Hot Take: It's Time to Shift Your Resolutions.

Happy New Year! We’ve entered January, and while many will be kicking off the year with a New Year’s Resolution to lose weight, I’ve got a different take… it’s not losing season, it’s building season.

January falls just after a month of indulgence, making it an obvious target for making better lifestyle choices to feel lighter, brighter, and more energetic. However, I propose that we use the season of indulgence as a catalyst for a smart, calculated build which differs significantly from the haphazard gluttony that the holidays tend to bring out in us.

Most people would call an attempt to build muscle a “bulk”, but that’s a tricky word that brings about thoughts of puffiness, so-called “junk” food, and giving in to whatever whims of food-driven urges that rise during a time of year that already taxes our will power simply through the additional darkness and chill in the air. My proposition is that we rebrand a “bulk” as a “build”, which is a thoughtful effort to plan and select the building blocks of a healthy, strong body that will serve to increase lean muscle mass, improve energy, increase metabolism, and make long-term body recomposition that much easier. So let’s combine the urge to consume a bit more with the science of building a healthy body and jump start any later attempts to reduce fat with a short-term improvement in our lean body composition.

So, how do we do that?

1. Set a timeline by working backwards and considering both the length of the build and the time at which you want to achieve your goal composition. If you live in a part of the country that considers MDW as the start of the summer like I do, perhaps this is the goal date for when you want to be at a leaner composition. As such, consider ending your building period with enough time to be in a slight deficit to drop any extra fat mass. Beginners usually see results from shorter building and leaning-out phases, so this might look like a 8 week (2 month) “cut” (~500 calorie deficit) beginning around April 1. With a healthy approach to a deficit, you can expect to lose 1 pound per week in that time period- that’s 8 pounds over 2 months. So, if you start your build now (second week of January) and end it on March 31, you’ll have almost three months to execute a modest build (aiming for adding a half pound of body weight per week in lean mass), which would equate to an additional ~6 pounds of mostly lean mass. Therefore, over a 5 month period, you might lose a net weight of 2 lbs, but most of that would be fat and your body composition would shift significantly towards greater lean mass. 

   
   

   • The short version: Build for three months through a slight calorie surplus of ~250 per day and execute a 2 month deficit of ~500 calories per day.

     
     

2. Decide how you are going to track your build. There are a few ways to do this, and some are more objective than others. It is difficult to precisely calculate your caloric needs (which requires you to know your total daily energy expenditure and turn the dial from there), but calculating your needs based on your age, gender, estimated movement and exercise habits can provide a baseline. There are several online calculators that can perform this for you. From there, you can estimate your additional caloric needs (a slight building period could be achieved with ~250 extra calories per day) and log your meals. If you do not like the idea of tracking meals, you can estimate your caloric intake and eat slightly more than normal from there, then weigh yourself to see if the scale is moving. Caveat: The scale moves more as a result of water fluctuations than fat gain or loss. Weighing yourself once a week might not provide the best feedback, as your weight on one single day could be highly influenced by water retention. Another strategy is to weigh yourself daily and take the average over the seven days as your data, but not everyone loves to step on the scale this frequently as it could distort your perception of progress. The least objective way is to simply eat more, execute your lifting program, and check in occasionally through progress photos, weigh-ins, and the way your clothing fits. You need to find the method that works best psychologically for you, which isn’t always the most objective way but could lead to the best adherence. Learning the way your mind operates is critical to success in this journey, and sometimes a little trial and error is required to figure out what “clicks” for you.

   
   

   • The short version: Figure out a manageable way to track your caloric intake and/or progress that doesn’t leave you guessing or overthinking. Track your meals, weigh in daily and take the weekly average, or simply eat slightly more than typical and check in occasionally with progress photos or weigh ins.

     
     

