3 Tips to: Maintain Muscle while Losing Fat

If your goal is to lose body fat, this blog will help you understand how to maintain as much muscle as possible during that process.

Losing fat requires eating fewer calories than you burn. When you're in a calorie deficit so you can lose fat, you are also at risk of potentially losing some muscle during this process.(1)

Even if you're not concerned about building huge muscles, maintaining muscle should still be a priority from a health and function perspective. 

Read on to discover how to maintain muscle while losing fat.

1. Regularly Perform Resistance Training

If you could do one thing to preserve muscle tissue, resistance training should be at the top of your list.

In fact, research (2) has shown that “resistance exercise prevents the normal decline in fat-free mass and muscular power and augments body composition and maximal strength.”

A separate study (3) concluded that; “strength training significantly reduced the loss of FFM [fat-free mass i.e. muscle] during dieting”.

So clearly there is a positive benefit to incorporating resistance training into your routine while trying to lose fat. 

Now let’s look at some of the most effective ways to perform resistance training for the goal of maintaining muscle. 

Focus on compound exercises.

Compound exercises are movements which work multiple muscle groups through multiple joint actions, and because you’re using multiple muscle groups you can generate a lot more strength and power, which in turn means you can lift more and have a greater capacity for growth.

Here’s an example of a few compound exercises: 

Push: Bench Press, Military Press, Dips

Pull: Horizontal Row, Pull-Ups, Bicep Curl

Legs: Back Squat, Lunges, Deadlifts

To preserve as lean muscle and strength as possible during a fat loss phase, lift with the heaviest weight you can in the 5 - 10 rep range, whilst maintaining good form and aim to increase this using progressive overload continually over time. 

In a meta-analysis (4) of 17 peer-reviewed articles on the topic of weight training and weight loss, it was found that performing exercises in the rep range of 5-10 (they found 9-12 to be ideal) produced significant improvements in muscle and strength retention during weight loss periods.

Prioritise resistance training over cardio. 

If you are in a calorie deficit, and primarily doing cardio, you WILL lose weight, however you will often lose significantly more muscle than if you were to include resistance training into your routine. 

Therefore, use cardio as needed, but your main tactics for fat loss without losing muscle should be eating slightly less calories and lifting weights as frequently as possible. 

2. Eat Enough Protein

Another key element to preserve muscle mass during a calorie deficit is to ensure you’re eating plenty of protein.

One study(5) found that overweight young men who consumed a low-calorie, high protein diet lost more weight and body fat, as well as experienced greater muscle gains (about 2.5lbs) over a month, compared to those in the study who had a low protein intake. Both groups followed a similar exercise regimen.

How Much is Enough Protein?

Optimal protein intake to build or preserve muscle mass is 0.6 – 1g per lb of body weight, with the idea of sticking closer to 1g when eating in a calorie deficit and closer to 0.6g when eating in a calorie surplus.(6)

Slightly going over this recommendation isn’t bad for you but it will impact your intake of fat and carbs which can affect your performance in the gym.

Carbohydrates, also, play a critical role in muscle growth, performance, and recovery. Diets lower in carbs or ones that restrict carbohydrate intake altogether have been shown to be an ineffective way of increasing muscle retention and performance during a fat loss phase. (7)

3. Avoid Crash Diets and Very Low-Calorie Diets

The more severe your calorie deficit, the more weight you will lose. Sounds great, doesn’t it?

So why not just use a really big deficit and lose all the weight really fast? Let’s break it down:

Can you lose weight fast? …Yes

Can you lose fat fast? …No

Do you want to lose weight that’s not fat? …No

I know it’s slightly cliche’ but fat loss is best thought of as a marathon, not a sprint. 

Unfortunately, the faster you lose weight, the higher the chance your body will start using your muscle mass as energy. This means you’ll lose fat but you’ll also lose muscle, which is the worst possible thing to happen if you want to retain any strength and maintain your hard earned gains (8) 

If you want to learn more about how to calculate your calories for weight loss you can read our guide ‘how many calories do I need?’, or access our free TDEE calculator (Total daily energy expenditure).

Takeaway Point

Maintaining muscle muscle in a calorie deficit doesn’t need to be complicated, just remember these takeaway points:

• Regularly perform resistance training in the 5 to 10 rep range

• Consume adequate protein - roughly 1g per lb of body weight

• Avoid very low-calorie diets and crash diets