Setting Up Fitness Goals: When To Start Losing Weight And When To Gain Muscle

So you are looking to get in shape and you are confused whether you should gain or lose weight? Worry not, we got you covered. Here I'll break down who needs to do what and what should dictate your goal setting. Everybody has different goals, just like they have different bodies. If you are fat, skinny or skinny fat, here's what you need to do, to define your goals. What Should Be Your Fitness Goals © YouTube Before starting your fitness journey, the first and the foremost thing that you should do is an assessment of your fitness levels. This is most the most important and the most ignored factor. The second one is how do you look. Do you look fat or do you look skinny or even skinny fat for that matter? If you start working out without any idea about the above two, chances of failure are more. Only when you know how you look and what is your pre-existing fitness level is will you know how to eat and workout. So, first things first, assess whether you need to lose body fat or gain muscle and for that, you'll have to know what body fat percentage you are at currently. There are many body fat calculators over the internet which can help you with it. Ranges to bulk or cut Now, if you look at the chart above you will find the bodyfat % values of what is considered to be lean, average and overweight, if you come under the category of very lean to lean, you should definitely go for gaining weight i.e increasing your muscle mass. If you are above that number you should go for losing fat before trying to build muscle. If you are on a heavier side and you try to gain muscle from the beginning, you'll end up gaining more fat than muscle, as the body fat percent between 8-16 is shown in several studies to be ideal for gaining muscle while putting on minimal fat, not above that. As we established above in the chart, if you body fat levels are above 15 % then you should be looking to lose body fat before putting on muscle mass and if you are under that number you can start gaining. Now that you know whether you should lose fat or gain muscle let's look and how much progress you should be making on a weekly basis according to your fitness levels. Let's start with losing fat first: Rate Of Weight Loss As you can see from the chart above, higher you body fat percentage is, the more aggressive your approach towards weight can be due to an abundance of fat available to the body to lose which decreases the risk of losing muscle mass along with fat. As you become leaner the Rate of fat loss slowly down to the point where if you are 15% or under, you should not be looking at losing more than 0.25 to 0.5 % per week or even less in some cases. These recommendations are good starting places to set up the diet, but from there you will have to adjust according to the progress you make and how sustainable the deficit is for you to maintain. Rate of weight again The rate at which your body gains muscle is very different to that of when you try to lose weight. Building muscle mass is a much more intricate process, the rate of which depends on your training as well as your diet unlike fat loss. Anyone who is a natural lifter and has been at it for 3 to 5 years will tell you that watching muscle grow is like watching paint dry, while fat loss can happen relatively quickly in comparison As you can see in the chart above, if you are beginner, you can put on muscle mass a lot quicker than a person who has been lifting weights for a long period of a time. As you advance in your training age, the speed at which you build muscle slows down considerably due to you getting closer to your genetic potential to build muscle. So, you should not try to build muscle as aggressively as you would when you are a beginner. Nav Dhillon is an online coach with GetSetGo Fitness, an online fitness company that helps people with fitness goals right from losing weight to competing in bodybuilding shows. Nav is an avid bodybuilding enthusiast and heads the NABBA (National amateur bodybuilders association) as a General Secretary. This innate passion and position has helped him work with a lot of bodybuilders to help them take their physique at the next level. He also has a lovely pet called Buster whom he enjoys playing with in his free time. You can reach Nav on nav.dhillon@getsetgo.fitness to take your fitness and physique to the next level.