Trying to build muscle and lose fat simultaneously?
DreamOfMina
Posts: 5
Hi everyone,
I think I'm going through a frustration that a lot of women will be able to relate to. I've been going to the gym regularly for about a month and a half now. I was never really overweight, (5'5" / 145lbs) but my body fat is high at 27%. This has lead to me having a pretty good looking butt (fat makes it look nice and round, big and soft like a lot of uswant it to be), with a flabby stomach and arms. So in the gym I have basically tried lifting heavy weights to build the butt muscles. I feel like I'm stuck now though. In the first couple of weeks I had measurable gains everywhere on my body from arms to butt. It freaked me out because I wasn't trying to gain in my upper body. Next few weeks goes by and I guess I haven't been lifting enough weight when I squat, because now my butt is just looking smaller and my stomach is just as big and flabby as it ever was. I'm not sure what to do. The fat I had on my butt is shrinking but the fat in the rest of my body isn't going anywhere. I don't know if I should be eating at a surplus or deficit. Do I need to just accept being skinny and go hard on cardio until my belly fat is gone and THEN try lifting heavy weights or can I keep doing 10 minutes of cardio and going on to lift weight? I'm so confused, can someone help me?
I want to lose my gut, not my butt. I understand fat is going to melt away from everywhere but my stupid genetics make my *kitten* the first place I lose weight. Should I stop lifting until I can get my stomach down or is there a way I can continue to lift and grow butt mass while still shedding fat all over? I can't get my stomach down unless I eat at a deficit, right? So doesn't that mean that I can't grow mass in my butt until my stomach is down and I can eat at a surplus? Or is there something I'm missing?
I think I'm going through a frustration that a lot of women will be able to relate to. I've been going to the gym regularly for about a month and a half now. I was never really overweight, (5'5" / 145lbs) but my body fat is high at 27%. This has lead to me having a pretty good looking butt (fat makes it look nice and round, big and soft like a lot of uswant it to be), with a flabby stomach and arms. So in the gym I have basically tried lifting heavy weights to build the butt muscles. I feel like I'm stuck now though. In the first couple of weeks I had measurable gains everywhere on my body from arms to butt. It freaked me out because I wasn't trying to gain in my upper body. Next few weeks goes by and I guess I haven't been lifting enough weight when I squat, because now my butt is just looking smaller and my stomach is just as big and flabby as it ever was. I'm not sure what to do. The fat I had on my butt is shrinking but the fat in the rest of my body isn't going anywhere. I don't know if I should be eating at a surplus or deficit. Do I need to just accept being skinny and go hard on cardio until my belly fat is gone and THEN try lifting heavy weights or can I keep doing 10 minutes of cardio and going on to lift weight? I'm so confused, can someone help me?
I want to lose my gut, not my butt. I understand fat is going to melt away from everywhere but my stupid genetics make my *kitten* the first place I lose weight. Should I stop lifting until I can get my stomach down or is there a way I can continue to lift and grow butt mass while still shedding fat all over? I can't get my stomach down unless I eat at a deficit, right? So doesn't that mean that I can't grow mass in my butt until my stomach is down and I can eat at a surplus? Or is there something I'm missing?
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Replies
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Lift weights on a slight caloric deficit
there are great articles on bodybuilding.com 0 -
I think I might just be freaking myself out. I think I know part of the problem, too. If I work a certain muscle group, for the next few days, I will feel and look really big in that area. After a week goes by, it's like it goes away. My last workout was pretty high intensity on the abs so I'm probably noticing that drop in the booty area mixed in with the gain in the ab area. I think I need to do different ab exercises and go back to doing butt bridges. I'm going to look into lifting at a slight deficit. Overall though I don't need to be psyching myself out like this. Flat booty or not, I'm sure I'll look better with a tighter stomach which I know I can't get unless I lose more fat. I was seriously trying to avoid this though. I'm sure I can put more fat on later if necessary, I just didn't want it to have to take so long to have the body I really want.0
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1. fat comes off from where it wants…you can't spot train/reduce
2. you cannot build muscle in a calorie deficit, with the exception of newbie gains which slack off after about six months..
3. eat in a calorie deficit and keep lifting heavy …I think someone already mentioned it but maybe eat at 15% deficit and keep lifting so you will have some fat loss and preserve as much muscle as possible...0 -
lift the heavy things and eat at a calorie deficit.0
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Lift weights on a slight caloric deficit there are great articles on bodybuilding.com
This is true.
You will hear some users say it can't be done but they can't back up their argument with any real data - they usually refer to what their gym buddies told them. Ask them where the got their data or medical degree.
Losing fat and adding muscle are two very different processes. They absolutely can occur simultaneously in the human body. Ask any doctor or Ph.D. in physiology. You just need to make sure you supply your body with the building blocks to form muscle (protein) and the stress of lifting weights.0 -
Lift weights on a slight caloric deficit there are great articles on bodybuilding.com
This is true.
