Most of my clients don’t care much about “building muscle.” They wanna look better, feel better, and be able to sit on the floor and play with their grandkids.

But every once in a while, someone does ask me about building muscle.

In my maintenance coaching program, it’s something we do talk about, because more muscle on your body, when you add it SAFELY, means better balance and being stronger. You’re less likely to fall and break a hip (or fall at all), and your clothes fit even better, because muscle looks better than fat, and takes up less space than fat (it does NOT weigh more than fat; a pound of fat and a pound of muscle both weigh a pound).

More muscle also allows you to eat more, because muscle burns more calories even at rest…BUT…more muscle isn’t a free pass to pig out all the time, because eventually you’ll eat more than your body can use, and you’ll start adding body fat.

A lot of people who wanna lose weight and build muscle hit the gym, maybe do some cardio, maybe lift some weights.

And yeah, they get stronger if they lift weights, but that’s no guarantee they’re actually losing fat.

See, when you’ve got too much body fat for your frame, any muscle you do build won’t be visible, depending on how you’re shaped and where you carry your weight.

You’ve got to lose fat in order for your muscle to be visible, yet SO many people think they can skip the fat loss part, and that building muscle will somehow magically get rid of the fat.

It won’t. Adding muscle doesn’t drop body fat. Dropping body fat drops body fat.

Thinking you can build muscle and have it magically drop body fat is like thinking you can turn on your kitchen stove and it will somehow melt the ice in your freezer.

It won’t (unless your stove starts a fire and burns your house down…please do not do that!).

This is one of multiple reasons I don’t include exercise in the Code Red program.

I love exercise and I do it every day. I encourage my maintenance clients to exercise.

But in weight loss mode, we don’t worry about exercise, because I want you to get the fat off FIRST.

Then, once you’re at goal, and we can’t get any more fat off you without going too low on the scale, we can work on building muscle through exercise. Plus I’ve got advanced maintenance strategies to help you reduce body fat without going lower on the scale.

Bottom line: If you wanna lose fat, lose fat, because building muscle doesn’t mean fat automatically goes away. It just means you add muscle.

And unless you lose the fat, you will end up looking looking and being fatter than you did before building muscle….especially if you start eating more junk food because you think you “earned it.” If you’re inhaling junk food just because you’re exercising, you’re most likely just adding more body fat. (Another reason for that is, building muscle is a lot harder and more time-consuming than you think, especially if you’re female.)

Get the weight off, then worry about adding more muscle!

Have you created your free Code Red Lifestyle™ network account yet? If not, here’s how to get your account!

1) On your computer, create your account at www.CodeRedLifestyle.com/App.

2) If you want the network on a mobile device, go to the App Store or Google Play Store and search for Code Red Lifestyle.