How to Lose Fat And Gain Muscle (As A Beginner)

Introduction (Read This)

The most requested article on my email list is a guide to “get started”.

I held out on doing so because it’s a massive job.

Not because getting started is complicated (it’s not, as you’ll see below), but because in the health and fitness world, there is tension between being comprehensive and providing clear and actionable advice.

But this blog is not about making excuses. It’s about overcoming the mental barriers standing between you and your dreams.

To that end, I’m going to break this guide down into beginner, intermediate, and advanced.

The beginner section will be as concise and caveat-free as possible, while the intermediate and advanced guide will go more into the weeds.

If you’re a beginner, your goal is to prioritise starting and building momentum.

If before you get started you find yourself spending more than 1 hour “learning”, you’ve fucked up.

To be clear: you should spend a lot more than 1 hour learning about lifting over the course of your life.

But you’re not allowed to drag your feet by reading and watching a bunch of online tutorials while you wait to sign up for the gym “next week”.

That is fake progress. Stop indulging in procrastination and get to the gym.

Below is some straight to the point advice to help you get started.

The Basics

There are three pillars to gaining muscle and losing fat:

1. Mindset & Discipline
2. Nutrition
3. Gym

They are all important.

If I was pressed, I would say that mindset is the most important of the three.

Not because you can lie in bed eating Cheetos and think yourself into a six-pack.

But because a perfect nutrition and gym routine that you drop after 6 weeks is significantly worse than a “good enough” nutrition and gym routine that you can stick to consistently.

The #1 factor separating those who succeed and those who flounder is not in the number of grams of carbs they consume per day or whether they do standing or seated bicep curls.

It’s whether they’re still putting in the effort after their initial flame of motivation has long since fizzled out.

And it starts in the mind.

Mindset & Discipline

1. Reframe how you view your health and fitness. You don’t have to go to the gym, you get to go to the gym.
   • There will be a day—likely sooner than you’d like—when you’ll no longer have the physical ability to do squats, deadlifts, and push-ups. Take advantage of the years of your life where you can.
   • Lifting is a gift, not a chore.
2. You must master the art of showing up.
   • You need to build the contours of a healthy and athletic person.
   • Go to the gym even when you don’t feel like it. Go when it’s raining. And especially go on your birthday.
3. Your identity is now “I am a healthy and athletic person”.
   • When someone quitting smoking is asked if they want a cigarette, they say, “No thanks, I’m trying to quit”. Because they still identify as a smoker.
   • What do non-smokers say when they’re offered a cigarette? “No thanks, I don’t smoke.” They have the identity of a non-smoker.
   • Offered seconds for dessert? Thinking of skipping the gym? Ask yourself: “What would a healthy and athletic person do?”
4. Outline two different versions of yourself: the hellish version, and the heavenly version. I’ve provided an example of each below, but you should outline your own personal heaven and hell in your own words. You alone know the specific ways your vices could corrupt your potential.
   • Hell version: You degrade in precisely the way you know you would if you let your vices take hold of you. You skip going to the gym because you’re “just not feeling it”. You silence the voice in your head that tells you that you probably don’t need to finish the whole tub of ice cream. You take up smoking because a mid at a party offers you a puff. You stay up until 3 a.m., exhausting your Netflix catalogue while you doom scroll through TikTok. You hate how you look, you hate how you feel, and the way you fix it is by “eating away the pain” and avoiding weight scales and mirrors. You become fat, lazy, and disease-ridden. People look at you with disdain—“I knew you’d never amount to anything”.
   • Heaven version: You ascend into the ultimate actualised version of yourself. You maintain an impeccable workout schedule, each session purposeful, intense and full of euphoria. You effortlessly stick to your diet and enjoy the food you eat, experiencing the long-term health benefits as an immediate dopamine surge post-meal. Your energy levels are consistently high, providing a steady surge of vitality that allows you to tackle any task with enthusiasm. This sustained vitality sharpens your focus, enabling you to master new skills and projects with precision and dedication. Every reflection in the mirror shows a body that is sculpted and strong, a testament to your hard work. During summer, you hit the beach with confidence, proud to showcase an aesthetic physique that reflects your commitment to excellence. With a spring in your step, you attack each day with zeal; you feel fantastic. You become a beacon of health, discipline, and motivation to those around you. Your presence inspires others to strive for their personal best, becoming a symbol of health and living proof of the transformative power of hard work.

Nutrition

1. Estimate your calories using a calorie calculator.
   • Unless you’re already very skinny (<12% body fat), always start with a cut.
     • Cutting will mean you see faster progress aesthetically, making you look and feel better.
     • As a beginner, you’ll still be able to gain muscle. You’ll also look like you’re gaining muscle since you’ll be trimming the fat around your muscles.
2. Start monitoring your food intake for at least a month. Yes, it’s time to count your calories.
   • Stop whinging. You don’t have to do this forever.
   • You’re doing this to get a rough idea of how many calories are in your food. If you don’t understand what you’re eating, you can’t make informed decisions about what to eat.
     • Did you know walnuts have more calories per gram than chocolate? Do you know how many calories are in your favourite fast-food meals?
3. Adjust your calories based on your goals. For simplicity, start with 1 lb/week on a cut and 1 lb/week on a bulk.
   • If you gain less or more than this after two weeks, adjust your calories accordingly. More on this later.

Gym

1. If you’re a beginner, start here for your routine: thefitness.wiki/routines/r-fitness-basic-beginner-routine/
   • This is a “training wheels” routine. Its goal is to create a simple, easy-to-follow routine that will help beginners get into the gym, start training with the standard barbell lifts, and build a habit of consistently going to the gym.
   • Consistency is the biggest point of failure. The goal of this routine is to get you started.
   • You need to build the initial mould of someone who is lean and muscular. The most basic form of this mould is someone who shows up consistently and is comfortable with free weights (barbells and dumbbells).
   • This is not an “ideal” routine. The search for an “ideal” routine is a pastime reserved for intermediate and advanced lifters. Worrying about the “ideal” before you step foot in the gym is a complete waste of time. Perfect is the enemy of good.
   • Read the FAQ.
2. You build muscle through progressive overload.
   • Progressive overload is continually increasing the demands on the musculoskeletal system.
   • You can do this by adding more weight, reps, volume, training frequency, or by decreasing rest time.
   • If you’re not pushing yourself to your limit and making your muscles work harder than they're used to, you’re not building muscle.
3. Write down your lifts and reps for each workout.
   • Include the date, the weight you lifted, the number of reps, and the number of sets.
   • This will help you track your progress and ensure you’re progressive overloading your muscles.
   • You don’t need anything fancy. Use Apple Notes, Google Keep, or a physical notebook.
   • If you can’t stop yourself from checking your notifications while you workout, use a physical notebook.
4. I’d recommend going to the gym at least 3 times a week. 4-6 is ideal. But if you can only go once per week, that’s infinitely better than not going at all. Just. Start.
5. Intermediate & advanced lifting guide pending.

If you have any questions or feedback on this guide, email me.