When I started working out a couple of years ago, I was obsessed by a fat loss obsession. I was hyper focused on getting lean. I removed the junk food in my life and began to lose about 1 pound of fat per week. I went from 240 pounds to 193 pounds.
Here's what I discovered. I discovered that fat loss only reveals the physique you have. I didn't have a very good physique to show. I was chasing 12 percent body fat without a base of muscle.
So I switched from fat loss to muscle building. I realized that in order to build muscle you had to gain some fat. I also learned that building muscle is much harder than losing fat.
Today I want to talk to you about the mindset shift that we need to have especially if we're going from a weight loss phase to a muscle building phase. What made us successful at one point in our life (the scale going down ) won't necessarily be what makes us successful at the next stage of our journey. The number one shift we need to make it seeing the scale go up. You are now going to be in a slight calorie increase.
This is because building muscle is very calorically costly. Muscle is costly to build and it's costly to maintain. You are likely to have a higher calorie intake to maintain the muscle that you do put on. And the more advanced we are the slower our muscular gains are going to be.
Remember that you can build muscle at any and every age. I'm going to repeat this until you all get sick of hearing it. Just because everything in our lives becomes harder as we age doesn't mean it's impossible.
There are changes we can make to our diet and exercise to see changes fast. Begin by making compound movements like chest presses and lat pulls/pullups the bulk of your workouts. These movements work multiple muscle groups at once.
You're also going to want to exercise as close to failure as you can. As you age, muscle becomes harder to preserve. Your metabolism slows down. And you get exactly what you train for -- a body built for comfort, not strength.
If you're over 50 like I am, stop expecting less of your body. Your body hasn't given up. Neither should you.
Yes, it's hard. But that's exactly why it works. When something is hard, that's not a red flag. That's a bright neon sign saying, "Keep going!"
Stop looking for an escape hatch. There isn't one. The bigger the goal, the harder the climb. That's not a punishment. That's proof you're headed in the right direction.
Stop confusing "hard" with impossible." Don't stop when it gets hard. Just double down and keep going!
Today's workout: