Lost last 10lbs, reached GW 98lbs - now skinny fat and need to gain muscles

Zara_Pi

As the title says, I have lost the last 10lbs and reached my target weight of 98lbs. However I'm currently skinny fat, so still have a lot of fat around my thighs, waist, arms.

I don't want to lose anymore weight, but get toned and gain some muscles.
However I'm worried that if I eat at a surplus to gain muscles I will put the weight back on that I've tried so hard to lose.

Can I eat at maintenance and do strength training to gain muscles?

pigheaded

Don't think so. You need to be in surplus of tdee to gain muscle. If your new to lifting you might get newbie gains at maintenance but that won't last for too long.

usmcmp

It depends on if you are underweight according to the BMI scale. If you are underweight you'll need to gain some weight to gain some muscle. Gaining muscle while eating at maintenance works best if you are carrying enough extra fat to fuel the muscle growth and that's unlikely to be the case for someone underweight.

jayemes

If the number is more important, I'm not sure how you could gain muscle without losing even more.... and that sounds scary because I can't remember a time in my life when I was under 100 pounds
If the way you look is more important, don't worry about the number and start strength training.
You may not be your "ideal" weight when you're done, but you'll probably be happier with your results.

DebLaBounty

If you want to change how you look, strength training will help. The number on the scale will become relatively meaningless. Take your body measurements before you start, and see what happens after a couple of weeks. Your body needs the fuel to function, so don't be afraid to eat!

ndj1979

What are your stats? 98 pounds sounds like an insanely low goal weight ...

mekabr84

I naturally weigh 98ish (92-105, depending on how much I sit on my *kitten* in a given year, but 98 is the sweet spot in terms of how I look) pounds. (5'1", slim build, it's cool) But I am also wanting to put on some muscle and am wondering if I need to increase my calories. I mean, sure, I need to increase calories to offset those burned working out, but more than that? Or would it maybe be more important to just try to restructure the calories I'm eating, making sure I'm really getting enough protein?

Tabbycat00

I'm close to you in stats at 5'2 & 97. When I want to tone up and look more cut I increase my weights and change what I eat by adding more protein but stay at about 1400 calories in total. For me that makes enough of a difference to make me happy. You could try eating the same amount and lifting first and if you aren't happy with that increase your calorie intake.

Rusty740

No, you can't build much muscle while maintaining at your current weight, I think you've lost the recomp opportunity, if it ever existed. You need to lift weights (or other resistance training) and you need extra calories (surplus) to tell your body to store energy. Stored energy is either fat or muscle. If you just maintain and lift, you will be spinning your wheels. You will get stronger, but won't gain much muscle (hypertrophy). Go on a slight surplus and lift using a structured full body workout like StrongCurves or Stronglifts or something with progressive overload.

Be prepared for this. You will go to a surplus of a few hundred extra calories and start lifting weights, lessen the cardio to 1 or 2 times per week. You will immediately put on some weight in the form of water and glycogen coming back into the muscles you have that have released it over your weight loss. I bet this will be 2-4 lbs gain or so within the first 2 weeks. Don't panic.

About half of the weight you put on will be muscle, the other half will be fat. Once you start to lift and eat at a surplus, you're going to want to watch what the scale does daily or weekly so you can confirm you are gaining, but not too much. You be looking for about 0.25-0.5 lbs per week total gain, no more. You'll probably want to put on about 10 lbs, then lose 5. Keep lifting weights when you do decide to loss the fat. It will feel weird trusting yourself to gain weight, you'll need to trust the process. Really check in to what weight lifting program you use. There's a sticky around here somewhere. It should make the weight progressively heavier, it should be mostly compound movements like squat, deadlift, overhead press, bench press, rows and chin/pull ups.

On Macros, you will need less protein to gain muscle than you will to lose fat (believe it or not). To gain muscle, you'll want not more than about 0.8 g/lb body weight and to lose fat a bit more than that (sya around 1 g/lb bodyweight). You'll need about 2 g/lb bodyweight carbs while gaining muscle. The rest fat, just make sure you get at least the minimum fat.

PokernuttAR

Base your goals and progress with the mirror, not the scale. Who cares how much you weigh if you look the way you want??? For example, if I told you that I weigh 185 pounds, would you say I look fit or overweight? What if I told you I weigh 250 pounds, would your opinion change? Probably not because the scale is just a number, what you look like and feel like is a much better barometer. Good luck on your goals.

loftus4827

You have to decide what's more important, being at your goal weight or looking how you want to look. In order to make true progress it's necessary to use the scale simply as a tool to measure whether or not your plan is working. Honestly you'll get the most noticeable results if you're willing to let that number on the scale go up some. Why such a low goal weight?? 98 pounds? I hope you're under 5 ft if you weigh that much