Trying To Stay Too Lean While Gaining Case Study

One of the most common dilemmas I see in my coaching practice, especially among physique-focused clients, is this: they want to build muscle, but they’re also trying to stay as lean as possible while doing it. They are trying to stay too lean while gaining, but unfortunately, this just isn’t effective.

At first glance, that might sound like a smart move. After all, who doesn’t want to stay shredded year-round and put on muscle? But here’s the truth I’ve had to help a lot of people come to terms with trying to stay too lean while gaining is one of the biggest reasons people spin their wheels and never actually make the progress they want.

I’ve worked with countless clients over the years who come to me saying things like, “I’m eating more, but nothing’s changing,” or “I don’t want to get fat, but I also want to grow.” More often than not, they’re training hard, eating “clean”, and tracking their macros, but they’re still stuck and frustrated that their physique looks the same month after month.

When I’ve dealt with situations like this in the past, the key to helping clients break through has always come down to helping them to take a step back and look at the big picture. And that often means addressing not just what they’re doing, but why they’re doing it, and how mindset, nutrition, and training all intersect.

So, in this article, I want to walk you through a generalised case study for how I deal with this kind of client. Someone who’s generally already “lean”, dedicated, and doing all the “right” things on paper, but isn’t seeing the muscle gain they’re after because they’re stuck in this limbo between wanting to grow and being afraid to let go of leanness.

I’ll share exactly how I approach these situations, the questions I ask, the mindset shifts I help clients work through, the changes we make to their nutrition and training, and the results we aim for. My goal is to give you a clear, practical roadmap, whether you’re a coach working with clients like this, or someone in the thick of it yourself.

Anyway, let’s get stuck into it.

The Type of Client We’re Talking About

When I think about the kind of person who struggles most with trying to stay too lean while gaining, there’s a very clear profile that comes to mind. I’ve coached dozens of clients like this over the years, and while the specifics always vary, the pattern is pretty consistent.

They’re usually someone who’s not new to training, and they’ve often been lifting seriously for at least 2 to 5 years. They’ve built a decent foundation, know their way around the gym, and they’re fairly consistent. They’ve likely followed structured programs, tracked their macros, and they’re usually quite adept at the fat loss side of things. Some of them are naturally lean individuals, who don’t really know much about nutrition (or training) though. 

Their primary goal is “aesthetics”, and they want to look muscular and lean. Not necessarily to step on stage (though some do), but definitely to build a physique that “looks like they lift”. They’re chasing that lean, athletic look (visible abs, capped delts, decent muscle mass and clean lines).

Nutritionally, they’re usually quite dialled in. They know what a macro is, they’ve tracked religiously, and they tend to eat the same 6-8 foods on repeat. But that awareness can sometimes work against them. It’s not uncommon for these clients to be a little too restrictive. Constantly trying to “clean things up,” worried about spilling over their calorie targets, or hesitant to eat more even when they know they probably should.

And here’s where the real issue often lies. More often than not, they’ve developed a fear of fat gain. In many cases, they’ve experienced yo-yo cycles of short, half-hearted bulks followed by aggressive cuts, never really gaining much muscle, and always reverting back to their comfort zone of leanness. 

Some have a history of dieting down to very low levels of body fat, which creates a kind of internal standard they feel they need to maintain, even in a supposed “building phase.”

Psychologically, these clients often share a few key traits. Perfectionism is a big one, and they want to get everything exactly right. They can fall into black-and-white thinking where they’re either “on plan” or “off track,” eating clean or bingeing, extreme gaining or extreme cutting. And despite often being leaner than 95% of the population, many still struggle with body image, and they’re constantly pinching their waistline, checking their abs in the mirror, second-guessing their progress photos, or comparing themselves to how they looked at their leanest.

When I work with clients like this, my job isn’t just to adjust their calories or tweak their training plan, it’s to help them break out of this cycle. As long as they’re stuck in this mindset of “I want to gain muscle, but I can’t afford to gain any fat,” they’re going to stay in that frustrating middle ground where nothing really changes.

As many of you who are long time followers will be more than aware, we also want to create a long term sustainable system with all of this health and fitness stuff, and it simply is not sustainable (or healthy, or necessary) to be obsessed with your body image. 

Initial Assessment: Identifying the Problem

When a client comes to me saying they want to build muscle but feel stuck despite doing “everything right”, I start looking for some very specific signs. More often than not, the issue isn’t that they’re not working hard enough… it’s that they’re trying to have it both ways: they want to build muscle while staying shredded.

And when someone’s caught in that trap, there are a few red flags that show up almost every time.

First, they’re chronically under-eating or, at best, just eating at maintenance. They might think they’re “in a slight surplus,” but when we dig into the data, it becomes clear that their intake is too low to support meaningful growth. There’s a lot of mental gymnastics that go on here, where they justify the avoiding calorie increases or staying stuck in an endless “reverse diet” that never actually turns into a proper gaining phase, with a million reasons why “they are different” and this “makes sense for them”.

Then, there’s the training side. These clients often train hard, sometimes too hard, but their strength hasn’t moved in months. Muscle gain is non-existent. They’re spinning their wheels, stuck lifting the same weights for the same reps, week after week. When I look at their progress over the past 3-6 months, the story is almost always the same, no real size increase, just a constant tug-of-war and obsession with the scale and/or mirror.

Clients trying to stay ultra-lean while gaining tend to become obsessed with daily weigh-ins. Every fluctuation becomes a major crisis to them. They might even start manipulating food or water to get the “right” number. The same goes for mirror-checking, where they are constantly evaluating whether they’re “getting soft,” zooming in on every little change in their midsection.

