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Why You’re Building Muscle (But NOT Losing Fat)

Why You’re Building Muscle (But NOT Losing Fat)

by | Apr 27, 2025 | Blog, Diet

Why are you building muscle but not losing fat?

The simple answer is you’re rocking those strength workouts pushing hard in the gym but overeating and eating portions not in line with your goals.

We think calories surplus to build. So a bigger surplus should help things happen faster, right?

Nope. That’s not the case.

While a surplus is key if your main focus is on building muscle, just increasing your calories MORE past a point isn’t going to yield better muscle gains. And you’re going to gain fat as well.

You may even start to see your performance decline.

But eating too much isn’t the only reason we can struggle to lose fat while seeing ourselves build muscle.

You may be questioning what I just said, but yes I stated that overeating isn’t the only reason we can struggle to lose fat.

We can actually gain muscle while struggling to lose fat even in a technical calorie deficit after a period of extreme calorie restriction when we are finally trying to increase our calories.

Especially common during perimenopause and menopause when our hormones are in flux and we’ve experienced many failed dieting attempts where we’ve tried to slash our calories lower and lower.

With increasing your calories from your extreme deficit that has led to metabolic adaptations and hormonal imbalances, you are in a way creating a surplus over what your body has adapted to think it needs.

It’s downregulated processes to accommodate the lack of energy. But to restore balance, you need to increase calories. And as your body has the fuel it needs, it will seek to put on lean muscle over first losing fat.

Lean muscle is involved in so many important processes for our body so building it to restore metabolic health and balance is key. And ultimately, this WILL help us lose fat and look leaner.

It can just be frustrating in the process as we see the scale increase and even clothing feels tighter as we add muscle before we lose the fat.

But there are ways to help yourself see that recomp happen faster. And I want to talk through not only the nutritional changes you need first, but also two forms of cardio that may be key.

First the nutritional changes…

It really comes down to the thing most people avoid doing…Adjusting your macros.

Yup. Macros. The non diet diet so many people avoid because it seems hard and tedious and boring.

Who wants to weigh and measure everything?!

But it’s like baking a cake, if you weigh and measure everything in the recipe, it’s going to turn out better the first time.

Macros and tracking them are your recipe for results, especially if you have a plan laid out. Weigh and measure your portions so you know what you’re truly consuming.

It even gives you the power to tweak and adjust.

The thing is, there is no way around hard changes if we want a new and better result, especially as fast as possible.

And the more we take time now to learn and truly do things precisely, the better and faster things turn out.

While you may feel you’re eating clean and healthy already, that doesn’t mean your portions are fully in line with your body, needs or goals.

Each macronutrient – the proteins, carbs and fats we consume – all impact our body in different ways.

How we adjust the portions we consume therefore has an impact.

Less active, you may need fewer carbs. More active, you may need more and not eating enough could lead to thyroid issues.

Fear fat may make you fat? Under eating fat with the increase in inflammation we see during menopause could only be making things worse.

And not eating enough protein? That may be why you’re struggling to see recomp as fast as you’d like!

Protein is more key than we realize if we want to lose fat as we put on muscle, especially as we get older as we don’t use it as efficiently.

As you retrain your body to eat more, and I say RETRAINING it for a reason as you are allowing it to adjust bodily processes to account for the fact that you do now have adequate fuel, you will want to focus on 35-40% of your calories coming from protein.

This not only fuels that muscle growth but helps you burn more calories at rest. And it isn’t as easily stored as fat.

And we have to remember that protein doesn’t just go to helping us build and repair our muscle tissue. It’s essential for our bone and brain health as well as the repair of other tissues. It has a positive impact in so many ways and can only assist in that metabolic healing and hormonal balance process.

That’s why it can help us keep seeing those muscle gains while helping us start to shift the fat when we’ve been struggling.

And if you are strategically wanting to build muscle and in that calorie surplus consciously, maintaining a protein minimum of 30% can even help you continue those muscle gains while avoiding gaining any more fluff in a surplus.

Now as important as your macros and diet are to helping you see the fat loss you want while building muscle, your workouts still really matter.

You can’t out exercise your diet, but when both your diet and your workouts work together, results are better and faster.

Strength workouts are hands down essential. They help you build that lean muscle and ultimately improve your metabolic health. They will help you look leaner long term.

But, specific forms of cardio can help in this situation where you are seeing those muscle gains, but the fat isn’t budging.

This doesn’t mean start logging those miles and turn to tons of steady state cardio. Actually avoiding this is key.

Instead you want to focus on two specific forms of cardio – SIT or sprint interval training – and walking.

First, walking…

Walking is a great de-stress which can promote optimal body composition through improving insulin sensitivity and hormonal balance and help us burn more calories at rest to improve our metabolic health while not fatiguing us for future lifting sessions.

