Deficit question.

fishshark
fishshark Posts: 1,886 Member
edited November 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
Right now I am in a deficit to lose some fat and weight. My questions is, should I even be strength training/lifting if I am not going to gain muscle? Am I going to see any positive results from it during a deficit or is it almost pointless? Thanks everyone.

Replies

  • astrampe
    astrampe Posts: 2,169 Member
    Strength training is NEVER pointless. You might not gain muscle, but you will minimize muscle loss and look loads better if you do that now....
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    Absolutely. It helps maintain your muscle mass rather than lose it.
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
    astrampe wrote: »
    Strength training is NEVER pointless. You might not gain muscle, but you will minimize muscle loss and look loads better if you do that now....

    This.

    All of my progress was made in a deficit. Not sure how my body would look if I had lost more muscle than necessary. So sad.
  • fishshark
    fishshark Posts: 1,886 Member
    arditarose wrote: »
    astrampe wrote: »
    Strength training is NEVER pointless. You might not gain muscle, but you will minimize muscle loss and look loads better if you do that now....

    This.

    All of my progress was made in a deficit. Not sure how my body would look if I had lost more muscle than necessary. So sad.

    thank you everyone! thats what i figured i just wasn't sure if the hard work would pay off if it wasn't possible to gain muscle... thanks again!
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
    fishshark wrote: »
    arditarose wrote: »
    astrampe wrote: »
    Strength training is NEVER pointless. You might not gain muscle, but you will minimize muscle loss and look loads better if you do that now....

    This.

    All of my progress was made in a deficit. Not sure how my body would look if I had lost more muscle than necessary. So sad.

    thank you everyone! thats what i figured i just wasn't sure if the hard work would pay off if it wasn't possible to gain muscle... thanks again!

    Yeah, I thought we had talked about this on another thread! You got this. It definitely pays off. I'd say doing a bunch of fluff-lots of hypertrophy work, or lots of ab isolation work, does not pay off in a deficit. But the compound lifts, absolutely. I'm starting to see abs and I haven't done an ab isolation workout...maybe ever. Consistently at least.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,147 Member
    Of course!
  • pmm3437
    pmm3437 Posts: 529 Member
    1st - what everyone said above
    2nd - you can gain muscle while eating at maintenance or a deficit ... its called a recomp.
    3rd - maintain your protein intake, create your deficit from reduced fat or carb cals.
  • atypicalsmith
    atypicalsmith Posts: 2,742 Member
    Strength training makes you FEEL better, so it's worth it!
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
    pmm3437 wrote: »
    1st - what everyone said above
    2nd - you can gain muscle while eating at maintenance or a deficit ... its called a recomp.
    3rd - maintain your protein intake, create your deficit from reduced fat or carb cals.

    Recomp happens in maintenance, with the right macros and a structured lifting program. In a deficit, you can really only build muscle if you're lifting as an over-fat beginner.
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