And then there are what I call the “hidden symptoms”. The things people don’t always connect to the under-fuelling that they are engaged in such as low energy, poor recovery, disrupted sleep, brain fog, mood swings, and even low libido. If someone tells me their sleep’s off, their joints ache, they’re not pumped to train, or they feel flat all the time, well, that’s a huge clue that their body is under-recovered and under-fed.

Now here’s why all this matters so much.

Physiologically, muscle gain requires a surplus. You simply can’t build new muscle tissue out of thin air. If you’re barely eating enough to support basic function and training recovery, your body isn’t in a place to prioritise growth. At best, you’ll maintain. At worst, you’ll regress (losing strength, slowing your metabolism, increasing stress hormones etc.).

But there’s also a psychological cost too. Trying to stay lean while gaining creates this constant internal battle. A fear of fat gain, an obsession with control, and a growing frustration when progress stalls. It fuels anxiety around food, and often turns what should be an empowering, enjoyable process into something stressful and unsustainable.

And this is the paradox this creates: in the attempt to stay lean, you end up sabotaging the very progress you’re chasing. You delay muscle gain, prolong the journey, and often never actually end up reaching your goals.

So when I’m working with a client who shows these signs, the first step is helping them see that the problem isn’t their effort, their discipline, or even their genetics. It’s the fact that they’re stuck in a state of limbo and to break out of it, we need to make some strategic changes.

Trying To Stay Too Lean While Gaining Coaching Approach: Step-by-Step

Once I’ve identified that a client is stuck in this trap of trying to stay too lean while gaining, the real work begins. And it’s not just about banging up calories or making slight tweaks to the training program, it’s about taking a broader, more holistic, phased approach that addresses mindset, habits, physiology, and expectations all at once.

Here’s how I typically walk a client through it.

Initial Assessment

Those of you who have done any of our courses will know that before I make any changes with a client, especially someone who’s been struggling to gain muscle while trying to stay lean, I start with a comprehensive assessment. 

I don’t just mean running a quick intake form and plugging numbers into a calorie and macro calculator. I want the whole picture. The lived experience of this person and what they have been doing, because it’s usually the context that reveals why they’re stuck.

1. Lifestyle Audit

First, we look at daily lifestyle habits.

• What does a typical day look like?
• Do they work long hours at a desk or are they active all day?
• Are they a student juggling stress and sleep deprivation?
• Are they skipping meals because of work meetings or long commutes?

These things matter. Lifestyle is the lens through which we need to view everything else, such as training capacity, recovery ability, stress load, and how realistic any changes will be.

2. Diet History

Next, I dig into diet history. I ask stuff like:

• How long have you been eating in the way you currently eat?
• How many times have you dieted in the past few years?
• Have you ever done a true gaining phase?
• How often are you in a calorie deficit, even unintentionally?

This helps me spot clients who’ve been chronically under-eating or stuck in yo-yo diet purgatory. Some have been “reverse dieting” for a year, never actually reaching a surplus. Others cycle through mini-cuts every time they see the scale creep up. All of that has a compounding effect on metabolism, hormones, and mindset and it’s critical for me to understand that before we can move forward.

3. Training Breakdown

Then, we look at their training structure.

• What does your weekly split look like?
• How much volume are you doing per body part?
• Are you training to failure? Tracking lifts?
• Is there a plan, or are you just winging it?

A lot of clients trying to stay lean will lean toward “high output” styles (more volume, more cardio, more circuits) thinking it will allow them to eat more without gaining fat. But what they really need is a muscle-building program, not a calorie-burning one. So I need to see whether their current training reflects that or not.

4. Sleep, Stress, and Recovery

Sleep and stress are the silent killers of progress, and many clients don’t realise how deeply they’re affecting their results. So I ask stuff like:

• Are you getting 7-9 hours of quality sleep?
• Do you feel rested when you wake up?
• Are you dealing with work or relationship stress?
• Are you taking rest days, or just pushing through?

Clients in this category are often overreaching without realising it. They think they’re “not training hard enough,” but what’s really happening is they’re under-recovered and under-fueled, and the solution isn’t to train more, it’s to recover better.

“Biofeedback” Tracking

Once I’ve gathered that initial context, I ask clients about the signals their body is giving them (I often just call this “biofeedback”). This gives us real, actionable insight that goes beyond just scale weight or macros.

I have them rate things like:

• Hunger (Are you actually feeling hungry or always stuffed/full?)
• Energy (Do you have energy throughout the day, or are you crashing mid-afternoon?)
• Mood (Are you snappy, anxious, or flat?)
• Digestion (Any bloating, irregularity, discomfort?)
• Sleep Quality (Falling asleep easily? Waking up during the night?)
• Training Performance (Are you progressing in your lifts, or dragging yourself through sessions?)

These markers often reveal issues long before a scale or photo does. If someone tells me they’re barely hungry, their lifts are plateaued, and they’re wired but tired, I know we’ve got a recovery and calorie intake problem on our hands.

Physique Audit: Reality vs. Perception

Now we get into the body composition side of things and here’s where honesty is key.

I’ll ask the client to send over recent progress photos, measurements, and body weight averages. But even more important than just this raw data, is how they perceive their physique. So I ask about that too (this is something that a lot of coaches miss, so if you are a coach reading this, start doing this ASAP, as it will really improve your ability to coach your clients).

A lot of clients in this situation think they’re “getting soft” or “holding too much fat”, but when I look at their photos, they’re still very lean by normal standards. They’re just not stage-ready lean anymore or their perception of what “lean” looks like has just been warped by social media. 

