Fat Loss / Muscle Gain Confusion

dulcejimenez144

Hi Guys! I’m a tad bit confused and I’m hoping I can get my question answered here.

I’ve heard for fat loss you need to be in a calorie deficit and for muscle GAIN you have to be in a calorie surplus. Seems pretty simple but at the same time I keep reading posts about people gaining muscle (therefore not losing weight) while in a calorie deficit.

So is a calorie surplus even necessary during this time???

Am I understanding things wrong?

Can I eat at maintenance and still gain muscle at an optimal rate or??

Thanks everyone for your input I would really appreciate the help.

MikePTY

You can gain muscle while eating at maintenance or even usually at a small deficit. This is called body recomposition. So you can absolutely do it. However, you will build muscle at a slower rate than if you do it in a calorie surplus. So some people prefer to go bulk/cut cycles, where they build muscle in a surplus, and then they cut fat in a deficit. Both have merit and a lot depends on what exactly you are hoping to accomplish with them.

jjpptt2

Mike is correct. But to add...

I suspect that many of the people who claim to be gaining muscle and thus not losing weight despite being in a deficit are confused as to what is actually happening. Either they aren't in a deficit, they aren't gaining muscle, or they aren't being patient enough to see weight loss. Or a combination there of.

cmriverside

Here's a good read:

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

sijomial

"I’ve heard for fat loss you need to be in a calorie deficit and for muscle GAIN you have to be in a calorie surplus."

Pick apart those two statements with the absolute terms "need" and "have" and it's saying that it's an absolute rule that not one single person in the world can get leaner either at maintenance calories or slightly above maintenance calories.
All the people who are maintaining weight or very slowly increasing weight but improving their body composition (aka getting in shape) can't possibly be achieving that? Does that sound remotely true?

Additionally that phrase is saying not one single person in the world can add even a tiny amount of muscle in a calorie deficit no matter how tiny that deficit is. As there's plenty of examples and studies of ordinary people doing just that the absolute rule is clearly disproved.

Then you would have to look at the mechanisms at play if the statements were true. How exactly does someone's body switch off muscle protein synthesis when you drop 1 calorie under your TDEE? How would your body even know that? At what time of day does that calculation get made and does your body retrospectively cancel that whole day's MPS before that decision time?
What the hell happens if you are neither losing or gaining weight? Does your mode switch get confused?


"Can I eat at maintenance and still gain muscle at an optimal rate?? "

Do you see the very different use of language here? Not absolute terms but optimal, part of a range of outcomes. No it's unlikely you will gain muscle at an optimal rate, but that's not the same as can't add a significant amount of muscle and get great results. But those results are personal to you and reliant on good training. If rate of muscle gain is your sole consideration you would probably make different choices to someone who also considers the compromises that being in a calorie surplus usually brings (fat gain primarily).


"Is it necessary?"
For who? With what ultimate goals? With what lifting history? With what current status vis a vis their genetic potential?