Proper Nutrition To Build Muscle and Lose Fat (An Ultimate Guide To Nutrition)

America loves dieting. Whether it’s a paleo, keto, vegan or the Mediterranean diet. Everyone is always about the new “fad diet” and believe that it is the best nutrition plan for them. Here’s the thing. They don’t almost NEVER give you the proper nutrition you need for your goals.

When people start one of these popular diets, they think they can just eat whatever they want in unlimited amounts as long as it fits in rules of the diet.

However, most of these diets DO help people get better nutrition overall. They just never get the number of calories and macronutrients correct to supercharge their goals. Let alone ever start a proper training routine to work with their “magic” nutrition plan.

Furthermore, whenever people think of getting healthier and changing their body, they mostly think of just the fitness aspect. The actual training is vital to build muscle and lose fat, no doubt about it. Nutrition and diet are the other side of the coin that is just as, if not more important!.

When I first started my fitness journey it didn’t take me long to figure out that my nutrition directly affected my performance and ability to build muscle.

It has taken me years of trial and error and experience to really get the hang of the type of diet and nutrition that works for me. I continue to experiment with my nutrition to find out what best helps me build muscle and lose fat faster.

I’ve been doing this for over 10 years and am still finding out how well my body responds to certain nutrition habits.

In this nutrition guide, we will cover proper nutrition for gaining strength, building muscle, losing fat. They are all directly related. You can use the helpful information in this guide to start utilizing a proper diet to build muscle and lose fat. You can change your body forever using the information on this page.

The fitness industry has complicated nutrition to confuse its consumers to market meal plans, training routines and supplements. It does not need to be that complicated. You can drastically change your body and improve your performance by changing your nutrition and the amount you consume.

Read on to learn what YOUR best nutrition plan will be based on your own goals. You will also see that a nutrition plan that manages your calorie and macronutrient intake can be the best and easiest way to the results you want.

This is a hefty yet helpful guide. Let’s begin!

Track Calories In Your Daily Nutrition

Almost everyone has heard of calories and that you need to watch how many you eat in your nutrition plan in order to build muscle and/or lose fat. Calories are a unit of measure that tells you an estimated amount of energy that particular food could give your body.

Think of calories sort of like gasoline for a car. Your body is the car and calories (that comes from food) are the fuel that power it.

The number of calories needed will vary wildly from person to person. One person could need 2000 calories a day and another could need 4000 a day. It all depends on the individual’s goals, activity levels, size and metabolism.

Let’s look into how many you will need in your nutrition plan to lose fat or build muscle.

Calculate your Nutrition Numbers

Your basal metabolic rate (BMR) and total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) are extremely helpful tools when figuring out how much to eat for your goals.

Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)

BMR is the amount of energy (calories) your body needs to function and does not factor in any activity whatsoever. It is how much energy your body burns in 24 hours if you stayed still.

You can figure out your BMR with a mathematical equation using the Mifflin-St. Jeor equation. Here it is:

BMR = 10 x weight (in kilograms) + 6.25 x height (in centimeters) – 5 x age (in years) + 5

Let’s see how it looks for me as an example:

10 x 90.718kg +6.25 x 187.96cm – 5 x 30 + 5= 1936.93
- First you can use Google in a new tab to find out your info in kilograms and centimeters.
- Then you plug in your numbers and do the multiplication first. (Ex. 907.18 + 1174.75 – 150 + 5)
- Then just do the addition and finally subtraction and your good!

Use your phone’s calculator to do it in a couple minutes or less.

Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE)

This number is exactly what is sounds like. This is the total amount of energy (calories) you burn in 24 hours.

This your BMR and the amount of energy you exert through activity in a total number.

To calculate your TDEE you need to know your BMR which we just did. It is more complicated to find out the additional energy you’re burning through activity but luckily for you I have done the research for you.

I have found the most effective method that I have used to alter my diet and build muscle and lose fat the fastest I ever have! So, I know firsthand that it is accurate and effective.

You can find your number of calories burned in a couple ways, like trackers on your phone and exercise machines, but they are pretty inaccurate. By all means use them if you please, but know that they generally over estimate your energy expelled.

The most accurate way is with another equation. We are after the best way to make ourselves better right?! You can also use a TDEE calculator to get similar numbers but honestly they are pretty generic.

Most TDEE calculators on the internet use the Katch-McArdle formula.

However, I have found and used this modified formula through research and experimenting and it has been the best for me in terms of results!

