Percentage fat loss on a cut and muscle gain in a bulk

beatua1

I have read the folowing many times and in many places:

"If you lift heavy and get enough protein you can maximize fat loss and minimize muscle loss on a cut."

Is there data on what percentage of loss on a cut when lifting heavy and getting enough protein is likely to be fat?

Is the lost weight likely to be 90% fat in a cut, 75%?

Also, similarly on a bulk, what percentage of weight gain is likely to be muscle?

DavPul

Depends

vadimknobel

I used some online calculators and they estimate that by losing 31 lbs my leans mass went down by 12 pounds. So 19/31=61% fat lost on a 2lb per week loss diet (and I guess sadly 39% muscle)

piperdown44

Too many factors involved.
I do know you'll lose more LBM if you are too aggressive in cutting mode (personal experience) for too long.
I prefer starting off aggressive for the first 3 weeks and then backing down to a nice steady 1lb a week while lifting heavy.

McCloud33

Echo everyone else, there are a lot of factors and most of them deal with your own body's ability to produce/retain muscle. If you're new to lifting and can add 15-20 lbs of muscle a year (men...half that for women), whereas if you're more experienced, you may only be able to add 3-5 lbs of muscle a year. This discrepancy alone will give very wide ranging percentages. Also, when doing the calculations, there's a big difference between muscle mass and lean body mass. LBM is just the remainder of whatever isn't fat. This includes, organs, undigested food, and (most important in my opinion) WATER! Especially when I'm comparing my bulked self to my cut self, I usually eat far less carbs on a cut (just my preference) and therefore store a lot less water and glycogen in the muscles. This results in the scales saying that my LBM drops a lot more than I believe my muscle mass actually does since as soon as I go back on a higher carb diet, I gain 6-10 lbs back the first week.

jeffpettis

Like everyone else has said, it is going to be an individual thing.

Having said that, you can absolutely lose fat without losing any muscle if you have everything set up correctly. On the other hand it is almost impossible to gain muscle without gaining some fat, but you can minimize fat gains while increasing muscle gains.

It's all very individual and depends on a host of different factors.

beatua1

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I am just wondering if I am losing a lot of muscle with my fat as I am losing. I hope I'm doing it right and losing only a small amount of muscle.

DopeItUp

DavPul wrote: »

Depends

Exactly.

As a general, ballpark rule of thumb I'd say you can lose minimal-to-no muscle if you're cutting with an optimal situation (good hormone levels, good protein intake, proper training, proper caloric intake, etc). The leaner you are, the harder it is to keep that muscle as well.

Gaining muscle/fat during a bulk, the general consensus is that someone with good genetics and good diet and good training can gain about 50/50 muscle/fat. People who can do better than that are generally on drugs or are part of the genetic elite. Or both. Even the best of the best will put on SOME fat during a bulk, so it's largely unavoidable.

beatua1

DopeItUp wrote: »

DavPul wrote: »

Depends

Exactly.

As a general, ballpark rule of thumb I'd say you can lose minimal-to-no muscle if you're cutting with an optimal situation (good hormone levels, good protein intake, proper training, proper caloric intake, etc). The leaner you are, the harder it is to keep that muscle as well.

Gaining muscle/fat during a bulk, the general consensus is that someone with good genetics and good diet and good training can gain about 50/50 muscle/fat. People who can do better than that are generally on drugs or are part of the genetic elite. Or both. Even the best of the best will put on SOME fat during a bulk, so it's largely unavoidable.

Thanks DopeItUp, very useful!

ninerbuff

Who knows? Unless someone is being monitored for every calorie burned and what the attributing energy source is, it's just a guestimate.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

beatua1

ninerbuff wrote: »

Who knows? Unless someone is being monitored for every calorie burned and what the attributing energy source is, it's just a guestimate.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

I wasn't looking for exact figures, was looking for more rule of thumb type numbers like what DopeIt Up gave.