You will hear some users say it can't be done but they can't back up their argument with any real data - they usually refer to what their gym buddies told them. Ask them where the got their data or medical degree.
Losing fat and adding muscle are two very different processes. They absolutely can occur simultaneously in the human body. Ask any doctor or Ph.D. in physiology. You just need to make sure you supply your body with the building blocks to form muscle (protein) and the stress of lifting weights.
i would be interested to read a study on mass gains in non-beginner trainees that are in a calorie deficit…
this is like saying you can build a house and tear it down at the same time….0 -
Lift weights on a slight caloric deficit there are great articles on bodybuilding.com
This is true.
You will hear some users say it can't be done but they can't back up their argument with any real data - they usually refer to what their gym buddies told them. Ask them where the got their data or medical degree.
Losing fat and adding muscle are two very different processes. They absolutely can occur simultaneously in the human body. Ask any doctor or Ph.D. in physiology. You just need to make sure you supply your body with the building blocks to form muscle (protein) and the stress of lifting weights.
i would be interested to read a study on mass gains in non-beginner trainees that are in a calorie deficit…
this is like saying you can build a house and tear it down at the same time….
It's actually not at all like saying "this is like saying you can build a house and tear it down at the same time…."
It's more like saying "you can build a house down the road with one set of workers, while another set of workers tears down a strip mall".
I'm glad you are asking for a study showing these results- not too hard to find on PubMed. I post a few including a meta-analysis a few weeks back and may dig them up again - or you can use search function.
What studies have you seen that state that the human body can't build muscle while reducing fat stores?0 -
This content has been removed.
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This content has been removed.
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Lift weights on a slight caloric deficit there are great articles on bodybuilding.com
This is true.
You will hear some users say it can't be done but they can't back up their argument with any real data - they usually refer to what their gym buddies told them. Ask them where the got their data or medical degree.
Losing fat and adding muscle are two very different processes. They absolutely can occur simultaneously in the human body. Ask any doctor or Ph.D. in physiology. You just need to make sure you supply your body with the building blocks to form muscle (protein) and the stress of lifting weights.
i would be interested to read a study on mass gains in non-beginner trainees that are in a calorie deficit…
this is like saying you can build a house and tear it down at the same time….
It's actually not at all like saying "this is like saying you can build a house and tear it down at the same time…."
It's more like saying "you can build a house down the road with one set of workers, while another set of workers tears down a strip mall".
I'm glad you are asking for a study showing these results- not too hard to find on PubMed. I post a few including a meta-analysis a few weeks back and may dig them up again - or you can use search function.
What studies have you seen that state that the human body can't build muscle while reducing fat stores?
it is basic math. You need surplus energy to build muscle, and if you are in a calorie deficit, then you do not have surplus of energy required to build new muscle.
now, obese beginners can have some "newbie" gains for the first six months or so but then that goes away and if they continue eating in a deficit they will not gain any more muscle.
This is not a study but great article on the subject by Lyle Mcdonald..
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/adding-muscle-while-losing-fat-qa.html0 -
I too would be very interested to see scientific research showing that you can build muscle and lose fat at the same time. Outside of newbie gains, I thought this was not possible. Could you please provide the link? I would be very grateful.0
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How about you look through your recent posts (because you have them hidden from everyone else) and link to it instead of expecting everyone else to come up with search terms that will match whatever you happened to have posted.Lift weights on a slight caloric deficit there are great articles on bodybuilding.com
This is true.
You will hear some users say it can't be done but they can't back up their argument with any real data - they usually refer to what their gym buddies told them. Ask them where the got their data or medical degree.
Losing fat and adding muscle are two very different processes. They absolutely can occur simultaneously in the human body. Ask any doctor or Ph.D. in physiology. You just need to make sure you supply your body with the building blocks to form muscle (protein) and the stress of lifting weights.
i would be interested to read a study on mass gains in non-beginner trainees that are in a calorie deficit…
this is like saying you can build a house and tear it down at the same time….
It's actually not at all like saying "this is like saying you can build a house and tear it down at the same time…."
It's more like saying "you can build a house down the road with one set of workers, while another set of workers tears down a strip mall".
I'm glad you are asking for a study showing these results- not too hard to find on PubMed. I post a few including a meta-analysis a few weeks back and may dig them up again - or you can use search function.
What studies have you seen that state that the human body can't build muscle while reducing fat stores?0 -
This content has been removed.
-
1. fat comes off from where it wants…you can't spot train/reduce
2. you cannot build muscle in a calorie deficit, with the exception of newbie gains which slack off after about six months..
3. eat in a calorie deficit and keep lifting heavy …I think someone already mentioned it but maybe eat at 15% deficit and keep lifting so you will have some fat loss and preserve as much muscle as possible...
