Losing fat & gaining muscle.

ShadeBlossom

I've been lurking around on the forums for a while, but I still haven't figured out the answer to this one question that's been driving me crazy. I've seen "eat at a deficit if you want to lose fat" and "eat at a surplus if you want to gain muscle" but, greedy wench I am, I want to do both. As a result, I'm having a hard time figuring out where to set my caloric goal.

Background:
- I'm 33, female, and currently 198 pounds. I lift weights 2-3 times a week, shooting more for 3, but not always succeeding.
- For the last couple of months, MFP had me set at 1370 calories a day. A couple days ago, I went to iifym.com and the calculator there set me at 1690, which is what I'm using now, but it's only been a few days so there's no real results to show.

I've already lost 3% body fat and 4 pants sizes since May, so I know something must be working, at least to a degree. What I'm worried about is that I may not be eating enough where I was on the MFP numbers to gain the muscle I want. I also don't want to overshoot the mark and end up not losing fat, or worse, gaining more.

Any advice would be appreciated.

JenMc14

Long story short, you have to eat at a surplus to gain muscle. You will gain fat along with it. There are exceptions to this rule, newbies & the very obese being the big ones, but for someone who's been lifting seriously for awhile who doesn't have a ton of weight to lose, it's typically done separately. You can do a long, slow frustrating recomp, but, at the end of the day, the most effective way to gain muscle is to bulk. This is why bodybuilders have bulk/cut cycles.

That doesn't mean that you shouldn't keep lifting. It will help you retain muscle while losing fat which will help the way you look when the fat is gone. I'd say stay at your higher cals (1690) for now. When you hit your body fat %/weight goal, aim for 100-200 over maintenance and hit the weights hard, backing off cardio a bit. Do that for 6-8 months, see how you progress, then cut any gained body fat from there.

ShadeBlossom

@JenMc
I do have quite a bit of weight I'd like to lose. Around 80 pounds. I guess I'll just have to step up the cardio for a while. I've been mostly focused on the lifting lately (because I really find it more fun and interesting).

Thank you!

JenMc14

Definitely keep up the lifting! You will still lose, you don't have to step up the cardio unless you want to. Your scale loss may slow down, but you'll still notice visible changes and measurement changes.

ShadeBlossom

Yeah, I'll have to try to stop weighing every day. It's just driving me crazy, anyway. lol