Gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time possible?

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vharding7
vharding7 Posts: 48 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Okay, so I have a little dilemma. Last summer I was in the best shape of my life. I weighed about the same as I did in high school, but looked better because I lifted heavy. I also had good endurance because I ran and did HIIT training a few times a week. Then I unexpectedly got pregnant. My husband and I had only wanted to have 1 child, but here we are with baby boy #2! haha It happens, oh well! I gained more weight than I wanted from the pregnancy and here I am at 171 lbs, ugh. Now here is the dilemma- I really want to focus on losing fat and getting back into pre baby clothes, but also want my strength and muscle back like I had before. Should I cut first and then build muscle? Build muscle and not worry about cutting too much? Or just do both and hope for the best? I've been loosely following a IIFYM type diet and have been running/lifitng a couple times a week, so nothing serious, but would like to get focused and be a little more strict with my diet and really get back to my old self.... Any suggestions are welcome, thanks!! :)

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  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    Just maintain a reasonable calorie deficit and go lift. You aren't going to build muscle while you're dieting but you will preserve what you have and you can get stronger without putting on mass through neural adaptation. You could try to do a re-comp, but that's going to take an eternity and I wouldn't personally bother unless you were pretty close to your goal where things become a little more muddied in terms of what the actual scale should say vs what you want it to say vs body composition, etc.

    As you lean out and uncover that muscle underneath that has also become hardened with work, you'll look great without having to put on any mass whatsoever.

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