JJ Virgin4x NYTimes Best Selling Author, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Fitness Hall of Famer

Build Muscle and Lose Fat After 40

26 Aug 2025 · 2 min

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1:51

In this video, JJ Virgin explains the concept of body recomposition—simultaneously losing fat while preserving or building muscle—emphasizing that it is a slow, steady process akin to watching grass grow. She advises aiming for a weight loss of 0.5–1% per week, using a bioimpedance device to track total body water to ensure muscle is not being lost. JJ distinguishes between “newbie gains” for beginners and realistic muscle‑gain rates for experienced lifters (about 0.5–1 lb of muscle per month). She outlines key optimization strategies: boosting testosterone, increasing protein intake, supplementing with shiitake mushrooms, and using creatine HCl combined with taurine and magnesium. JJ shares a personal case study of her husband, who lost 27 lb of fat and gained 24 lb of muscle in eight months by following these protocols. The overall message is that modest weekly fat loss paired with consistent muscle‑building practices leads to dramatic changes in appearance and how one feels, especially after age 40.

Chapters

So the big buzz right now is body recomposition. What does that mean? That means that you are not just losing weight, that you are focusing on holding onto, or better yet, building muscle as you're losing body fat. Here's how you're going to want to think about this because this is a slow process. I will tell you that recomposing your body is a little bit like watching grass grow if you're doing this correctly. If you try to do it too fast, you'll end up losing muscle. If you want to recomp your body, Basically, you are gonna wanna think about losing about a half to a percent of weight a week because that's about as much body fat as you'll be able to lose. So slow go on the loss. And again, you're matching this with your bioimpedance machine to watch your total body water to make sure that it is staying the same or going up as you're losing weight. And then for muscle mass, now it's different if you've never lifted weights before because there's this phenomenon called newbie gains where it's a little easier for you to put on muscle as you start. But if you've been lifting weights for a while, you know, half pound to a pound of muscle a month would be really, really good. I've got some tricks in my sleeve to help you get more and I'll share those in a moment. But that's where you wanna think of. I will tell you that my husband was able to drop 27 pounds of fat, put on 24 pounds of muscle in 8 months. But we did that by optimizing his testosterone, cranking up his protein, making sure he was taking his, his shi— he takes shiitake, right? We just cover the ass. It's his creatine, his creatine HCL with taurine and magnesium. So we did all the things that would help him really optimize, and he'd never really pushed like he was pushing before. But think about more likely that you may be losing, you know, a pound of fat a week and putting on a pound of muscle a month. And so while it looks like it's a slow shift, it will be a dramatic change in how you feel and what you look like, especially naked.