When to stop focussing on losing weight and focus on muscle gain?

hannahsharratt27

I've been on a weight loss journey since December. I've lost now over half a stone since start of January (as Christmas period saw some weight gain!) and my clothes are fitting again, jeans don't need unbuttoned after lunch, it's all going well. I weigh myself one morning a week and have been seeing some great progress, usually slightly more than expected, with some weeks resulting in no loss/gain due to special occasions such as family birthdays that I treated myself, which I am totally ok with, as life is short and as the scales never went up I still see it as progress.

The scales are now starting to not show much difference, and my muscles are becoming extremely apparent in my gym sessions which I am loving. And I get the little difference in scales is now taking muscle weight, so now won't be as accurate for monitoring loss of fat. However I still feel like theres still a bit more fat to lose, even though my friends are saying how great I look. Some of them are saying to get my calories back up to maintaining, and now focus on still eating well and not going over and keep lifting, as this fat will 'turn' to muscle?

I still consider myself a newbie in all of this department, so would love some help and clarity! When do I stop 'trying' to lose weight? Or do I need to wait until I feel the weight is gone to focus on muscle build? Can fat 'turn' to muscle as my friend says? I've heard it before but unsure if its just another weight loss myth?

KarenSmith2018

Hey. In a calorie deficit you won't gain much if any muscle. Optimum conditions for women in a calorie surplus only result in a 1lb a month gain of muscle mass and about the same in fat. If you love how you look and are happy with the weight you are at you could eat at maintenance, continue to lift using a properly constructed program and undertake body re composition where you very very slowly change the composition of your body to become leaner and generate a little muscle and continue to loose the fat. Its a long slow process but minimises fat gains that would result from a bulking (eating at surplus) cycle would do and prevents the need for a cutting cycle (to loose the fat gained during the bulk and reveal the muscle gained). I have been doing body recomp for approx a year now and achieved some good results in terms of how i look but my lifts are stalling in so far as i cannot add more weight to the bar and complete my sets so i am heading into a daunting (to me) bulking phase so i can lift heavier and gain some muscle. This will be a very slow, 1lb a month if that bulking phase but it should minimise the fat gain and make it a bit less scary for me.

In summary you can recomp and slowly change the way you look or bulk and expect to gain muscle and fat and thus weight and possibly have to cut (diet) to reveal the new muscle when you no longer like the way you look. Whether you recomp or bulk is a personal decision but your body fat % needs to be relatively low 15-20% to be effective and drive more muscle gain than fat gain and you need to be on a progressive lifting program.

rybo

hannahsharratt27 wrote: »

I've been on a weight loss journey since December. I've lost now over half a stone since start of January (as Christmas period saw some weight gain!) and my clothes are fitting again, jeans don't need unbuttoned after lunch, it's all going well. I weigh myself one morning a week and have been seeing some great progress, usually slightly more than expected, with some weeks resulting in no loss/gain due to special occasions such as family birthdays that I treated myself, which I am totally ok with, as life is short and as the scales never went up I still see it as progress.

The scales are now starting to not show much difference, and my muscles are becoming extremely apparent in my gym sessions which I am loving. And I get the little difference in scales is now taking muscle weight, so now won't be as accurate for monitoring loss of fat. However I still feel like theres still a bit more fat to lose, even though my friends are saying how great I look. Some of them are saying to get my calories back up to maintaining, and now focus on still eating well and not going over and keep lifting, as this fat will 'turn' to muscle?

I still consider myself a newbie in all of this department, so would love some help and clarity! When do I stop 'trying' to lose weight? Or do I need to wait until I feel the weight is gone to focus on muscle build? Can fat 'turn' to muscle as my friend says? I've heard it before but unsure if its just another weight loss myth?

While technically fat does not turn into muscle, what people mean (or should mean) by that comment is that when maintenance, over time, you can continue to lose fat and gain muscle. It's a little slower, but thats ok, there's no rush.

sardelsa

If you feel like you are happy with your weight and want to work on body composition (add a little here, lose a little there) then recomp (eating at maintenance and lifting) could be a great plan for you. You don't turn fat into muscle, rather both processes happen around the same time so over a long period of time changes in composition are possible. However keep in mind it can be slow. You can also continue to eat in a small deficit to lean out, although it will be more about maintaining the muscle you have vs. building anything significant.

It really depends on your goals, how comfortable you are where you are, your stats, body composition etc.