Losing Weight but Gaining Muscle – My Journey So Far
I know this section is usually for those looking to gain weight, but I wanted to share my experience of building muscle while dropping body fat—because it is possible, even in a calorie deficit. Over the last 8 months, I’ve gone from 25 stone (159 kg) to 98 kg, but what’s even more interesting is that my muscle mass has increased from 60% to 72.5% during that time.
How I’ve Built Muscle While Losing Fat
Since October last year, I started lifting weights with a focus on intensity over volume. I took inspiration from Mike Mentzer’s Heavy Duty principles—essentially prioritizing progressive overload, lower volume, and absolute failure on sets instead of endless reps and junk volume.
Here’s what that looked like for me:
- Low frequency, high intensity – I train 3x per week, but each session is all-out.
- Progressive overload – If I can do more than 6–8 reps, I increase the weight.
- Rest & recovery – More isn’t always better; giving my body time to recover has been just as important as the workouts themselves.
- Protein-focused diet – While following keto, I’ve prioritized protein to support muscle retention and growth.
The Results
- Dropped over 8 stone (50+ kg) while still increasing muscle mass
- Muscle percentage increased from 60% to 72.5%
- Stronger, leaner, and healthier than ever
I know the idea of gaining muscle in a deficit gets a lot of debate, but I’ve seen it first-hand. If you focus on progressive overload, recovery, and proper nutrition, it can be done. If anyone else has experience with this or is looking to do the same, I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Let’s keep pushing forward. 💪🔥
Replies
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Congrats! Great results.
Yeah it's totally possible to gain muscle in a deficit. Assuming good training and nutrition, a few factors help more with that: being a new lifter, having a lot of body fat (fuel), light deficit. Even if you weren't gaining muscle, you should still lift regularly and get high protein to help ensure as much as possible of the weight loss is from fat.
I'd maybe nitpick the Mentzer style and 6 reps stuff a little. Dr. Mike at RP talks about going higher reps more volume for hypertrophy and because it's safer while in a large deficit than lower reps higher weight. But that's minor, you're broadly doing the right things and getting great results, and it's obviously working for you. Congrats.
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I’m definitely inspired, if you can.. what would your weekly exercise routine look like? I’m a beginner and wanting to lose weight and gain muscle. Very new to lifting.
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I’ve just started lifting and using weights and I’ve gained some weight so far, I know I’m building muscle but I’m really stressed to see the scale go up before it goes down, especially when I’m trying so hard to eat nutrient dense foods and lose the postpartum weight. I know it’s different for men and women but what advice or guidance do you have for getting over the mental hurdle of “weight gain” before the fat starts to come off? How would I measure (at home) what my muscle density is? Is that possible?
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You may gain a few pounds of water weight with new lifting. Other than that, your weight will go up in a calorie surplus or down in a calorie deficit, and note that lifting doesn't burn many calories compared to cardio exercise.
Unless you're specifically training for strength with high intensity in the 1-5 rep range, if you are making progress in weight and reps week to week, you're most likely gaining muscle. You might also find clothes and belts are fitting better. You can also take progress pics to gauge body comp changes. Lastly, home scales can measure body comp… badly, however using the same scale may show trends over time which may have some value, although I'd never trust a specific number from them.
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Hey thanks, that means a lot! 🙌
My routine is pretty beginner-friendly actually, so you're in a great spot to start. I train 3 times a week, usually full-body or upper/lower split depending on the week. Here's a rough idea of what it looks like:
Day 1 – Push (Chest, Shoulders, Triceps)
- Incline chest press
- Dumbbell shoulder press
- Cable triceps pushdown or dips
- Abs/core work
Day 2 – Pull (Back, Biceps)
- Lat pulldown or assisted pull-up
- Dumbbell or cable rows
- Dumbbell curls
- Abs/core again
Day 3 – Legs + a bit of everything
- Goblet squats or leg press
- Romanian deadlifts
- Calf raises
- Finish with a few extra sets for weak points (like rear delts or core)
I stick to 2–3 sets per exercise, but I go to failure—or just before. What’s helped the most is consistency and logging workouts, so I always try to beat my last performance, even if it’s by one rep or 1kg.
If you’re new, just focus on form, consistency, and recovery—you’ll be amazed how quickly you start to see progress! 💪
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Ah I totally hear you—that number on the scale can really mess with your head, especially when you’re doing all the right things. The fact you’re building muscle and fuelling yourself properly postpartum is actually amazing progress already 👏
One thing that helped me early on was tracking more than just weight. I used a smart scale to measure body fat % and muscle mass, which helped give me a fuller picture. Some scales do muscle % estimations via bioimpedance—not 100% accurate, but useful to track trends. You can also use simple tools like:
- Progress photos (same lighting, same clothes)
- Measurements (waist, hips, arms, legs every 2–4 weeks)
- How your clothes fit (big one for me)
Mentally, it helped to remind myself: if the scale goes up but my jeans are looser, that’s a win. The weight gain you're seeing might be water, glycogen from muscles refilling, or new muscle mass—all good signs.
Try not to let the scale have the final word. Fat loss and body recomposition rarely show in a straight line—but they do happen when you stay consistent. You’ve got this, honestly 💛
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Thanks so much! Really appreciate your thoughtful feedback.
Totally agree with you on the new lifter advantage and having the fuel from higher body fat—it’s been a huge part of my results. I started with a pretty big surplus in stored energy 😅 so that helped fuel muscle growth even in a deficit.
Re: Mentzer-style training—you’re right, it’s definitely intense and not for everyone. I’ve kind of blended it with what works for me. I do occasionally push sets past 6 reps into the 10–12 range, especially on isolation movements or when I’m not feeling 100%. And yeah, I’ve listened to Dr. Mike’s stuff too—solid advice on hypertrophy and higher rep volume especially when dieting hard.
For now, I’m keeping the intensity but being mindful of recovery and trying to avoid injury, especially as I get leaner. Appreciate the nudge to keep learning and adjusting!
Thanks again for the kind words and the solid insight 💪
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For your question on how to measure your muscle mass (@ home), if you dont have calipers and your itching to know your body-fat percentage right now, here's a simple, low tech (albeit not very accurate test):
-Sit in a chair with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor.
- Using your thumb and index finger, gently pinch the skin on top of your right thigh.
- Measure the thickness of the pinched skin with a ruler.
Results:
- If it's about 3/4 inch, you have about 14 percent body fat.
- If it's 1 inch, your probably closer to 18 percent fat.
- If you pinch more than an inch, you have a lot of work ahead of you. But more important, BPFs over 20 may put you at increased risk for diabetes and heart disease.
You won't start seeing your abs until your body fat dips under 12 percent.
Once you have your BFP, you can calculate your lean body mass (LBM). By using this formula:
Body weight - (body weight × body-fat percent) = lean body mass
Or just use an online LBM calculator.
Example: Here's how to figure out the lean body mass of a 180-pound man with 15 percent body fat
180 - (180×15 percent)
180 × 0.15= 27
180 - 27 = 153 pounds (LBM)
Determining Caloric Baseline By Your Lean Body Mass
Current Body Fat - Daily Calorie Intake
6-12% - 17 cal per lbs of LBM
12.1-15% - 16 cal per lbs of LBM
15.1-19% - 15 cal per lbs of LBM
19.1-22% - 14 cal per lbs of LBM
22.1% or above - 13 cal per lbs of LBM
If you had a body fat percentage of 15 you would determine your caloric baseline by multiplying 16 calories per pound of lean body mass.
A 180-pound man with 15 percent body fat as we calculated early has LBM of 153 lb. So he would multiply 16 calories by 153 to get a daily caloric baseline of 2,448 calories.
*Based off of information I got from "Mens Health - Natural Bodybuilding Bible"; I assume these calculations would also work the same for females as well.
I hope this helps with your question and more if you needed !
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just a couple of caveats to this: women need more fat than men, to go below 15% risks interrupting hormones and can, in time, lead to osteoporosis. And older women (ie over 50) are advised to have c25% body fat (fat produces some estrogen, which helps counteract the loss of ovarian estrogen). Women really shouldn’t go as low as 13% body fat for long - even to show off great abs!
I can also pinch waaaay more than an inch. But I’m hypermobile and have extra stretchy skin so that calculation of fat won’t work on me either!2 -
I can see other caveats that would make results of a pinch test totally anecdotal and unreliable:
Genetics: I have little to no fat on legs, shoulders or arms. All my extra fat congregates around my waist (Thanks, Mom.)Scoliosis. If I forget to sit or stand up straight-which is a good bit of the time- I have an instant Michelin Man ring.
Large Weight Loss can leave some of us with extra skin. A lot of extra skin if it’s a lot of weight lost.
Because I enjoy all three of these blessings, I can very easily pull my sides out several inches, Stretch Armstrong style.
Using the pinch test provided, you might as well stick an apple in my mouth and plate me up.
Just sayin’…..
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FWIW, my n=1 makes me very skeptical of that formula for women. That method of estimating base calories is crazy far off for me, if what you mean is calorie needs, or even pre-exercise calorie needs. If it's meant to be BMR, maybe . . . but BMR isn't particularly useful by itself in estimating weight management calorie needs.
Right now, my best estimate of BF% would be somewhere around 27%, which is about where the following poor estimating methods converge: BIA scale, the so-called "Navy body fat calculator" online, and those online photos of people at varied body fat percents. The thigh-pinch thing? Nah. It matters where on my thigh I pinch, but it's less than an inch. I'm very seriously above 18% BF, for sure.
If I assume that 22.1% BF and above would be 13 calories per pound of LBM, I assume that the number would be lower than 13, for me at around 27%, but let's just use the 13. At 27% BF and 133 pounds, that would be 13 times 97 (100% minus 27% is 73%; 73% of 133 pounds is 97 pounds - round numbers throughout).
So, 13 times 97 is 1261. Most estimating formulas estimate my BMR/RMR a bit above 1200, but that's in consideration of sex, height (5'5"), and advanced age (69), so I'd call that a coincidence. If I were 20 instead of 69 at the same size, BMR/RMR would be estimated more like 1400.
If I ate 1261 for weight loss, I'd be losing weight like a house afire, way faster than would be sane at my current size. Even 1261 plus exercise would be too-aggressive loss. (My actual average maintenance calories are around 2200.)
I don't really think any formula that's generic with respect to age, height, sex and current body weight is a realistic basis for anything or for anyone, though it's good to consider body fat percent in the mix. When I use research based calorie needs estimates that consider BF% plus some of those other values, estimated BMR/RMR is more around 1400, pre-exercise calorie needs more like 1500-1700, and exercise ups it to the 2000-2300 range, which is reasonably close.
FWIW, this site will let you compare several research-based calorie-needs estimating formulas:
https://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/
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