The fact that it is low intensity and more restorative allows us to really optimize our strength workouts to get the most value from them.

Because prioritizing building muscle in our workouts is key even if we want to lose fat. And if we’re too tired to push hard in our lifting sessions, we won’t create that stimulus for muscle growth.

Now the second form of cardio that can be helpful to improve our metabolic health, especially during menopause, is SIT.

Sprint interval training can help improve hormone levels and promote muscle growth whereas steady state is catabolic to muscle tissue. It can also help us better utilize mobilized fatty acids aka assist in better fat loss.

And these sessions aren’t time-consuming or hard to include. Even just 5-10 minutes at the end of a strength day can have value.

More isn’t necessarily better either. Intensity of these short bouts is what makes them work. So adding in more would defeat the purpose.

To add in SIT, you want to use work to rest intervals of 8-30 seconds sprinting to 12-90 seconds resting. So rest does vary from half the time you sprinted up to 3 times the length you worked.

About 5-8 rounds is all that is needed with 10 rounds max being done. 2-3 times a week of SIT along with walking is an amazing addition to your lifts.

These are hard, quick bursts where you are focused on maximal effort. They should feel horrible but be over before you know it.

And don’t just think longer work and less rest is better! The combination is what helps improve your recovery, work capacity and see that body recomp magic happen!

So if you’ve been frustrated that you’ve gained muscle but not lost fat, step back to assess your current calorie intake. If you’ve gone crazy with the surplus, back it off. You’re retraining your body to eat more, don’t stop trying to bump calories.

But with both take a look at your macros. Focus on that protein! And then consider tweaking your routines to include these two forms of cardio!

It can be hard to embrace this process and KEEP GOING when it feels like results aren’t happening…That’s where having a guide and outside perspective can be ke!

–> Learn More About My 1:1 Coaching For The Custom Plan And Guidance To Help

How To Increase Your Metabolism (At Any Age)

How To Increase Your Metabolism (At Any Age)

by | May 19, 2024 | Blog, Diet

Ok let’s get one thing straight – you haven’t killed your metabolism. It isn’t broken even.

It’s adapted.

I want to explain why our metabolism adapts and even strategies you can use to make this work to your advantage.

And just to be clear…your age is not an excuse.

While yes it can feel harder to make changes as we get older, a big part of that is simply the fact we’ve ignored many of these other factors for so long and previous dieting and training practices are catching up with us now!

So first…why does your metabolism adapt?

Our metabolism isn’t a stagnant thing.

Changes in our lifestyle and changes in our lifestyle can have a huge impact on it – from how we fuel to how active we are.

That’s why we have to be conscious of how we approach losing weight, especially if we want to see amazing and LASTING body recomp.

Because so often in search of faster results, and more dramatic changes on the scale, we implement habits that have a NEGATIVE impact on our metabolic health.

While we do need a calorie deficit to lose weight, creating too big a deficit will backfire.

Yet this is so often what we’ve always done.

If calories in vs. calories out is our main focus for weight loss, we almost assume going lower is better.

But it’s not.

Yes, it may be nice to see that scale change quickly, but dropping our calories extremely low changes how our body functions.

Metabolic adaptations occur and our metabolism slows to try to regulate energy expenditure to match energy intake.

Less energy coming in, your body makes sure survival functions are covered first.

This can mean we may find ourselves having less energy to get up and move around extra.

We may find we fidget less.

We may even see our workout performance decline.

Your body will slow down, or reduce, any processes that burn energy it doesn’t feel it has coming in…

And this can also mean muscle being lost.

Muscle is metabolically costly. It requires more energy to be maintained.

Whereas, our fat stores are more pure fuel for our body.

When energy is in short supply, our body is going to do what it can to conserve.

Less muscle means less energy needed to survive.

That is why we can not only struggle to build muscle in an extreme deficit even though we’re trying to train hard, but we can even LOSE muscle.

And oddly enough, the harder we train to try to see the results, the more we may be making that deficit even more extreme…fighting against any muscle building efforts further.

So while yes, a calorie deficit is key…

Slashing our calories lower to try to see results faster started the snowball of metabolic adaptations…

Adaptations you may find accumulate more and more as you get older.

And this is why we start blaming our age for the metabolic slowdown.

Over time, we’ve repeated this yo-yo dieting cycle…

Slash our calories lower and burn more calories in our training.

So we lose fast on the scale.

But we ultimately lose just as much muscle as fat.

Slowing our metabolic rate.

And in the process creating hormonal imbalances which only make matters worse.

Then ultimately we can’t sustain the severe restriction and training regime, so we regain the weight.

