Kelsey HigginsonSports Nutrition Coach and Founder at Clutch Day Coaching

Can you build muscle and lose fat as an athlete

9 Jun 2025 · 1 min

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In this short explainer, the speaker addresses the common question of whether one can simultaneously build muscle and lose fat. He outlines the basic nutritional requirements for each goal: muscle growth demands at least maintenance calories (or a surplus) to provide the material needed for protein synthesis, while fat loss requires a caloric deficit. Because these caloric states are opposite, achieving both goals at the same time is generally not feasible. The speaker then notes that if the aim is merely a body‑composition tweak—looking bigger and more defined—eating at maintenance can reveal existing muscle definition and produce a modest leanness, but it will not result in significant new muscle mass.

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Is it possible to build muscle and lose fat at the same time? In order for muscle to grow, you need material. That material comes from food. You need to be eating at least the same amount of food that you're burning, which brings me to the next point of when you need to lose fat or lose weight. You need to be in a deficit, which means that you are eating less calories or less food than what you are burning. Do you see how the two are completely opposite? However, if you are just trying for a body composition change, if you're wanting to like just look bigger and look stronger, then if you eat at maintenance, which means you are eating the same amount of food that are burning, then you can see your muscle definition show through and you can lean out a little bit, but you won't actually put on more muscle.