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15 Tips to Build Muscle

15 Tips to Build Muscle

by | Aug 4, 2024 | Blog, Diet, Exercises

Struggling to see the muscle gains you want?

Stop blaming your age.

Stop blaming your genetics.

While these things impact how we may design our workouts and diet to help us achieve results, they are within our power to address.

Because the real reason we aren’t seeing the results we want is because a system is off.

There isn’t one magic move or food that will make everything work.

It’s all the components of your plan that work together.

An amazing move or workout routine done with improper fueling will lead to lackluster results.

A perfect diet can’t create progression in your training.

So if you aren’t seeing results, stop blaming things outside your control and instead take a step back to look at your lifestyle and make small adjustments to meet yourself where you are at so your lifestyle is moving you forward.

Here are 15 reasons why I often see clients not achieving the muscle gains they want.

And I will tell you…some of these you are mentally going to resist because they are things that “worked” in the past.

They may have been key to us achieving our weight loss or fat loss goals even.

But what works to get us to one goal may not only not work to get us to the next…

It may even hold us back!

Not to mention, our body and needs change over time.

And this actually brings me to the very unsexy first reason we don’t see the muscle gains we want…

We think it should be easier to see results because we’re an experienced exercise.

While you may feel it should be “easier” to see results because you’re an advanced worker-outer, this will actually make your progress SLOWER.

So recognize that change takes time and the more you have a foundation already built, the more small tweaks can have an impact.

You’ve adapted to more. It’s why you’ve gotten stronger and fitter.

But this also means that details matter more!

Get ready to embrace changes if you want to focus on those muscle gains…

And one of the surprisingly most common reasons I see clients not achieving the muscle gains they want is…

They’re not eating enough.

There can be a slight fear about eating more when you’ve just lost weight.

This is why increasing your calories after a weight loss phase has to be a slow process of even just 100 calories added to your daily intake and maintained for weeks before further increases.

You need to retrain your body to eat more.

But in this process of eating more, you are supplying your body with the extra energy it needs to not only train hard to build muscle but also support that muscle growth.

Not only does increasing muscle mean you need to eat more to maintain that newly added muscle, but there are other changes with increasing calories that actually mean your body uses more calories even at rest.

If you are struggling to build muscle, it may be time to increase your calories even if you aren’t feeling hungry.

We have to remember that hunger cues are partly TRAINED from even previous dieting practices.

So to build muscle, track and increase those calories slowly.

You can’t stay in a calorie deficit and efficiently build muscle especially if you’re at your desired leanness level. And even as you then see the scale creep up with muscle being gained, you may need to increase your calories further.

You may also have to let go of specific meal timings – such as fasted training.

The more advanced a trainee you are, the harder it gets to build muscle.

And as we get older, we are less able to build and retain lean muscle as well.

These aren’t excuses, they’re just facts that can and need to be addressed.

And besides making sure you’re eating enough, this may mean adjusting your meal timing.

The fasted training that used to work, may not be giving you the immediate fuel your body needs nor helping you create that anabolic environment for muscle growth.

And I say this as a person who really loves to train fasted at times. BUT…what works for one goal or stage of life doesn’t always work for another.

To be able to train harder and help your muscles recover better, you may need that pre-workout snack with especially some carbs. Having full energy stores can be key.

So consider even just breaking your fast with a small snack prior to your training session if you really want to see those muscle gains.

Now you may be thinking, “No! I’m low carb! I’m not giving up fasting and adding more carbs!”

But this carbphobia may be holding you back.

While low carb can be helpful for some during a weight loss phase, especially during menopause, carbs really do help create that hormonal balance and anabolic environment for muscle growth.

They give you the immediate fuel your body otherwise has to work hard to get from fats or protein so you can truly push hard and work at the intensity you need to create progression in your training.

Because we NEED to feel energized if we want to train hard to build muscle. Working at a zapped 100% intensity just isn’t going to drive growth efficiently especially if we’ve trained for decades and have adapted to a great training stimulus.

Before I move into some workout mistakes often holding clients back, I wanted to highlight one more nutritional piece which is so key…

PROTEIN.

Our body is made up of protein and the protein we consume isn’t just used for building muscle.

If we don’t prioritize getting enough, not only will our muscles not have the fuel they need to rebuild and grow, but our hard training sessions may actually be leading to muscle loss, especially the more cardio they are (which I’ll touch on next).

Because our muscles are also our biggest reserve of amino acids. So if your body feels it needs amino acids for other functions or to recover from your training sessions, you may actually be turning to your muscle…

Which completely defeats the purpose of your training sessions in the gym.

So make protein at each meal you eat a priority. And don’t fear increasing protein portions per meal to even up to 40 grams.

This can be key as we are less able to utilize protein as efficiently as we get older so getting MORE is needed to create the same stimulus for muscle growth.

Now going back to why cardio may be hindering your muscle gains…

There are two issues I see popping up with clients and how they include cardio in their workouts…

One they’re putting cardio first in the session.

And two, they’re simply doing too much steady state cardio.

If you love your cardio workouts, your long bike rides or runs, I’m not telling you not to do them. But you also need to know the COST of these sessions if you’re frustrated by not building muscle.

Because that steady state cardio at that intensity greater than walking is more catabolic to muscle mass and will often leave you depleted for your strength sessions.

It’s kind of like taking one step back for every two steps forward.

You can still move forward, you’re just making it harder and really have to tweak your fueling and other strength workouts to account for that.

So if you want the fastest results, cut back on your steady state cardio workouts and mileage for a bit, don’t turn your strength workouts into cardio by cutting out rest and time any cardio you do on days between that won’t fatigue you for future workouts or AFTER your strength session.

While you may put cardio first in your day if you’re training for a race, what you put first gets you when you’re freshest.

You want to be freshest for your lifts!

And being fresh and energized for each session is key because you need to create true progression in your strength workouts to see results.

Driving muscle growth means you’re going to feel uncomfortable, both mentally and physically.

You need to push hard and even at times push to a true failure. You need to keep progressing moves whether through loads, tempos, variations, perfection in form, volume…week over week.

This is incredibly taxing at times and may lead to you needing a deload week at points because you’re even just mentally feeling burned out from the strain.

But too often I see clients just pushing till it feels “hard” but never really pushing their comfort zone.

They stop at 12 reps not because they had to, but because it felt hard enough and that was the top end of the reps given.

NOPE! You’ve got to at points fail with a weight or variation to truly test those limits if you want to build muscle faster and know your pushing!

So get ready to feel uncomfortable.