3. Be mindful of your nutritional choices. The beauty of a build is that, for many people, it is the first time that they can truly feel GREAT about EATING MORE in a way that MAKES THEIR BODIES MORE BEAUTIFUL AND STRONG. Especially for women, eating more is so often (and sadly) equated to shame surrounding a higher weight and a less attractive physique. Now we are flipping the script: you are eating more to contribute to a more capable, resilient, healthy, and attractive body. Sure, the additional “weight” may not reveal the physique you want right away, but the point here is patience. There are so many times in our lives where we have to be patient and trust the process. Many of us go to college, incurring thousands of dollars of debt, to eventually be able to make more of an income later on. We part with our money in the short term to invest it, only to see more of it return to us in the future. Some of us sacrifice sleep, self-care, and mental health in the short term to have children and build a family so we can create a fuller life with more love and joy. Acute sacrifices for long term gains is nothing new for us, so why is it SO HARD to accept temporary increases on the scale? Is it a lack of trust that it will eventually come off? Is our self-image so intertwined with our body image that we truly feel that we are becoming less as we literally become more? Regardless of what it is, this is the time that we get to stare at that logic in the face and challenge it. During the build, you are choosing healthy foods to nourish your body. Your goal should be to eat around .7 to 1g of protein per pound of your goal body weight. This is hard for people to remember, so the tip is basically to eat your body weight in grams of protein. Weigh 150 pounds with a goal weight of 140lbs? Eat 140g of protein per day. Space this out over 3-5 meals so your protein dose per meal falls around 20-40g. The rest of your calories should come from whole, nourishing foods you feel good about, but you can (and should) also allow yourself to have fun. Remember- you’re only eating roughly 250 calories more than maintenance, so it’s not an all-you-can-eat buffet at every meal. It’s an extra snack; it’s that piece of cake you may typically wrestle yourself over; it’s a protein bar or shake in between meals. Liberate your restrictive mindset, keep 80% of your intake nutritious (fruits, veggies, whole grains, lean meats and fish, legumes, starches, etc.), hit your protein goals, and watch as your body responds with more energy, more muscle, and more freedom. Keep in mind that alcohol counts towards your caloric goals and your body prioritizes the clearance of alcohol from your system over muscle building, so be mindful when making choices surrounding booze!

   
   

   • The short version: Aim to consume ~1 gram of protein per pound of body weight, then focus on getting the rest of your macro and micronutrients from whole foods. Avoid restricting yourself but be moderate with your additional intake and “fun food”. 

     
     

4. Decide on your exercise program. Builds rely on resistance (strength/hypertrophy) training - heavier weights, low to moderate reps, and longer rest periods. This is what becomes difficult for so many of us who are used to banging out high reps and making our resistance training feel like cardio. You want to be in a building, not burning, stage here. Resist the temptation to get sweaty and instead, slow it all down. Depending on your starting point, you may want to try lifting for 3-5x per week. Your approach should feature full body compound movements with an emphasis on any “accessory” muscles that you’d like to grow (i.e. triceps, shoulders, etc.). Each week, you should attempt to make your program a bit more challenging, whether it be through adding reps, adding weight, or adding a movement. The key is to do this moderately and safely- overtraining will impact your stress and sleep, which are critical for the build (after all, you break your muscle down in the gym and rebuild it during rest). Choose 4-6 movements per workout, execute 3-6 sets per movement in the 6-12 rep range, and be sure to warm up and cool down. Keep cardio to a minimum (hard, I know, but this is a building phase where we want to avoid breaking down our muscles). You will be able to return to your favorite HIIT or cardio workouts in time, but the idea is to add muscle mass, so let’s keep that at the forefront of your goals! If you are lost, let AI or online programs (or maybe even a coach!) help you out. Reducing the cognitive load leaves more will power for you to execute your plan, and we love this stuff.

   
   

   • The short version: Prioritize resistance training. Slow it down and reduce the cardio. Shoot for 3-5 resistance sessions per week, 4-6 movements per session, 3-6 sets per movement, 6-12 reps per set. 

     
     

5. Trust the process. Your emotional brain, which has been training for decades to “watch your weight”, will likely resist this attempt. Expect it, greet it (after all, it’s just trying to look out for you), and remind it that this is what we want. We will eventually be ready for a maintenance or deficit phase, but for now, we are empowering the muscles in our body and everything else needs to step aside. In time, your body will respond with a faster metabolism, making the future deficit even more effective. Sometimes confusing the body is just what it needs to adjust and break through any plateaus that have been haunting you for months (or years..). Have faith and believe you are capable of taking one step backwards (further from your “goal weight”) to make leaps and bounds towards it when the time comes. If you need some proof of concept, feel free to check out my last post, “My Body Recomposition Journey”.

Gaining lean mass by building muscle has incredibly powerful outcomes on health and wellness. The New Year often brings about the desire to start anew, and for many this includes lifestyle and self-care related goals. Having an aesthetic goal of looking and feeling better is not shameful- it is a strong motivator for people to get healthier and protect nearly every physiological system from the effects of aging. So whatever your motivation this January, consider heading into this time of year with the goal to become a bigger, better, stronger version of you. If you need help, you know where to find me. Good luck and happy building season!