Can You Gain Muscle & Lose Fat At The Same Time?

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It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!

Have a question or a request? We love to hear from you!

In cases where we’ve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future too—there’s always more to say!

As ever: if the question/request can be answered briefly, we’ll do it here in our Q&A Thursday edition. If not, we’ll make a main feature of it shortly afterwards!

So, no question/request too big or small 😎

❝Is it possible to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time, or do we need to focus on one and then the other, and if so, which order is best?❞

Contrary to popular belief, you can do both simultaneously! However, it’s not as easy as doing just one or the other, which is why most bodybuilders, for example, have a “building phase” and a “cutting phase”.

The reason it’s difficult is because of the diet. Growing muscle doesn’t just take protein and micronutrients; it takes energy as well, which must come from carbohydrates and/or fats. Therefore, it is tricky to eat enough to build muscle and to fuel the workouts that are required to build the muscle (you can’t hit the gym in a state of rabbit starvation* and expect to perform well at your workout), while at the same time not eating enough carbs/fats to have any excess to store as fat.

*So-called because rabbit-meat is very lean, such that when during times of famine, European peasants tried to subsist off mostly rabbits, their health quickly plummeted for lack of energy. It’s also been called “salmon starvation”, apparently, for the same reason:

How ancestral subsistence strategies solve salmon starvation and the “protein problem” of Pacific Rim resources

In French it’s called “Mal de caribou” (caribou sickness), by the way. But you get the idea: eat too much lean protein without enough carbs/fats, and woe shall befall.

So, if you want to do both at once, you need to be incredibly on top of your macros, and the bad news is, only you (or a coach working directly with you) can work out what precise macros requirements your body has, because it depends on your body and your activities.

The easier “half-way house”

We will get to the “building phase” and “cutting phase” of bodybuilders, but first, here’s an option that’s very worthy of consideration, and it is: forget about your weight and just focus on health while incidentally doing regular resistance exercises and HIIT.

What will happen if you do this (assuming a healthy balanced diet, nothing special and without counting anything, but we’re talking at least mostly whole-foods, and at least mostly plants; the Mediterranean diet is great for this, as it is for most things) is:

  • The dietary approach described will gradually improve your metabolic health if it wasn’t already good. If it was already good, it’ll likely just maintain it, rather than improve it.
  • The resistance exercises will, if engaged with seriously (it has to be difficult to do, or your muscles won’t have any reason to grow), gradually build muscle. This will be very gradual, because you’re not eating for bodybuilding, nor optimizing your general lifestyle for same. Historically many women have feared lifting weights because they don’t want to “look like a weightlifter”, but the kinds of bodies that word brings to mind are not the kind that happen by accident (especially for women, with our different hormones guiding our bodies to a different composition); it takes a lot of single-minded dedication to specifically optimize size gains, for a long time.
  • The high-intensity interval training (HIIT) will more rapidly improve your metabolic health, and unlike most forms of exercise, it will actually result in a gradual reduction of fat, if you have superfluous fat to lose. This is because whereas most forms of cardio exercise increase the heartrate for a while but then have a corresponding metabolic slump afterwards to make up for it, HIIT confuses the heart (in a good way) which results in it having to grow stronger, and not doing any compensatory metabolic slump:

How To Do HIIT (Without Wrecking Your Body) ← as well as the “how to”, this also gives some of the science behind it, too

This will, thus, result in gradual gain of muscle and loss of fat—or if you take it easier with the exercise, then you can easily settle into just maintaining your body composition as it is, but that wasn’t the question today.

So, there you have it, that’s how to do both at once! Now, if you want more dramatic results, then more dramatic methods are called for:

What bodybuilders (mostly) do

Matters of genetic predisposition and commonplace use of steroids aside, here’s how bodybuilders get that “lots of muscle, no fat” figure:

  1. First, get into “moderate” shape if not already there.
  2. Bulk up: eat amounts of food that will seem unreasonable to a non-bodybuilder; eating 2x or even 3x the “recommended” daily calorie amount is common; focus is typically on getting adequate (for bodybuilding purposes) protein while also carb-loading for workouts and getting at least enough fats for fat-soluble vitamins to work. In the gym, focus on doing sets of very few reps with the heaviest weights one can safely lift, while doing minimal cardio, and also sleeping a lot (9–12hrs per day), which is essential because this is putting a huge strain on the body and it needs a chance to recover and rebuild.
  3. Cut down: maintain protein intake (to at least mostly maintain muscles) while keeping carbs and fats low, doing cardio work (HIIT is still ideal) and running a calorie deficit for a short while (there is no use in trying to maintain a long-term calorie deficit; your body will try to save you from starvation by storing any fat it can and slowing your metabolism).

Phases 2 and 3 are then cycled, alternating every month, or every 6 weeks, or every 2 months or so, depending on personal preferences and scheduling considerations (bodybuilders will often have competitions they are working towards, so they need to time things to be at the end of a cutting phase to look their “best” by bodybuilder standards).

Disclaimer: bodybuilding is complex, and can be ruinous to the health if practised inexpertly, because of its extreme nature. We don’t recommend serious bodybuilding per se in general, but if you are going to do it, please consult with a professional bodybuilding coach, and do not rely on a few paragraphs from us that are intended only to give the most basic overview of how bodybuilders can approach the “gain muscle, lose fat” problem.

Want to know more?

We’ve written on some related topics previously; here’s a three-part series:

  1. How To Lose Weight (Healthily!)
  2. How To Build Muscle (Healthily!)
  3. How To Gain Weight (Healthily!) ← this one’s specifically about gaining healthy levels of fat, for any who want/need that

And also:

Can We Do Fat Redistribution? ← yes we can, but there are caveats

Take care!

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  • How Too Much Salt May Lead To Organ Failure

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    Salt’s Health Risks… More Than Just Heart Disease!

    It’s been well-established for a long time that too much salt is bad for cardiovascular health. It can lead to high blood pressure, which in turn can lead to many problems, including heart attacks.

    A team of researchers has found that in addition to this, it may be damaging your organs themselves.

    This is because high salt levels peel away the surfaces of blood vessels. How does this harm your organs? Because it’s through those walls that nutrients are selectively passed to where they need to be—mostly your organs. So, too much salt can indirectly starve your organs of the nutrients they need to survive. And you absolutely do not want your organs to fail!

    ❝We’ve identified new biomarkers for diagnosing blood vessel damage, identifying patients at risk of heart attack and stroke, and developing new drug targets for therapy for a range of blood vessel diseases, including heart, kidney and lung diseases as well as dementia❞

    ~ Newman Sze, Canada Research Chair in Mechanisms of Health and Disease, and lead researcher on this study.

    See the evidence for yourself: Endothelial Damage Arising From High Salt Hypertension Is Elucidated by Vascular Bed Systematic Profiling

    Diets high in salt are a huge problem in Canada, North America as a whole, and around the world. According to a World Health Organization (WHO) report released March 9, Canadians consume 9.1 grams of salt per day.

    Read: WHO global report on sodium intake reduction

    You may be wondering: who is eating over 9g of salt per day?

    And the answer is: mostly, people who don’t notice how much salt is already in processed foods… don’t see it, and don’t think about it.

    Meanwhile, the WHO recommends the average person to consume no more than five grams, or one teaspoon, of salt per day.

    Read more: Massive efforts needed to reduce salt intake and protect lives

    The American Heart Association, tasked with improving public health with respect to the #1 killer of Americans (it’s also the #1 killer worldwide—but that’s not the AHA’s problem), goes further! It recommends no more than 2.3g per day, and ideally, no more than 1.5g per day.

    Some handy rules-of-thumb

    Here are sodium-related terms you may see on food packages:

    • Salt/Sodium-Free = Less than 5mg of sodium per serving
    • Very Low Sodium = 35mg or less per serving
    • Low Sodium = 140mg or less per serving
    • Reduced Sodium = At least 25% less sodium per serving than the usual sodium level
    • Light in Sodium or Lightly Salted = At least 50% less sodium than the regular product

    Confused by milligrams? Instead of remembering how many places to move the decimal point (and potentially getting an “out by an order of magnitude error—we’ve all been there!), think of the 1.5g total allowance as being 1500mg.

    See also: How much sodium should I eat per day? ← from the American Heart Association

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  • Decoding Hormone Balancing in Ads

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    It’s Q&A Time!

