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🔥 Training programs that support mucle + body composition
Hello there my friends! Today I want to talk about something that’s a little bit more related to body change and body composition – the conversation around performance versus aesthetics. I want to give a disclaimer that I know a lot of people know me as the performance-focused-only person, and I don’t talk a lot about improving or changing body composition, so this might be different from my usual content.
I’ve never been against body composition goals, but it’s not usually the focus of my content. However, I do want to acknowledge that a lot of people genuinely do have fat loss or body recomposition goals, but they’re also drawn to my content because I’m very performance-focused.
In the world of fitness, there’s this argument or conversation of performance versus aesthetics – which one can you have, and can you pursue both simultaneously? There is going to be some conflict there, but a component of physical fitness can be body composition, and body composition does matter for performance to some degree.
I think the reason this becomes such a conflict is because the fitness industry can sometimes be so influenced by bodybuilding approaches. When I got into fitness in college, it felt like everyone was doing bodybuilding-style training, and doing anything else seemed absolutely outrageous.
As we’ve moved past that with the rise of CrossFit, hybrid training, obstacle races, adventure races, and other activities that aren’t just traditional lifting, we get this idea of “can we look good and move good, or do we only have to move good?”
I want to start by saying that my favorite principle is: fitness isn’t a look, it is a skill. Regardless of whether you want to change your body composition or not, your fitness is what you can do. It is a trainable characteristic, your work output, the skills you can complete.
If you don’t do any training but lose 50 pounds, you’re not necessarily improving your fitness. But if you don’t lose any weight but start training consistently and lift a higher back squat, run a faster mile, complete a workout in faster time, do more work, or accomplish tasks easier and more efficiently – that is improved fitness.
This is true independent and regardless of your body size, composition, fat mass, or muscle mass. Doing more work and performing more is improved fitness. You can train this specifically through targeted fitness programming – strength training, cardiovascular training, skill work, whatever you need to develop within your training.
You also have a body that’s doing all these activities, and that body is made up of tissue – largely fat mass, muscle mass, bone, water, organs, and other soft tissue. Through physical training, you can decrease your fat mass or increase your muscle mass. There’s a huge dietary component to this, but you can use training to directly manipulate and change your body.
This is largely what we think about in bodybuilding – using diet and exercise targeted specifically to manipulate the body’s look, composition, or development. But this isn’t only owned by bodybuilding. When we think about people who do CrossFit, hybrid athletes, or athletes in general, they have a wide variety of body types, but they tend to look fit or athletic.
The thing that’s missing in some approaches where people say “I’m doing CrossFit or running a lot, I’m very active and fit” is forgetting the muscle-building component that bodybuilding emphasizes when it comes to improving body composition.
When it comes to looking at fitness as performance versus body composition goals, we can have both, but it’s going to be largely driven by diet – what we eat, how we eat, when we eat, and using those as tools to support our body composition and training.
Sometimes these go hand in hand. You can train really hard and focus only on performance while having your nutrition dialed in, and your body composition can change. Or you can train really hard and not have nutrition as dialed in, your body stays the same, and you still get better. Both can be true.
When we think about pursuing a performance goal while also focusing on aesthetics, that’s where we really need to dial in the dietary component. This doesn’t necessarily mean energy deficits or restriction – it can be as simple as:
• Increasing your protein intake and maintaining it consistently
• Skewing your carbohydrate intake more towards training periods
• Pulling back fats slightly to allow for appropriate fueling without overeating calories
• Maintaining caloric balance while pursuing both goals
When you think about people who characteristically look athletic or more fit, you might not pick the world’s most elite marathoner because you view fitness as being more muscular, even though they are more fit than anyone listening to this right now.
This bias usually comes from improved body composition through increased muscle. We want to be “toned,” look fit, look athletic, improve how our body fits in clothes – this is largely coming from developing muscle tissue.
You have to develop muscle tissue to give your body the shape you’re looking for. You have to improve your body composition by driving up muscle tissue mass. Whether you have fat to lose or you’re naturally lean, we all benefit from gaining and increasing muscle tissue.
This is where structured programming becomes crucial. The Lyss Method incorporates this principle by combining performance-focused training with muscle-building strategies. Our programs ensure you’re developing the muscle tissue that supports both your performance goals and the athletic physique you’re working toward, all while maintaining the energy and recovery needed for your training demands.
If you’re someone whose desire is to have a performance goal but maybe you have adipose tissue that you’d like to lose, or you feel like you don’t have much muscle but have more fat than you’d like, that’s where the dietary component comes into play.
The biggest question is: can I eat in a deficit while pursuing performance goals? The answer is: it depends.
When you have a very high volume, high output, demanding training goal, that’s probably not the time to enter a deficit. That’s not when you should cut calories. But you can focus on maintaining your weight or eating for the activity and what your body needs to recover.
• When you’re new to fitness and just adding activity
• During lower-volume training phases
• When using a very small deficit focused on performance maintenance
• During base-building phases rather than peak training
• Training for marathons or long endurance events
• Peak training phases or competition prep
• When adding significant training volume
• During high-stress training periods
This is where I think a seasons approach works beautifully. If body composition and performance are both goals you have, maybe you take a break from training for marathon cycles, events, CrossFit competitions, or powerlifting meets to spend time where you focus on what you need to develop.
