Transform your body quickly by burning fat and building muscle together.
Master Coach Craig
January 13, 2025
While opinions are mixed on whether or not you can build muscle and burn fat at the same time, I’m here to set the record straight: it’s possible.
Even more than that, outside of some of the world’s most elite athletes and professional bodybuilders, building muscle and burning fat at the same time is THE FASTEST way to transform your body.
If want to make this happen for yourself, here are the 5 rules you need to follow to rapidly transform your body and build lean mass while burning off pounds of body fat:
1. Track (and Eat) Your Maintenance Calories
To determine your maintenance calories, calculate the average calories you eat in a given week while maintaining your body weight, then start here with your weekly intake. This strategy is massively superior to any “calorie calculator” you can find online and will only require 4-7 days of tracking to establish a baseline.
The number of calories you calculate will be your target as you begin this transformation.
2. Same Calories, Different Sources
While your calories will stay the same as you begin this process, where they come from will change. Being a BBCOM reader, I’m sure you already know the benefits of protein—and this is something you’ll need to highlight in your diet.
If you’re starting at a fairly average body composition, or any leaner than that, you should ensure you’re getting between .8 and 1g of protein per pound of body weight.
If you have excess fat, you want to get a rough (or exact, if possible) measurement of your lean body mass and consume 1g of protein per pound of lean body weight.
Outside of protein, you want to focus on high-quality whole foods that are minimally processed and as close as possible to their natural state.
3. Gut Health Matters
A few years ago I would have scoffed at this advice, but after trying it personally and with hundreds of clients, I can tell you that gut health makes a huge difference. The trick is to slowly integrate prebiotic and probiotic foods in your diet.
Foods in these categories that suit your tastes are fairly easy to find with a quick Google search. I recommend starting with one serving of prebiotic and probiotic foods per day.
4. Water
Though this may be the most boring advice in the world of fitness, that’s for a reason. Water matters. Ensuring you’re properly hydrated can mean the difference between a trickle of progress and a waterfall of gains.
Hydration products are a great option, but you want to ensure you’re getting at least 3L of water per day if you weigh less than 200 pounds and 4L a day if you’re over 200.
Not a single process involved in building muscle or burning fat can happen optimally if you’re dehydrated, so sipping on some water might be the easiest way to see better results than you’ll ever find.
5. You Have to Work… HARD
The biggest reason most people haven’t experienced building muscle and burning fat at the same time is because you have to work really, really hard.
This doesn’t mean you need to spend three hours per day in the gym, but it does mean that when you’re there you’re giving everything you have.
Each week you should be improving your performance in a measurable way. More weight, more reps, slower eccentrics, more density… making progress every week.
If this isn’t happening, you need to take an honest assessment and ask yourself: am I working as hard as I possibly can? My bet is that you can push yourself that much further to see the results you want.
If you need that extra push, a new program, or want to share your progress, come find me in the new BBCOM app where you can share results and even hit a workout with me!
All that said, if you follow these five rules, you’ll experience a transformation that will shock those around you. You’ll also be in an exclusive group of people who laugh when they hear that building muscle and burning fat at the same time isn’t possible.
Now, make it happen!