    This is the bit whereby each week, we respond to subscriber questions/requests/etc

    Have something you’d like to ask us, or ask us to look into? Hit reply to any of our emails, or use the feedback widget at the bottom, and a Real Human™ will be glad to read it!

    Q: As to specific health topics, I would love to see someone address all these Instagram ads targeted to women that claim “You only need to ‘balance your hormones’ to lose weight, get ripped, etc.” What does this mean? Which hormones are they all talking about? They all seem to be selling a workout program and/or supplements or something similar, as they are ads, after all. Is there any science behind this stuff or is it mostly hot air, as I suspect?

    Thank you for asking this, as your question prompted yesterday’s main feature, What Does “Balancing Your Hormones” Even Mean?

    That’s a great suggestion also about addressing ads (and goes for health-related things in general, not just hormonal stuff) and examining their claims, what they mean, how they work (if they work!), and what’s “technically true but may be misleading* cause confusion”

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    Only, we’re going to need your help for this one, subscribers!

    See, here at 10almonds we practice what we preach. We limit screen time, we focus on our work when working, and simply put, we don’t see as many ads as our thousands of subscribers do. Also, ads tend to be targeted to the individual, and often vary from country to country, so chances are good that we’re not seeing the same ads that you’re seeing.

    So, how about we pull together as a bit of a 10almonds community project?

    • Step 1: add our email address to your contacts list, if you haven’t already
    • Step 2: When you see an ad you’re curious about, select “share” (there is usually an option to share ads, but if not, feel free to screenshot or such)
    • Step 3: Send the ad to us by email

    We’ll do the rest! Whenever we have enough ads to review, we’ll do a special on the topic.

    We will categorically not be able to do this without you, so please do join in—Many thanks in advance!

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  • Which Vitamin Brands Are Effective?

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!

    Have a question or a request? You can always hit “reply” to any of our emails, or use the feedback widget at the bottom!

    In cases where we’ve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future too—there’s always more to say!

    As ever: if the question/request can be answered briefly, we’ll do it here in our Q&A Thursday edition. If not, we’ll make a main feature of it shortly afterwards!

    So, no question/request too big or small

    ❝As far as specific brands of vitamin…some are good some not. I don’t like being told what buy but I guess I want to know which are effective. Could there be some brands recognized as good given to us?❞

    The most reliable brands are generally those with the most transparency:

    • They tell you what is in the supplement; not just the active ingredient(s), with doses, but also any buffers etc.
    • They tell you, in the case of ingredients that can have various different sources, what the source is.
    • They are, ideally, well-certified and independently tested.

    Our previous sponsor Ora is a good example of a company that does this.

    Additionally, in terms of bioavailability, generally speaking the order of preference goes liquid > capsule/softgel > tablet, so that’s something to look out for, too.

    Note: “liquid” includes powders that are ingested when dissolved/suspended in water, and also includes tablets that become a liquid when dissolved/dispersed in water and ingested that way.

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  • The Dangers Of Fires, Floods, & Having Your Hair Washed

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    It’s a dangerous business, going out of your door… And this week’s news round-up looks at 5 reasons why that might be:

    Superspreading like wildfire

    Environmental health risks are a big topic these days, with our changing climate. As for wildfires? Some of the risks are obvious: burning to death or choking to death in the smoke—but even upon surviving the seemingly worst, more threats remain that themselves can still kill.

    Those threats include that both burns and smoke inhalation can cause acute and chronic changes in the immune system. Specifically: changes for the worse. The mechanisms by which this happens depend on the nature of any burns received, and in the case of smoke, what exactly was in the smoke. Now, there is no kind of smoke that is healthy to inhale, but definitely some kinds are a lot worse than others, and let’s just say, people’s homes contain a lot of plastic.

    Additionally, if you think someone coughing near you spreads germs, imagine how far germs can be spread by miles-high, miles-wide billowing hot air.

    In short, there’s a lot going on and none of it is good, and we’ve barely had room to summarise here, so…

    Read in full: Wildfires ignite infection risks by weakening the body’s immune defenses and spreading bugs in smoke

    Related: What’s Lurking In Your Household Air?

    A flood of diseases

    *record scratch*

    Environmental health risks are a big topic these days, with our changing climate. As for floods? Some of the risks are obvious: drowning to death or having your house washed away—but even upon surviving the seemingly worst, more threats remain that themselves can still kill.

    Those threats include increases in deaths from infectious and parasitic diseases, and respiratory diseases in general. Simply, a place that has been waterlogged, even if it seems “safe” now, is not a healthy place to be, due to bacteria, viruses, fungi, and more. In fact, it even increases all-cause mortality, because being healthy in such a place is simply harder:

    Read in full: Linked to higher mortality rates, large floods emerge as an urgent public health concern

    Related: Dodging Dengue In The US

    Don’t lose your head

    Visiting the hairdresser is not something that most people consider a potential brush with death—your hairdresser is probably not Sweeney Todd, after all. However…

    There is an issue specifically with getting your hair washed there. Backwash basins—the sink things into which one rests one’s head at a backwards tilt—create an awkward angle for the cervical vertebrae and a sudden reduction in blood flow to the brain can cause a stroke, with the risk being sufficiently notable as to have its own name in scientific literature: beauty parlor stroke syndrome (BPSS).

    ❝While research suggests BPSS is most likely to occur in women over 50—and previous history of narrowing or thinning of blood vessels and arthritis of the spinal column in the neck are particular risk factors—it could happen to anyone regardless of age or medical history.❞

    Read in full: The hidden health risk of having your hair washed

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    The smartwatch wristbands that give you cancer

    It’s about the PFAS content. The article doesn’t discuss cancer in detail, just mentioning the increased risk, but you can read about the link between the two in our article below.

    Basically, if your smartwatch wristband is a) not silicone and b) waterproof anyway, especially if it’s stain-resistant (as most are designed to be, what with wearing it next to one’s skin all the time while exercising, and not being the sort of thing one throws in the wash), then chances are it has PFAS levels much higher than normally found in consumer goods or clothing.

    You can read more about how to identify the risks, here:

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    The cows giving milk with a little extra

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    There are, however, barriers to creating those vaccines:

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    Take care!

    Don’t Forget…

    Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!

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  • If You’re Not Flexible, These Are The Only 3 Stretches You Need, To Fix That

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    If you can’t put your leg behind your head while standing, try doing the splits against a wall first, and progress from there! ← text version of an item from a “if you can’t do this yet, try this first” picture set this writer saw on Instagram once upon a time

    So, what if you’re more at the point of not quite being able to touch your toes yet?

    From zero to…

    Liv, of LivInLeggings fame, has these three starter-stretches that are actually starter-stretches:

    Stretch 1: Reverse Tabletop with Foot Tuck Variation

    1. Sit on the floor, feet slightly wider than your hips, lean back onto your hands (fingertips pointing outward).
    2. Lift your hips towards a reverse tabletop, engage your glutes, and flatten the front of your hips.
    3. Add a foot tuck variation by stepping one foot back and pressing your weight forward.

    Benefits:

    • Stretches multiple muscles, including the soles of the feet.
    • Improves foot arches, balance, and stability.
    • Loosens fascia, enhancing flexibility in subsequent stretches.

    Stretch 2: Squat to Forward Fold

    1. Start in a low squat (feet wider than your hips, toes mostly forward).
    2. Alternate between a low squat and a forward fold, keeping your hands on the floor or your toes.

    Benefits:

    • Stretches hamstrings, glutes, and lower back.
    • Maintains good form and avoids overstraining.

    Stretch 3: Side Lunge with Side Body Reach

    1. Begin in a tall kneeling position, step one foot out to the side (toes pointing outward).
    2. Lunge your hips towards your front ankle, keeping your tailbone tucked.
    3. Add a side body reach by resting your forearm on your thigh and reaching the other arm overhead.
    4. For a deeper stretch, cradle the back of your head with your hand, pressing lightly for a tricep stretch.

    Benefits:

    • Stretches inner thighs, lats, and triceps.
    • Improves posture, shoulder mobility, and low squat ability.

    For more on each of these plus visual demonstrations, enjoy:

    Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!

    Want to learn more?

    You might also like to read:

    Test For Whether You Will Be Able To Achieve The Splits

    Take care!

    Don’t Forget…

    Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!