But just note…uncomfortable doesn’t just mean feeling destroyed or sore from every workout.

Actually constantly feeling beat down or constantly seeking to be sore may be why you aren’t seeing the muscle gains you want.

Because soreness isn’t an indicator that a workout was hard enough or that we’re going to see better muscle gains.

While muscle tissue damage is one driver of muscle growth and can lead to muscle soreness, it isn’t the only driver of muscle growth.

And if you’re following a clear workout plan and progressing week over week, you shouldn’t always be sore from the calculated progress.

Honestly often we are so sore because something isn’t CORRECT in our plan.

We’re…

  • Not fueling well so we’re not truly rebuilding from our training.
  • We’re not including proper recovery work so that our muscles have that time to repair and rebuild stronger.
  • We’re not creating a clear progression that we repeat week over week but just randomly stringing together new things. And new alone will make you sore while actually not driving that progressive overload to see results.

So stop just seeking to be sore and instead follow a clear plan where week over week you can make incremental changes.

And jumping around too much is a very common mistake I see clients making.

It’s easy to want to chase something better, especially when we see all these new and exciting things on social media promising faster results.

But we get good at what we consistently do.

We need to have a weekly schedule we repeat week over week so we can truly track progress.

Don’t allow yourself to get distracted. Create that clear plan and repeat it, working in new things over time.

But constantly jumping around keeps you stuck starting over again and again never achieving the build needed for results.

Now here’s the important flip side to that…you also can’t get so married to one type of training, one type of move that you don’t at points change things up.

At some point, you can’t just keep adding weight.

At some point you do need a new training technique or exercise to create progression through the same but different.

So set those end dates where you adjust your training progression over just continuing to cling to what used to work.

Just because supersets worked in the past doesn’t mean 6-12-25 may not now be better since you’ve adapted to that other training stimulus.

So often we don’t see the opportunity in little tweaks like that, especially as we are more advanced and we can’t just keep adding loads to certain moves or training more frequently or for longer!

And one of those tweaks I see too often ignored for muscle building, and too often overused for fat loss, is isolation moves.

If you have a specifically stubborn area, you need to hone in on it.

While compound moves are amazing to help you burn more calories and be efficient in your training sessions while lifting more weight to drive muscle growth, areas that you struggle to gain in need the extra attention.

Isolation moves can help you really hone in and work an area to fatigue, recruiting more muscle fibers to help create that stimulus for muscle growth.

Isolation moves can be included in so many different ways whether you want to pre-fatigue a muscle, tiring out a harder to fatigue muscle slightly before a compound lift to be able to use lighter loads while working to failure…

Or use them to end your workout and fully fatigue one of the muscles worked during compound exercises earlier on.

But don’t ignore the importance of isolating stubborn muscles if you want to build muscle.

(If you’re looking for amazing workouts to help you build muscle and lose fat, check out my Dynamic Strength program…sorry shameless plug for these fun workouts you can do anywhere!)

Now the final reason I see clients not achieve the muscle gains they want is not valuing quality over quantity with everything they do.

So often we just seek to do MORE, use more supplements, implement more techniques, add on more we have to do or manage into our diet and workout plans.

Instead we need to get good at those basics.

We need to have that solid plan we follow and set end dates so we can assess and tweak.

And we need to focus on really perfecting the habits that we do.

Focus on the quality of your reps and what you feel working in your workouts.

Focus on hitting your macros consistently.

Don’t get distracted by supposedly magic pills or fancy tools that only add complexity.

Stay focused on your plan and get really good at doing it, improving week after week.

And while I know I gave you 15 reasons why you may not be seeing results…Don’t feel like you need to address all of them, especially all at once.

Find just ONE that you can adjust and dial that in first. Focus on getting really consistent with the change and then build off of that.

It will amazing you how simplifying and dialing in even just one of these habit changes with a focus on quality leads to faster muscle building results than you thought possible no matter your age!

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Stop Gaining Weight with Age (In 2 Steps)

Stop Gaining Weight with Age (In 2 Steps)

by | Jul 21, 2024 | Blog, Diet, Exercises

So often we blame our age for the reason we’re seeing that middle age spread happen.

But honestly, your age isn’t an excuse to gain fat or not feel and move your best.

You’re using it as an excuse because it’s…well…easier than taking ownership.
Harsh…YUP.

But it’s the reality.

It’s hard to take that look at ourselves and assess the changes we need to make.

It’s much easier to blame something we aren’t in control of.

Now I’m not saying changes don’t happen with age…

But the changes we see with our body and even our lifestyle can be addressed so we can see results.

The key is controlling what we can control and being open to evolving and changing our dieting and training practices.

Too often instead of being open to changes, we push back.

We say things like, “Well this used to work!”

“I could just get away with this in the past!”

Well guess what?

You can’t now.

And some of those things you did that you got away with are now the reasons you’re struggling more and seeing that weight creep on when you just look at a cookie.

I’ve had this hard conversation with many clients over the years, but we have to let go of what used to work.

You have to step back and ask yourself…

“Is it working NOW?”

Because that is all that matters.

Are those dieting and training practices truly helping you move forward?

Are they truly meeting you where you are at?

Because if they aren’t, it doesn’t matter how much they used to work…

They don’t match your body needs and goals now.

And that’s really the first “secret” to avoiding gaining fat as you get older…

Stop clinging to what once worked.

You CAN feel your most fabulous at any and every age. 

But we have to recognize the changes that have happened, even down to shifts in our activity level and priorities as our lifestyles have evolved as we’ve gotten older.

Because so often what we blame on AGE is simply an accumulation of improper dieting and training practices or even lifestyle shifts over the years…

Not just the number of years we’ve been on this planet.

We just start to notice the accumulation more over time.

It’s like a leak in our ceiling we never addressed….for a long time the ceiling may have been fine…

But at some point, it’s going to collapse.

This is exactly what happens when we often blame our age for our aches and pains and weight gain now…

But it’s the under eating to lose weight faster in the past that led to us losing muscle and negatively impacted our metabolic health…

It’s the overtraining and skipped warm ups that led to overuse, overload and injuries…injuries we never really rehabbed or addressed…

It’s the 1% deviations and lack of consistency over the years that made us slowly slip further and further from our goals…

It’s these leaks that have finally added up.

That weight gain we see with age is just the ceiling finally collapsing.

And we can’t just paint over the ceiling expecting it to be fixed even though that may have covered it up in the past. 

We actually have to go in and correct the problem.

We have to let go of what once worked. And we have to be open to approaching our training and fueling in a new way.

