Is it possible to gain muscle while losing fat? To gain muscle, it goes without saying that your training should be on point. You need to be focusing on the big multi joint exercises. Train hard but within your ability to recover and slowly get stronger, by adding weight to your exercises week by week. Check out our 4-day Bodybuilding workout to see how you should be training to gain muscle.

To gain muscle you should also know (hopefully) that you need to be in a caloric surplus or simply put, eat more calories than you burn per day. No matter how “clean” you eat or how many “superfoods” you eat, be in vain, if you are not taking in more calories than it requires to maintain your current bodyweight. It IS that simple. But how many more calories exactly? Read this article to calculate how many calories you need for your bodyweight.

The following 4 methods of eating to gain muscle, which we have expanded upon, were first laid out by Mark McManus.

1. Re-Composition (gain muscle while losing fat)

Re-composition or recomping as some call it, basically means gain muscle while losing fat. To do this we need to contradict ourselves and tell you to keep calories at maintenance level (as opposed to being in a surplus as described above) but continue to train hard for muscle gains. You’ll lose 
fat quite quickly, but still gain muscle. One thing to note is that your muscle gains will be a little slower than on a dedicated plan just for muscle gain, but you will still make appreciable muscle gains. World renowned trainer Brett Contreras aka the “Glute guy” summarizes body re-composition quite nicely.

– Eat maintenance calories and around 1g of protein per 1lb of lean body mass per day

– Get way stronger and fitter through proper workouts

– Keep doing it for months on end

2. Lean Gaining 

Here you’ll gain a considerable amount of muscle of with minimal fat gains. It involves eating 200-300 Cals above your maintenance level. This is how we recommend you eat most of the time. You get to eat a good quantity of food, enjoy a treat meal or two, and gain muscle, while staying mostly lean all year long. This type of approach also ensures that you are never too far from having to lean out if you need to.

3. Controlled Bulk

Here you eat 400-700 Calories above maintenance per day. You’ll get maximal gains, but you will also gain fat – probably around 1 lb of fat every 2 weeks. We recommend this type of muscle gain in several situations.

– If you are naturally lean and can afford to put on some body fat to speed up muscle gains.

– If you are mainly interested in getting maximal strength and muscle gain.

– If you’ve hit a plateau in terms of strength and muscle gain, a temporary boost in calories may help you get past it.

4. “It’s OK Bro, I’m Bulking”

800 or more calories above maintenance. This is where you eat as many calories as you like with a mixture of clean and dirty foods. Nothing really is off limits. Want ice cream and cake? Go for it. You’ll gain both muscle and fat – loads and loads of fat. But in our opinion, you won’t gain any more muscle than in option 2 or 3. Furthermore, you will need to spend a long time to get rid of the body fat and you will risk losing the muscle you gained in the first place by having to go on a long fat loss plan, not to mention the damage to various health markers such as your blood lipids and fasting blood sugar. It is not worth it in our opinion especially if you are a man or woman above 35 years of age.

So there you have it. Each of the above methods has its place, we just needed to clarify so you can make an informed decision. See how to figure out your maintenance calories here.

Find recipes that will help you add healthy calories to your daily meals here.