But when we regain the weight, we aren’t doing so in a healthy way to rebuild muscle.

Instead we’re defaulting back into bad habits.

All that weight we then gain only makes our body composition worse as we put on fat.

This leads to us even potentially putting on more weight as our body has learned to function better off of the lower calories AND we’ve lost muscle.

So the next time we go to diet down, not only is the process HARDER but our metabolic rate may be slower and may only further adapt as we implement those same dieting practices!

And this is why it can feel like it as we get older it gets harder and harder.

Not to mention, as most of us get older…we aren’t as active.

So lower activity levels on average coupled with improper dieting practices and this yo-yo dieting cycle…

Of course it feels like it gets harder and our metabolism is slower than ever.

Now I do want to mention…age DOES have an impact.

Because while too often we just blame our age and write ourselves off because of it, there are things we WILL need to address with how we train and fuel if we want to see results NO MATTER our age…

As we get older, we aren’t able to utilize protein as efficiently and muscle gains are slower.

Our hormonal environment isn’t as optimal as it once was for muscle growth.

And less muscle as we get older DOES mean a slower metabolism.

BUT again…our metabolism is constantly adjusting…

So as much as our previous dieting practices have had an impact negatively…we can also CHANGE them to not only address our changing needs as we get older but also REVERSE the adaptations we’ve created with previous dieting attempts…

So…How can you use the fact that your metabolism adjusts to your advantage?

Because at any point we can improve our metabolic health and increase our metabolic rate by changing how we fuel and train!

We can eat to be energized and want to move more.

This means NOT starving ourselves as we try to train harder.

We can properly fuel our training as our workouts focus on building lean muscle.

This means we need to stop seeing our workouts as a chance to burn more calories and instead focus on building muscle.

We need to challenge ourselves with our lifts. We need to not just fall into doing more. And we need to focus on that protein.

This will lead to us increasing our muscle mass to burn more calories at rest. AKA raise our resting metabolic rate!

The more we focus on these habits to increase our metabolic rate, the more we will find we are able to lose fat and KEEP IT OFF.

We will look leaner and FEEL BETTER because we are actually FUELING our body to function optimally…

And this can be done at ANY age.

While yes, we don’t utilize protein as efficiently or have that same anabolic environment for muscle growth as naturally, just RECOGNIZING this, we can account for it.

We can focus more on strength training and truly challenging ourselves.

And we can be even more conscious about a small calorie deficit after retraining ourselves first potentially to eat more.

Not to mention, we can emphasize MORE PROTEIN. As by just getting MORE we can create that same muscle protein synthesis we had with less when our hormones were at more “optimal” levels.

But as much as this all sounds fabulous….

I’m going to warn you…

This process of addressing metabolic adaptations takes time…

There are no magic metabolic foods or moves we need to be including.

Honestly, the process of addressing metabolic adaptations is often even FRUSTRATING.

It’s hard mentally because it usually requires us to do the OPPOSITE of what we’ve always done…

And often we feel like we’re LOSING PROGRESS when first making the necessary dietary changes.

Yup.

Especially if you want to see the scale go DOWN….in the process of helping improve your metabolic healthy, you may first have to embrace the scale GOING UP.

Your body doesn’t like change…even when it is good for it.

So increasing your calories to truly fuel that muscle growth and increase your metabolism may mean seeing the scale increase.

This isn’t just that glycogen stores are being filled from a depleted state…

It’s partly because your body has learned to function on LESS.

So this extra energy to start is viewed as extra you don’t need and will be stored.

That’s why slowly increasing your calories from your deficit just 50-100 slowly over the weeks is key.

This helps restore hormonal balance.

And as you do this, you need to focus on PROTEIN.

This can help you avoid gaining unwanted fat as much as possible as you increase your calories.

And it can pay off because extra as we get older because we need more protein to create that same anabolic, muscle building response we had when we were younger.

And then, even as you see the scale increase, you can’t fear increasing calories.

Which will probably be the OPPOSITE of what you first want to do when seeking to lose weight.

As you build lean muscle, from proper fueling and strength training, your energy demands will increase.

Aka your metabolic rate will increase!

And then you’ll need to eat more to maintain it.

What once may have been enough, then becomes a deficit.

Now you may be wondering…But how do I know I’m not just gaining a ton of fat?!

This is where stepping off the scale and measuring may be key!

As muscle is being built, you will see inches being lost before the scale starts to trend downward.

And while frustrating, acknowledging this and accepting this…and embracing the long term habits…will ultimately pay off.

Because if you do have more weight to lose, the scale WILL start to change.

But it takes time.

Yup…patience…that thing none of us want to have is key.

So if you’ve worried your metabolism is dead…

It’s not.