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  • Good (Or Bad) Health Starts With Your Blood

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    Blood Should Be Only Slightly Thicker Than Water

    This is Dr. Casey Means, a physician, lecturer (mostly at Stanford), and CMO of a metabolic health company, Levels, as well as being Associate Editor of the International Journal of Diabetes Reversal and Prevention, where she serves alongside such names as Dr. Colin Campbell, Dr. Joel Fuhrman, Dr. Michael Greger, Dr. William Li, Dr. Dean Ornish, and you get the idea: it’s a star-studded cast.

    What does she want us to know?

    The big blood problem:

    ❝We’re spending 3.8 trillion dollars a year on healthcare costs in the U.S., and the reality is that people are getting sicker, fatter, and more depressed.

    Over 50% of Americans have pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes; it’s insane, that number should be close to zero.❞

    ~ Dr. Casey Means

    Indeed, pre-diabetes and especially type 2 diabetes should be very avoidable in any wealthy nation.

    Unfortunately, the kind of diet that avoids it tends to rely on having at least 2/3 of the following:

    • Money
    • Time
    • Knowledge

    For example:

    • if you have money and time, you can buy lots of fresh ingredients without undue worry, and take the time to carefully prep and cook them
    • if you have money and knowledge you can have someone else shop and cook for you, or at least get meal kits delivered
    • if you have time and knowledge, you can actually eat very healthily on a shoestring budget

    If you have all three, then the world’s your oyster mushroom steak sautéed in extra virgin olive oil with garlic and cracked black pepper served on a bed of Swiss chard and lashed with Balsamic vinegar.

    However, many Americans aren’t in the happy position of having at least 2/3, and a not-insignificant portion of the population don’t even have 1/3.

    As an aside: there is a food scientist and chef who’s made it her mission to educate people about food that’s cheap, easy, and healthy:

    Where Nutrition Meets Habits…

    …but today is about Dr. Means, so, what does she suggest?

    Know thyself thy blood sugars

    Dr. Means argues (reasonably; this is well-backed up by general scientific consensus) that much of human disease stems from the diabetes and pre-diabetes that she mentioned above, and so we should focus on that most of all.

    Our blood sugar levels being unhealthy will swiftly lead to other metabolic disorders:

    Heart disease and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease are perhaps first in line, but waiting in the wings are inflammation-mediated autoimmune disorders, and even dementia, because neuroinflammation is at least as bad as inflammation anywhere else, arguably worse, and our brain can only be as healthy as the blood that feeds it and takes things that shouldn’t be there away.

    Indeed,

    ❝Alzheimer’s dementia is now being called type 3 diabetes because it’s so related to blood sugar❞

    ~ Dr. Casey Means

    …which sounds like a bold claim, but it’s true, even if the name is not “official” yet, it’s well-established in professional circulation:

    ❝We conclude that the term “type 3 diabetes” accurately reflects the fact that AD represents a form of diabetes that selectively involves the brain and has molecular and biochemical features that overlap with both T1DM and T2DM❞

    ~ Dr. Suzanne M. de la Monte & Dr. Jack Wands

    Read in full: Alzheimer’s Disease Is Type 3 Diabetes–Evidence Reviewed ← this is from the very respectable Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology.

    What to do about it

    Dr. Means suggests we avoid the “glucose roller-coaster” that most Americans are on, meaning dramatic sugar spikes, or to put it in sciencese: high glycemic variability.

    This leads to inflammation, oxidative stress, glycation (where sugar sticks to proteins and DNA), and metabolic dysfunction. Then there’s the flipside: reactive hypoglycemia, a result of a rapid drop in blood sugar after a spike, can cause anxiety, fatigue, weakness/trembling, brain fog, and of course cravings. And so the cycle repeats.

    But it doesn’t have to!

    By taking it upon ourselves to learn about what causes our blood sugars to rise suddenly or gently, we can manage our diet and other lifestyle factors accordingly.

    And yes, it’s not just about diet, Dr. Means tells us. While added sugar and refined carbohydrates or indeed the main drivers of glycemic variability, our sleep, movement, stress management, and even toxin exposure play important parts too.

    One way to do this, that Dr. Means recommends, is with a continuous glucose monitor:

    Track Your Blood Sugars For Better Personalized Health

    Another way is to just apply principles that work for almost everyone:

    10 Ways To Balance Blood Sugars

    Want to know more from Dr. Means?

    You might like her book:

    Good Energy – by Dr. Casey Means

    …which goes into this in far more detail than we have room to today.

    Enjoy!

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