This formula uses your BMR and multiplies it by slightly modified “activity multipliers” corresponding to a given activity level.

The following slightly modified list of activity multipliers has worked great for me. You just plug in the numbers that best fit you:

Your BMR x 1.15 = Little to no exercise.
BMR x 1.2 to 1.35 = 1 to 3 hours of exercise or sports per week
Your BMR x 1.4 to 1.55 = 4 to 6 hours of exercise or sports per week
BMR x 1.6 to 1.75 = 7 to 9 hours of exercise or sports per week
Your BMR x 1.8 to 1.95 = 10 plus hour of exercise or sports per week

These won’t give an exact amount of energy burned on a particular day since every day varies so much. They will be an accurate estimate of the average amount of energy you burn on any given day and that is good enough for what we are after.

Here is a TDEE as an example: 1936.93 x 1.65 = 3195.94

How Many Calories Do I Need In My Nutrition Plan?

In my experience, this is the best way to explain how it works when trying to tell someone how to change their body composition and set up a nutrition plan.

You just need to think about how many calories are going into your body in relation to how many are being burned off throughout the day.

This is referred to the “calories in versus calories out” idea. It will help you grasp the big picture of manipulating your nutrition to build muscle and lose fat.

It puts it into really simple terms because in all actuality changing your body with your nutrition is pretty simple to grasp. Just try and see past the fitness industry’s marketing traps and be willing to accept that it takes patience, discipline and hard work.

The industry will attempt to make you believe that you need a certain product or meal plan or workout routine in order to succeed quickly. Which is true to some degree and some genuinely help, but you can drastically build muscle and lose fat with only proper nutrition and exercise.

Furthermore, if we are aiming to lose fat, we need to think about taking in less calories in our nutrition plan than we are burning. This leads the body to use some of the stored energy (fat) as fuel to get through the workouts and your day.

In contrast, if you want to gain muscle then you need to consume slightly more calories than you’re burning over time. Your body will use the extra energy that is consumed to pack on the pounds. Set up a correct nutrition plan and you will gain minimal fat along the way.

Generally speaking, I find it is easiest to find your “maintenance” number of calories first. This is the amount your body needs to just function and stay alive with the activity levels you do currently. This is not taking your goals into account unless it is to maintain your current weight.

Without being too redundant, this is what we just did earlier. So, go back and get your BMR and TDEE numbers if you skipped them! (Hint: your TDEE is your maintenance calories). You can also use the calorie counter on this page if you need to speed things up a little bit.

Once you find out your estimated maintenance calories (the same as your TDEE), you can then use that number to estimate how many calories you need in your diet to either lose fat, build muscle or maintain weight.

Odds are you are here to change your body so we will start with losing fat.

Use a Caloric Deficit to Lose Fat

You need to eat less calories than you’re burning to lose body fat. This is called putting your body into a caloric deficit and is known as cutting.

If you are aiming to lose fat, you need to think about taking in less calories than you are burning off throughout the day. This leads the body to use some of its already stored energy (fat) as fuel to get through your day and workouts.

Although, if you put your body in too much of a caloric deficit you will lose weight fast, but a lot of it will be muscle and not just fat. That’s not a good thing for strength and performance and if you want to build more muscle.

We want to lose fat as fast as possible while still minimizing muscle and strength loss. We also want to minimize the fatigue that comes with cutting.

To do this, the best way I have found through research and in my experience is with an aggressive approach but not over the top. A caloric deficit of about 25% is what I have used recently with lots of success.

Eating about 75% of your TDEE is the magic number to cut fat fast while keeping your muscles. This can equal close to 10 to 12 calories per pound of body weight for a lot of people.

Studies have shown that this works very well for both fat loss and for muscle preservation when used with a good strength training routine and a lot of protein in your diet which we will cover shortly.

Here is a snap shot of the macronutrient breakdown I have used with great success with cutting if you can’t wait until I break it down further:

40% of calories from protein
40% of calories from carbohydrates
20% of calories from quality fats

That is a cutting cycle put in a straight forward and concise way. It works great and is not over complicated! I have just completed a phase of cutting and I went from 17%-19% of body fat down to 12% body fat faster than you would think.

Now let’s look at bulking and how to do it properly.

Use a Caloric Surplus to Build Muscle

build muscle while training for hypertrophy

Again, using the idea of calories in versus calories out. You need to take in slightly more calories in your diet than you are burning over time to build muscle. This allows your body to use that extra energy to steadily gain muscle over time.