Do you need to spend significant time building muscle mass because you actually just lack muscle? Maybe you don’t need to be in a deficit or restrict food – you really just need to spend time building muscle to get the physique or look you’re going for.
Or do you need time where you maintain or reduce the volume of training so you can specifically and intentionally go into a deficit in a way that’s still recoverable without combating excess hunger or the compound stress of high-volume exercise?
The Lyss Method is designed exactly around this seasons approach. Our programming allows you to focus on muscle-building phases when that’s your priority, performance phases when you’re training for specific goals, and strategic body composition phases when the timing is right – all while maintaining the foundation of strength and conditioning that supports your long-term success.
I don’t talk about this much on social media because I rarely diet or go into deficits, but I did do a DEXA scan in March after spending two and a half years eating in a surplus and developing muscle. I was in a place where I wanted to preserve my muscle mass but get closer to where my body naturally likes to sit.
I went into what could be considered a cut during a base-building phase when my volume was maintained and my lifting was in a sustainable place. I used the smallest deficit possible – we’re talking the world’s smallest deficit, really just dialing in nutrition and being more regulated rather than anything dramatic.
I lost about 5-7 pounds over 3-5 months, but once my training volume started increasing for race preparation, I stopped that approach entirely. The goal shifted back to performance, not body composition.
One thing people struggle with when they add cardio or endurance training is increased drive to eat and feeling like they gain weight or their body composition gets worse while training. Here’s what’s often happening:
1. Appetite Changes: You might lose appetite due to blood rerouting during exercise or hormones that suppress hunger, leading to undereating.
2. Inadequate Protein: You really need to ensure adequate protein spaced across the day around your runs, workouts, and lifts.
3. Poor Carbohydrate Timing: If you’re not eating enough strict carbs (potatoes, breads, grains, fruits), your glycogen stores get depleted, leading to increased hunger and cravings.
4. Reduced Resistance Training: Maintaining some lifting and hypertrophy work is crucial during endurance phases.
Performance-focused food can be very similar to aesthetic-focused food – the difference is going to be the amounts. When you get to peak training, racing, or competition prep, it’s normal to gain a little weight because your caloric needs are really high.
You’re not going to maintain bodybuilding-level leanness while having high performance goals. You can become a leaner version of yourself over years of training and strategic diet phases, but you might have to sit at a slightly higher body fat percentage than you’d personally prefer to ensure your body has the energy to sustain, support, and recover from your training.
This is especially true for endurance athletes and female athletes, who are at higher risk of low energy availability, which can lead to suppressed cycles, bone loss, muscle loss, and decreased performance.
There’s this idea that “lighter is better” and “lighter is faster,” but that isn’t true. Healthy is better, healthy is faster. Having some extra mass because you’re developing muscle tissue can give you the look you’re going for while improving your metabolism, metabolic health, and performance.
We don’t want leanness at the cost of performance, and we definitely don’t want leanness at the cost of health. I personally always sit at a point with a little more fat than maybe other athletic people because it allows me to eat enough to recover and do the activities I want without sacrificing health or performance.
You might need to have a difficult conversation with yourself about health, performance, and what you actually want. The level of leanness you might have in your head versus your performance goals might be in conflict, but there’s probably a degree of body composition improvement you can achieve that complements your performance goals.
Do a Little Hypertrophy All the Time: Even if you’re focused on powerlifting, endurance, or other goals, always include some muscle-building work.
Strategic Timing: Choose your seasons wisely – are you training for a marathon, or are you dieting? Ask yourself that question.
Protein Priority: Keep protein intake high and consistent regardless of your phase.
Carbohydrate Strategy: During high-volume training, prioritize carbohydrates for performance and recovery.
Small Changes: If you want to focus on performance but also body composition, ask “how little can I do?” rather than “how low can I go?”
Fitness isn’t a look, it is a skill. But you can look muscular or lean and be fit at the same time. How muscular and how lean depends on what you personally choose to do with your training, diet composition, amounts, recovery, and how much that conflicts with your actual performance.
It’s not that you can’t have both to some degree. You can be lean and fit – I could be fitter and I could be leaner, but that’s a choice. It’s not bad to have fat mass, it’s not bad to choose not to diet, and it’s not bad to choose to focus only on performance.
If you do decide body composition is important to you, there might be adjustments you need to make when it comes to increasing resistance training or manipulating your diet along the way. The magic really does happen when you focus on eating well for recovery and performance while training hard – you might be surprised how much your body composition improves as a byproduct.
Ready to find your balance between performance and aesthetics? The Lyss Method offers programming that strategically combines muscle-building, performance training, and smart periodization so you can pursue both goals intelligently over time. Our seasons approach ensures you’re making progress in both areas without sacrificing one for the other.
Remember: all bodies can perform and do these things. You don’t have to change your body to qualify as being an athlete or fitting into sport. But if you have both performance and aesthetic goals, approaching them strategically and seasonally is the best path forward.
I’m Exercise Physiologist, sports nutritionist, weight lifter, and ultra runner. I am here to bring science to your training in a no-nonsense way. I have helped thousands of women crush big lifting goals, cross race finish lines, and even do both. I’m here to help you do the same!
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