My Beginner's Guide to Building Muscle and Losing Fat
During my first year of training, I really thought that building a muscular, lean physique quickly was just about showing up at the gym.
I figured it was about finding the top three bicep exercises and lifting as much weight as possible every session.
But after a few months of seeing mediocre progress and physical pain, I started doubting myself. I wasn’t getting the results I wanted*, and it was frustrating.*
And if you’re in that same spot, just starting your gym journey wanting to reinvent yourself. You need to pay attention to not just the gym but your whole lifestyle.
It’s not your fault for thinking it should be simple. Most people online make it seem fast and easy, which can leave you feeling overwhelmed when it isn’t.
Building muscle requires 3 key aspects that you need to get right and the gym is only one of them. You need to get all 3 working if you want to make significant progress.
Today, I’ll walk you through a holistic framework to help you maximize your progress.
Training
Focus on Building Muscle
If you're serious about making progress and getting real gains, I’m assuming you're focused on hypertrophy work in the gym. (Which is exactly what you should be doing)
Now I just want to be clear about one misconception people make : training for hypertrophy doesn’t mean you’re going to turn into an IFBB pro bodybuilder or pack on 50 pounds of muscle in a couple of weeks.
Building muscle is actually very hard. I've been training for five years, and while I've made significant progress, I’m far from being "The rock king of huge.”
And I feel like most beginners have delusional expectations of what’s realistic because of social media (mostly), and you’ll have to change those expectations.
In the beginning I was tempted to blame “my bad genetics,” but why does that matter? I can’t change my genetics; and you can’t change yours. You got to work with what you’ve got.
So, if you’ve been holding back, thinking you don’t want to “get huge” like the people you see on Instagram, it’s time to rethink that.
This fear is unrealistic, and your focus should be on improving and building muscle based on your progress and your body.
Because when you give it your best, not only will you make real progress, ****but you’ll also feel proud of the journey, as you know that you gave it your best shot.
Principles for Hypertrophy
To build muscle, you need to apply tension to the muscle. So much tension in fact that it doesn’t have any choice but to adapt and grow bigger
If you've watched other videos on this topic, you've likely heard terms like "mechanical tension" or "metabolic stress."
These concepts might sound intimidating and overly theoretical, so let me simplify it for you.
Your body is designed for survival and adapts only when it absolutely has to, as adaptation is very costly.
So, if you want your muscles to grow, you need to give them a strong enough reason to do so. This is why you got to get close to failure during your sets
If you're just getting started, like if these are your first few weeks in the gym —I recommend focusing on learning solid technique for foundational exercises like the squat, bench press, bicep curl ...
Get comfortable around the weights and the machines and start exploring how tension and physical sensations feel in each movement.
The key is to maintain good technique while applying maximum tension to the muscle.
If you skip the technique work, you’ll increase your risk of injury, and you’ll eventually hit a wall because there’s only so much weight you can handle without a solid foundation.
Mind-Muscle Connection
That’s why I want to talk about something I believe is highly underappreciated in the world of training: the mind-muscle connection.
Weightlifting is as much a mental challenge as it is a physical one, yet most people aren’t aware of that reality.
When I'm in the gym, the hardest part isn't lifting the dumbbell—it’s staying fully focused on the tension I fell in my biceps for all 14 reps I need to do.
You don’t want to lift weights mindlessly. If you want serious progress, you have to be mentally present and engaged throughout every rep.
Because the secret is that by using your brain to consciously contract the right muscle during each exercise, you can significantly increase the tension it receives without having to load up the weights like crazy
Trust me, I’ve made far more gains with this approach than by simply trying to lift heavier.
For sure you want to destroy your muscle in the gym but honestly that only can happen once you know the technique and you got the mind muscle connection right.
You need to be smart about it to maximize gains and minimize fatigue.
And it’s pretty hard to do so if you’re scrolling bikini pictures on instagram in between sets, you gotta be present.
Next time you’re in the gym, focus on what you’re feeling. Pay attention to the sensations each exercise brings to your body.
Learn where each muscle is and practice activating it. Force your brain to find that activation, then practice your exercises with good technique and the right focus.
That’s when you unlock the cheat code for muscle growth.
By the way, everything I discuss in this video those 3 pillars are the ones I cover in Fitness Autonomy — Everything’s in there
Nutrition
Relationship with Food
I’ve met few people who were truly willing to improve their nutrition for good and stick to their goals.
Because it’s so deeply anchored in the way you function.
If you're struggling with managing your weight, it’s almost certain you’ll need to examine and deconstruct parts of your relationship with food to restore balance.