You may have to step back in your workouts at first to correct those movement and recruitment patterns. 

You may have to first address metabolic adaptations, eat more, focus on macros and GAIN weight before you can lose because you need to increase your muscle.

You may have to accept that you can’t just do what you want and stay in your comfort zone. 

Because your body has changed.

Hormone levels aren’t the same. Recovery isn’t the same. Our ability to utilize protein isn’t the same.

But these aren’t excuses. They can be addressed through lifestyle changes…

We can increase our protein portions per meal to create the same stimulus for muscle growth. 

We can do different training splits and include more prehab work to help with recovery.

The key is stepping back to assess what we need NOW, not clinging to what worked at a different stage.

Because forcing yourself into your younger self mold is why you’re gaining weight.

Stop. Embrace the new.

And don’t stop challenging yourself. 

We get old because we stop doing the things that kept us young.

We get old because we ACT old.

We tell ourselves we can’t achieve certain goals, so we let ourselves off the hook for making uncomfortable changes. 

We stop pushing our comfort zone and challenging ourselves.

We say we can’t lift heavy.

We can’t jump.

We can’t make certain changes.

And this mindset that all of the sudden we “can’t do” something because of our age is what instantly makes us old and often leads to weight gain. 

We stop trying to make changes and meet ourselves where we are at and just ACCEPT weight gain and decline.

But don’t.

Instead keep pushing that progression in your workouts. 

Keep looking to learn about how to adjust your nutrition to better fuel. 

Keep seeking to embrace the discomfort of change over getting set in your ways.

Remember you can DEFINE HOW YOU AGE.

Stop just giving away your power and agency.

Take OWNERSHIP of your results.

And with taking ownership and not just defaulting back into what you’ve always done…

Embrace a perspective shift.

Want to avoid gaining fat?

Don’t focus on fat loss. Focus on building muscle. 

You heard that right…

Even if your goal is fat loss, you can’t just focus on fat loss to see results.

As you get older, you need to focus on gaining muscle. 

This shift in focus is key because so often a loss of muscle mass and the metabolic adaptations that occur with that, is why we struggle to lose fat.

And the dieting and training practices that help us build muscle are often also what we’ve let slide. 

It’s a bad cycle we get stuck in.

We stop challenging and pushing ourselves in our training, we implement improper dieting practices that create metabolic adaptations in an attempt to lose weight faster…So we lose muscle.

Then because we’ve lost muscle, we ultimately end up seeing the weight creep back on.

Not to mention we often see a negative impact on our strength, making us feel older, feel less like pushing ourselves and see ourselves gain weight while feeling completely demotivated to do anything about it. 

When we do finally muster the motivation, we just end up eating less and trying to do more cardio only to be frustrated by the slow progress on the scale…

And the cycle just repeats…over and over and over again…

STOP DEFAULTING BACK INTO THIS CHANGE LOOP!

Shift your focus to building muscle and you’ll see far better results.

But this won’t be easy. It does get harder to build and retain lean muscle as we get older.

So the best time to start focusing on building was probably a few decades ago.

But since we can’t go back…

The second best time is RIGHT NOW.

SO STOP WAITING!

It becomes harder to build and retain lean muscle because we simply don’t have the same hormonal environment or muscle building response to protein that we once did. 

And on top of that, with being more advanced, having trained for longer, we’ve adapted to a great training stimulus.

This means we have to work harder to create that challenge for muscle growth. 

On top of the changes with age, this slows the rate at which we can often see muscle gains.

It also means we need to eat MORE to fuel those gains. And especially focus on protein.

We simply don’t use protein as efficiently as we get older.

It’s why with getting older, increasing your portion per meal by even 10 grams may be what you need to create that same muscle building response you saw from your training when you were younger.

And…as much as you may love fasting?

It may not be serving you well.

It may make it harder to eat enough, get in enough protein and even have full energy stores to push hard in your training.

Again, what worked for a goal in the past, may not match your body now.

You’ve recognized you’re getting older. Recognize you also need a new approach. 

And part of that approach is still CHALLENGING YOURSELF.

And not just with weights, although heavy loads and lower rep work for more advanced lifters is ESPECIALLY key as we get older, but also with different tools, tempos and moves that make you just feel…well awkward and uncomfortable! 

We’ve got to embrace being uncomfortable and this is something we so often shy away from more and more as we get older.

But if you want to avoid gaining fat and feel your most fabulous, stop clinging to what used to work, embrace a new challenge and focus on building that lean mean muscle!

Why just accept that getting older has to mean feeling old?! 

Define how you age and embrace the changes to address them!

Ready to dial in your diet and your workouts to feel your most fabulous at any and EVERY age?

Learn more about my 1:1 Online Coaching!

Change Your Habits Not Just Your Diet (For Fat Loss)

Change Your Habits Not Just Your Diet (For Fat Loss)

by | Jul 14, 2024 | Blog, Diet

And that’s one of the biggest pitfalls sabotaging our diet and our success…

We go in thinking we’ll do something short term to then go back to the lifestyle we want.

The habits we had before.

But that’s not how things work.

You can’t do one thing to reach your goals then go back to what you were doing before and expect not to lose all of your progress.

If you want lasting results, you have to actually change your habits and build…yes…a new lifestyle.

Yet so often how we approach making changes doesn’t allow us to create new habits.

We do think of it as “going on a diet,” instead of adjusting our diet.

And because we have this short term focus, often we jump to doing more, which means restriction.

It also means overwhelming ourselves with changes we often can’t maintain.

Changes that sometimes stop us from even starting and definitely stop us from sticking with anything long term.

Changes that make us feel like we just don’t have the willpower or self control to ever see results.

And this all is caused by this pressure we feel to hit some ideal over assessing our current lifestyle and habit swaps that would meet us where we are at currently.

By why does this happen?

I think it’s because we have been brainwashed to believe that dieting has to mean restriction.

We’re also constantly bombarded by all these ideal diets and made to feel less than when we can’t hit someone else’s arbitrary standard of clean.

I see it when clients try to follow some fit-fluencers standard of “clean eating.”

Heck, I kept myself stuck never seeing the body recomp I wanted, constantly losing the weight only to regain it when my motivation and willpower ran out because I was trying to force myself to fit a clean eating mold…

A diet that is so different from our own it seems impossible and even miserable to maintain.

But we see this as what we “should” do…

What we NEED to do to see results.

So we start to try to make all of the changes.

We adjust our meal timings, making ourselves stare at the clock fantasizing about our next meal.

