# Which goal should I pick: lose fat, build muscle or maintain?

Source: https://nume.co.in/choose-a-goal/ · Checked on 12 November 2026

If your waist is half your height or more, or you want to be leaner, start by losing fat. If you are lean and want to be bigger and stronger, build muscle. If you are new to lifting and somewhere in between, eat at maintenance and train, and you can lose fat and gain muscle together. If you want to be fitter, play better or have more energy, keep your weight steady and put the work into training, sleep and regular meals. You can change your goal whenever your aim changes.

## A quick way to choose

| Where you are | What you want | Start with | In Nume |
|---|---|---|---|
| Waist half your height or more | Leaner, healthier | Lose fat | Lose body fat |
| Lean, BMI in the healthy range | Bigger, stronger | Build muscle | Build muscle |
| New to lifting, in between | To look and feel different | Recomposition | Maintain, and train |
| Any | Fitter, a sport, an event | Train for it at a steady weight | Perform better |
| Any | More energy | Steady weight, movement, sleep, regular meals | Maintain |

Two measures you can take at home settle most of it. For your waist, the UK's NICE guidance says to find the bottom of your ribs and the top of your hips, wrap a tape midway between them (just above the belly button) and breathe out naturally before you read it. Divide by your height in the same units. 0.4 to 0.49 is healthy, 0.5 to 0.59 is increased and 0.6 or more is high, so aim to stay under 0.5. NICE uses these bands for both sexes and all ethnicities, including muscular adults, up to a BMI of 35. For BMI, use the [BMI calculator](/tools/bmi-calculator/).

## Lose fat

Lose fat when your waist is at or above half your height, or when being leaner is what you want. The NHS suggests a pace of 0.5 to 1 kg a week. Keep lifting while you lose, and keep protein up, so the weight that comes off is fat. See [how much protein](/protein/), [why the scale may not be moving](/not-losing-weight/), [losing belly fat](/lose-belly-fat/) and [getting a six pack](/six-pack/).

**In Nume:** Lose body fat plans your day 15% under maintenance, and never more than 750 kcal under. A new fat-loss goal starts at 10% under for its first two weeks. If you've trained steadily for three months or more, you start at the full cut. If your BMI is under 18.5, Nume plans your day around maintenance.

## Build muscle

Build muscle when you are lean and want more size and strength. It takes three things together: lifting that gets heavier over time, about 1.6 g of protein per kg a day, and a little more food than you use. Muscle comes slowly, so more food than that mostly adds fat. In a trial of elite athletes doing four strength sessions a week, the group eating about 600 kcal a day more gained more weight and much more fat than the group eating freely, with no extra muscle. [How to build muscle](/build-muscle/) has the full answer.

**In Nume:** Build muscle plans your day 5% over maintenance, in a range from maintenance to 10% over. Progress leads with your strength and your protein.

## Maintain, or recomp

Maintenance is the energy that keeps your weight steady. With progressive training and enough protein, it is also where many people lose fat and gain muscle at the same time, especially when lifting is new to them. [Losing fat and building muscle together](/body-recomposition/) covers who it works for and how to tell.

**In Nume:** Maintain plans your day at maintenance, 5% either side. Not sure yet plans the same way, so you can start before you've decided.

## Get fitter

Fitness is two things: your heart and lungs, and your strength. Both carry large health numbers. Across 33 studies with about 103,000 people, each step up in aerobic fitness of one MET, about 1 km/h faster running speed, went with 13% lower risk of death from any cause. In a review of 16 studies, muscle-strengthening work went with 10 to 17% lower risk of death, heart disease, cancer and diabetes, with the largest drop at about 30 to 60 minutes a week.

The WHO recommends 150 to 300 minutes of moderate activity a week plus strength work on two or more days. If you have a sport or an event in mind, see [strength and food for your sport](/sport/), [a first 5k or 10k](/first-5k-10k/), [a half or full marathon](/marathon/) and [a hike or trek](/hiking/).

**In Nume:** Perform better plans your energy at maintenance so your training is fuelled, and Progress leads with your movement and your strength. Your own sport, runs and classes stay yours, and food is planned around them: the meal before is lighter, the one after a hard or long session is larger, and a note comes in Talk about two hours before a timed session.

## Have more energy

Regular movement is the strongest lever you have. In a trial of 36 sedentary young adults who felt tired most of the time, six weeks of exercise three times a week raised their feelings of energy, at low and at moderate intensity alike, and the low-intensity group's fatigue eased the most. Sleep is the next lever: adults do best on 7 hours or more a night. Then regular meals with protein, and enough to drink (the [water intake calculator](/tools/water-intake-calculator/) gives a figure for your day). Lasting tiredness can have other causes as well.

