The MTNTOUGH Way to Lose Weight, Lean Out and Get Stronger
"Which program should I do to lose weight?" It's the number-one question MTNTOUGH support gets. In episode three of the Fitness Lab Discussion, MTNTOUGH coaches Sarah Maschino and Nick Bechtold give a 30,000-foot answer: how to approach your training and nutrition so you lose fat, keep your strength, and still perform in the mountains.
Weight Loss vs. Fat Loss
Start by deciding what you actually want to lose. Weight loss is simple math: calories in, calories out. You can lose weight eating junk food, and you can gain weight eating chicken, broccoli, and rice. What you eat affects your appetite and whether the weight comes off as fat, muscle, or both, but the number on the scale comes down to energy balance.
At MTNTOUGH, we need to stay strong and functional, so Sarah treats every weight-loss goal as a fat-loss goal. When you're in a calorie deficit, your body looks to shed lean muscle first because it's expensive to maintain. You tell your body to keep it in two ways:
- Train it. Keep strength training and keep lifting heavy.
- Feed it. Eat a solid macronutrient profile while holding a modest deficit.
Don't Overhaul Your Training First
When someone asks Nick which program to switch to, his answer is often: don't switch yet. If you're already a Gym Daily or MGD athlete, stay with your training and adjust your nutrition first. That keeps your performance and strength intact as calories come down, and it leaves you another dial to turn later if progress stalls.
The classic mistake is changing everything at once: more cardio, fewer calories. Ten days in, you're starving, an elbow starts feeling off, and the little tweaks pile up. That's underfueling and overperforming. Nutrition is your most powerful tool. You can't outtrain a bad diet. You can eat 200 calories in seconds, and it takes a long time on an assault bike to burn them back off.
Start With a Gradual Deficit
Being too aggressive with the calorie drop backfires. If you bury yourself in a deep deficit on day one and things stall, the only place left to go is lower. Instead, track what you currently eat, cut roughly 400–500 calories a day, ride that out, and adjust. If you're losing too fast, bring some calories back.
Expect the scale to bounce around. Plenty of athletes eat in a deficit, train hard for a few weeks, and see a two-pound gain. Water retention, harder training, and heavier lifting all play in. Progress isn't a straight line down, and those ebbs and flows are part of the process.
Protect Your Muscle
Weight loss is a great goal, but especially as we age, and especially in a world of GLP-1s, maintaining skeletal muscle mass matters. Sarcopenia, the loss of muscle with age, is a growing issue. The healthiest approach is the same one: keep the muscle, lose the fat.
If you're new to training, you may even see a "recomp," where the scale holds steady while you gain muscle and lose fat at the same time. It's hard to pull off, but it's very possible when you're dialed in, and for most people it's more sustainable than the bodybuilder cycle of bulking and cutting.
Three Things You Can Start Tomorrow
1. Track your food
You don't have to track forever. Tracking teaches you what six ounces of chicken looks like in protein and calories, how many calories are in two hard-boiled eggs, and that the handful of almonds you grabbed between meetings was another 200–300 calories. Think of it like a budget: if you don't track it, you can't know whether you're on course. Count everything you eat, including the oil in the pan. After a while, the awareness becomes intuitive.
2. Prioritize protein and keep meals simple
Most people don't eat enough protein, and if you're strength training without seeing results, it's the first macro to look at. Simple, repeatable meals are easier to track and to prep. Food choices also matter for how you feel: a big bowl of ice cream eats a huge chunk of your daily budget and leaves you hungry, while something like cottage cheese with berries leaves you more room to work with.
3. Prioritize strength training
Strength train at least twice a week with full-body sessions, and three to four days is optimal. Push outside your comfort zone at roughly a 7–8 out of 10 effort (if you have some lifting experience, don't jump straight into max attempts). Low-stress work like rucking, walking, and loaded carries pairs well with a deficit because it doesn't tax your nervous system much. Be honest about recovery: in a deficit, you probably can't smash hard conditioning several times a week and still feel great.
Train for Performance, and the Weight Follows
Most MTNTOUGH athletes come to us with hunting goals, mountain objectives, or races to prep for, and they'd like to be a little lighter while they do it. When the goal shifts from "lose 50 pounds" to "carry a 70-pound pack for two days," the weight often comes off as a byproduct. Being at a strong, healthy weight with good muscle mass and lower body fat will make you better in the mountains. What you lose matters just as much as how much you lose.
The coaches are building weight-loss-focused versions of Gym Daily and MGD for the new year that prioritize strength while keeping conditioning in the mix. In the meantime, dietitian Kyle Camp has built a library of nutrition resources in the MTNTOUGH+ app. Kyle has lost more than 100 pounds himself and is a hunter who understands fueling for performance.
Have a question or a topic you want the coaches to cover? Reach out to MTNTOUGH support anytime.