We force feed ourselves bland meals that lead to us feeling like we’ve just got to make it through till we lose the weight….then we can eat tasty things again…

We restrict all of the foods we love till we can’t take it any longer and we go devour that whole pint and ice cream and bag of chips giving ourselves a food baby….

And then we think, “I’ll never see results! I’ll just have to start over Monday!”

Only Monday doesn’t happen for a few more weeks.

Instead we yo-yo back up, not only regaining the weight but often more.

And in the process we often negatively impact our metabolic health.

But honestly…what’s worse than the weight gain, is the mindsets we’ve now created.

Each negative experience…each time we feel MISERABLE doing what we feel we “should,” we become more mentally set against the healthy changes we feel we need.

Think about tracking macros for instance…

So many of us feel tracking is restrictive.

But it’s because of how we’ve used the tool in the past.

When most of us have first tracked our food, we eliminated whole food groups.

We starved ourselves, slashing our calories super low.

We restricted foods we loved.

We made ourselves miserable.

We felt judged and deprived.

So of course, now thinking about tracking to hold yourself accountable or make changes sounds absolutely miserable.

And we think tracking is restrictive.

But the tracker wasn’t judging. It didn’t make us make those changes.

We CHOSE to make those changes and adjustments.

The tracker is now just associated with those feelings which makes it harder to use again.

So now you have to find ways to separate out the tools from the improper implementation in the past.

And this is why one of the most important things you can do for yourself if you want to avoid sabotaging your diet is to…TRACK WHAT YOU’RE CURRENTLY DOING. 

And do this without making changes!

If we want to make changes to our nutrition and see not only the results we deserve but LASTING changes is to truly understand where we are starting from.

Not only does logging without making any changes help us realize that tracking our food isn’t restrictive so that we can regain power to use this tool and shift our mindsets… 

But getting this clear picture of where we are starting from allows us to make habit changes that meet us where we are at. 

Too often we try to just force ourselves into a dieting mold with no thought as to how those habits will fit long term.

And while not every change we will have to make will feel sustainable, especially to start, we do want to do as much as possible to reduce the “pain” of change.

I say “pain” because change can cause mental push back.

And the pain of staying stuck has to outweigh the pain of change.

It’s why when we get that initial motivation to make changes after realizing nothing in our closet fits…

We are willing to make more sacrifices.

However, those sacrifices are often short lived when the motivation fades.

And unfortunately we can’t just manifest motivation whenever we want.

So since we often can’t make the pain of staying stuck greater…We have to find ways to reduce the pain of change.

That means we have to make the habit changes EASIER.

Because what feels easy and comfortable and sustainable is just what we’ve always done.

But too much discomfort in the changes will make us run back to our comfort zone.

It’s why at some point when we try to force all these clean eating standards on ourselves, we often hit the hard we can no longer handle and say FORGET IT and give up.

So instead of repeating this same pattern, track what you’re currently doing.

Get an accurate picture of your lifestyle…

Then make one small swap.

A change that almost feels too easy. From here you can build.

Sure maybe ideally you’d like to be eating lean protein sources and vegetables at every meal.

But if right now you’re having pizza or take out for most meals and vegetables don’t seem to exist in your diet, instead of forcing yourself to choke down salads and steamed broccoli at every meal, just add aside salad with your pizza. 

I know probably someone in the comment section is getting made about this…

But too often we sabotage our success by not building from where we are currently.

If you want to get to your goal, your destination, you need to set your current location in your GPS.

That’s the only way to map out the route and start moving forward.

Same thing goes for your diet changes. 

So stop worrying about ideals.

Stop restricting yourself and making so many dietary changes you can’t maintain them and you’re powering your way through a 21 day or 6 week fix only to fall back into old habits…

And instead get that accurate picture of what your lifestyle is and make one change that feels almost painless.

This will then help you stack more and more habits on to move forward.

Because the more you do, the more you do.

But you have to be able to take that first step and adjust your diet…instead of repeating the same pattern going on a diet only to fall off!

Break out of this yo-yo dieting cycle. Here’s my 3-Step Recipe To LASTING Results!

7 Mistakes Women Make Trying to Lose Fat or Gain Muscle

7 Mistakes Women Make Trying to Lose Fat or Gain Muscle

by | Jun 30, 2024 | Blog, Diet, Exercises

We’ve all fallen for the fads.

The promise of a quick fix to get lean and strong overnight. But real and lasting results take time.

Quick fixes often keep us trapped in a vicious cycle, making it harder and harder to see the results we want.

I say this having made almost all the mistakes myself.

That’s why I want to share the 7 most common mistakes I see my female clients especially making to help you not waste time falling into these traps.

And I want to start with what may be the hardest change in mindset to embrace..

The struggle to take days off when we really want results yesterday…

The struggle to give ourselves permission to take it easy at times…

But this is a HUGE mistake that will sabotage your results every single time…

Mistake #1: Under recovering.

You can only train as hard as you can recover from.

End of story.

But so often we label this as “over training” instead of under recovering. 

And I feel this leads to us actually sabotaging our own success.

I’ve even seen a trend recently pushing people away from training hard. 

A fear of cortisol levels rising because of working out intensely.

But exercise is a GOOD stressor. 

It’s a stressor you not only want but NEED if you want to build muscle, be stronger and ultimately look leaner. 

We WANT to challenge ourselves with intensity and loads.

But we can only do so in a way that actually allows us to push if our recovery is on point. 

So we do need to cycle the intensity of our training.

We do need to vary how muscles are worked and even what muscles are targeted in sessions. 

However, too often we only focus on the workouts, not all that we are doing, or not doing, between our sessions to help ourselves recover.

Instead of not pushing in your training, figure out ways you can go at that 100% intensity and truly maximize each session through how you’re fueling and recovering between workouts. 

Focus on that quality of your sleep with a bedtime routine to wind down.

Focus on hydrating properly so your muscles can get the nutrients they need and repair. 

And focus on making sure you aren’t depriving your muscles of the fuel they need to repair and rebuild.

Which is the next mistake I wanted to cover as it is very easy to fall for those diets with labels that lead to us not properly fueling to see results….

But jumping on that restrictive diet with a label train leads to us not only NOT truly seeing the body recomp we want happen, but ultimately sabotages our long-term success.

This mistake is what can lead to us feeling like our metabolism is broken and that we just have to accept the middle age spread.

We need to stop jumping into these diet programs that just completely restrict whole macros or food groups. 

While yes, based on health concerns or activity level or goals, we may adjust our macros or the types of foods we include to move and feel our best…

We need to stop just DEMONIZING foods or macros because they may not be right for someone else. 

Because this can lead to us not only sabotaging our fat loss or muscle building results,

but also lead to us creating hormonal imbalances that can impact our health.

Thyroid issues, adrenal fatigue, constant inflammation, low energy…

We blame our training too often for some of these things or even our genetics.

But often it is our diet. 

We’ve cut out micronutrient diversity by eliminating whole foods groups.

Or we’ve even restricted a macro to the extent our body can’t handle based on our goals and activity level. 

If you’re super active and want to lose fat and gain muscle?

Cutting your carbs super low even if you’ve heard it is better for a women in menopause may sabotage your results. 

It may lead to you losing muscle and actually gaining fat as you see your thyroid health impacted and your energy and motivation to train severely decline.

Fear fats will make you fat?

That fear of healthy fats may be why you’re seeing chronic inflammation and constantly sore and not recovering from your sessions as well as you’d like. H

So stop just demonizing foods and realize that each of us may need different dietary preferences or macros to match our needs and goals even as our bodies change over time!

But eat to FUEL your body as you push hard in those sessions to see results and ultimately improve not only your functional strength but your cardiovascular conditioning. 

This brings me to mistake number 3, which I find we often make because we’ve been scared away from pushing “too hard” in our training, especially as we get older. 

But we NEED to challenge ourselves if we want to create change, ESPECIALLY the older we get and even as we go through menopause….

Our body doesn’t respond the same way it used to when we were younger.

That doesn’t mean we’re doomed. Or that we can’t build our leanest, strongest body ever. 

It just means we can’t fear intensity in our training.

So stop skipping those SPRINTS! 

Honestly this is a huge mistake not including sprint work often enough.

This doesn’t mean you should now start to do a bazillion sprints daily…

There is such a thing as too much of even a good thing.

But sprint work, and different sprint intervals should be included weekly. 

So much love is given to Zone 2 training, and enough can’t be said about building that aerobic foundation…

But too often we fall in love with one form of training, one piece of equipment, one move and neglect other essential components that would make our systems more successful.

You want that diversity in your programming over the course of the week. 

So include that short and killer sprint work!

Note I said SHORT and killer. Just because you have an hour to train doesn’t mean you always need to use it! 

Too often we just focus on training longer, on doing more, over designing with a purpose.

Sprint work shouldn’t be stretched out into a long workout.

It’s generally a quick session, and often no longer than 30 minutes at LONGEST. 

And honestly, the things that should impact the length of your sessions most aren’t even the length of the sprints themselves, but the rest between or the prehab work you include before and after!

Sprints really should be between 8-20 seconds, 30 seconds at longest. 

Depending on what you’re working on you may do a work to rest set up of 2:1 up to 1:12 work to rest as intervals based on how much you’re working on true explosive speed.

And this variety of options can be used to your advantage.

Two amazing sprint protocols for women that are focused on body recomp while improving their cardiovascular health are…

20 seconds on, 10 seconds off or even 20 seconds on, 40 seconds off for 4-8 rounds. 

The different work to rest intervals will help you target different energy systems over the week!

However, going back again to the biggest mistake I see people making, under recovering…

The harder you train, the more you need to make sure you’re truly getting your body what it needs. 

So don’t make the mistake of NOT EATING ENOUGH to lose fat and gain muscle! 

I know this was a mistake I made multiple times over the years.

Eating less to try to see faster results on the scale is a hard mindset to shift.

But as much as a calorie deficit is needed to lose fat, eating less will NOT yield better results faster and is often why we get stuck on that yo-yo dieting cycle never actually seeing the definition we want. 

It’s what leads to metabolic adaptations and hormonal imbalances, especially as we restrict whole food groups or macronutrients.

If you want to see your hard work in the gym paying off, you need to fuel well. 

And often that means eating more to ultimately lose fat and look leaner!

When you want to lose fat, you want to create a very small calorie deficit of only 100-200 calories off of what you’re eating to maintain your weight. 

More than that and you do cause your body to find ways to conserve energy.

Our workouts can suffer, we can stop fidgeting or moving as much naturally. 

Our body will even adjust other bodily processes to account for the reduction in energy coming in.

That’s why we don’t want to cut calories too low.

And if we’re training hard, we need to make sure we’re getting our body the fuel it needs to repair and rebuild. 

Muscle requires more energy to be maintained.

So if you want to retain your lean muscle and even build more, you’ve got to eat enough to support the process to do that. 

And the more muscle you then keep on, the more you then may find your calorie requirements increasing.

This is why you want to be conscious not to just cut your calories lower and lower, even if you do hit a weight loss plateau. 

It’s also why you need to focus not just on calories but also on this essential macro everyone always wants to avoid prioritizing…

PROTEIN. Yup.

This is a big mistake we often make…Not prioritizing protein. 

And while many of us hate being told we should eat more protein…

We should.

Especially if you’re a woman.

Especially if you’re feeling like your age is causing you to struggle to lose fat and gain muscle. 

Especially if you train hard and “eat well” and aren’t seeing the results you want. 

High protein diets are the only ones shown to help you build and retain lean muscle in a deficit and avoid gaining fat in a calorie surplus. 

This gives you more wiggle room on your calorie intake and can help you make sure your hard work in the gym pays off.

And because we don’t use protein as efficiently as we get older, we need to make sure we’re getting bigger portions of protein in every meal to stimulate the same muscle building response.

So as much as you may hate being reminded of this tip, it’s a big mistake if you keep running from making this change in your diet. 

And yes…It can be a challenge to start.

But instead of just saying it isn’t possible to eat more protein,

take one meal and your current protein source and just add one ounce. BOOM! More protein!

And if you’re still thinking “But I’m not a body builder. I don’t want to get bulky.”

Protein won’t make you bulky.

It can actually be key for seeing better fat loss because it raises your metabolic rate, aka requires more calories, to digest protein. 

Which brings me to mistake number 6…and something too often also feared for making us bulky…

Heavy weights!

We need to stop fearing and avoiding low rep, heavy weight lifting. 

And on top of this, which is mistake number 7, we also need to stop turning to doing more cardio when we want to lose fat. 

This prioritization of steady state cardio or even only high rep, lighter load weight work is what can hold us back from truly gaining muscle or even losing fat.

Metabolic health, especially as we get older is key.

And while we may see a higher calorie burn on our fitness trackers from cardio workout, strength workouts may be more essential for our metabolism and body recomp goals. 

Not to mention strength workouts can improve our cardiovascular health.

Workouts really don’t have to be only cardio or strength.

