When you focus on building muscle first, you might gain weight initially, which could be discouraging and might even make you want to quit your healthy eating and exercise plan. Not only will you see weight loss sooner than muscle growth, but you’ll also experience benefits like improved mood and better sleep. Which should you focus on first: slimming down or building muscle? Experts take sides in the great fat-loss versus muscle-building debate and share what you should do first, no matter your goal.

Naturally, this leads to a difficult question. Up your muscle mass, and you can also lose more fat. That means the more muscle you have, the higher your basal metabolic rate (BMR), or the number of calories your body burns at rest, explains Ben Tzeel, a registered dietitian and certified strength and conditioning specialist. However, muscle-building can also support fat-loss since muscle is highly metabolically-active tissue. When you shed pounds and lose fat (especially around your belly), you speed up your metabolism and have the energy to take on harder workouts and, in turn, build muscle. Updated June 2014.Fat-loss and muscle-building are sort of like the chicken and the egg of healthy body recomposition. What calorie counting and diet apps have you found useful? Let us know in the comments! These are my favorite apps when it comes to eating healthier and losing weight but I know many of you have taken on this challenge as well.

If you eat out a lot and get frustrated with calculating calories when trying to choose a healthier option, MyPlate by LIVESTRONG has you covered. On top of being able to track calories by itself, MyPlate has one of the most vast catalogs of foods when it comes to eating out since it pulls much of its data from. If you have an iPhone 5s, MyPlate can use the motion processor for minimal battery drain. Just let the app track what you're doing and calories you burn are automatically logged. MyPlate by LIVESTRONG lets your track calories and exercise like many of the other apps but also functions as an activity tracker at the same time.

Which is better lose it or myfitnesspal