To gain weight/muscle you need to eat more calories than your maintenance amount. This is called a caloric surplus.

When you consume more calories your, body optimizes its muscle building hormones, boosts protein synthesis and increases your overall performance.

Your body adapts to use the excess calories to fuel the muscle building mechanism it has become especially if you are on a good strength training routine.

If you are interested in how strength training can benefit you, then read my ultimate guide to building strength. You can apply your new nutrition plan to build more muscle, lose more fat (or both) and make the most progress you ever have!

Anyways, if you eat too much over your maintenance calories you will gain muscle but you will also gain more unnecessary fat as well. A lot of people do this thinking they will make serious gains. You can but you will gain more fat than you probably want.

Research has shown that there is a point when eating too many calories over your TDEE only adds additional body fat and no extra muscle. So just gorging on all the food does not add endless muscle with no fat.

So, at what point should you stop with the calories to gain the most amount of muscle with as little fat as possible?

Through my research and experience, I have found that eating about 10 to 15 percent over your TDEE is a good place to be. So about 110% -115% of your TDEE will give you the total amount of calories to consume.

As an example, for me it is 3195 x 1.10 (110%) = 3514.5.

I have been using this calculation while writing this article and have noticed great results. Having just come off of the cutting phase described earlier, I have noticed a large increase in my strength and performance since starting this clean bulking phase. I have also noticed some muscle gain but zero noticeable fat gain.

In addition, it is worth mentioning that I have upwards of 15 years of strength training and weight lifting experience. This means that gains and progress come A LOT slower to me than to someone just starting their fitness journey. I have already made the initial gains that the first 6 months to a year of training allow.

This initial period, known as the “newbie gains”, is a great time for someone just starting out. You can get away with a little higher calorie intake for the first 3-6 months of serious training effort. You will still gain some fat but the amount of muscle you will gain will be worth it.

People in this position could use 115-120% of your TDEE for a few months. The choice is yours! Just know that some fat might be added as well. Then you can just follow cutting guidelines we covered afterwards and get ripped to show all that muscled you earned!

If you can’t wait to get started on completing your nutrition plan, here is a snap shot of the macronutrient ratios you can follow for your clean bulking phase:

25% of calories should be from protein.
55% of calories should be from carbohydrates.
20% of calories should be from fats.

So that is that! When it comes to calorie intake and gaining muscle it’s just as easy (it is definitely easier) than cutting fat!

Next, we will briefly talk about your calorie intake for maintaining your current weight then we will get into your proper macronutrient amounts.

Maintaining Your Current Weight

I know I said that it was best to figure out your maintenance calories first and I meant that. In order to figure out your calorie and macronutrient numbers to start a proper cutting or bulking phase you need to know your maintenance calories which is your TDEE (the baseline for all our calculations.

However, I should say that you should not begin this phase until you done several cycles of cutting and bulking until you have reached the physique that you want.

On the other hand, if you are fully satisfied with your body composition then this is the appropriate nutrition phase to maintain that physique.

Otherwise, start with a cutting phase and get yourself down to 12-15% body fat before transitioning over to a clean bulking phase. Do this until you get to where you want to be and then just maintain it.

When you are completing these phases and start to see the results, (you will faster than you think), it is an amazing feeling of power and control over your own body and your life.

I cannot explain the sense of accomplishment you will feel when you look in the mirror at the end of a good cutting phase and see what you have created. It really boosts your confidence in yourself.

There are two approaches to maintaining your current weight and body:

You can eat the same amount every day. This is whatever your TDEE is. It is probably the simplest approach because you can plug in whatever foods fit your calorie and macronutrient needs and just keep at that every day.
You could also eat more on your workout days and then equally eat less on your fewer active days. Although this would require more work and you should figure out your TDEE using the calculations we learned for those individual days and use them accordingly. It is more work but may give you a more diverse diet to eat.

Both approaches can be good but I prefer the first option because it is much easier to set up and follow. I love the food I choose to eat so I don’t mind eating it regularly.

The first method means that you will technically be in a caloric deficit one day and a surplus the other. They will balance each other out in the long run so it will work out to just about even by the end of the week.

The second option gets more into calorie cycling and that is for another article and much more advanced. However, it can be a good option for people who have drastically different days in terms of activity levels throughout the week.

For the sake of this article, we will only break down the first option.

Most of the work is already taken care of. Your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) is your daily calorie goal to consume. All you need to do is figure out your macronutrient goals and that’s it.

