5 Things to Avoid When Trying to Lose Weight and Gain Muscle

After years of coaching people at CrossFit Reckoning in Coatesville, PA, I've watched hundreds of members set out to lose weight and build muscle at the same time. Some of them absolutely crush it. Others spin their wheels for months and can't figure out why.

The difference almost never comes down to how hard they train. It comes down to five small habits that quietly sabotage their results without them realizing it.

If you're serious about losing fat and gaining muscle — what most coaches call body recomposition — these are the five things I tell every client to avoid.

1. Forgetting to Meal Prep

This is the single biggest reason people fail.

You can't out-train a chaotic kitchen. When your fridge is empty and you're hungry, decisions get made in about 90 seconds — and none of them are good ones. Suddenly you're grabbing takeout, snacking on whatever's in the pantry, or skipping the meal entirely and overeating later.

Meal prep doesn't have to be extreme. You don't need Sunday-afternoon Tupperware chaos with 15 identical containers. A rough plan and a few pre-cooked proteins is enough. Grill a batch of chicken. Cook a pound of ground turkey. Chop some veggies. Have hard-boiled eggs on standby.

If quality food is easy to grab, you'll eat it. If it's not, you won't.

2. High-Calorie Oils and Condiments

This one blindsides people because the calories are invisible.

A small serving of Chick-fil-A sauce is over 160 calories. Most people use three or four servings without thinking about it. That's 500+ calories on a "healthy" grilled chicken sandwich — before the sandwich.

Same story with:

Ranch and creamy dressings — 140+ calories per 2 tablespoons
Cooking oils poured freely over a pan — 120 calories per tablespoon
Mayo, aioli, and "signature" sauces at restaurants
Butter, cream cheese spreads, and anything ending in "-onnaise"

What to use instead: mustard, hot sauce, salsa, vinegar-based dressings, low-cal or zero-cal condiments. Measure your oils with a spoon instead of pouring from the bottle. Small change, massive calorie difference over a week.

3. Drinking Your Calories

If you're serious about losing weight, liquid calories are the first thing to cut. Full stop.

They don't fill you up. They don't stop cravings. And they add up faster than any other calorie source. A large sweet tea, a fancy coffee drink, a couple of beers, a smoothie from a chain — that's easily 800–1,200 calories a day that you didn't even count.

Better options:

Water (obviously)
Sparkling water and flavored waters (Bubly, Waterloo, La Croix)
Diet soda if you want the flavor and fizz without the calories
Black coffee or coffee with a splash of milk
Unsweetened tea

The people at Reckoning who lose weight fastest? They almost all cut liquid calories first.

4. Fast Food and Restaurant Meals

I'm not going to tell you to never eat out. Life happens. But if you're eating restaurant food more than once or twice a week and wondering why the scale isn't moving, this is why.

Two things make restaurants dangerous for weight loss:

You don't know what's in it. Restaurants cook with butter, oil, and hidden sugars because it makes food taste better. Even "grilled" and "healthy" options are usually loaded with 30–50% more calories than you'd guess.
Portions are massive. Restaurant portions have doubled over the last 30 years. What looks like one meal is often two.

When you do eat out:

Order proteins that are grilled, baked, or roasted
Ask for sauces and dressings on the side
Split entrees, or box half before you start eating
Skip the bread basket and the drink calories

5. Higher-Fat Proteins When You Don't Need To

This is the one nobody talks about but it makes a huge difference.

Protein is non-negotiable — you need it to build muscle and stay full. But not all proteins are equal for someone trying to lose fat. Fat has more than double the calories per gram of protein, so higher-fat cuts of meat come with a lot of extra calories.

Easy swaps that keep your protein high but drop your calories:

Chicken breast over chicken thighs — half the fat, more protein per bite
93/7 or 96/4 ground beef over 80/20 — you'll save ~100 calories per 4 oz serving
Ground turkey (99% lean) instead of standard ground beef
Egg whites mixed with a whole egg instead of three whole eggs
Greek yogurt (nonfat) over full-fat yogurt
Cottage cheese, tuna, shrimp, white fish — some of the leanest, highest-protein foods around

You still get all the muscle-building benefits. You just get them without the fat calories tagging along for the ride.

Bringing It All Together

Losing weight and gaining muscle at the same time is 100% possible. It's also unforgiving of these five habits. Fix them and you'll see faster progress in 4 weeks than most people see in 4 months of "trying."

At CrossFit Reckoning in Coatesville, PA, we help members do exactly this — pair smart training with practical, realistic nutrition strategy. No extreme diets. No 30-day cleanses. Just consistent, sustainable habits that actually work in real life.

If you're ready to stop guessing and start seeing real progress, come see us. Free no-sweat intro, coffee, conversation — zero pressure. We'll talk about your goals and figure out if we're the right fit.