You haven’t killed it.

And metabolic adaptations…heck you even saying you just have always have had a slow metabolism…

Can be changed at any and every age.

But you DO need to avoid extreme calorie deficits, focus on protein and build that lean muscle with your workouts!

And if you’ve found yourself repeating the same horrible yo-yo dieting cycle, the only way out of it is to make a change and realize your results may go backward before that recomp starts happening!

Because it can be hard to trust the process, having that outside perspective and guidance can be key.

To help you address metabolic adaptations and see the results you deserve, check out my 1:1 Coaching.

–> LEARN MORE

The Diets That Hurt Our Metabolism

The Diets That Hurt Our Metabolism

by | Mar 3, 2024 | Blog, Diet

Fad diet are keeping us stuck in this horrible yo-yo dieting cycle…

A cycle where we oddly become really good at losing the weight…

But also really good at regaining it.

And over time we only feel more and more frustrated not seeing the results we want while working harder and harder.

It’s all because these diets with labels overcomplicate things by oversimplifying things.

Let me say that again…

They suck you in making things seem easy and simple, but really they’re making things complicated and unsustainable.

And I don’t give a flying fart in space how you want to defend your diet with a label…

A diet you’re super excited by because you’re seeing initial results after just starting a month ago while being super motivated…

But, talk to me the second life gets in the way and you’re tempted by that basket of chips and salsa…

The first time you travel and it isn’t easy to hit the arbitrary standards of clean eating your diet recommends…

Because most fad diets…those diets with a label you almost attach yourself to as a badge of honor…

Keto, Carnivore, Paleo, Raw Food…

Promise fast results and make things seemingly simple to start.

BUT…they never truly help you create lasting change or shift your lifestyle.

They create restriction…not understanding.

They actually bank on the fact that you’re not truly learning what you need…

because it means you’ll buy into another label probably only months later when someone else posts on social media it’s magical and POOF the weight just disappeared…

But lasting results are not overnight results.

And we don’t often want to look and feel good just for a day.

That’s why I want to show you the Change Loop you’re keeping yourself stuck in jumping from label to label – repeating the same mistake over and over again just packed with a different bow on top…

And why you not only need to SIMPLIFY things but also embrace the HARD LEARNING PROCESS that seems far more complicated to start if you truly want a change.

I’ve done the label hopping…

Always thinking, “This next change will be it!”

I’d pick something that seemed like it would work fast.

That seemed simple to do…

I mean…I just need to cut out THIS ONE THING right and it will all work!?

Yes!

I’d go all in.

Restricting whatever I was told, even if I loved it.

And sometimes, I’d see fast results…to start.

I’d even try to convince myself, “This isn’t so bad! I didn’t like dessert that much anyway.”

But slowly it would feel like the restrictions tightened more and more.

I felt haunted by the foods I wanted and the cravings would increase.

And worse of all…The results would stop.

I’d hit a fast plateau. And began to DREAD the diet.

The overwhelm would hit and I’d start to whine and tell myself it wasn’t worth it.

So I’d quit. I’d go straight to my craving and BOOM a month later I’d be worse off than where I started…

Sluggish on the couch nursing a food hangover, I’d start to think…“I need to make a change! And I’d go search for the next label to fall for….

This right there is the change loop.

We find a program, get caught up in the promise of it.

We go all in, never really considering if the habits match what we need or are sustainable.

And in the process of making changes, we create habit overload.

We can embrace the restriction and sacrifice it for a bit if the results happen fast.

It feels worth it.

But then we always hit that point where results slow.

Where we start to feel like we just don’t have the willpower or self control.

We do that walk to the cabinet 17 times trying to talk ourselves out of having just ONE of those mini candy bars…

We do this until we hit that emotional sabotage point of this isn’t working anyway…

And we have the whole bag.

Once the seal is broken, it can take us days if not weeks or months of “I quit” before we again get motivated and jump right back into this loop…

Being swept up in the promise of another program…

What we don’t realize is that each and every time, we’re truly repeating the EXACT same mistakes.

Sure one time we’re cutting out carbs. Or nightshades or cooking…

But what we don’t realize is that by trying to keep things SIMPLE, we’re just constantly repeating the same mistake of restricting.

We’re drawing arbitrary lines of what foods we can and can’t have.

We’re not truly learning our balance or the fundamentals of nutrition.

The stuff that is hard and complicated and SLOWER changes to start.

Sorry.

But let’s be real…

No results worth having EVER came easy…

That’s why if you want to get out of this cycle and see lasting results to feel, look and move your best at ANY age…

You need to embrace the sucky fact that you’ve got to do the HARD process of creating a balance through a slow habit stack and learning!

