Gain muscle while dropping body fat percentage ?

AaronD16

Hey, I'm curious as to if gaining muscle while dropping body fat percentage. I understand that to lose weight you want to be at a caloric deficit but In order to gain muscle you need to eat a lot. I'm 6'2, 180 lbs . Abs are visible but I'd like them to be harder and more defined . Ideally I'd like to stay 180 but lower my body fat to about 8-10% and have good muscle mass. Any recommendations on programs, diet, cardio, etc is much appreciated

taco_inspector

AaronD16 wrote: »

Hey, I'm curious as to if gaining muscle while dropping body fat percentage. I understand that to lose weight you want to be at a caloric deficit but In order to gain muscle you need to eat a lot. I'm 6'2, 180 lbs . Abs are visible but I'd like them to be harder and more defined . Ideally I'd like to stay 180 but lower my body fat to about 8-10% and have good muscle mass. Any recommendations on programs, diet, cardio, etc is much appreciated

Well, eating at maintenance and lifting can get you where you're headed... Look into "Recomp" (re-composition)

This thread from @usmcmp is a solid source of info:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat


... and as you'll likely be lifting (to build some muscle strength... This posting from @psuLemon is a total home-run:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you

sgt1372

FWIW, while in maintenance over the past 12 months, I was able to increase my LBM by 8# from 134 to 142 (6%) and decrease my BF by 10# from 26 down to 16 (38%).

My overall weight only dropped 2# (1%) from 160 to 158 but my BF% dropped 6% from 16% to 10% as measured by hydro.

How did I do it?

I lifted heavy (for me) 3-4x/wk doing only the basic 4 compound lifts (DL, SQT, BP & OHP) plus the 3 major upper body weight exercises (pullups, pushups and dips) 2-3x/wk w/o doing any significant cardio

and

I ate a high proteiin diet (between 0.8-1.2g/# of BW) at my maintenance caloric level. My macro goal was 40P, 40C & 20F but the actual consumption level was closer to 34P, 38C & 28F.

This was all that I did.

There may have been nuances in training and eating that affected the result but I can not articulate them in any way that would be useful for replication.