gaining muscle mass vs burning fat

Alphastate

It is very possible. The main thing you need to do is eat healthy. How much you want to gain overall is where you'll make either eat your maintenance caloric requirement or go over it. As long as you are doing the proper things (cardio, clean foods, weight lifting, lots of protein) you will gain lean mass while burning fat.

bcattoes

A pretty much the answer is still no, lift to preserve muscle while you cut, not to make gains. alternate between cutting and bulking, or 9 times out of ten you will just spin your wheels. As someone who hit this wall not too long ago (5'9" 165 lbs 15% BF), I am not speaking only theoretically. Just a few months ago I was still growing new muscles, quite visibly, but about a month ago it stopped. I did not suddenly drop my intensity. Now if I want to grow, I need to eat above maintenance, and cutting is going to cost me some muscle as well as fat. Considering where I started, it's not upsetting, but it's definitely a reminder that I'm not a special snowflake.

For bulking and cutting, how long would each require. I've been wondering if I've been doing it unintentionally for the past few months. I wasn't trying to lose any more weight and was just concentrating on fitness. Not gaining muscle specifically, just increasing strength and overall fitness. I was following the Turbo Fire schedule plus other strength building exercises.

I wasn't tracking the whole time and my calories were not consistent. Would this cause muscle gain and fat loss if done inconsistently over a 5 month period?

I dont think there is really any minimum time frame between cycling surplus and deficit. BUT I do think there is a certain amount of time required for the body to transition from a state where it wants to burn fat to a state where it is willing to start adding mass. This could vary person to person depending on length and amount of deficit and surplus. I just dont think it is an on off switch.

What you are talking about is "body recomposition". Basically eating at maintenance and building muscle while in slight surplus and burning fat when under. It was posted already but I will quote it again,

"A lot of the approaches advocated for ‘gaining muscle while losing fat’ aren’t very effective. In fact, I’d tend to argue that most people’s attempts to achieve the above results in them simply spinning their wheels, making no progress towards either goal. Because invariably they set up a situation where neither training nor diet is optimized for either fat loss or muscle gain. Calories are too high for fat loss and too low to support muscle gains and outside of that one overfat beginner situation, the physiology simply isn’t going to readily allow what they want to happen to happen."


http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/adding-muscle-while-losing-fat-qa.html

Maybe trying too hard is the killer. I wasn't trying at all and I seemed to have done it.

ETA: Actually that's not true. I was hoping to lose weight, but I was hoping to do it without eating any less. Instead I gained weight, though I lost a couple of inches. I need to lose more though, so I guess I'm going to have to eat less. :grumble:

Alphastate

I am throwing myself into the frying pan for this. No.. You can't gain muscle and lose fat. Its pure science..

What kind of science do you study?

mustgetmuscles1

Maybe trying too hard is the killer. I wasn't trying at all and I seemed to have done it.

: ) Its probably just a matter of efficiency. If you are at goal weight/BF% and are not worried about gaining muscle any muscle gain is a bonus and any reduction in BF% as well. Alan Aragon talks about this situation for training people like models and actors that need to maintain a certain look year round. Over a long period of time they can see positive changes.

The fact still remains that muscle is built in the surplus and fat is reduced in the deficit.

bcattoes

Maybe trying too hard is the killer. I wasn't trying at all and I seemed to have done it.

: ) Its probably just a matter of efficiency. If you are at goal weight/BF% and are not worried about gaining muscle any muscle gain is a bonus and any reduction in BF% as well. Alan Aragon talks about this situation for training people like models and actors that need to maintain a certain look year round. Over a long period of time they can see positive changes.

The fact still remains that muscle is built in the surplus and fat is reduced in the deficit.

I reduced BF% to something I am now happy with (which is actually something of a problem since I now need to lose weight but not reduce BF% much more), but I am not at goal weight by any standard measurement or chart. And when I look in the mirror, while I like the tone and shape of my body, I need to be smaller.

pcastagner

I am throwing myself into the frying pan for this. No.. You can't gain muscle and lose fat. Its pure science..

What kind of science do you study?

The only true science is bro science.