This hard process starts with learning about your current lifestyle and finding one small change you can make today.

And…very unpopular opinion, but busting out of this loop to see the body recomp you want and feel your best, also comes with learning about macros.

Yup macros – the breakdown of the portions of proteins, carbs and fats you consume.

Now how you learn about macros, and how you track your food may vary.

But the more we truly learn what we need, the more we can control to adjust while including the foods we love.

Many of us have heard, heck I’ve even SAID, the line “Eat whatever you want and see results.”

“See results without cutting out the foods you love.”

And while this line sounds too good to be true…

While it sounds like just another diet with a label is coming your way…

It isn’t.

This statement is true.

It’s the power of macros.

Now note, I didn’t say whatever you want whenever you want in whatever quantity you want.

Sorry that’s not the case with anything in life.

But this is the power of learning the portions of each you need to see results while not having to label things as good or bad, off limits or ok!

And this is also what helps you create a lifestyle.

One size doesn’t fit all – yet we force ourselves to fit a diet label.

We force ourselves to not embrace that food is no longer just fuel.

That we have so many things in our diet we just include because we enjoy them.

And this isn’t a bad thing.

We shouldn’t feel guilty for just ENJOYING certain things and even the events that come with those foods.

We just need to learn our balance.

And the more we assess our current lifestyle, make one change to move forward while we learn about those macros and their impact, the more we can see those results snowball.

As we then stack more and more habit changes, we will see those results build. But not only build, actually LAST.

So as unsexy as this process is…

As hard and complicated and overwhelming as it is to start…

It’s ultimately easier.

It demystifies what works.

Because those diets that make it seem so simple, are really just not showing you HOW to do it on your own. They’re not teaching you so you stay stuck.

So today, if you haven’t before, just write down what you’re currently eating.

Then pick one really easy change to make.

Don’t cut out the food you love most.

Even consider adding in.

But make one small change and then even check the video description for a link to more on the basics of macros so you can start to truly understand what YOU need for long term results!

Get off the dieting rollercoaster and learn how to truly stack those habits and make those LASTING nutritional changes…

Learn more about my Metabolic Shred!

 

How To Increase Metabolism At Any Age (7 Workout Tips)

How To Increase Metabolism At Any Age (7 Workout Tips)

by | Oct 1, 2023 | Blog, Exercises, Workouts

The number one thing impacting your metabolic health isn’t your age…

It’s your muscle mass.

And so often as we get older, we DO lose muscle.

Not to mention previous dieting and workout practices for weight loss often cause us to lose muscle as we strive for faster results on the scale.

And this muscle loss is often why we see more metabolic decline and adaptations over time.

The great thing is…

We can REVERSE these things and improve our metabolic health at ANY age.

But boosting our metabolism isn’t just about our diet, it’s also about how we train.

We need to focus on training practices that create that stimulus for muscle growth while also helping us to burn more calories throughout the day.

More muscle requires more calories consumed to be maintained and more calories burned even at rest!

That’s why in this video I wanted to share 7 tips you can use to improve your training schedule and boost your metabolism

Tip #1: Work legs AND upper body in a workout.

Working two large muscle groups in a single session helps you burn more calories DURING the workout and build muscle faster.

This creates a greater calorie burn during the day for better fat loss results, but also raises your resting metabolic rate because of the added muscle.

More muscle means more calories burned even at rest to build and maintain it. Your energy demands go up!

By not only working two large muscle groups in general but specifically pairing LEGS and UPPER body in a session, you can promote an even more optimal hormonal environment for growth.

By doing legs BEFORE upper body in a session, studies have shown you release more testosterone and growth hormone, which can lead to faster muscle gains.

So whether you do butt and hamstrings with back exercises or quads and chest, consider pairing lower body with upper body in a workout.

This can help you get in more quality work for muscle groups not only in a single workout but over the week.

This is also a great way to pack in more to shorter training sessions, which can also lead to a better hormonal environment for growth.

Too often we make our sessions longer, leading to not only wasted volume but a rise in cortisol levels which can fight against our gains.

So alternate areas worked in your sessions so that one muscle group gets to rest as you work the other. This will keep your sessions shorter!

And make sure you’re focusing on big heavy compound lifts for each area for the bulk of your workout!

Tip #2: Use cluster sets to lift more.

We need to lift more weight to build muscle.

The more you can progress and lift, the faster you can build.

But this isn’t just about what you can lift for a single rep.

It’s about the total loads lifted overall for an area in individual workouts and even over weeks and months.

The more weight you move overall, the more you’ll see that growth.

But this weight lifted needs to also be quality work.

This is where cluster sets, especially for a compound exercise to start your workout can be an amazing tool to increase your training density and actually lift more weight overall for an area.

