How likely is it that you’ll lose muscle during a fat loss diet?

According to some people in the more fear-mongering corners of the internet, it’s pretty much inevitable. In fact, as soon as your workout performance drops by a couple of reps… Gasp! You’re losing muscle.

For this reason, some will even say you shouldn’t go into a deficit at all if you hope to gain muscle, even when you carry excess body fat.

I disagree with these extreme positions.
 
So let’s delve into what the research seems to show and my six practical tips to give yourself the greatest chances of minimising muscle loss and maximising growth.

​The start of the year is an exciting time for fitness.

You may be super motivated right now, which is fantastic. There’s no better mental place to get started!

But are your habits up to the task?

Fat loss and muscle gain are often oversimplified as a matter of calories, protein, and resistance training.

While these are fundamental components of the physique development process, fat loss and muscle-building phases require a lot more if you want to get the best results possible.

That’s why, when I take on a new client, I don’t plunge them into a deficit or a surplus on Day 1.

This approach could do them more harm than good if they didn’t have certain key habits in place, which I help them develop over the initial weeks of coaching.

Some of these habits are always a priority, whereas others are more important in a deficit and less so in a surplus, or vice versa.

Let’s start with the habits that are always a priority, no matter the phase.

​Do you ever feel like you have a harder time losing fat than other people?
 
First and foremost, you’re not broken.
 
The rules of energy balance still apply to you.
 
These rules state that eating more energy than you consume over a prolonged period of time will cause fat gain, and the opposite will produce fat loss.
 
However, there are certain factors that can make the consistent application of these rules in your daily life more challenging.
 
Some of these factors can influence your physiology, psychology, or both, in a way that makes adhering to a diet legitimately more difficult than it is on average.
 
Other factors can slow down or mask fat loss. So, although you’re getting results, you may not be able to detect them on the scale within the timeline you expected, so you could convince yourself that you’re doing something “wrong” when that isn’t the case.
 
In this article, I’m going to cover four of these factors and what you can do about them, if anything.
 
Importantly, they make fat loss challenging, but not impossible. Even if you can’t change them, you’ll still be able to achieve your goals with consistency, patience, and the guidelines I’m going to offer.
 
Let’s get started.

​Are you struggling to juggle a fat loss diet with a busy lifestyle?
 
I hear you.
 
The majority of my clients are hard-working people with demanding jobs, families to take care of, and ambitions to pursue other than their fitness goals. As a full-time coach, I also face the daily challenge of fitting my own training and nutrition around other commitments.
 
That’s why I strive to simplify fat loss, so that you can get great results and keep up with your lifestyle.
 
In this article, I’m going to share a four-step guide to maximising the efficiency of your fat loss diet.
 
Let’s dive in.

2021
 
It’s April 16th, 2021.
 
I wake up with a flutter in my stomach.
 
Today it’s the day of my first fitness photoshoot.
 
It means a lot for so many reasons.