They can work a variety of energy systems while helping us build muscle. 

But we can’t fear those heavy weights that challenge us for lower rep work. 

Because the more we build that strength, the more we can lift to see better muscle gains and even then improve our strength endurance for any cardio endurance sports we do love!

But heavy weights are what help us truly challenge ourselves so our muscles are forced to repair and rebuild stronger.

And no, your age isn’t an excuse to skip those heavy weights. You honestly need them even more.

Use it or lose it!

We need to keep pushing ourselves to optimize our results. 

So if you’ve been struggling to see the results you want, assess if you’re making one of these mistakes and focus on even a small habit adjustment you can make this week to start correcting your course!

Dial in your diet and your workouts to build your leanest, strongest body at any and every age!

If you’re looking for that custom program and coaching to help, check out my 1:1 Private Coaching.

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Why 93% Of Women NEVER Lose Belly Fat

Why 93% Of Women NEVER Lose Belly Fat

by | Jun 16, 2024 | Blog, Diet, Exercises

Alright so do you think those old fitness infomercials are as ridiculous as I do?

What’s the real reason why 93% of women never lose belly fat?

BECAUSE IT’S REALLY…

REALLY…

REALLY HARD!

And because when we feel like results aren’t snowballing,

when we don’t see changes happening on the scale, we feel like the effort doesn’t equal the outcome…

And we QUIT.

But to lose from those oh so stubborn areas…To lose that last little bit…

We often NEED to keep going past the point we want to quit.

We need to stay consistent, be precise with our nutrition and workouts and not give up just because it feels like nothing is happening.

Because the simple fact of the matter is…

It’s not easy to reach a new level of leanness…especially for the first time.

And stubborn areas are stubborn for a reason.

Literally we may see fat being lost from EVERYWHERE else FIRST before we shed that final bit.

We may not see the scale change at all as we are actually getting leaner.

But we will only lose that last little bit of stubborn belly fat if we don’t quit or let little inconsistencies and 1% deviations from our plan start to add up.

We’ve got to embrace the suck of doing something hard and outside our comfort zone.

Which is easier to do when we remember that what you do to reach a goal is not what you’ll do to maintain it.

While we don’t want to sabotage our long-term success with fad diets or crazy 2 a day workout routines, we do need to recognize that not everything we do will feel sustainable.

There is a hard we have to push through before we then transition into maintenance and more of a lifestyle balance.

So now that I’ve sold you on still pursuing your goal of achieving abs so you can be in that 7%, I want to share why some areas are so stubborn to lose from…

Then go over the 2 main struggles you will have to push through…

And finally highlight 4 key tips that can make that 1% difference when you already have the fundamentals dialed in.

So first, why are areas like our stomachs, especially often the lower abs and obliques, so hard to lose from?

First off…our genetics do have an impact on where we tend to store fat. 

And as women we do have higher levels of body fat, and need those levels to be higher than men, to maintain hormonal balance.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t still lose that stubborn fat to see that definition.

This all just has an impact on what areas are most stubborn for us.

It just means these areas we often want to change the most will be the last to go…And consistency for longer will be key. 

Sucky but key.

Fat loss from these areas, like specifically our love handles, lower abs or even our hips, thighs and butt, can be harder because there is generally less blood flow to these specific regions.

Less blood flow makes it harder to mobilize and utilize fatty acids from these areas. 

And not only that, but these areas generally contain fat cells that don’t respond as well to the fat loss process.

Yup.

There are different types of fat cells in our body – alpha and beta – and both respond differently to the fat loss process. 

Alpha cells respond better and accelerate the process while beta cells don’t respond as well and make it harder to lose the fat.

Of course guess which ones we tend to have more of around our middle?

Those annoying beta fat cells!

But notice I didn’t say they made it impossible to lose belly fat.

It just is why you have to truly go in prepared to be consistent and let TIME work its magic as you’re precise in making sure those systems work together.

You can’t out exercise your diet if you want abs.

You can’t try to rush the process to see the scale change quicker.

Both of those things will ultimately only sabotage your success.

That’s why I think it is key we go in with eyes wide open as to the struggles we may encounter when trying to get leaner. 

Because the more we almost oversell the negative to ourselves, the less challenging we may find the process because we are prepared for the struggles. 

We may even find ourselves thinking “That wasn’t so bad!” just because we knew it was going to pop up over being caught off guard!

So in terms of the challenges….

First, the areas you want to change the most will be the last to go and even though you’re progressing, you may feel like you look worse. 

Yea you heard that right…

You may actually feel like you look WORSE as you lean down.

Where does your eye go when you look at progress photos? 

The areas you want to change the most.

And as I already mentioned, those are the stubborn areas that often are the last to change.

This means we will lose off of other areas first.

As these areas get smaller, guess what looks bigger in comparison?

That fat around our middle!

Yet that area didn’t gain.

We just haven’t lost from there YET.

This is why we need to track measurements too from these other places. 

Seeing losses from those other areas can help us know we are on the right track and just need to stay consistent. 

So if you’re feeling like you look worse, and have seen loss from other areas, you need to buckle down and keep going.

Second, you’re going to get “burned out.” 

Breaking a set point, getting leaner than you’ve gotten before will not be easy.

It’s new and oddly “scary” for your body.

Our body, and even our mind, doesn’t like or want change.

So your body will fight the process and you are going to need to be more precise in your systems. 

You can’t guestimate your macros or calories.

You can’t randomly pick a workout.

You need a strategically designed plan.

And this plan will be uncomfortable and push your boundaries.

Because it will take a lot of focus to be consistent and prevent old habits and patterns from creeping in…

It will require WILLPOWER and not just discipline to sometimes do that workout on a day you’re tired and just want to watch chick flicks on the couch…

Or skip that cupcake or cookie when everyone else is having something on Friday night. 

You’ll question is it worth it?

And you’ve got to say YES and keep pushing through.

Now you may be thinking…IS it truly worth it?

Honestly…

It is.

But it’s not the actual ab definition goal that is worth it…whatever losing the belly fat and achieving ab definition means to you and your aesthetic goals. 

What’s worth it is you achieving something you thought you couldn’t.

Doing habits that are honestly good for you and your body and health. 

It feels good to almost “overcorrect” and break patterns you thought were impossible to break to then be able to create new and sustainable habits and a lifestyle balance.

Because in achieving this aesthetic goal, yes we may love how we look…

But the confidence and strength is really built through what we overcome.

Life is the pursuit of goals…and about conquering the journey and showing ourselves all that is possible. 

