Strength training increases body fat percentage

If you do strength training conscientiously and your body fat will still increase, 90% of the problem lies in "dietary intake exceeds actual consumption." The remaining 10% is related to deviations in training structure, hormone fluctuations, and body fat measurement errors. The fault really does not lie in strength training itself.

Many bodybuilding veterans around me don’t care about this at all. According to them, the muscle-building period is to give the body enough calories. It is normal for body fat to increase by 3-5%. As long as the bench press and deadlift weight increase, it will be back after two months of preparation. This is what everyone often calls the "visceral muscle-building" school. However, other bloggers who popularize natural fitness science disagree, saying that the muscle growth rate of natural fitness people is very slow. During the novice period, they can gain up to 0.5-1kg of muscle in a month. As long as the caloric surplus is controlled at 200-300 kcal per day, the body fat increase can be controlled within 1%, and there will be no sudden increase in body fat. There is nothing wrong with either statement, it is just that the goals are different and the paths chosen are different.

In fact, most of us ordinary fitness people have neither the intention to compete in competitions nor the talent to gain more than ten kilograms of muscle a year. Many people gain body fat simply to make excuses for their greed. I once took care of a young girl who had just graduated. After two months of training, her hip thrust increased from 40kg to 80kg. She felt that she was too powerful and consumed too much. After every day of training, she would reward herself with a hot pot or milk tea. She also plausibly said, "I train strength just so I can eat whatever I want." As a result, her body fat increased from 22 to 27 in two months, and she had an extra ring of fat around her waist. She came to me crying and told me how she was getting fatter as she practiced. Do you think you can blame strength training? Hip thrusts consume 400 calories in 1 hour, and a cup of Basque cake with a cup of Basque cake consumes 600 calories. How can the remaining 200 calories not increase fat? To put it bluntly, many people paddle for half an hour while practicing, but they are unambiguous when eating. How can body fat not increase?

Oh, by the way, there are still many people who fall into the trap of supplements. They originally wanted to buy protein powder, but they mistakenly bought it as a muscle-building powder. Half of it is carbohydrates, and one spoonful contains 500 calories. If you drink two spoons a day, it is equivalent to eating two more bowls of rice. It is strange that you are not fat. There are also people who have just started drinking creatine. In the first week, their bodies will store water and their weight will increase by 2-3 pounds. The body fat rate measured by the body fat scale will directly increase by 1-2%. Many people think that they have gained fat and are dying of anxiety. In fact, the excess water is locked in the muscles. After drinking it for a while, it will fall back. There is no need to panic.

Of course, there are cases where body fat still increases even if you really don’t eat more. I used to have a programmer friend who was very stuck in eating every day. He used a food scale to weigh every meal. After three months of strength training, his body fat still increased by 2%. Later, when I asked him, I found out that during that time, he was working on a project and stayed up until two or three o'clock every day. He was so stressed that he smoked a pack of cigarettes a day. His cortisol was ridiculously high, and his body would instinctively store fat in his belly. In this case, it doesn't matter how much you practice. It's better to get enough sleep first. There are also people who used to run 5 kilometers every day, but suddenly switch to strength training, and all aerobic training stops. They consume hundreds of calories daily, and their diet does not follow, so body fat naturally goes up. It is not a problem with strength training.

Also, don’t put too much faith in your body fat scale that costs tens of dollars. I have tried it. The body fat rate can differ by 3% when measured in the morning on an empty stomach and after a meal in the evening. Drinking a glass of water can vary by 1%. Even if your feet are wet or dry, the values ​​will be different. If you really want to measure body fat, fix it at the same time and in the same state. For example, after defecation in the morning on an empty stomach and standing barefoot in the same position, the value can be used as a reference. If it doesn't work, you can take a comparison photo and measure your waist and leg circumference to see if your strength has increased. If your bench press has increased by 10kg but your waist circumference has not increased, even if the body fat scale says that your body fat has increased by 2%, it means that your muscles have grown and your fat has not increased, and the scale is just inaccurate.

In fact, to put it bluntly, strength training is a good thing to help you increase your basal metabolism and allow you to burn more calories even when you are sitting. There is really no need to give up just because your body fat has increased. If you just want to improve your strength, just increase your body fat as much as possible, and then just brush it off. ； If you want to take care of your figure, then keep your mouth shut and don't make excuses for yourself to eat casually. Your body fat will definitely not increase indiscriminately. After all, when it comes to fitness, it has always been about practicing and eating. The experience passed down by old players is really not nonsense.