Cutting down?

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Arathels
Arathels Posts: 6,883 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi guys.

I'm very new at this and I need a bit of a help.
I wanna cut down my body fat to 18% but right now I'm at 24.3% But I also wanna gain muscles.

After some google researching it's obvious that people do not agree on if you can both cut down in fat and gain muscles or if you have to do one at a time.

I wanna do my first bikini competition in 1-2 years so I would like to get a lot more muscles as long as loosing the fat. How can I achieve what I wan't in that time and is it better to up my calories a bit and build muscles first or keep my calories low to loose more fat or can I do both at same time?

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  • AnthonyX150X
    AnthonyX150X Posts: 293 Member
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    If you want to cut your body fat percentage down you need to be in a cutting phase (when you are in a calorie deficit and you are lifting heavy). You can lose fat and build muscle if you are a beginner, but once you are past the beginner phase it is very hard to build muscle in a caloric deficit and the amount of muscle you would build would be miniscule.
  • Arathels
    Arathels Posts: 6,883 Member
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    OK, what's the beginner phase?
  • AnthonyX150X
    AnthonyX150X Posts: 293 Member
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    Arathels wrote: »
    OK, what's the beginner phase?

    It's just a term to describe someone who is new to lifting and can build a decent amount of muscle easily in the beginning, but once you don't notice any more muscle gains in your deficit you need to switch over to a surplus to continue gaining muscle, but keep in mind you will gain a small amount of fat in the process.
  • Arathels
    Arathels Posts: 6,883 Member
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    AnthonyX150X wrote: »
    Arathels wrote: »
    OK, what's the beginner phase?

    It's just a term to describe someone who is new to lifting and can build a decent amount of muscle easily in the beginning, but once you don't notice any more muscle gains in your deficit you need to switch over to a surplus to continue gaining muscle, but keep in mind you will gain a small amount of fat in the process.

    Ahh thank you. We use another word for it where I'm from.
    Thanks, this helped a lot.

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