Lose fat first then build muscle?

annabeladcock

Also - I would like to see results by the end of September, so yes, I am being realistic about my time frame I think I have a holiday in 4 weeks time but I know that I will not be anywhere near where I want to be at by then...

AllOutof_Bubblegum

NO! Lift weights now.

Springfield1970

NO! Lift weights now.

Agreed! This needs to happen whether cutting or bulking.

Bulking is best done on a low body fat.

Lifting heavy will prevent any muscle loss, and may even build muscle if you're new to it, on a cut.

By the time she bulks she will know how to lift too.

Women can only gain approx .25lb of muscle per week, with sufficient protein, 3x full body heavy lifting and a calorie excess of 2/300 cals per day.

Springfield1970

While setting a figure on the scales doesn't always make sense, you could try aiming for your 10lb loss with a .5lb/week rate - so it will take 20 weeks, which is a fair bit of time.

At that 'pace' and with 'newbie gains', hopefully you will also see strength improvements.

I would drop calories from whatever you are 'maintaining' on by 250 a day and see how that goes - measure with libra or similar app/spreadsheet and move your deficit around based on that.

Make sure you keep your protein levels up.

As above - starting strength or strong lifts are a good start - heavy (for you) barbell work, but making sure you start light - you may want to start lighter than an Olympic bar for some exercises as the 20kg/45lb can be quite a lot (a female friend could just do the bar for her bench press, but I had her warming up on a smaller bar or my multigym.)

Good stuff. Good luck OP. Please don't rush this, take measurements all the time. Don't cut without weight training, you'll not the results you're after.