones, muscles, blood, skin, and everything else. While the percentage of LBM is usually not computed, it on average ranges between 60-90% of total body weight. Generally, men have a higher proportion of LBM than women do. Muscle Skeletal Mass: Your body mass is made up of two components:body fat and lean body mass. People often use the terms “lean body mass” and “muscle mass” interchangeably, but they’re NOT the same. Lean body mass includes muscle mass, as well as bones and bodily fluid. Muscle mass is the size of your muscles that includes skeletal muscle, smooth muscle, and cardiac muscle. However, when people talk about muscle mass, they’re typically referring to skeletal muscle. This type of muscle is important for mobility, balance, and strength. It’s a sign of physical function, which is why we’re always told to build muscle. Resting Metabolism Rate (RMR) – In short, Resting Metabolic Rate is the number of calories that your body burns while at rest. If you’ve ever wondered how dietitians and individuals estimate how many calories they need to eat in a day to lose, gain, or maintain weight, using your body’s RMR can help you in determining just that!! RMR tells us how many calories (approximately) your body requires to perform the most basic functions (to keep itself alive) while resting. These essential functions include breathing, heart beat, blood circulation, basic brain functions, food digestion, and sustaining the function of vital organs. RMR does not account for calories burned to support physical activity. Anything we do throughout the day requires energy (calories) to be burned in addition to those used to support RMR. Knowing your metabolic health and RMR is crucial to your success on any nutrition or training plan. RMR allows you to see how efficient your body is at converting food to energy, feeds your body in a way that achieves your goals and conquers plateaus, and tracks how your body composition changes! If you don’t know your RMR, here is a simple equation you can use to help estimate, but it does not take into account all the factors such as weight, age, body composition, environment, hormone levels, and gender (as result, it can underestimate or overestimate the RMR): Men : 10 x weight (kg) + 6.25 x height (cm) – 5 x age + 5 Women : 10 x weight (kg) + 6.25 x height (cm) – 5 x age – 161 Kilograms = your weight in lbs divided by 2.2Height in Inches = (height in feet x 12) + remaining inchesHeight in centimeters = height in inches x 2.54 *Please note, even the most “accurate” equation-based RMR estimations can vary as much as 30 to 40 percent! That’s hardly an accurate result. People who are serious about measuring their personal RMR rely on professionals that have the proper tools and machines. Visceral Fat (VF) – Visceral fat refers to a type of fat that’s stored within your abdominal cavity and can build up in arteries. It can increase the risk of certain health conditions, such as diabetes, prediabetes, and heart disease.It’s healthy to have some body fat, but not all fat is created equal. Visceral fat is a type of body fat that’s located near several vital organs, including the liver, stomach, and intestines. It can also build up in the arteries. Visceral fat is sometimes referred to as “active fat” because it can actively increase the risk of serious health problems. If you have some belly fat, that’s not necessarily visceral fat. Belly fat can also be subcutaneous fat, which is stored just under the skin. Subcutaneous fat, the type of fat also found in the arms and legs, is easier to see. Visceral fat is actually inside the abdominal cavity and isn’t easily seen. According to Harvard Health,10 percent of a person’s total body fat will be visceral fat. |
| You’re not doing this alone! You have a whole community that will be doing this together sharing ideas and cheering each other on! Sure, we would all love to win the challenge, but you’ve already won by choosing YOU and embarking on this 10 week journey with us! We will share more in good time! You can get started by getting your butt to class (more) and being more conscious and mindful of the things you put into your body!! Remember… it’s a process which becomes a way of LIFE! |
| Disclaimer: As always, please consult with a healthcare provider before beginning any new exercise program. |
| Don’t forget to follow us on social as we will be posting awesome content and videos for this 10 week recomp challenge!! |