This is where coaching plays a psychological role. You will have to help them see the difference between “lean enough to build” and “lean to the point of dysfunction.” Yeah, for sure, you want to lean out before getting stuck into a gaining phase, but you don’t need to be so lean that every system in your body is shutting down. This is often a tricky yet eye-opening conversation to have with your clients (you won’t be good at it at first, but you will get better).

Red Flags I Look For

As I gather all this information, I’m also watching closely for red flags that indicate a deeper issue:

• Chronically low calories despite claims of being in a “surplus”
• Minimal strength progression over time
• Persistent fatigue even with rest
• Sleep issues like waking up at 3am wired
• Stress issues like being tired all day and then wired before bed
• Mood swings, irritability, or flat emotional state
• Obsessive food behaviours such as weighing lettuce, or panicking over social meals

If I see multiple red flags pop up, I know we’re not just dealing with a muscle gain plateau, we’re dealing with a more complex issue.

All of this (lifestyle, history, training, biofeedback, mindset) gives me the full context I need to coach the person effectively. I’m not just looking at a spreadsheet of numbers when I am coaching, I’m coaching a human being. Until I understand their story, I can’t guide them toward lasting progress. 

This is what a lot of coaches struggle with, because they aren’t taught to do it effectively in their courses, and it is why our courses are so heavily focused on the actual coaching side of things. 

Reframing the Mindset 

The mind is where the real transformation starts with this stuff, not in the gym, and not on the plate, but in the space between the ears. If I’ve learned anything from coaching clients who struggle to gain muscle because they’re trying to stay too lean, it’s that no physical progress happens until we shift their mindset and identity.

Honestly, this part of the process takes the most time and patience. What we’re often dealing with here isn’t just a training or nutrition issue, it’s a deep-seated fear of losing control, of gaining body fat, of watching their hard-earned definition fade.

So we start by asking: what’s the cost of staying this lean?

I walk them through it clearly, without scare tactics, just the facts of the situation.

• Are you recovering properly?
• Is your strength going up week to week?
• Do you feel energetic and motivated to train?
• How’s your sleep, mood, digestion, and sex drive?

Usually, the answers tell us everything. When someone is clinging to an ultra-lean physique and trying to grow, they’re usually suffering on multiple fronts. Poor recovery, low energy, stalled lifts, disrupted hormones, chronic fatigue. What makes this all even worse is that they’re frustrated all the time because they’re working so hard and getting nowhere.

So, I help them connect the dots. Once they understand that staying too lean is actually holding them back, it does generally become easier to loosen the grip a little.

Introducing the Productive Muscle-Building Phase

Next, I introduce the concept of what I call a productive building phase.

I emphasise that this is not the traditional “dirty bulk” they might be picturing. We’re not throwing caution to the wind or smashing fast food just to see the scale move. Not at all.

We’re talking about a strategic and intentional muscle gain phase where the body is given the fuel and recovery it needs to grow. Yes, a small amount of body fat may come with that, but it’s not a failure. It’s part of the process. Just like a little soreness after a good session isn’t a problem, it’s a sign that you trained hard and stimulated change.

When done right, this type of building phase leaves you:

• Stronger
• Fuller
• More anabolic (internally and externally)
• And ultimately, with a better foundation to cut from later

I often explain it like this: “Would you rather spend 6 months spinning your wheels trying to stay shredded while gaining nothing… or 6 months actually building something worth revealing next time you lean down?” That usually lands quite effectively.

Body Fat: Tool, Not Threat

Here’s where we flip one of the scripts they have in their head that is holding them back. Body fat is not the enemy.

I walk clients through the actual benefits of allowing a small, controlled increase in body fat during a growth phase. For example:

• Slight increases in body fat improve leptin and thyroid function, which regulate hunger, energy, and metabolism.
• More fuel means better training performance, which is the real driver of muscle growth.
• Increased body fat supports better hormonal balance, especially testosterone and estrogen levels.
• Clients often sleep better, recover faster, and just feel more human when they’re not walking around at super low body fat levels year-round.

I ask them to stop seeing fat gain as a loss, and start seeing it as a strategic investment. When done right, the amount of muscle gained far outweighs the bit of fluff that comes with it, and that fluff can be stripped back later, much more effectively, when there’s actually something underneath to reveal.

Using Their Own Data to Reflect Reality

And finally, if the client’s been stuck in this pattern for a while, I like to bring in their own data (this is especially effective if you have been working with them for a while, but you can also just ask for the data).

We’ll pull up:

• Progress photos from 3, 6, 9 months ago
• Training logs
• Scale trends
• Notes from past check-ins (if you have them)

Then I’ll ask a simple but powerful question:

“What’s actually meaningfully changed?”

This is often a lightbulb moment. If they’ve been hovering at maintenance, trying to gain without gaining, and constantly second-guessing every scale fluctuation, the chances are the answer is that nothing has changed. 

They look the same. Their strength hasn’t moved. They feel burnt out and frustrated.

That’s when they start to see that the strategy they’ve been using hasn’t been working. Not because they’re not trying hard enough, but because the strategy is flawed and the mindset behind it isn’t productive.

We’re not just tweaking macros here. We’re helping them shift their identity from someone who’s trying to control everything and stay safe to someone who’s willing to lean into growth, take calculated risks, and play the long game.

And once they get that, I mean really get it,  the whole process becomes easier. Less fear. More buy-in. And finally, some real momentum.

Setting New Expectations

Once we’ve addressed the mindset and helped the client let go of the need to stay ultra-lean, the next step is to set clear, realistic expectations for what a productive gaining phase actually looks like. This is crucial, because if we don’t redefine success upfront, it’s way too easy for old fears and habits to creep back in the first time the scale jumps or abs soften slightly.

