Why Losing Weight Doesn't Always Look Great

Trevor didn't feel good.  At 5' 10" and 200 pounds, he was overweight.  It was affecting his performance at work, his self-confidence, and his love life.

Trevor went on a diet.  He stuck with it and lost 30 pounds.  Good for him, that's not easy to do!  He was happy with the number on the scale but the way he looked in the mirror wasn't quite what he was expecting.  He lacked definition and had a bit of a muffin top, definitely better but not the lean, toned, beast he was hoping for.

Unfortunately 10 of the pounds Trevor lost came from muscle.

If Trevor had followed a program that burns fat while protecting muscle, he would have achieved his goal faster and been happier with the results.  After losing 20 pounds of fat and 10 pounds of muscle, his body fat was still at 18%.  If he had lost 30 pounds of fat, his body fat percentage would be an impressive 12%.  Now that's what he was looking for!

I didn't make progress for years because I didn't understand muscle gain and fat loss require completely different approaches.

Losing fat is a catabolic process while muscle building is an anabolic process.

The following is an oversimplification, but building muscle requires eating more calories than you burn while lifting heavier and heavier weights.  Fat loss requires you to eat less calories than you burn and does not necessarily require you to progress the weight you are lifting.

Professional bodybuilders and fitness models don't attempt to build muscle and lose fat at the same time.  Instead, these people go on a muscle gain cycle of around 3-6 months, and then go on a fat loss cycle of 2-3 months.

If you're reading this report, then your body fat is probably around 15% or above.  If this is the case, I strongly encourage you to focus 100% on losing fat (without losing muscle of course).

Once you get your body fat percentage down into the low double-digits (or reach your first plateau), then you can shift to muscle building.  Either way, you'll be happy with your results!

Trevor should be proud.  Losing 30 pounds is an accomplishment.  If you want to lose weight AND look great, then don't ignore maintenance level exercising.