With cluster sets, you are breaking up your traditional set of 8 reps, into fewer reps, say just 2 or 3 in a row, with just 10-30 seconds of rest between those mini sets, before you rest longer and do another round.

Because you are only performing 2 or 3 reps before the short rest, you will find you can use more weight for the full 8 reps than you would have been able to if you had tried to just do 8 in a row.

You may also find you avoid that last kind of half done rep because of fatigue for quality reps all the way through.

More weight lifted in a set amount of time for quality reps leads to faster muscle growth and ultimately helps boost that metabolism!

Tip #3: Design shorter and harder workouts.

So often we focus on doing more, making our workouts longer and harder to try to make ourselves more sore, thinking that will lead to better results faster.

Instead we need to focus less on time and volume and more on quality, intensity and intentionality with everything we do.

Less is more when what we do is done well.

While we may feel like we are giving 100% as our workout gets longer and we do more reps and sets, that 100% intensity isn’t a true 100%.

If instead we focus on giving that full true 100% effort for less, we will see that quality pay off.

Not to mention hormone levels start to fight against us the longer those sessions get, especially if we aren’t including enough rest but instead just trying to do more reps and exercises for the same muscle.

While we don’t want to just demonize a hormone like cortisol because it does help promote fat metabolism, exercising for too long can elevate levels of cortisol to catabolize muscle protein for fuel instead of conserving it to be used to repair damaged tissues.

So we want to be conscious that we are including everything in our sessions with purpose and not just making them longer and longer to feel harder thinking that will lead to better gains!

Focus on quality and what you truly feel working with each rep. Be present in your workouts to push the effort and maximize everything you include!

Tip #4: Use interval finishers.

Keeping our heart healthy is key and strength training can be metabolic and improve our conditioning and cardiovascular healthy.

But it can also be key to include some cardio to help us recover faster so we can lift more.

Not to mention interval training can lead to more calories being burned even at rest while, if done strategically, not leading to muscle catabolism or impaired recovery.

Interval training can increase our EPOC or excess post exercise oxygen consumption…often called the afterburn.

And while no magic pill, this increase in energy expenditure to help us recover, repair and rebuild can lead to better fat loss results and offset some of the metabolic changes we’ve experienced as we build lean muscle.

Consider including short interval sessions as the end of your workouts, varying work to rest intervals.

Don’t add 20 minutes on to your workout, but consider interval work for about 5 minutes – whether you include longer work than rest like 20 on, 10 off or longer rest to work 10 on 30 off!

That variety can help you work different energy systems and even improve your recovery time to be able to lift more in your strength workouts!

Tip #5: REST REST AND…oh yea…REST

This is the least sexy of all 7 tips but the most important.

Your muscles only grow if they have time to repair and rebuild.

This doesn’t mean you have to wait a whole week before working an area again or that you won’t see gains if you do work a muscle on back to back days at times, but you want to be conscious that areas have time to recover.

And the more frequently you work an area in a week, the more you need to lower the number of reps and sets and work you do per session.

Focusing on rest also doesn’t just mean recovery between sessions but DURING your workout.

If you rush through sets without allowing yourself enough rest, you’re going to see your work output and intensity drop quickly.

This can lead to you feeling tired and challenged while not actually challenging yourself to the fullest extent possible.

It may be why you aren’t building muscle as fast as you’d like or really creating that anabolic hormonal environment for growth.

So don’t skip on the recovery!

It is truly the part so often overlooked that can fight against our muscle gains and perpetuate those metabolic adaptations.

Tip #6: Don’t forget your power work!

Explosive power work is not only key if you want to stay functional stronger and better able to avoid injury as you get older, but it can also help build muscle.

It helps us improve our mind-body connection and recruit muscles faster in the correct order, which also results in us being able to lift more.

Yet often we avoid it because we only think of it as jumping.

And while we shouldn’t avoid jumping as we get older, I also understand that injuries may not allow us to do that jump training as part of our explosive work, which can lead to us not doing any at all.

Not to mention, too often we lump in explosive power work to interval work when it needs to be its own set thing.

When doing power work, short explosive max effort intervals with longer rest periods are essential. Otherwise you end up fatiguing and training slowness.

You want to move quickly, go at 100% intensity then rest fully.And you want to do this when you are fresh.

Consider including power work before your first heavy lift after your warm up routine.

Including things like sprints, even on a bike if you want to reduce impact, or weighted exercises like med ball work, kettlebell swings or even Olympic lifts if you’re experienced, can lead to amazing muscle gains.

They can also promote optimal hormone levels, increasing growth hormone production, for our strength workouts!

Tip #7: Walk for recovery! 

