Renowned nutrition and exercise science researcher Dr. Jose Antonio discusses this common question.
One thing I get asked a lot is, “James, why am I having such a hard time putting on muscle and losing body fat?”
The first point kind of goes without saying, but I’m compelled to say it anyway; Changing your physique obviously requires a certain level of commitment to proper nutrition and a consistent exercise routine (particularly resistance training). Being sporadic with one or both is sure to leave you frustrated with your results, no matter what your goal or program. In my book, trumps all. Now, if you’ve got consistency nailed down then we can move on...Before we dig into the basic science, I want you to know that if you’re struggling to put on muscle or drop body fat it doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you. We all have a tendency to beat ourselves up when we aren’t achieving our goals as fast as we think we should be. Now don’t start thinking this is some sort of pep talk…Sure, we all slip up from time to time with our diets and miss workouts here and there, but generally speaking, the difficulty you’re having in getting muscular and shredded is – literally There’s nothing wrong with you. In fact, your body is doing exactly what it’s supposed to do from an evolutionary standpoint.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbG8V-KJ9KEIf that doesn’t quite make sense yet, don’t worry, I brought my good friend Jose “Joey” Antonio, PhD, to explain, in this second installment of this series. Besides being a good friend (always important to have those) Dr. Antonio is also the CEO and Co-Founder of the (ISSN) International Society for Sports Nutrition and director of the Exercise and Sports Science program at Nova Southeastern University in South Florida. He knows training and nutrition inside and out from a scientific perspective, and he knows how the human body works - Which is why he’s the perfect person to answer this question…
Why is it so hard to lose fat?
Because thousands of years ago, holding onto body fat was a means of survival for humans. Starvation was a serious threat back then.
Your body doesn’t want to be super lean.
When humans didn’t know when their meal was going to be (many hours away, if not days), they wanted to eat as much as they could to fuel themselves, and then store the rest as fat. “The best strategy for survival is to put on as much body fat as possible, because you could live off it,” says Antonio.
Carbs and fat are more readily stored as fat than protein.
Compare this situation with today, where we now have processed foods that are convenient, often inexpensive, and highly addictive.
Your body doesn’t want to carry muscle, either.
Why? Because the more muscle you carry, the more you need to eat to feed that extra body mass. And with food scarce all those years ago, the last thing your body wanted to be was big and muscular, especially considering that muscle is a dense, metabolically active tissue – meaning, heavier to carry around and making you hungrier.
So there you have it. Our bodies are focused on survival. When we don’t know when our next meal is, our body does it’s best to slow down the burning of calories. This means shedding excess muscle, as well as any other means of slowing the metabolism. It also wants to create energy reserves in the form of stored body fat. So in the end we store more fat and burn less calories. Well that sure sucks.
So how do we trick our body’s natural instincts? Here’s two simple tips:
- Eat smaller portions for each meal: Our bodies store excess calories in the form of fat, so to avoid this try and keep the portions and total calories of each meal smaller. We need to fuel our body gradually throughout the day, instead of only 1-2 meals.
- This leads to the 2nd point: We need to make sure we are still getting enough total calories to support lean muscle growth. This means we have to eat those smaller portions more frequently throughout the day. This is why bodybuilders traditionally eat 6+ meals a day.
Now, here’s the cool part: It gets easier as we go! As we gradually build lean muscle that muscle mass becomes our calorie-burning “metabolic engine”. The more lean muscle you have, the more calories you can burn in a day - and the easier it is to lose body fat.Obviously there’s a lot that goes into “the science” of building muscle and burning fat, but as much as I like to nerd out on topics like this, it doesn’t need to be that complicated. At the end of the day, if you work out consistently, with enough effort, eat less processed foods and more whole foods and don’t consume more calories than you burn in a day, then not only will you be healthy, fit and energetic - but you’ll also be able to enjoy life a whole lot more without having to fret over the intricate details of muscle building science.
