Can you build muscle on a low fat diet?

taylorblade

Do you need dietary fats to build muscle mass or just excess calories?

ninerbuff

Can you? Sure. Can you efficiently? Maybe. One things for sure, you need surplus calories to do it and it's MUCH MUCH easier to have moderate fat in the diet to attain it, than it is to just eat protein and carbs which have less than half the calories of fat gram per gram. It's tough enough to try to force feed to gain. But force feeding because of lower calorie foods?
That's why athletes who burn a lot of calories (from 5,000 and up) eat some high fat foods. It's hard to train when you're full all the time.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

alyhuggan

I know fat helps regulate your hormones. I've read in a few places but not in detail that consuming low amounts of fat can lead to a reduction in testosterone, which would mean your body would not be as efficient at building muscle.