You see, you cultivate a belief system around food, shaped by your experiences and the lessons you learned growing up.
For example, if your parents taught you that food was a reward—like getting a chocolate cake every time you earned a good grade or behaved well—then your brain equates food with a reward for good behavior.
That’s just one example, but the main point here is that you've been cultivating beliefs about food, often without realizing it, and it’s important to become aware of them.
When it comes to becoming lean and muscular, the first step is to take an honest, objective look at your current diet.
Nutrition Principles
When it comes to optimizing nutrition for your training, there are really two main things you need to focus on:
The amount of calories you’re consuming
The amount of protein you’re consuming
The first principle is straightforward: if your main goal is fat loss, you need to be in a caloric deficit. If your main goal is to build muscle, you’ll need a caloric surplus.
It doesn’t have to be black and white you can start with a surplus and then move on to a deficit or the opposite.
For that you’ll find comprehensive calculators online, I’ll link the best one for caloric deficit here. (you can find the same for caloric surplus on the same website)
This calculator will tell you how many calories you need each day to reach your goal. But if you’ve never paid attention to calories before, knowing you need 2,400 calories might feel as useful as knowing the distance from Earth to the Moon. (Interesting, but not exactly helpful.)
The same applies to your protein intake. If you’re aiming to build muscle definition—or avoid losing muscle while cutting weight—you need to ensure you’re consuming enough protein.
A general guideline is 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight daily. I weigh 180 pounds, so I aim for around 180 grams of protein each day.
But again, that number might not mean much if you’ve never tracked it. When I started, I assumed 100 grams of chicken contained 100 grams of protein—only to find out it was actually around 30 grams.
Tracking Food
That’s why you may consider tracking your food. Even if that sounds scary for most beginners and against nature, it’s really not. It’s just making sure you’re eating the right stuff and the right quantity to reach your goals.
There are apps like Cronometer that you can download to track what you’re eating, giving you insights into your daily intake and the actual nutritional content of your food.
I’d argue that tracking your intake is one of the best ways to understand the basics of nutrition and to adjust your intake based on your goals.
It’s not complicated. Just scan barcodes and weigh your food. It’ll take about a week to build the habit, and this small effort could save you months of progress.
In a world where you can get 1,000 calories for $2 in a box of Oreos, I think it’s more than fair to spend 10 minutes a day tracking your food to stay on the right track.
If you commit to tracking, you’ll progress faster because you’ll start managing your nutrition independently and effectively.
But again, very few people actually do it. So if you take this step, you’ll have the edge…
Recovery
Importance of Sleep
Recovery is the third pillar of building muscle because it’s when actual muscle repair happens. You don’t build muscle in the gym, you build muscle outside of the gym, remember.
Sleep is the biggest part of recovery, but it’s not the only one. Sleep is essential, and just like with nutrition, I’ve seen many people attempt to improve their sleep only to fall back into old habits after a few days.
If you’re serious about your recovery, you need to prioritize sleep over everything else. Yes, it might sound boring since it means sacrificing a late night out here and there.
But why should you prioritize it? Because sleep is the only thing that truly restores and heals your body.
Sleep allows your body to repair cells and reduces the risk of them turning into dangerous mutations.
Many people don’t realize how vital sleep is, or that not getting enough sleep shortens their lives far more than they might think.
So, if you want to progress, build muscle, (and live longer and happier), take sleep seriously and aim for quality rest.
Getting enough hours is essential, but the quality of sleep matters even more. That means going to bed at a consistent time and avoiding disruptions, like waking up three times a night or scrolling Instagram until 2 AM.
Mental Rest
Recovery isn’t just physical; it’s mental, too. High stress levels can prevent you from fully recovering and progressing.
That’s where relaxation comes in. Relaxation means “being free from tension and anxiety” and is a mental state ****you can achieve through activities that genuinely bring you peace—not through TV, alcohol, or avoidance.
Some universal ways to relax include meditation, walking, reading, and painting. Essentially, it’s any activity that induces a calm, relaxed state, though this can differ for everyone.
Don’t fall into the trap thinking that meditation doesn’t work for you if you’ve never meditated before and try to do it for the first time.
First you have to learn the activity only then will you get the benefits. It’s the same for everything, don’t expect to get all the results when you don’t know yet how it works, give yourself some time.
What I suggest is pick the one activity that sounds most relaxing to you and stick to it long enough that you can learn how to relax.
For me walking and reading are the most important ones and I do it every single day, it’s a break from the rest where I get to refocus and relieve the tension.
Again, all of that I teach you in FA so if you’re interested, here’s the link
And as always I hope this helps, trust the process.