Yup.
To put it even more simply, if you want to add mass to your rear and you want to reduce body fat, pick one of those two and work towards it. Then work towards the other. The order probably doesn't really matter. Just don't expect both things to happen at the same time. Expect the overall process to take a long time. People who have fit, athletic bodies took years and years to get there.0 -
Okay, I looked around a little more and read all the replies. I think I will start eating at a slight deficit, and continue the weight training program I'm on. It makes sense for me right now. It sounds like I just need to be more conscious of what those calories consist of, and maybe I need to be more conscious of what I'm spending time on in the gym. Sometimes I get scatter-brained in the gym and don't pay enough attention to how much time or reps I'm spending on a certain thing, and I think that's part of it. I just need to be more careful and just deal with what happens to my body for now. I'm just now getting back in shape so I guess it doesn't really matter as much for me, what's done can be undone or redone once I'm in total control.
Too many beginners like me panic about stuff like this because we aren't used to having control and aren't sure what to do. I'm sure it's annoying having to answer questions from newbies who want so much but have yet to put in considerable effort. A lot of people type and talk a lot about what they want and spend more time doing that than actually just getting out there and actually working out and seeing what happens. I'm trying, though. I'm in the gym as often as I can be and I have fun doing it, I just want to make sure that what I'm doing actually supports my goals. Nobody wants to be working backwards. I'm afraid of that, but not as afraid of just doing nothing at all.0 -
Okay, I looked around a little more and read all the replies. I think I will start eating at a slight deficit, and continue the weight training program I'm on. It makes sense for me right now. It sounds like I just need to be more conscious of what those calories consist of, and maybe I need to be more conscious of what I'm spending time on in the gym. Sometimes I get scatter-brained in the gym and don't pay enough attention to how much time or reps I'm spending on a certain thing, and I think that's part of it. I just need to be more careful and just deal with what happens to my body for now. I'm just now getting back in shape so I guess it doesn't really matter as much for me, what's done can be undone or redone once I'm in total control.
Too many beginners like me panic about stuff like this because we aren't used to having control and aren't sure what to do. I'm sure it's annoying having to answer questions from newbies who want so much but have yet to put in considerable effort. A lot of people type and talk a lot about what they want and spend more time doing that than actually just getting out there and actually working out and seeing what happens. I'm trying, though. I'm in the gym as often as I can be and I have fun doing it, I just want to make sure that what I'm doing actually supports my goals. Nobody wants to be working backwards. I'm afraid of that, but not as afraid of just doing nothing at all.
4 sets 8-10 reps each ..rest about two minutes between reps and 2.5 minutes between sets…
make sure you are deadlifting, squatting, over head pressing, pull ups/chin ups, bench press, etc….< compound movements...0 -
Fat loss is a product of the number of calories you are eating. As others have noted, you may need to cut and then bulk to get your desired look. You probably already know, keep your protein up.0
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Okay, I looked around a little more and read all the replies. I think I will start eating at a slight deficit, and continue the weight training program I'm on. It makes sense for me right now. It sounds like I just need to be more conscious of what those calories consist of, and maybe I need to be more conscious of what I'm spending time on in the gym. Sometimes I get scatter-brained in the gym and don't pay enough attention to how much time or reps I'm spending on a certain thing, and I think that's part of it. I just need to be more careful and just deal with what happens to my body for now. I'm just now getting back in shape so I guess it doesn't really matter as much for me, what's done can be undone or redone once I'm in total control.
Too many beginners like me panic about stuff like this because we aren't used to having control and aren't sure what to do. I'm sure it's annoying having to answer questions from newbies who want so much but have yet to put in considerable effort. A lot of people type and talk a lot about what they want and spend more time doing that than actually just getting out there and actually working out and seeing what happens. I'm trying, though. I'm in the gym as often as I can be and I have fun doing it, I just want to make sure that what I'm doing actually supports my goals. Nobody wants to be working backwards. I'm afraid of that, but not as afraid of just doing nothing at all.
4 sets 8-10 reps each ..rest about two minutes between reps and 2.5 minutes between sets…
make sure you are deadlifting, squatting, over head pressing, pull ups/chin ups, bench press, etc….< compound movements...
Find a program to follow such as NROLFW, Starting strength or Strong lifts...it's all laid out for you.
Now for the comment that you are losing your butt...no your not...trust me it's lifting. Since I started resistence training I have lost 3 inches from my hips...but my butt is rounder, firmer, higher and I am very proud of it.
I eat at a small deficet TDEE-15% and lift heavy. I follow SL 5x5 atm and do 5 sets of 5 reps at my current weights...with 3-4min rests in between mainly because they are getting heavier...
Losing fat and building muscle while in a deficet just doesn't happen unless you are obese or they are newbie gain and those are small and short lived...0
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