**In Nume:** pick Maintain. Your meals sit at your own eating times, one to six a day, around when you wake and sleep. Before a workout, Today asks how you feel. Choose "A bit tired" and that session gets easier: "Lighter today, since you said you're tired."

## What a goal changes in your plan

Your goal sets your daily energy: under, at or over maintenance, as the [calorie calculator](/tools/calorie-calculator/) shows for your own numbers. Protein follows your training more than your goal. Train two or more times a week and it is set at 1.6 g per kg. Losing fat with less training, it is 1.2 g per kg, to hold on to muscle, and 1.1 g per kg for everyday health.

Progress puts your goal's measures first: weight, energy and protein for losing fat, strength and protein for building muscle, energy and protein for maintaining, movement and strength for performing better. Profile > Goal shows every number with its reason, for example "About what your body uses on a usual day with your activity, plus 5% to build muscle." If you or a coach have your own numbers, they replace Nume's, and Nume plans 5% either side of them.

## Can I change my goal later?

Yes. A goal is a phase, picked for what you want next. A common pattern is a few months of losing fat, a stretch at maintenance to settle, then a stretch of building.

**In Nume:** change it in Profile > Goal, or tell Talk in one sentence, and Nume plans from the new goal. Your energy and protein update, and Profile says why. A new fat-loss goal starts with the gentler two weeks again, unless you've trained steadily for three months or more.

## Bring it to Nume

Pick the goal that matches what you want now, and Nume builds the plan around it: your daily energy and protein with the reason for each, meals at your own eating times from the dishes you already eat, workouts written for the days you have, and food planned around the sport and runs you already do. Progress leads with the measures that matter for your goal, and when your aim changes, one sentence in Talk changes the plan. See [how Nume works across a day](/how-it-works/), or [check a plan you already have](/check-my-plan/).

## Common questions

### Should I cut or bulk if I'm "skinny fat"?

Usually neither, at first. Eat at maintenance, lift with steady progress and keep protein near 1.6 g per kg. Many people in this spot lose fat and gain muscle together. See [body recomposition](/body-recomposition/).

### Should I lose weight before I start lifting?

No. Start lifting now, whatever your goal. It helps you keep muscle while you lose fat. See [where to start at the gym](/start/).

### Can I have two goals at once?

Yes. Your food follows one direction at a time, under, at or over maintenance, and your training carries the rest, so strength for your sport and a leaner shape can come together. Losing fat and building muscle at once has its own guide: [recomposition](/body-recomposition/).

### What goal is a six pack or a flat stomach?

Losing fat, while you keep lifting. See [getting a six pack](/six-pack/) and [losing belly fat](/lose-belly-fat/).

## Sources

- [NICE guideline NG246: Overweight and obesity management, identifying and assessing overweight, obesity and central adiposity (recommendations 1.9.14 and 1.9.15, and box 1)](https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng246/chapter/Identifying-and-assessing-overweight-obesity-and-central-adiposity)
- [NHS: Tips to help you lose weight](https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-weight/managing-your-weight/12-tips-to-help-you-lose-weight/)
- [Morton et al., A systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression of the effect of protein supplementation on resistance training-induced gains in muscle mass and strength, British Journal of Sports Medicine (2018)](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5867436/)
- [Garthe et al., Effect of nutritional intervention on body composition and performance in elite athletes, European Journal of Sport Science (2013)](https://doi.org/10.1080/17461391.2011.643923)
- [Kodama et al., Cardiorespiratory fitness as a quantitative predictor of all-cause mortality and cardiovascular events in healthy men and women: a meta-analysis, JAMA (2009)](https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2009.681)
- [Momma et al., Muscle-strengthening activities are associated with lower risk and mortality in major non-communicable diseases, British Journal of Sports Medicine (2022)](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9209691/)
- [WHO guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour (2020), full text](https://iris.who.int/server/api/core/bitstreams/faa83413-d89e-4be9-bb01-b24671aef7ca/content)
- [Puetz, Flowers and O'Connor, A randomized controlled trial of the effect of aerobic exercise training on feelings of energy and fatigue in sedentary young adults with persistent fatigue, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics (2008)](https://doi.org/10.1159/000116610)
- [Watson et al., Recommended amount of sleep for a healthy adult: a joint consensus statement of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society, Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine (2015)](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4442216/)