Should I increase my calories to build muscle first? Or should I lower my calories and aim to lose body fat first?”
The unfortunate outcome for most is that they will choose one of the above options and move forward without a long-term focus; instead, they follow their chosen approach for a short moment to find themselves feeling unfulfilled and towards thoughts that they’ve made the wrong decision. It is difficult to trust the process when perhaps you have not achieved the outcome before nor have someone overseeing your progress and for you to be accountable to. As a result, a lot of people can find themselves in this ‘decision-making rollercoaster’ – moving from one decision to the next and remaining within a state of limbo where little progress is ever achieved.
This dilemma can be incredibly frustrating, and I want to help you with your decision-making so that you can lay the foundations for long-term success.
First and foremost, a decision must be made & more often than not, you will require a period of dieting to achieve a lowered body fat % IF you wish to make improvements to lean muscle.
If you choose to begin increasing your calories whilst still carrying a significant amount of body fat, this will only see your ‘build phase’ cut short & the harsh reality will be that you will have gained excess body fat. This will result in a lowered testosterone level along with greater stress placed on the body. Therefore, it’s always important to maintain some level of conditioning where body fat is kept to a reasonable percentage.
By lowering your body fat in the initial phase, you position your body in a state that will respond more efficiently to the stimulus of strength training and increased caloric intake. Not only this, but it also gives you time to improve other aspects of your training & lifestyle that are often undervalued: improving food relationships; implementing stress management techniques; developing greater skill acquisition with your training programme; and improving sleep hygiene (to mention a few). If you have followed me for some time, you’ll know that I refer to this phase as the ‘Priming Phase’, and it’s so important that you utilise this phase since it will lay the foundations for future success.
To make a start on your fat loss phase, I’d suggest pitching your calories anywhere between 10-12 calories per lb of bodyweight (as a general rule since this will differ from person to person). In addition to this, to focus on losing body fat and holding on to muscle (& potentially build muscle) in this first phase, I would advise not losing more than 0.5-1% of your bodyweight each week (this would need to be tracked month to month for females) – slow and steady progression is certainly the better option when body composition and physique development is the aim.
Of course, if you have any further ideas or questions on this, please feel free to get in touch and drop me an email:
