Getting the Body You Want: Building Muscle and Getting “Toned”
Last week, I discussed the keys to fat loss, so this week, I’m talking about muscle growth, body recomposition, and things to consider when choosing your goal.
(Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional nor do I seek to give medical advice. Please consult your primary care provider or clinician before making any significant dietary or exercise changes.)
So, let’s jump right in...
Muscle Growth
For anyone who wants a “toned” look, this is actually accomplished by building muscle. Building muscle will make you look lean, not “bulky” as is popular belief. Building muscle requires you to be in a caloric surplus with adequate protein AND sending a muscle building signal to your body with effective resistance training.
Nutrition
In order to be in an anabolic state and promote the growth of new tissue, you must be in a caloric surplus (taking in more calories than you are utilizing). If you are not in a surplus, your body will be focusing on fueling the activity you’re doing rather than growing new tissue. The surplus required to build muscle, however, is not too extensive, rather it’s only an additional 200-300 calories to avoid putting on too much body fat with the muscle. If you are serious about building muscle, getting an app to track your caloric intake is invaluable to make sure you are consuming enough. Use this app to track your caloric intake for a week or two to see how much you are eating to maintain your weight. After figuring this out, aim to consume an extra 200-300 calories a day in order to see results. In addition to a caloric surplus, you must be eating a large amount of protein.
Protein’s amino acids form the building blocks of muscle tissue. To maximize your muscle building potential, aim to consume for .8-1g per pound of lean body mass. The best protein sources are from meat and animal products. If you are vegetarian or vegan, legumes, vegetables, and soy are your best bet. Supplement your protein intake with protein powders only if you find yourself unable to consume enough through whole foods.
As far as other supplements, creatine monohydrate has been the only supplement shown to improve performance, recovery, and muscle building potential. Consuming 3-5g a day will allow you to reap these benefits.
Workout Programming
Along with enough protein and calories, you must be sending a strong muscle building signal to your body. If you don’t do this, your extra calories will most likely be stored as body fat rather than muscle. You need to show your body that it must adapt to match what you’re asking it to do. If you demonstrate that you need more muscle to sustain your activity, your body will make this happen. An exercise program that is effective will focus on strength or hypertrophy with rest periods of 30 seconds or more. Depending on your preference, this can be split training 4-5 days a week or 2-3 days a week of a full body workout. When choosing a program, be careful. An exercise program that is more like cardio (such as HIIT) will not be effective at sending this signal because the primary goal is endurance rather than strength. To increase endurance and improve efficiency, your body may actually burn muscle since it takes more calories to sustain than body fat.
Body Recomposition
Body recomposition is when you lose fat and build muscle at the same time. Theoretically speaking, this would seem impossible as your body cannot be in a state of anabolism and catabolism simultaneously. In truth, it isn’t impossible, it is just very difficult. The people with the most success with this have been those new to working out.
Nutrition
In order to lose body fat, you must be in a caloric deficit, and to gain muscle, you must be in a caloric surplus. For recomposition, you’re either going to consume your maintenance calories or cycle your caloric intake. To find an estimate of your maintenance calories, use this calculator and make sure to put your activity level as sedentary. Alternatively, you could track your consumption for a week as mentioned before. Once you have your maintenance number, you can either consume around this amount daily or start cycling calories. Calorie cycling is when you eat in a small deficit some days of the week and a small surplus other days of the week to average at your maintenance. As a general rule, you should be having your surplus on exercise days (especially strength) and your deficit on your rest days. If calorie counting is an issue for you, aim to get the bulk of your calories from whole, unprocessed foods. Naturally, you will find yourself eating less.
Just as in muscle growth and fat loss, consuming adequate protein is crucial to success. Aim to get .8-1g of protein per pound of lean body mass. As an added bonus, protein is the most satiating macronutrient, so consuming an adequate amount of it will allow you to feel full faster. Additionally, whole protein sources take the most energy for your body to digest of any macronutrient, so you burn more calories after consumption.
Supplement with creatine monohydrate and potentially protein powder to improve your results.
Workout programming
In case you skipped it, please read the above segment on workout programming for building muscle as the resistance training required is the same.
As with fat loss, aim to take at least 10k steps a day (check out last week’s post for a more comprehensive breakdown on activity). If this is unfeasible for you through walking alone, running or cycling can help. For those who are calorie cycling, incorporating a moderate amount of moderate intensity cardio will help increase your deficit on deficit days. Avoid intense cardio sessions on your resistance training days as these two activities send conflicting messages to the body. Resistance training leads to building muscle and increasing caloric expenditure, whereas cardio leads to efficiency by removing muscle and decreasing caloric expenditure. At the end of the week, make sure you are consuming in enough of a surplus on resistance training days to average around your maintenance levels.
Measuring progress
For both of these goals, looking at the change in your body fat percentage is the most accurate way to see if you are getting results. Your body fat percentage should be decreasing as your lean muscle mass is increasing. On the scale, if your goals are muscle growth, you should see the scale staying the same or slightly going up. If you managed to gain more than a pound a week, you are likely putting on body fat, so you must either improve your workout plan or reduce your surplus. If you are attempting body recomposition, you would like to see your weight remain the same. Psychologically, this is difficult as we are often looking for numbers to change to show progress. If this is difficult for you, as it was for me, then consider putting the scale away for a month while following the guidelines listed above.
Another place to measure your progress is in the gym. If you are getting stronger and are increasing weight on the bar, then you’re doing things correctly. Focusing on performance over measurements is the best way to avoid a disordered mentality when aiming for these goals.
Choosing Your Goal
Your goal is not solely dependent on your current body shape or weight. Here are things to consider when determining which to pursue.
Fat Loss
Should be your goal if:
1. You’re over-fat (a body fat percentage over 32% for women or 19% for men)
Should not be your goal if:
1. You have a "healthy" BMI and body fat percentage
2. You are currently consuming under 1400 calories a day
3. You have been yo-yo dieting
4. You have a disordered relationship with food
Muscle Growth
Should be your goal if:
1. You want to look “toned”
2. You’re “skinny fat” (normal BMI but high body fat percentage)
3. You have a sedentary job
4. You just want more muscle
Should not be your goal if:
1. You have a lot of excess body fat
2. You’re training for an intense endurance event (triathlon, marathon, etc.)
Body Recomposition
Should be your goal if:
1. You want to look lean and toned
2. You have a bit of excess body fat
3. You have just started working out
Should not be your goal if:
1. You have a lot of excess body fat
2. You have been consistently working out for over two years
3. You have had a disordered relationship with food and body image
4. You tend to focus on the scale to determine progress
I hope this post has helped you clarify some misconceptions about muscle growth and body recomposition, learn approaches to both, and decide what may be the best goal for you to choose. If you have any questions about what goal may be best for you, please let me know! Additionally, I am currently accepting a few clients for free personal training trials (first come first served), so contact me if you’re interested.