Maintain weight, but lose belly fat? Is there a way?

luiscetto

Hello, so I'm 21 and I've always done sports and gym so yeah I'm in shape, but for as long as I can remember I've never been able to get abs.

Last week I decided to fully commit to getting them and I started to do some reading, and to make a long story short I decided to get into a high caloric deficit (if you put your hands on my belly you can literally feel a six pack, but you just cant see it) and after soing some more reading I found put I could lose muscle by going into a caloric deficit (something I don't want to happen). So anyone know what I should do?

MegaMooseEsq

Well, if you are losing weight, you can't pick where you're going to lose it from, and if you're in a deficit you will not maintain weight or build muscle. So yeah. Eat more and exercise like mad, I guess?

kimny72

Some people due to body type simply can't get a visible sixpack without becoming underweight.

If you have excess fat in that area, a slight deficit could take care of it. Your other option is to try recomp - eat at maintenance and strength train, but this is a slow process and like I said above might not get you whatever results you are picturing in your head.

Some stats might help you get some more informed answers - height, weight, BF% if you know it, current workout, etc.

SCoil123

It sounds like you might be ready to look into body recomposition http://physiqonomics.com/body-recomposition/

BootyEvolve

luiscetto wrote: »

Hello, so I'm 21 and I've always done sports and gym so yeah I'm in shape, but for as long as I can remember I've never been able to get abs.

Last week I decided to fully commit to getting them and I started to do some reading, and to make a long story short I decided to get into a high caloric deficit (if you put your hands on my belly you can literally feel a six pack, but you just cant see it) and after soing some more reading I found put I could lose muscle by going into a caloric deficit (something I don't want to happen). So anyone know what I should do?

Loose body fat you can loose body fat by maintaining weight. You'd just have to replace every bit of fat with muscle. Usually yes, if you ate not eating a lot of protein you will loose muscle. Most people don't even eat close to enough protein. I try to hit 108 to 125 grams of protein per day while I'm loosing weight. I highly recommend looking up abby pollock on YouTube. She is my go to person on all fitness questions of gaining muscle and loosing weight.

Ty_Floyd

Cryolipolysis. Non-invasive fat removal technique—the machine kills the fat cells by freezing them and then your body disposes of them naturally. It's also known as coolsculpting.

lorrpb

REcomp:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat/p1

HarlemNY17

MegaMooseEsq wrote: »

Well, if you are losing weight, you can't pick where you're going to lose it from, and if you're in a deficit you will not maintain weight or build muscle. So yeah. Eat more and exercise like mad, I guess?

That's not true , You can build muscle and lose weight . I'm doing it now . I take in more protein then I should normally but you can build muscle and lose weight .

sgt1372

Left a detailed response in the identically captioned thread that you posted in the Maintenance subforum.

SCoil123

MegaMooseEsq wrote: »

Well, if you are losing weight, you can't pick where you're going to lose it from, and if you're in a deficit you will not maintain weight or build muscle. So yeah. Eat more and exercise like mad, I guess?

Recomp is exactly losing fat while gaining muscle. It's a slow and difficult process but absolutely possible. Typically you eat around maintenance or just below during recomp.

MegaMooseEsq

SCoil123 wrote: »

MegaMooseEsq wrote: »

Well, if you are losing weight, you can't pick where you're going to lose it from, and if you're in a deficit you will not maintain weight or build muscle. So yeah. Eat more and exercise like mad, I guess?

Recomp is exactly losing fat while gaining muscle. It's a slow and difficult process but absolutely possible. Typically you eat around maintenance or just below during recomp.

Yeah, I probably should have said generally. I can't imagine that recomp involves a high deficit, though, which was what the OP suggested.

HarlemNY17

BootyEvolve wrote: »

luiscetto wrote: »

Hello, so I'm 21 and I've always done sports and gym so yeah I'm in shape, but for as long as I can remember I've never been able to get abs.

Last week I decided to fully commit to getting them and I started to do some reading, and to make a long story short I decided to get into a high caloric deficit (if you put your hands on my belly you can literally feel a six pack, but you just cant see it) and after soing some more reading I found put I could lose muscle by going into a caloric deficit (something I don't want to happen). So anyone know what I should do?

Loose body fat you can loose body fat by maintaining weight. You'd just have to replace every bit of fat with muscle. Usually yes, if you ate not eating a lot of protein you will loose muscle. Most people don't even eat close to enough protein. I try to hit 108 to 125 grams of protein per day while I'm loosing weight. I highly recommend looking up abby pollock on YouTube. She is my go to person on all fitness questions of gaining muscle and loosing weight.

Muscle CANNOT replace fat . Two different things . You have to lose fat by losing weight and you have to gain muscle weight training and getting a lot of protein. You can maintain weight while still gaining muscle. Yes the scale will show a higher number but it's just the muscle gain and not actually putting on weight