Confused about losing weight but building muscle

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MontyLDN
MontyLDN Posts: 2 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi, ok so i'm currently 10st 4 and i want to lose weight. So, i have a daily calorie goal of 1200. If i work out i usually eatback half my calories.

However, i want to transform my body. I want to tone up, build muscle, get a flat toned stomach, toned arms etc. As such, to build muscle, you need to work in a calorie surplus.. right??

So now im confused. I want to be toned but i am carrying some extra weight.

What do i do?? Eat at a calorie deficit to lose the weight and then start building muscle by weight lifting, or eat at a surplus to build up the muscle then cut after with cardio/lifting??

I have a holiday in 4 weeks coming up so some short and long term feedback would be amazing as im just baffled!!!

Thanks! :)

Replies

  • itsbasschick
    itsbasschick Posts: 1,584 Member
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    if you're start resistance training (bodyweight, weight machines, free weights or resistance bands) now - there's no reason to wait. if you're a beginner or rehabbing from scratch, you might put on a little muscle even eating at a deficit. at worst, you'll avoid losing muscle by resistance training now.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
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    Just go hit the weight room...you'll preserve the muscle mass you already have and probably get some noob gains as well. When you lean out, you can adjust your calories to re-comp...i.e. eat closer to maintenance or at maintenance and get your fitness on..

    A surplus is necessary if you want to really put on mass efficiently and basically, get big quick...but you can absolutely put on muscle eating at or slightly below maintenance, particularly as a noob.

    In the short term (4 weeks), you're not likely to see a whole lot of change in your body composition...re-comp takes years.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,952 Member
    edited April 2016
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    You are 144lbs currently. Depending on your height you are either barely overweight, or, most probably, normal weight.

    Your caloric deficit at 1200 Cal a day is too aggressive and will result in excess loss of lean mass. Your ability to lose fat as opposed to lean mass will be enhanced by a smaller deficit. Your total daily deficit should be in the 10% to 20% range of your total daily energy expenditure. In all probability you should not be aiming for more than -500 Cal a day.

    So I would aim for my -500, take measurements, and see how things go. Down the road you might even reduce that to -250.

    The reason you would take measurements is that depending on how much strength training you do... you might end up seeing way less scale movement than you would otherwise see without any exercise activity.

    So the fit of your clothes and your strength and confidence and how you feel become more important than just the number on your scale.

    A weight trend application or web site may help with the mental gymnastics of having contrary goals that will force you into a slow weight loss where water weight variations are greater than your underlying weight level change.

    Use trendweight.com or weightgrapher.com (with a free fitbit.com account which you can open without any hardware); or libra for android or happy scale for iphone.

    Forget the goal of looking better by date x. Anything you start consistently pursuing today will make you look and feel somewhat better by date x; but, your goals and adjustments should be long term as opposed to spastic reactions to short term stimuli.

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