1. Establishing a Realistic Rate of Gain

I start by talking numbers, not because numbers are everything, but because they help ground the process in logic and allow you to be more concrete (rather than conceptual) with things.

For most clients, I recommend aiming for a rate of gain between 0.5-1kg of body weight per month. That might not sound like much, especially to someone used to chasing dramatic transformations, but it’s exactly where we want to be.

Why slow and steady?

• It gives the body time to partition nutrients effectively, maximising muscle gain and minimising unnecessary fat gain.
• It allows us to stay in control, making small adjustments as needed without swinging between extremes.
• It gives the client space to mentally adjust to the changes, which is just as important as the physical part.

I remind clients that this isn’t a race, it’s a building phase. We want quality over speed, and consistency over intensity. This is how good long term diet planning is done.

2. Talking Openly About Trade-Offs

This is where honest coaching comes into play. We talk about the short-term trade-offs that come with a growth phase. Yes, there might be a little softening around the midsection. The abs might not pop quite as much in the mirror in the morning. But in exchange for that, you get:

• Lifts are going up week after week.
• Pumps are better.
• Recovery is smoother.
• Sleep improves.
• They feel stronger, fuller, and more alive.

It’s a trade-off, but for most people, it’s a no-brainer. 

I also help the client shift their focus away from aesthetics alone, and instead anchor progress to function, performance, and well-being. This is key to staying consistent, especially in the early stages when visual progress might feel slower.

3. Reframing What Progress Looks Like

Once someone has spent months (or years) using body fat percentage, ab definition, or the scale dropping as their main markers of progress, we need to rewire that thinking.

So I ask them to look for signs of growth that go beyond the mirror:

• Are your lifts improving? Are you adding reps, adding weight, or controlling tempo better?
• Is your recovery better? Are you bouncing back from sessions instead of feeling crushed for days?
• Do your check-in photos show fullness and shape? Even if your waist is a little bit softer, are your shoulders and arms starting to fill out? Are your legs filling out your shorts better?

We zoom out and look for patterns over time, because body composition changes don’t happen overnight. But strength and performance usually do (not quite this fast, but definitely faster than body composition changes), so they’re great leading indicators that we’re on the right path.

Sometimes I’ll even create a “non-aesthetic wins” checklist so clients can track things like:

• PRs in the gym
• Fewer energy crashes
• Better digestion
• Improved sleep
• Higher libido
• Less food anxiety

All of that is progress, we just have to learn how to see it. Of course, this will need to be tailored to the individual client, but you get the picture.

4. Finding the “Lean Enough” Zone

Lastly, I introduce one of the most important concepts in a long-term physique journey: the idea of being “lean enough to live and grow.”

This is the sweet spot, where the client still looks and feels athletic, their clothes fit well, their face isn’t gaunt, and they’re not constantly tired or food-focused. They’re lean enough to feel good in their body, but not so lean that they’re sacrificing muscle growth, hormonal health, or quality of life.

We’re not aiming to stay stage-lean year-round. That’s not sustainable, and it’s certainly not productive for gaining. Instead, we define a range (a look, a feel, a set of biofeedback markers)  where the client thrives.

Once we find that zone, things do tend to become easier:

• Food choices become less stressful.
• Social events feel more manageable.
• Progress is steady, not rushed.
• And mentally, the client starts enjoying their gaining phase instead of fearing it.

At the end of this stage, the client has a clear roadmap:

• A realistic rate of gain
• A new definition of success
• Confidence in the process
• And a more balanced relationship with their body

From there, the real magic begins, because once expectations are aligned with biology and behaviour, the gains can finally come through.

Nutrition Intervention

Now, I realise I haven’t actually told you what we do with nutrition, despite this being a nutrition focused case study. This is intentional. Because when you are dealing with an issue like this, there is a lot of background prep and work that has to be in place before the nutrition plan can actually be successful. The nutrition plan also isn’t even that extraordinary, but if you have the foundations in place for it to actually work, well, magic happens.

So, once we’ve addressed the mindset and set realistic expectations, it’s time to put rubber to the road and actually start making practical nutrition changes. This is where we bridge the gap between theory and action, and where a lot of clients start to feel both excited and nervous.

That’s why I make this process as smooth, manageable, and tailored as possible. We’re not just slapping on an extra 500 calories and hoping for the best. We’re building a strategic surplus, one that supports muscle growth while minimising unnecessary fat gain, and that fits into the client’s life without creating food anxiety.

1. Easing Into a Surplus

For most clients who have been sitting at maintenance (or in a small deficit), we don’t go from 0 to 100. We start slow and steady, typically with a calorie increase of 150–250 per day, depending on the individual’s size, training intensity, and biofeedback.

The first place I usually add calories? Carbohydrates.

Why carbs?

• They’re the body’s primary fuel source for resistance training.
• They replenish glycogen stores, which supports performance and volume tolerance.
• They help with recovery, immune function, and muscle fullness.
• They positively impact leptin and thyroid hormones, especially after chronic dieting.
• And maybe most importantly, carbs are often what clients fear the most. So reintroducing them in a controlled, positive way can also help rewire food beliefs.

2. Strategic Nutrient Timing

We also address when the client is eating, not just how much.

Many clients who’ve been eating at maintenance or cutting for a long time have gotten used to eating in ways that blunt hunger: fasting until noon, keeping meals small during the day, saving calories for the evening, etc.

In a muscle-building phase, we flip the script.