You can use your TDEE number to calculate your macro needs. Here is a snapshot of the macro ratios you can use for a maintenance phase:

25-30% of calories should be from protein
40% of calories should be from carbohydrates
25-30% of calories should be from good quality fats

You should adjust protein and fat intake within those percentages to equal 100%.

That is it for your calorie intake! I know it was a lot to take in. Just take it one step at a time and find your starting point. You can then move on to the next step and it will all make sense once you have your set numbers and start following your new diet.

Now that you know your estimated caloric amounts, you can use that information to help put your results on the fast track!

Next, we will move onto macronutrients. These are the nutrients that make up calories so read on to see more!

Macronutrient Needs in your Nutrition Plan

how to gain weight with a fast metabolism

We talked before about how calorie intake is the main component to changing your body composition. This is true.

However, your macronutrient breakdown and the amounts you eat also play a huge role to what your body looks like and is very important to our goals.

Macronutrients (“macros”) are nutrients that humans need in larger amounts to survive. For nutrition and planning meals, we all know these are protein, carbohydrates and fats.

A dieting method called “If It Fits Your Macros” (IIFYM) relies on adjusting your macronutrient intake based off your needs and has been very successful for a lot of people. It is part of what we are using here with the addition of manipulating calorie amounts to better gain muscle without fat.

Calories and macros together have an overwhelming influence on your body composition and taking control of both of them can get you into phenomenal shape.

It also allows you to enjoy “cheat meals” fairly often, as long as you are sticking to your calorie and macro intake numbers. This is why you see pictures of ripped guys and girls eating huge amount of junk foods at times.

Let’s get into it!

Protein Intake in your Nutrition

Protein is by far the most important macronutrient, especially if your workout.

No nutrition plan is perfect, but one that is will be high in protein. Multiple studies over such a long span of time have confirmed that it is better than a low protein diet.

A diet that is high in protein shows that people can:

Gain more muscle.
Burn more calories.
Lose fat faster.
Build stronger bones.
Be hungry less often.
And so much more.

Your body increases its demand for protein when you work out regularly. This makes protein our number one priority when it comes to figuring out our macros.

Whether you’re trying to gain muscle by doing a clean bulking phase or lose fat through a cutting phase, protein is super important.

Lots of protein is required when you are cutting because it will help you to keep all of the muscle that you earned. It preserves it while you are cutting and you will lose minimal muscle when cutting on a high protein regimen.

Surprisingly, you do not need as much protein when you are trying to pack on muscle with minimal fat gain. It is still very important to building muscle however.

We need to eat a lot of protein but what about exactly how much in our nutrition?

If you are going to start a cutting phase you want a minimum of 1 gram of protein per body weight and up to 1.25 grams. This worked FLAWLESSLY for me on my last cutting phase.

If you are going to bulk up, a protein intake of about 1 gram per body weight is a good place to be. You could go down to 0.8 grams/lb. of body weight as well.

Keep in mind of you are overweight then this will not give you appropriate numbers for your intake. Using percentages of your total daily calorie intake based on your goals is more accurate like I mentioned earlier in the article.

Let’s set our protein intake for our goals.

Protein Needs for Cutting, Bulking and Maintaining

Now that you have your daily calories figured out for your own needs, let’s get your protein intake set using your total daily calories.

The percentages I have mentioned earlier are what I have used with GREAT success.

Roughly 40% of your daily calories should come from protein during a cutting phase.
Only 25% of your daily calories should be from protein when you are on a clean bulking phase.
About 30% of your daily calories should be from protein when you are just maintaining.

Protein contains roughly 4 calories per gram so we will use this to calculate your needs.

I will use a 2000 calorie daily calorie goal as an example. All you have to do is the following steps:

Cutting

Multiply your daily calorie intake by 40%. (2000 x 0.4 = 800 calories).
Divide the rest by 4 to figure out your daily protein intake. (800 / 4 = 200 grams of protein).

Bulking

Multiply your daily calorie intake by 25%. (2000 x 0.25 = 500 calories).
Divide the rest by 4 to figure out your daily protein intake. (500 / 4 = 125 grams of protein).

Maintaining

Multiply your daily calorie intake by 30%. (2000 x 0.3 = 600 calories).
Divide the rest by 4 to figure out your daily protein intake. (600 / 4 = 150 grams of protein).

Just plug in your daily calorie total and the appropriate percentage based on the phase you are going to begin. Then divide that result by 4 and you will have your protein intake.

You can do these calculations in seconds on your phone’s calculator. I suggest writing them down so you can clearly see all your numbers to hit each day.

