Both provide specific dietary recommendations to boost your results, if you’re into that sort of thing.
Before we answer that, a little background .
As you may or may not know, I’ve recently quit discussing “weight loss.”
Why?
It’s a junk term that causes nothing but heartache , and burns lots of money.
WHOA.
“That seems a little like ‘overkill’ there buddy.”
… You may be wondering.
And of course, you’re entitled to your opinion.
But let’s look at the facts:
Obesity is now a health epidemic in BOTH adults AND children - 73.6% of all Americans. (It’s about 50% for the world as a whole.)
Combine that with Big Pharma cashing in billions on “weight loss” drugs that have nasty side effects like nausea, vomiting heavily , and completely stopping your digestive system (to name but some)...
And Big Weight loss hit an all-time high of $90 BILLION in 2023…
And yet people are growing heavier by the second.
For a point of reference, one of my customers sent me this pic (first picture)
It wasn’t far off from the last time I was at the beach in Florida.
Now look, I’m not criticizing nor shaming anyone.
I’m simply emphasizing the problem and it’s this:
“WEIGHT LOSS DOESN’T WORK.”
Still don’t believe me?
Let’s answer our original question:
Which weighs more -
Muscle or fat?
Most people will say fat.
But look carefully at the second picture.
They both weigh the SAME - 5 Pounds!
Where people get confused is that 5 pounds of muscle takes up about ⅔ less volume than 5 pounds of fat.
And this reveals the disappointing state of the Weight Loss Industry.
When someone wants to lose 20 pounds, all he / she is focused on is the number on the scale.
But 6 feet tall, 200 pounds, 30% body fat looks a heckuva lot different than 6 feet tall, 200 pounds, 15% body fat .
The first occupies much more volume than the second.
So, if you set out to “lose 20 pounds” and “only” lost 10 - but you lost 15 pounds of fat and gained 5 pounds of muscle, would you be a “failure?”
No .
Why not?
Because BODY COMPOSITION is the “thing” we should be focusing on .
NOT “weight.”
I have been “banging this drum” since 1996.
And it used to freak people out .
They couldn’t understand why the scale didn’t move as much as they wanted, but their measurements did. Smaller waists, bigger arms - that sort of thing.
(Except the ladies - smaller waists, hips, thighs, and arms…)
Focus on building muscle and burning off body fat (by improving your conditioning), NOT “losing weight.”
If you do the first - build muscle, you will almost always “lose weight” IF you don’t use “working out” and building muscle as a excuse to eat like a condemned man at his last meal.
I call this “Recomping”. (Recomposition training - training to change your body composition.)
HOW do you do that, exactly?
1- Train 3x a week :
If you have good recovery, or know how to structure your program, you can train RANDOM .
Some even train 5x week .
Train a minimum of 20 minutes up to 45 minutes per session.
2- Use “big” lifts that use major muscle groups and require your body to burn a lot of energy:
Swings, Cleans, Presses, even TGUs come to mind.
Snatches are also awesome .
3- Train for both strength & power. Then stamina:
When you do that, you’ll build “go” muscle instead of “show” muscle.
Both look good . The first you can use.
4- If you’re going to “diet” -
[a] Emphasize protein
It makes you feel full .
It controls cravings for both fatty and sugary foods.
[b] Clean the junk food out of your pantry and fridge so you’re not tempted to eat it.
Doing both [a] and [b] will significantly boost your results so you Weight burn fat faster and see muscle definition sooner.
5- Sleep more:
Sleep is where you heal most.
No sleep. No recovery. No results.
It’s really that simple.
If you need some resources, I’ll leave a link to a 3-day a week and a 4-day a week Recomp Plan in the description below.
Hope you found this beneficial.
Stay Motivated,
Geoff Neupert.