We prioritise:

• Adequate fueling earlier in the day to support energy, focus, and fullness
• Pre-training meals with carbs + protein for energy and performance
• Post-training meals with carbs + protein for recovery and muscle protein synthesis

I’m not dogmatic about meal frequency, but I do generally encourage clients to spread their intake across 3-5 balanced meals so we’re getting repeated stimulation of muscle protein synthesis, and avoiding long periods of under-fuelling during the day.

3. Reducing Food Stress and Rigidity

Now, this is a big one, especially with clients who’ve spent years tracking macros to the gram or following strict meal plans.

If I sense that tracking is causing more harm than good (such as creating stress, obsession, or guilt) I’ll help them transition into a portion-based system, or even a hybrid approach where we track key meals but leave room for flexibility.

For some clients, we shift toward more “intentional eating” cues, where we focus on teaching them how to build meals that align with their goals, read hunger and fullness signals, and trust their bodies again.

The reality here is consistency matters more than perfection.

If someone’s hitting their numbers exactly four days a week but crashing and bingeing on the fifth out of stress or restriction, we’re not moving forward. But if they can eat consistently well, within a realistic range, and feel good about it, then progress is all but guaranteed. 

4. Normalising Fluctuations

I always remind clients that fluctuations are normal, not a sign that something is wrong.

In a gaining phase:

• The scale will bounce sometimes due to sodium, water retention, or meal timing.
• Digestion can vary especially as food volume increases or fibre intake shifts.
• Photos might look different day to day depending on lighting, hydration, or training inflammation.

We’re not chasing perfection here, we’re looking at trends over time.

I encourage clients to zoom out and view things in weekly or biweekly averages, not day-to-day noise. We also focus on the big picture markers:

• Are you getting stronger?
• Are you recovering well?
• Are you feeling more energetic?
• Are you actually enjoying the process of fueling your body again?

Those are the signs that things are working not a slightly puffier photo or a temporary weight spike.

Ultimately, this phase is about rebuilding trust, with food, with the process, and with their own body.

When done right, the client starts to feel empowered:

• Food becomes fuel again, not a threat.
• Meals become moments of support, not stress.
• And the scale becomes just one of many tools, and not a verdict on their progress.

Training Strategy

While this is a nutrition focused case study, I can’t avoid touching on training, because one of the most important mindset and behaviour shifts I guide clients through in this phase is changing their approach to training. Up until now, many of them have been training with a fat-loss mentality, whether they realise it or not.

That means chasing sweat, burn, soreness, and calorie expenditure. Sessions often feel intense, but they’re not always productive in terms of actually building muscle.

So here’s where I help them pivot from training to burn calories to training to build tissue. It’s a different goal, and it requires a different strategy.

1. Prioritising Progressive Overload

First and foremost, we bring the focus back to progressive overload, the cornerstone of hypertrophy.

That means:

• Increasing weight lifted over time
• Increasing reps or sets with the same weight
• Improving tempo and/or control
• Executing movements with better precision and range

We track lifts week to week and look for progression patterns. It’s not about going heavier every session, but over time, we want to see clear upward trends. That’s the signal that your body is adapting and that adaptation is muscle growth.

2. Training With Intention, Not Just Intensity

Clients who are used to lean-focused training often equate hard training with high heart rates, dripping sweat, and brutal finishers. But building muscle is about stimulus, not just suffering.

We slow things down. We focus on execution, making sure they’re actually training the target muscle, not just moving weight from point A to point B. I’d rather see a clean, controlled 10 reps that create tension and challenge than 15 rushed reps that don’t stimulate anything meaningful.

We talk a lot about:

• Mind-muscle connection
• Controlling eccentrics
• Full range of motion
• Appropriate rest periods (yes, oftentimes this means 120+ seconds and not the 30 seconds they are used to!)

This type of training is often humbling at first, but it leads to much better long-term results.

3. Balancing Volume and Recovery

Next, we look at total training volume and how it lines up with the client’s recovery ability. Many people who are trying to stay lean tend to overtrain, especially when they’re under-eating. They’re doing 6-7 days a week in the gym, sometimes layering on cardio or HIIT, without fully recovering.

In a growth phase, more isn’t always better. Better is better.

So we adjust training frequency based on:

• The client’s training age and strength level
• Their recovery capacity
• Their stress load outside the gym
• Sleep quality and lifestyle factors

For most clients, 3-5 days of focused, high-quality resistance training is more than enough, especially when paired with solid nutrition and proper rest.

And yes, sometimes we cut back to 2 full-body sessions if someone is really rundown and needs to rebuild from the ground up.

We also factor in deload weeks, depending on progress and feedback. This is something many clients avoid out of fear of losing momentum, but in reality, recovery weeks are where a lot of growth actually happens.

4. Tailored Programming

There’s no one-size-fits-all training split, so I always build programs based on:

• The client’s experience level
• Their movement quality and capacity
• Their training history
• Their specific physique goals (lagging body parts, symmetry, etc.)

Some clients thrive on push/pull/legs. Others do better with upper/lower splits. Some need more glute and hamstring work, others need to bring up arms, chest, or delts. We train with purpose.

But regardless of the split, the core exercise principles stay the same:

• Prioritise compound lifts, then add smart accessory work
• Focus on muscle groups 2x/week for optimal growth
• Rest enough to come back stronger
• Measure and manage load over time

5. Managing Expectations: Muscle Gain Feels Different

One of the hardest but most important things I help clients understand is that muscle gain feels different than fat loss.

Fat loss gives you visible feedback quickly (looser clothes, lower scale weight, more definition etc). But with muscle gain?