It’s as simple as that. Now you have your protein intake for whichever phase you are going to start.

Foods to Eat for Protein

Quality protein can come from multiple sources, including supplementation. Here is a list of protein sources that I eat:

Grass fed lean beef (Sirloin tip, Top round, Eye of round, Bottom round)
Wild caught fish (Salmon, tuna, etc.)
Boneless/skinless free-range Chicken (Breast and thighs)
Turkey and lean ground turkey
Cage free eggs (whole and/or whites)
Greek yogurt and Icelandic skyr yogurt (Plain/Vanilla)
Protein powder

This is not an exhaustive list but rather a list that I currently consume.

Now that you have protein squared away, let’s look into carbohydrates.

Carbohydrates In Your Nutrition

Carbs are probably the most controversial and misunderstood macronutrient.

With a surge in low-carb diets people are led to believe that carbohydrates are all bad for you. This is far from the truth.

It is well known that nutrition is very important to optimize results. We just spent this entire article discussing how getting enough calories will grow muscle, eating fewer calories will burn fat.

The focus of what we talked about was how consuming enough protein will build larger muscles and preserve them when you cut fat.

But what about carbs? Some people despise them and some worship them. Are carbs a great fuel source for hard training or a sure fat gain indulgence? What is the truth? Carbs are a huge and indispensable advantage to hard-training athletes, including those that want to better their endurance, add size, or get leaner.

How Carbs Work in the Body

The science behind how carbohydrates help your body is extensive and deserves an article of its own and will not be covered here. The key takeaway, carbs are fuel for our bodies and we need them to perform at our best.

Since carbohydrates are so “controversial” I want to clear the air a bit with carbs. I will share the absolute basics on how they work in the body.

Carbs are produced almost exclusively by plants and found mostly in plant foods. Carbs provide about 4 calories per gram.

When humans ingest any kind of carbs, they undergo an extensive process of digestion and absorption. They are finally converted into glucose (sugar) if not ingested as glucose already. All eaten carbs pass through the liver and are mostly either converted to glucose and sent out into the blood or stored in the liver as glycogen (linked together glucose molecules that are stored for later use).

The glucose that isn’t stored is sent out into the body via the bloodstream. Glucose fuels all the cells in the body. The nervous system and brain cells are always craving glucose to fuel them and they control the skeletal muscles. These systems prefer glucose as a fuel source over protein or fat as a fuel and work much better when glucose levels are higher.

Finally, when the muscles take in blood glucose, they can use this fuel to power muscle activity and repair. Muscle stores glucose that arrives from the blood as glycogen right there in the fibers much like in the liver. This is good because glycogen can fuel the muscles much faster than blood glucose can.

In summary, carbs get eaten and then broken down into glucose and glycogen. These are preferred fuel sources for the brain and nervous system and they both fuel the muscles themselves. The muscles receive glucose from the blood and store it in their fibers as glycogen, which fuels the muscle much more rapidly than glucose from the blood. End result, much more energy for the muscles leading to much higher sports performance.

That’s a brief rundown of how carbs fuel your body. The advantages to consuming carbs are abundant if you train hard and regularly. Some of the are:

Higher training intensity
Quicker recovery between your sets
Better recovery between workouts
Ability to keep up the intensity during a long workout
Higher training volume capability
Carbs play an anti-catabolic (muscle breakdown) role and an anabolic (muscle building) role when consumed before, during and after workouts.

Now that we have talked about how carbs work and their benefits, let’s get into actually how much you’re going to need for your goals.

Carbohydrate Needs for Cutting, Bulking and Maintaining

If your physically active and healthy you will most likely be much better off with carbs in your nutrition. Especially if you lift weights in particular.

Carbs can help you both gain muscle and lose fat faster. As we discussed, carbs fuel your muscles and your workout intensity which leads to more muscle gained and more fat lost over time.

What amount of carbs is good for me to have better results?

There isn’t a blanket answer for everyone but the consensus is that about 1-3 grams per pound of body weight works for most. However, you want to be more accurate to assure results for your own goals, right?

Roughly 40% of your daily calories should come from carbs during a cutting phase.
About 55% of your daily calories should be from carbs when you are on a clean bulking phase.
Nearly 45% of your daily calories should be from carbs when you are just maintaining.

Carbohydrates contain roughly 4 calories per gram so we will use this to calculate your needs.

Again, I will use a 2000 calorie daily calorie goal as just an example. All you have to do is the following steps: