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.

​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.

According to research, fitness goals are some of the most popular New Year’s resolutions.
 
However, most “New Year’s resolutioners” are unsuccessful.
 
When I was working as a personal trainer in a commercial gym, I witnessed the same cycle every year. Come January 1st, the gym would be flooded with new members. By March, most of them would disappear, never to return… until the following January.
 
So, if you’ve ever set fitness resolutions that didn’t stick, you’re not the only one.
 
Of the few studies conducted on this topic, most seem to show that the majority of participants abandon their resolutions after a few months.
 
For example, in 1985, a study by Norcross and colleagues reported that 77% out of 200 participants stuck to their resolutions for a week, but only 40% were still keeping up with them after six months.
 
If you’re thinking that a 60% failure rate after six months sounds pretty grim, that’s not all.
 
In reality, if you’re volunteering for a study measuring the success rate of New Year’s resolutions, you’re likely more motivated to achieve your goals than the average person.
 
Moreover, after the participants set their resolutions on an initial phone call with the New Year’s Resolution Project staff, they received seven follow-up phone interviews for the next two years.
 
If you know someone’s going to check on your progress every few months, you’ll probably take your resolutions far more seriously than if you were left to your own devices.
 
So, in real life, New Year’s resolutions likely fail even more often than in research.
 
However, since you’re reading this blog post, you are more motivated than the average person. By applying the four steps covered in the article, you’ll have better-than-average odds of succeeding, too.
 
You’ve come to the right website.
 
Let’s start your year with a bang.

Useful Links: A Comprehensive Guide to Your First Bulk

Weight loss diets are all the rage, but most people don’t succeed.
 
I wanted to write this article to change this outcome for you by answering the following questions:
 

• What’s the purpose of a “cut”, and how does it fit within your physique development process?
• How do you plan it?
• How do you prepare for a successful one?
• What are your priorities during it?
• What can you expect from your first one?