• The scale might barely budge
• You might feel a little bloated after a high-carb day
• It might take weeks before you see changes in the mirror

So we shift our focus from day-to-day results to long-term trends.

I remind them:

• “You’re building something, not revealing something.”
• “Muscle gain is slower, but it also takes longer to lose.”
• “It’s like compounding interest, boring at first, but it adds up over time.”

We also celebrate all the small wins:

• Adding 5 kg to their RDL
• Hitting a rep PR on bench
• Seeing their arms fill out a shirt a little more
• Feeling more confident walking into the gym

These are the quiet victories that add up to a radically different physique over time. If they stay consistent and patient.

In this phase, I teach clients to train like a builder, not a burner. And once that shift really clicks with them, when they see progress in strength, physique, and energy, they often wonder why they didn’t do it sooner.

Lifestyle & Recovery

If there’s one area that’s consistently undervalued, especially by clients who are focused on staying lean while trying to gain it’s lifestyle and recovery.

They’ll dial in their training, track every macro, and obsess over their body fat percentage but completely overlook the environment they’re trying to grow in. And that’s a problem because you don’t build muscle in the gym. You stimulate it in the gym. You build it when you recover.

This is often the missing link and ironically, it’s where the biggest breakthroughs happen, both physically and mentally for these clients.

1. Optimising Sleep

We start with sleep, because nothing tanks progress faster than poor sleep. I don’t just ask “how many hours are you getting?”, I dig into the quality and routine behind it.

We aim for 7-9 hours per night, consistently. That’s not just a random number it’s what is needed to support:

• Growth hormone release
• Testosterone production
• Muscle protein synthesis
• Cognitive function
• Mood and stress resilience
• Appetite regulation (leptin and ghrelin balance)

If someone is training hard and under-sleeping, they’re basically trying to build a house without giving the workers any rest or supplies. It just doesn’t work.

So we build a wind-down routine, which may include:

• Getting off screens 60 minutes before bed
• Cutting caffeine by early afternoon
• Taking a hot shower or bath
• Reading, stretching, or journaling
• Sleeping in a cool, dark, quiet room

Once sleep improves, it’s not uncommon to see strength go up, hunger normalise, and overall well-being shift dramatically, often in just a week or two.

2. Reducing Stress

This is a big one, and often the most complex. Stress isn’t just about being “busy” or having deadlines. It’s cumulative and multifaceted:

• Work deadlines
• Relationship strain
• Financial worries
• Perfectionism
• Overthinking food, macros, and progress

And here’s the thing, the body doesn’t distinguish between stress from a bad boss or stress from obsessing over your check-in photos. It just responds by increasing cortisol, which, when chronically elevated, disrupts:

• Muscle recovery
• Sleep quality
• Hormonal balance
• Fat distribution 
• Cravings and hunger cues

So we work on identifying stress triggers and creating strategies to manage them. That might include:

• Daily walks
• Meditation or breathwork
• Time in nature
• Saying “no” more often
• Taking mental breaks from tracking or body-checking

Often, the biggest growth happens when a client realises they can train less and stress less,  and actually get better results.

There are lots of strategies that can help here, and those of you who have done our stress course will know exactly how to support stress management in these clients and to really help them get phenomenal results. 

3. Building in Rest

I can’t count how many times I’ve had to “give permission” to a client to take a rest day. When someone’s stuck in a lean-focused mindset, rest can feel like slacking. But in reality, rest is a growth tool.

We build in:

• Scheduled recovery days (2-3 per week for most people)
• Deload weeks at least every 8 weeks, depending on training age and intensity
• Low-intensity movement, like walking, mobility, or light cycling

I teach clients that recovery isn’t passive, it’s productive. It allows the nervous system to reset, reduces inflammation, and gives the muscles the actual opportunity to grow from the stimulus we’ve created in the gym.

This is also where we see biofeedback improve across the board, sleep deepens, digestion gets better, mood stabilises, and motivation returns.

4. Encouraging Social Flexibility

Now we move into an area that often gets overlooked, but can have a massive impact: social flexibility.

Clients who have been in the “lean at all costs” mindset often isolate themselves around food. They avoid meals out, skip social events, or bring Tupperware everywhere. While that might feel “dedicated,” it’s actually not sustainable or necessary.

In a building phase, we need to reintroduce flexibility:

• Going out for dinner without tracking every gram
• Having dessert without guilt
• Trusting that one higher-calorie meal won’t derail progress
• Choosing connection and presence over control

I help clients develop tools for eating out confidently, whether that’s using portion estimates, focusing on protein and moderation, or just enjoying the moment and moving on.

Ultimately, consistency over months matters far more than perfection in any single week. The clients who learn to build muscle while also living a full, balanced life are the ones who succeed long-term, not just physically, but emotionally too.

The Bigger Picture

The ultimate goal of this entire phase is to create a physiological and psychological environment where the body wants to grow.

That means:

• Hormones are supported
• Recovery is prioritised
• Stress is managed
• Food is enjoyable, not feared
• The client feels safe, strong, and in control without needing to be perfect

When that happens, progress becomes inevitable. The client isn’t just “bulking”, they’re thriving.

This whole process isn’t a quick fix, it’s a coaching journey. But when it’s done right, the transformation is powerful. The client not only gains muscle, but also confidence, flexibility, and a way healthier relationship with food, training, and their body.

Monitoring Progress Over Time

Once the client is in a proper gaining phase, with the mindset, training, nutrition, and lifestyle pieces dialled in, the next step is making sure we’re staying on track without falling back into old habits of obsessing over aesthetics or day-to-day scale changes.

This is where structured, strategic monitoring comes in. Not just “checking the numbers,” but collecting the right data, interpreting it in context, and keeping the client focused on the long game.