We train hard and make sacrifices in so many areas for goals that matter to us.

No shame in this being one of them!

Honestly, I can tell you that so many clients that realize their strength in changing lifestyle patterns not only achieve amazing body recomp but feel their most fabulous and confident inside and out of the gym.

They see so many wins in not only their health and functional fitness but also because they’ve gained pride in what they can push themselves to achieve, in the love and dedication they’ve shown this one body they have for life!

So if you’re like YES this is a challenge I want…

Yes this is a pride I take in my body and I’m going to own my goals, here are 4 keys I want you to focus on to help you push through and see results snowball.

#1: Macros matter most.

Not tracking when you want to get abs is like throwing spaghetti at a wall hoping something sticks.

Precision pays off and what gets measured gets managed.

Track your food. Sucks but it is the best way to make 1% changes that build. 

It helps us avoid dramatic wrong turns in our program and makes sure our diet even matches our activity level, body and goals.

And then don’t be afraid to adjust as you progress. 

Too often when we are trying to lose fat, we even first turn to cutting our calories lower.

But when a client has only that last little bit to lose, I avoid cutting calories as much as possible.

A bigger deficit often backfires and leads to more muscle being lost. 

Instead we will do more cycling of macros, especially going higher on protein. 

This is where those really high protein ratios of over 40% of your calories coming from protein pay off amazingly well, especially as you get older and even go through menopause! 

#2: Progress your core work.

You better learn to love core work. 

No you can’t spot reduce an area by just doing a bazillion reps of an exercise for that muscle group. 

But your abs are muscle and you see better definition when you do build them to some extent.

No, you’re not trying to grow them like you may other areas…

But you do still need to progress your core training to see better results.

Focus on changing the range of motion, tempos, loads, resistance types all while keeping the reps in that even 10-20 rep range.

And even consider including this core work to END your workout before maybe some steady state cardio, such as walking. 

I mentioned to start there is less blood flow to stubborn areas making them more stubborn.

But by working the muscles in an area, we can stimulate more blood flow to help mobilize more fatty acids.

The key is then making sure we USE those mobilized fatty acids which is where the walking comes in. 

Now note…this is that 1% tweak…if your macros aren’t already dialed in…

If you aren’t already following a clear workout plan…

If you aren’t implementing proper recovery…

This isn’t going to be a magic fix to broken fundamentals.

#3: Focus on QUALITY. 

Honestly this is quality in every component of the systems you are implementing.

Because losing belly fat isn’t about one magic food, one magic supplement or one magic move.

It’s about quality in all those systems working together. 

And it’s about intentionality in your training and your fueling.

You want to make sure you’re focusing on nutrient dense foods.

Yup…as much as I preach including foods you love, you’ll see better results faster by focusing less on those fun foods and more on those nutrient dense foods that help maintain hormonal balance, make you feel fuller, help you recover and even have a higher thermic effect.

This will make the fat loss process easier.

Same goes for your workouts…

You need to focus on quality in those sessions. You need to push hard and truly drive progression. 

You need to focus on what you feel working.

You need to work hard in the gym and then focus on that recovery between. 

We want to focus on quality NOT quantity.

Doing more will only backfire.

Now last but not least…

#4: The process is never linear. 

Note I didn’t say progress is never linear…

I said the process.

You’ve got to embrace ebbs and flows.

To lose that belly fat, you may not always be driving toward fat loss.

Diet breaks, maintenance periods…

Times you back off to keep doing the minimum…

May be needed to ultimately achieve your goal.

Self control is like a gas tank.

We can’t let it hit E while driving on the highway or we’re going to be in trouble. 

At points, you need to pull into that gas station and refill…ideally when the light even first comes on, to keep being able to move forward.

Same thing goes for your fat loss goals.

Sometimes you need to strategically back off to keep pushing forward. So know when burn out may become I don’t care at all forget everything…

And proactively and strategically even plan in breaks! 

So if you’ve felt like you’ll never lose belly fat…

Stop writing off your body recomp goals.

Yes it is hard but when we know the struggles we can plan for them and prove to ourselves so much more than we thought possible is possible!

If you’re looking for that support and programming to dial in your nutrition and workouts to see amazing body recomp, check out my 1:1 Coaching…

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Burn Fat and PROTECT Muscle (4 Tips)

Burn Fat and PROTECT Muscle (4 Tips)

by | Jun 9, 2024 | Blog, Diet, Exercises

I know you don’t want to hear this but…

Fat loss is a slow process.

If you’re trying to lose fat faster, you might not like the result.

And when we strive to see weight loss faster on the scale, ultimately all we’re doing is LOSING MUSCLE.

Which is generally the exact opposite of what we are trying to do.

Especially as we get older!

Because guess what?

It IS a harder process as we get older.

It’s harder to build and retain lean muscle.

It’s harder to lose fat.

Now note…I didn’t say impossible.

I said harder.

Honestly part of why it is harder is because we’ve approached losing fat in the past in the wrong way.

We’ve tried to out exercise and out diet time.

Spending hours in the gym, as we slash our calories lower isn’t what “used to work.”

It’s why we’re now stuck.

It’s why we’re now seeking to lose fat and so worried about losing our muscle.

So don’t just accept muscle loss and weight gain.

But it is time to buckle down and embrace a true lifestyle change.

That’s why I want to first go over WHY we tend to lose muscle during a fat loss phase and what we can do to protect our lean muscle while leaning down as much as possible.

And for those of you thinking…

“I only have a few pounds to lose…It shouldn’t be that hard…”

WRONG!

It’s harder and a SLOWER process to try to avoid muscle loss as you lose those last few percentages of body fat.

Because the leaner we get, the more our body wants to avoid depleting its fat stores, which are basically stored energy to make sure we are able to continue surviving.

So we can’t just slash our calories lower or train harder to try to get the scale to budge faster.

Doing so will sabotage our success.

Because muscle requires more calories to be maintained.

That’s why we often WILL lose some muscle during a weight loss or fat loss phase…

We just don’t have enough fuel coming in.

But while some muscle loss can be expected, we do to so much to prevent this from happening and even at times GAIN lean muscle while losing fat IF we focus on those fundamentals and don’t rush the process.

Because slashing your calories lower as you train harder will make your body do what it can to function off of less.

We lose muscle because it becomes an optimal source of FUEL.

It not only provides amino acids our body may feel it needs, the building blocks of protein that contribute to so many functions within our body besides just building muscle, but it also COSTS us energy to maintain.

When we eat less and burn more calories, our body finds ways to conserve energy.

Losing muscle is one of those ways as well as our brain telling us to move and fidget less.

