Build Muscle and Lose Fat

It's not easy, but it is possible.
It sounds so simple, right? Why shouldn’t we be able to do it?
Well, some people say it’s a fool’s errand. Others say you need to follow “special” forms of dieting and training. Others still say it takes steroids.
They’re all wrong.
Building muscle and losing fat simultaneously (or “body recomposition,” as it’s often called), isn’t beyond the power of us mere natties.
It’s doable, and it doesn’t require esoteric knowledge, fancy or newfangled methodologies, or drugs.
There’s a catch, though.
You may or may not be able to do it, depending on your body composition, training experience, and more.
In the old-school world of fitness, you only focused on one goal at a time: either losing fat or gaining muscle. But what if you want to trim down and get stronger? Can you strive for both at the same time?
“Building muscle and losing fat at the same time is like Beyoncé performing at your birthday party,” says Boston-based strength coach Roger Lawson, C.S.C.S. “Everyone wants it, but it's only likely to happen under a very specific and magical set of circumstances.”
While it can be super tricky, accomplishing both of these seemingly contradictory goals at the same time is doable. These tips will help you crack the code.
The reason why many people think building muscle and losing fat at the same time is a pipe dream has to do with something called “protein biosynthesis” or “protein synthesis.”
Every day, your cells undergo “maintenance work” whereby damaged, faulty, and degraded cells are eliminated and new cells are created to take their place.
Protein synthesis refers to the creation of new cells and protein degradation refers to the elimination of unwanted ones.
Under normal health and dietary circumstances, muscle tissue is fairly stable and the cycle of cellular regeneration remains balanced.

That is, the average person doesn’t lose or gain muscle at an accelerated rate - his or her lean mass more or less remains level on a day-to-day basis. (If we don’t take actions to stop it, we actually slowly lose lean mass as we age, but you get the point.)
Now, when we train our muscles we damage the cells in the muscle fibers, and this signals the body to increase protein synthesis rates to repair the damage.
Our bodies are smart, too, and want to adapt to better deal with the activity that caused the muscle damage. To do this, they add cells to the muscle fibers, and this is how muscles get bigger and stronger (and why progressive overload is so important for building muscle and strength).
Thus, what we think of as just “muscle growth” is actually the result of protein synthesis rates exceeding protein breakdown rates over time.
In other words, when your body synthesizes (creates) more muscle proteins than it loses, you have gained muscle. If it creates fewer than it loses, you have lost muscle. If it creates more or less the same number as it loses, you have neither gained nor lost muscle.
This is why bodybuilders do everything they can to elevate protein synthesis rates and suppress protein degradation rates, including…
High-protein and high-carb dieting
Heavy compound weightlifting
Pre-workout and post-workout nutrition
Eating protein before bed
Limiting cardio
Supplementation