1. Regular Check-Ins: Looking Beyond the Scale

I do regular check-ins with every client, weekly or biweekly depending on their personality and needs, but the key is what we’re tracking.

Yes, we still look at:

• Bodyweight averages
• Progress photos
• Measurements

…but we also pay close attention to the qualitative markers:

• How’s your energy?
• How are your workouts feeling?
• Are you sleeping better?
• Is digestion more regular?
• How’s your mood and overall stress?

These biofeedback markers are often more valuable than the scale, because they show us how well the body is responding to the phase. A couple of pounds gained with improved sleep, better lifts, and more confidence is very different than a couple of pounds gained with poor recovery and rising stress.

2. Using Performance Markers as Leading Indicators

In a gaining phase, the gym becomes like a scoreboard.

When strength is going up consistently, it’s one of the most reliable signs that:

• Calories are being put to good use
• Training is well-structured
• Recovery is sufficient
• Muscle tissue is being built

We look for improvements in key lifts (compound movements especially) but we also track progress in:

• Reps and load across multiple sets
• Control and tempo
• Pump, fullness, and mind-muscle connection

If the client is consistently progressing in the gym, that’s a huge win, even if the scale hasn’t moved much. Performance is often the first sign that a gaining phase is working, long before visual changes catch up.

However, you do have to be careful of not trying to force progress by using heavier weights than you need. This is why you do have to have a firm grasp on ratings of intensity.

3. Celebrating Muscle Gain Wins (Even When the Scale Goes Up)

One of the hardest mental shifts for clients who are used to fat loss is learning to celebrate the scale going up when it’s happening for the right reasons.

This is where coaching is so valuable. I help clients understand:

• A few pounds gained over several weeks, with improved strength, better biofeedback, and visible fullness in photos, is progress, not a problem.
• Gaining muscle without some fat is unrealistic. But keeping fat gain slow, manageable, and strategic is what allows us to stay in control.
• That “soft” look they might notice in the mirror during a build isn’t failure, it’s part of the process. And it’s temporary.

We reframe the scale as one piece of the puzzle, not the judge, jury and executioner. We celebrate things like:

• New PRs
• Better pumps
• Clothes fitting tighter in the right places
• Feeling strong and confident again

These are the victories that build momentum and help clients stay bought into the phase even when old fears try to creep back in.

4. Adjusting as We Go

Gaining isn’t a “set it and forget it” process. I’m constantly tweaking based on how the client is responding.

We might:

• Increase calories slightly if weight and strength stall for multiple weeks
• Pull back on volume if recovery starts to dip
• Add rest days during high-stress periods
• Reassess macro breakdowns (e.g. bumping up carbs to match new training demands)

The idea is to stay agile, not reactive. We don’t make changes because of a single bad weigh-in, we look at trends over time, biofeedback, performance, and adherence. Then we make small, strategic adjustments that support the goal without overcorrecting.

5. Preparing for the Future Fat Loss Phase (But Not Rushing Into It)

Eventually, yes, we’ll transition back into a fat loss phase. But that happens when it’s time, not because the client got uncomfortable with the scale or started missing their abs.

I teach clients how to know when they’ve had a productive building phase:

• They’ve gained noticeable size and strength
• They’ve improved training performance across the board
• They’ve maintained good biofeedback
• They’ve built a healthier relationship with food and body image

Only then do we start preparing for a cut, and even then, we approach it from a place of strength and confidence, not guilt or desperation.

The best part is that with more muscle on their frame, future cuts are easier. They look leaner at higher body fat levels, metabolism is stronger, and they’ve built sustainable habits they can carry into any phase.

In short, monitoring progress isn’t about chasing perfection or reacting emotionally. It’s about collecting data, reading the signals, and guiding the process with clarity and calm.

And when that’s done well, the client doesn’t just gain muscle, they gain trust in the process, belief in themselves, and the confidence to keep progressing, phase after phase.

Real-World Outcomes

When clients commit to this process and truly lean into the gaining phase with the right mindset, strategy, and consistency, the results speak for themselves, and they go far beyond what shows up in the mirror.

So, what can you realistically expect in terms of physical and psychological progress over time?

3 Months In: Laying the Foundation

By this point, we’re typically starting to see the first wave of real progress:

• Strength numbers are climbing
• Lifts feel more powerful and controlled
• The body looks “fuller”, especially in the muscles being prioritised
• Biofeedback improves such as better sleep, more energy, better pumps, fewer cravings

The scale may have gone up by a few kg which is exactly what we want. Some of that is glycogen and water, some is lean tissue, and yes, a small bit of fat, but all of it is strategic.

Most importantly, the client starts to feel different. More athletic, more capable, and less anxious around food.

6 Months In: Momentum Building

At this stage, the changes start becoming more visible and more impactful:

• Delts start capping out
• Shirts fit tighter across the chest and arms
• Quads and glutes are noticeably more developed
• Lifts are up 10-20% (sometimes more)
• Recovery between sessions is better than ever

There may be a little softness around the midsection, but that’s normal. Their overall shape and silhouette is more muscular, more powerful, and more balanced.

Even more important is that the client’s relationship with food and training has usually improved dramatically. They’re not just going through the motions, they’re enjoying the process. Eating is no longer a battle. Training is fun again. There’s less second-guessing, more confidence, and a clear sense of direction.

12 Months In: Transformation Mode

This is where the long game pays off. With a full year of strategic gaining under their belt, a client often looks like a completely different person.