Our body was meant to move. Moving more is key to our health and even our fat loss results.

But we don’t want to just include workouts that beat us down.

That’s why walking is so key to include.

The extra movement can help us burn more calories while not being catabolic to our muscle mass.

It can help increase our metabolic rate while being a great restorative activity.

And if you can get outside to even get Vitamin D, it is a win win for your health and body recomp!

So if you’re someone that struggles to take time off, or you’re working to lose weight and want to fight those metabolic adaptations, include more walking in your routine, especially on “rest days.”

You can even add in some bonus mobility work before your walk to help your body recover for your next training sessions so you can push hard!

Metabolic changes happen but there is so much we can do to reverse them and see better fat loss results no matter our age.

However, we need to make sure we’re focusing on doing everything we can in our workouts to build that lean muscle if we want to increase our metabolic rate.

Use these 7 tips to boost your metabolism and see your hard work in the gym pay off!

Ready to accelerate your results with metabolism boosting workouts?

–> Join Dynamic Strength

 

How To Increase Metabolism At Any Age (6 Tips)

How To Increase Metabolism At Any Age (6 Tips)

by | Jul 23, 2023 | Blog, Diet, Workouts

Our metabolism does slow down as we get older.

But so much of the metabolic slowdown that we blame on age is actually due to lifestyle factors we can CHANGE adding up.

We have to remember that nothing works forever.

And often what we “got away with” even when we are younger is now coming back to haunt us.

As our body and lifestyle evolves, we’ve got to adjust how we fuel and train.

That’s why I’m going to share 6 tips to help boost your metabolism to lose fat at any and every age.

First, Focus On Hydration. 

Many of us know we should drink more water. 

But the struggle is real to actually change this habit.

Not only is it confusing to know how much water to drink but it’s hard to stop yourself during the day to get water when it isn’t already a part of your routine or you’re not really thirsty for it. 

However, proper hydration becomes more important as we get older and even start the hormonal changes of perimenopause.

Especially if you’re training hard, you want to consider consuming MORE than the general recommendation of 50% of your bodyweight in ounces.

You want to even shoot for 70% of your bodyweight in ounces of water consumed every day.

While you may find setting out a filled water bottle by the coffee maker helpful to remind you to drink water even as you make your coffee, you can also improve your hydration levels by consuming more high water content foods over the course of the day. 

To help you hit this amount and stay hydrated, don’t just only focus on drinking more water, as key as that is.

Make a salad of cucumbers, bell peppers, tomatoes and lettuce – all high water content foods. 

Add berries to your oatmeal for breakfast to improve your hydration to start your day. 

Or try melons in your cottage cheese as a protein rich snack to stay hydrated. 

But focus not only on ways to drink more water but even improve your hydration through fruits and vegetables that also pack in the micronutrients to your diet as well!

Second, Eat 30-40 Grams Of Protein Per Meal. 

Increasing your protein is key.

And while most of us have heard we can only consume 20-30 grams of protein at one sitting, this just isn’t the case. 

While 20-30 grams may be the max we need to specifically utilize to build muscle from one sitting, this is also based on studies of protein supplements. 

The other macros consumed at a meal will impact the rate of digestion, slowing the process even to better let us utilize more at a time.

Not to mention as we get older, we are less able to utilize protein as efficiently, meaning we need more to see the same results. 

That’s why increasing our intake to 30-40 grams per meal, especially in our post workout meal can be super beneficial.

The harder you train, the more you want to focus on a higher protein intake to make sure you’re able to repair and recover more efficiently from your training. 

If we aren’t able to recover and rebuild properly, we may see our hard work in the gym not pay off the way we’d like in terms of strength gains and muscle growth, which can impact our metabolic health. 

And protein is not only key because of its muscle building benefits but also because it keeps us feeling fuller if we are in a calorie deficit to lose weight. 

This can make sticking to our nutritional plan easier long-term which allows consistency and time to work their results magic.

Plus, protein has a higher thermic effect than the other macros, meaning your body burns more calories to digest and utilize it for other bodily functions and to keep the tissues of your body strong and healthy.

It’s also important to find your food quality balance.

I’m a big believer in working in the foods you love. 

I love having a rice krispie treat or Reese peanut butter cup or ice cream as dessert.

And I will plan these things in first when I want them.

I also think we too often sabotage ourselves with this clean eating pressure where we feel we can’t have things we enjoy and eliminate foods arbitrarily that aren’t even necessarily an intolerance we personally struggle with. 

BUT we do need to find a balance.

Quality fuel helps our body function best. And we always want to seek to balance enjoying life and functioning optimally! 

We need those essential micronutrients to not only feel our best and stay healthy, but even to keep our metabolic rate higher and help us lose fat. 

A few micronutrients you may want to focus on more if you are working to lose fat and rev that metabolism are choline, magnesium, vitamin D, selenium and zinc. 

Choline is involved in the process of lipolysis, or fat loss, helping to break down fat into smaller pieces to be burned as energy. 

Eggs, beef, red potatoes and kidney beans are all great sources to include. 

Magnesium is involved in nearly everything, but when it comes to fat loss and metabolism, it helps control insulin and glucose, which both impact fat storage. 

It also can help with water retention and bloating, especially as you are increasing protein and making other dietary changes. 

Pumpkins, chia seeds, almonds and spinach are all great sources of magnesium.

Vitamin D is also key to include although harder to boost through our food consumption.

Even if we try to get out in the sun daily, as we get older we want to make sure we are boosting our intake even with a supplement. 

Studies have shown that low levels of vitamin D are linked to higher rates of overweight and obesity.

And both selenium and zinc are key for proper thyroid functioning. Impaired thyroid function will lead to a slower metabolic rate.

To increase your intake of selenium include foods like brazil nuts, yellowfin tuna and halibut and to increase zinc consider oysters, pumpkin seeds, pork loin or even oats. 

While I’ve talked about 3 key nutritional tips, the best results happen when our diet and our workouts work together.

That’s why you can’t ignore the importance of your training for your metabolic health. 

When designing your workouts, stop just doing body part splits.

(Looking for workouts designed strategically to help you reach your goals? Check out my Dynamic Strength App!)

Design progressions that Work Your Upper And Lower Body In The Same Workout. 

Full-body workouts or anterior/posterior splits can be beneficial if you are looking to keep your metabolism healthy as you get older without having to spend hours in the gym 6 days a week. 

Not only are these workouts more efficient, but you will target multiple big muscle groups each and every workout to more effectively build muscle while also burning more calories per session.

While I never like to focus on training as just a time to burn more calories, this extra calorie burn because you’re working more big muscles per session to build more muscle isn’t a bad added bonus! 

And by doing these splits, you can also increase your training frequency for each area over the week.

Training a body part 2-3 times per week over simply doing more for an area in a single session may help you see better muscle gains. 

That training frequency for especially hard to grow areas of 2-3 times per week has shown to yield the best results.

It can also help you train the area at a higher intensity each session, performing a higher overall quality of work, as too often we simply include more training volume in a workout that becomes wasted as we fatigue over the session. 

So consider designing workouts that allow you to target different areas every workout while hitting both big muscle groups in your upper and lower body each session!

The next training tip is to Focus On Low Reps And Heavy Weights. 

Too often we turn to more cardio or metabolic workouts when we want to lose fat. They make us feel out of breath and like we worked hard. 

But muscle is what stokes that metabolic fire.

To build that muscle we need heavy loads and progression in movements that challenges our muscles to tear them down so they have to rebuild stronger.

This is why you want to work down in reps and up in weights during your training.

And while using a diversity of rep ranges is ideal, do not ignore that maximal strength rep range of 1-5 reps even if muscle hypertrophy and fat loss is your goal. 

Increasing our strength allows us to then move more weight overall during our training, resulting in better muscle gains.

So while you may have heard that 6-12 reps is best for muscle hypertrophy and you do want to include this rep range, working lower in reps with even heavier loads will ultimately make you stronger to lift more for those exercises done in the 6-12 rep range.

Consider including a single heavy compound lift at the start of your workout for 4-5 rounds of 3-5 reps, resting 3-5 minutes between rounds. 

Follow that up with other compound accessory exercises in the 6-12 rep range to target specific muscle groups you’ve already started fatiguing with that first lift! 

The final tip is to Sprint More.

That high intensity interval work is so key to our conditioning and metabolic health. It is a great way to burn calories in an efficient way as well.

And if you perform short intervals of work of even just 10-20 seconds with 3-5 times the rest, you can really train speed. 

Just don’t get caught up on doing a bazillion rounds.

You don’t want to feel beat down from these short sessions. Less is more. Think even just 8-10 rounds of sprints. 

Go all out and fully recover. You want to train speed which means not doing a work interval again until you’ve recovered.

When you include sprints in this way, not only can you help keep your metabolic rate higher, even increasing your calorie burn after the sessions, but you’ll help improve your mind-body connection to even get more out of your lifting. 

This explosive power work helps you more efficiently recruit muscles which can lead to better strength gains.

These short intense bursts also help us see better results from our other workouts because they improve our conditioning and therefore our ability to recover more quickly between rounds of work. 

Better recovery means better quality of work during our training!

Using these 6 tips you can improve your metabolic health to lose fat at any and every age. 

Just remember the best results happen when our diet and our workouts work together!