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Not sure how many calories to eat for fat loss? Start here.
If the only objective is to make the number on the scale smaller, the basic requirement is straightforward: over time, your body needs to use more calories than you consume.
But for most adults, that isn't really the entire goal.
You may want to lose body fat, look leaner, maintain or improve your strength, and feel more physically capable. As we get older, maintaining muscle and strength also becomes increasingly valuable—not only for how we look, but for what we're able to do.
So a better question is:
How do I lose body fat while preserving as much muscle and strength as possible?
This is the first in a series of articles about strength training and weight loss. We'll start with how each works on its own, then look at why combining them can produce a better result than focusing only on the scale.
Strength Training: What Are We Trying to Build or Preserve?
Strength Training: What Are We Trying to Build or Preserve?
Strength training challenges your muscles so your body has a reason to adapt.
For someone new to strength training, this doesn't require complicated exercises or extremely heavy weights. Dumbbells, machines, resistance bands, bodyweight exercises and barbells can all be used to gradually challenge your muscles.
Over time, your body adapts. You can become stronger and, under the right conditions, build muscle.
But building muscle takes time. It requires consistent training along with enough protein, calories, nutrients and recovery.
And for adults fitting training around careers, family and other responsibilities, consistency itself can be a challenge. As we get older, preserving the muscle we've already built becomes increasingly important.
This matters when we start trying to lose weight.
To lose weight, we intentionally consume fewer calories than our body uses. That works for weight loss, but it doesn't create ideal conditions for building muscle.
Strength training therefore has an important purpose during weight loss even if adding a lot of new muscle isn't the immediate goal:
Give your body a reason to preserve the muscle it already has.
Fat Loss: What Are We Actually Trying to Lose?
Fat Loss: What Are We Actually Trying to Lose?
WEIGHT LOSS ≠ FAT LOSS
Fat loss requires your body to consistently use more calories than you consume.
When food provides fewer calories than your body needs, your body has to draw on stored energy and body weight decreases.
But there's an important distinction:
Weight loss is not automatically the same thing as fat loss.
When body weight decreases, not everything lost necessarily comes from body fat. Changes on the scale can come from fat, water and muscle.
For most adults, losing muscle isn't part of the intended goal.
You aren't trying to lose the muscle that helps you carry groceries, get off the floor, work around the house, participate in recreational activities, and continue doing those things as you get older.
You're trying to lose body fat.
The scale can't tell the difference.
And muscle is worth protecting. Building it is relatively slow and requires consistent effort. Some of it can be lost during weight loss if the conditions that help maintain it—strength training, adequate protein and sufficient recovery—aren't present.
If you want your body to keep muscle while losing weight, give it a reason to keep that muscle.
That's where strength training and weight loss come together.
Combining Strength Training and Fat Loss
Combining Strength Training and Fat Loss
Successfully combining strength training and fat loss requires balancing three things:
Successfully combining strength training and fat loss requires balancing three things:
calories
calories
Low enough to produce weight loss
nutrition
nutrition
Enough protein and nutrients to support performance, growth, & recovery
strength training
strength training
A reason for the body to build or maintain muscle
The two goals create a balancing act.
You need to consume few enough calories for your body weight to decrease over time, while strength training and adequate nutrition help make preserving muscle part of the plan.
At the same time, you're asking your body to continue training and recovering from those workouts.
That still requires fuel.
Protein needs to be high enough to help maintain muscle and support recovery. Carbohydrates can provide energy for productive training. Dietary fat remains an important part of a healthy diet. Vitamins, minerals and overall food quality still matter.
So the objective isn't:
Cut calories as far as possible and hope training survives.
It's to reduce calories enough to produce meaningful weight loss while still providing the nutrition needed to support training, recovery and muscle preservation.
This matters outside the gym too.
Most adults aren't arranging their entire lives around a diet. There are careers, families, responsibilities, social events and unpredictable schedules to deal with. A plan that leaves you exhausted and struggling through your workouts may produce fast results for a while, but that doesn't automatically make it a better plan.
The goal is to find a balance that allows fat loss to occur while still supporting the things you want your body to do.
Why Faster Weight Loss Isn't Always Better
Why Faster Weight Loss Isn't Always Better
When the scale is moving quickly, it feels like the diet is working.
When it's moving slowly, it can feel like something is wrong.
But speed isn't the only outcome that matters.
Imagine two people who both want to lose 20 pounds.
One cuts calories aggressively and reaches the lower body weight quickly.
The other loses weight more gradually while continuing to strength train, eating enough protein and maintaining better training performance.
The second person may take longer to reach the same number on the scale. But if that person preserves more muscle while losing body fat, the end result can be different.
This is why a slower rate of weight loss can sometimes produce an outcome someone is ultimately happier with.
That can be counterintuitive when we're accustomed to judging diets by pounds lost per week. But if the actual goal is a leaner, stronger physique, what you lose—and what you keep—matters too.
The Difference Can Show Up in Your Physique
The Difference Can Show Up in Your Physique
Suppose those two people each lose the same 20 pounds.
Both have successfully lost weight.
But if one maintains more muscle during the process, they may not look the same at the end.
Muscle provides much of the shape underneath the body fat you're losing. Preserving more of it can produce a different physique than reaching the same weight after losing more muscle.
For many adults, this is closer to what they actually mean when they say they want to “get in shape.”
They aren't trying to become bodybuilders. They want a smaller waist, less body fat, some visible muscle, better strength, and a body that looks and feels more capable.
That is a different objective from simply becoming lighter.
Sometimes that even changes how important a particular goal weight seems. If your waist is smaller, your clothes fit differently, you're stronger and you're happier with your physique, the number you originally thought you needed to reach may matter less.
That's why strength training for weight loss can be valuable even when the workout itself isn't responsible for most of the weight being lost.
Fat loss reduces the body fat you want to lose.
Strength training helps protect the muscle and strength you want to keep.
Nutrition has to support both.
For an adult trying to improve both health and physique, the goal doesn't have to be simply weighing less.
It can be becoming leaner, stronger and more capable in the process.
The scale can tell you how much weight you've lost.
It can't tell you what you've kept.
Want Help Putting This Into Practice?
Want Help Putting This Into Practice?
GN Strength combines individualized strength training with weight-loss coaching for adults who want to reduce body fat while maintaining strength, muscle and the energy to train.
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