Even bodily process such as hormone production are impacted as our body conserves energy to function as efficiently as possible off the restricted energy intake.

What our body is NOT doing as long as possible, is utilizing our fat stores.

It wants to hang onto those as fast as possible.

So when we push to see faster results on the scale, often we’ve depleted stored glycogen that our muscles hold, we’ve lost water weight because of depleting the stored glycogen and we’ve even lost muscle…

What we haven’t lost is MORE FAT from what we would have lost had we not tried to rush the process.

And often we’ve even lost LESS…

Especially as we get older.

Because our body doesn’t have the optimal hormonal environment it did when we were younger…

Not to mention previous dieting and training practices like this have already created metabolic adaptations and put us into a position where we have learned to survive off of fewer calories.

Basically if we don’t commit to dieting and training in a new way that matches what our body needs now, we’re not going to see the fat loss results we want.

But there are diet and workout changes you can make to help yourself not only reverse what’s going on but also protect that amazing lean muscle and even BUILD IT….

The thing is…

What I’m going to recommend you’re probably going to hate.

And your brain will rebel against doing it.

So let’s look at 4 tips to burn fat while protecting your muscle.

Which is to EAT MORE. 

Yes, lose fat by eating more.

Especially if you’ve slashed your calories super low in the past and never retrained your body to eat more, you’ve learned how to function well off of well…Nothing. 

If you’re eating under 1000 calories and not losing, it’s especially time you eat more.

And while you may think you need less as you’ve gotten older because your metabolism has slowed down, the opposite is actually true.

You need to first increase your calories to help increase your metabolic rate.

I won’t lie to you…This retraining process stinks.

And it can make you feel like you’re going BACKWARD before you go forward.

But, by eating more, you’ll have the fuel you need to help your body feel like it can let go of the stored fat.

To move more. To train hard. To support all those efficient bodily processes and restore hormonal balance. 

And most importantly, you’ll build lean muscle!

With eating more, we also BURN MORE.

You burn more calories to turn that food into fuel. 

So by eating more you burn more. And of course, what you eat does have an impact.

You’ll even find you may become hungrier as you eat more as your natural hunger cues return. 

Now the sucky part to start…As you increase your calories, you may gain weight.

You may see some fat creep on.

But you have to go through this slow process of retraining your body to eat more BEFORE you can then create a small calorie deficit to lose.

After increasing your daily calories 50-100 and maintaining each increase for a few weeks, you may then find you have then rebuilt to a point where you start to see the scale tick down. 

Or you can even then try a small deficit of 100 calories off where you’ve built to.

But the key is first learning to eat more to then have an intake where you can even create a deficit from.

Because at 800 calories?! What can you really cut!? 

Now if you’re thinking, “That’s not my problem. I eat a lot and am overeating right now.”

Eating more is still key. BUT in the way of not creating an extreme deficit off of your current intake.

Don’t then dramatically slash your calories lower. 

Instead just create a calorie deficit of 100-200 calories from what you’re doing.

The more we can continue to fuel, the more we support our body maintaining that lean muscle while utilizing our fat as fuel. 

And to help encourage that protection of lean muscle and even avoid gaining fat as we go through that hard retraining process to start, we want to then also focus on protein. 

Yup. Protein.

The macro that some people say we get too much of and others say we don’t get enough of.

And the thing is, the situation matters for what our intake should be. 

The older we get…

The harder we train…The more we want to lose fat and NOT lose muscle… 

The more important protein becomes.

So focus on at least 30% of your calories coming from protein to make sure you’re fueling those muscles to recover and repair while having enough protein left over for other bodily functions even while in a small calorie deficit.

And while diet is key for fat loss and even protecting our muscle, we can’t ignore how our diet and our WORKOUTS work together. 

If our workouts don’t match how we’re fueling, we won’t see the results we deserve.

Yet so often our training compounds the problem of under fueling because we see our workouts just as a chance to burn more calories. 

Which is why we so often turn to doing more cardio.

But if you want to protect your lean muscle, you need to focus on strength work and be SMART about how you include your cardio. 

I didn’t say you couldn’t do cardio, especially if you love your long runs or rides, but you do need to be smart about how you include it.

We always need to know the cost and reward of anything we include.

Steady state long distance cardio is catabolic to muscle mass, especially when in a calorie deficit. 

So if you’re turning to cardio to see results faster, you may be sabotaging yourself.

If you love your endurance sport, make sure to account for that in how you fuel and strength workout. 

And no, that doesn’t mean just more carbs. Actually increasing PROTEIN is again key. 

But also consider, lowering your mileage for a time to focus on one primary goal.

Remember it is easier to maintain your results once you’ve achieved them. 

And if you do include cardio, prioritize your strength work FIRST. 

What we do when we are freshest, we get the most benefit from. 

If you do your cardio first, you’re going to be tired for your resistance workout.

Your 100% intensity simply won’t be a true 100% because you’ll be fatigued. And progressing week over week is what drives muscle growth. 

So if you want to protect your muscle and lose fat, do any cardio AFTER you lift.

Even put cardio workouts after strength workouts that target those stubborn areas. 

This mobilizes more fat from the areas surrounding the muscles you worked to be utilized by your cardio finisher.

Also adjust the length and intensity of those cardio sessions. 

Short sprint work or even walking may be better forms of cardio for fat loss without putting you at risk for losing muscle. 

Both help you burn more calories over the week to create that deficit without slashing your calories lower (aka you can eat more) while also not being catabolic to muscle. 

Walking especially can be great for recovery.

And sprints can improve your conditioning and power to improve even your strength workouts while helping promote an optimal hormone environment for muscle growth! 

Now, the last and probably most important thing I want to cover to help you protect your lean muscle during fat loss is something that mentally may be the hardest to do…

Step off the scale. 

Yup. It’s not a workout or diet tip but it is key.

Because too often we judge fat loss based on that number on the scale changing.

And fat loss, without losing muscle, is going to mean that scale changes VERY slowly, especially the closer to your goal you get and even NOT AT ALL especially to start. 

Because the scale sucks at measuring fat loss.

The faster we want the scale to change, often the more we ultimately lose muscle.

So if you want to keep yourself focused on fat loss, take measurements, progress pictures and use clothing to monitor changes. 

This way you won’t sabotage yourself by working harder and going to extremes to ultimately just lose muscle and not more fat and keep yourself stuck in that horrible yo-yo dieting cycle! 

Ready to dial in your diet and your workouts to work together?

Learn more about my 1:1 Online Coaching.