We’re talking:

• 5-10 kg of actual lean muscle (depending on experience level, consistency, and genetics)
• Noticeable improvements in weak points or lagging muscle groups
• A stronger, more defined frame, even at a slightly higher body fat percentage
• A metabolism that’s more resilient (thanks to higher food intake, more muscle mass, and better recovery)
• And most importantly, a client who is confident, self-aware, and in control

They’re not afraid of food. They’re not chasing perfection. They’re building with intention, and that sets them up for long-term success in every phase.

Long-Term Benefits: Why This Approach Wins

Let’s zoom out even further, because the benefits of going through a proper gaining phase ripple into every future goal.

When a client takes the time to do this right, they become:

• Leaner in the long run because more muscle means they look better at higher body fat percentages
• Stronger metabolically they can maintain their physique on more calories, making future cuts easier and less aggressive
• More shaped and defined not just “thin” or “small,” but visibly muscular with better proportions
• More sustainable because they’ve learned to balance performance, lifestyle, and flexibility

They no longer need to crash diet for every photoshoot or vacation. They’ve earned a physique they can maintain and enjoy with far less stress.

In short, this isn’t just about gaining size. It’s about building a better body, a healthier mindset, and a lifestyle that actually supports growth in every sense of the word.

Trying To Stay Too Lean While Gaining Case Study Final Thoughts

If there’s one takeaway I hope sticks with you, it’s this:

The fear of gaining fat is one of the biggest things holding people back from building the physique they truly want.

I’ve seen it again and again, smart, hard-working clients who are doing almost everything right… but staying stuck because they’re terrified of letting go of leanness. And the irony is that that fear often ends up delaying progress for years.

So here’s the truth, if you want to grow, to actually change the shape, size, and capability of your body, you have to actually commit to the phase you’re in. You can’t tiptoe your way into muscle gain while still clinging to abs in the mirror and watching the scale like a hawk.

This process demands that you zoom out and think in 6, 12, 18-month timelines, not week-to-week fluctuations. Because when you play the long game, you realise that short-term softness is a small price to pay for ultimately achieving the body of your dreams.

Coaching Checklist: Are You Trying to Stay Too Lean While Gaining?

If you’re not sure whether you (or your clients) are caught in this trap, here’s a quick checklist:

• Are you eating “more” but not seeing meaningful changes in strength or size?
• Are you overly focused on keeping visible abs during a gaining phase?
• Are you reluctant to increase calories even when progress stalls?
• Do you feel anxious when the scale goes up, even slightly?
• Do your check-in photos look almost identical to 3-6 months ago?
• Are you always in “maintenance” mode, never truly cutting, never truly building?

If you said yes to more than a couple of these, chances are you’re trying to gain without gaining, and that’s exactly what’s holding you back.

Mindset Prompts: Reflect & Reframe

Here are a few prompts I use with clients to uncover hidden beliefs and unlock progress:

• What do I believe will happen if I gain body fat?
• Am I chasing aesthetics, or am I afraid of letting go of control?
• What evidence do I have that staying lean has helped me build muscle?
• How would I coach someone else in my position?
• What does my best self look and feel like 12 months from now, and what do they need me to do right now to help them?

These aren’t just thought exercises, they’re tools to break old patterns and build new levels of self-awareness. Because once your mindset shifts, your strategy will follow.

Progress ≠ Staying Lean. Progress = Growth.

Let’s be clear: staying lean is not the same as making progress.

If you’re maintaining the same physique month after month, with no increase in strength, no improvement in muscle fullness, and no change in how you feel or function… you’re maintaining, not progressing.

And that’s okay if that’s your goal. But if your goal is growth (if you want to look different a year from now) then it’s time to lean into smart, strategic gaining.

That means:

• Embracing a small, controlled surplus
• Training for performance, not just sweat
• Prioritising sleep, recovery, and stress management
• Giving yourself permission to grow both physically and mentally

Whether you’re a lifter navigating this yourself, or a coach guiding others through it, the path forward is the same:

Prioritise education, patience, and consistency.

Educate yourself (or your clients) on what it actually takes to build muscle.
Be patient with the process, because muscle gain is slow.
Stay consistent, even when progress isn’t immediately visible.

Because when you combine the right strategy with the right mindset, you will succeed.

You stop spinning your wheels.
You stop chasing lean at the expense of growth.
And you finally build the strong, capable, confident body you’ve been working for all along.

Client case studies, such as this case study on trying to stay too lean while gaining, are a phenomenal way to learn how to coach someone. While we teach people how to coach nutrition, there is just so much to learn and you often need examples to illustrate the concepts.

Unfortunately, you can’t really find these online, and it leads coaches to make the same mistakes over and over, and it makes it difficult for coaches to know what to do. They end up feeling lost and unsure.

Case studies also help the average person who may find that they have roughly the same characteristics and problems covered in the case study, and thus they get a peek into how coaching may help them solve their problems.

As we are very interested in both helping the average person with their health and fitness (this is why we put out so much free content) and we want to improve the health and fitness industry by creating phenomenal coaches, providing free access to these case studies makes sense.

If you need help with your own nutrition, you can always reach out to us and get online coaching, or alternatively, you can interact with our free content, especially our free nutrition content.

If you want more free information on nutrition or exercise, you can follow us on Instagram, YouTube or listen to the podcast, where we discuss all the little intricacies of exercise and nutrition. You can always stay up to date with our latest content by subscribing to our newsletter.

Finally, if you want to learn how to coach nutrition, then consider our Nutrition Coach Certification course, and if you want to learn to get better at exercise program design, then consider our course on exercise program design. We do have other courses available too. If you don’t understand something, or you just need clarification, you can always reach out to us on Instagram or via email.