I'm waffling and can't decide what to do...

4theking

If you have been dieting/losing for a while, I would take a break and add a bit of muscle over winter. If not, I would lose fat till you hit your goal weight and then up your calories.

Rae6503

If you have been dieting/losing for a while, I would take a break and add a bit of muscle over winter. If not, I would lose fat till you hit your goal weight and then up your calories.

Yeah, pretty much for *how old is kid?* 16 months...

4theking

If you have been dieting/losing for a while, I would take a break and add a bit of muscle over winter. If not, I would lose fat till you hit your goal weight and then up your calories.

Yeah, pretty much for *how old is kid?* 16 months...

Then take a break and gain some muscle.

LabRat529

I'm certainly not an expert on all this

But my vote is work on muscle gain (sounds like you decided on that anyway... right?).

Muscle just seems like a good investment. More muscle = higher metabolism = better health in general = probably easier fat loss when it's time.

I need to lift weights. *grumbles*

solpwr

I think it may be about fine tuning.
I still believe fat loss and muscle gain are not mutually exclusive. In theory at least, if an individual ingests the proper amount of calories and does the right workouts to result in the same body weight over 3 months, they in theory could be stronger, more fit, and have added muscle and lost fat, with an unchanged body weight. In theory.

A couple of suggestions, based upon what I've been trying to do. Take measurements to the 1/4 inch. I know you didn't have skin fold measurements, but measure all the necessary circumferences to monitor your progress, including your quads. These will help down the line to evaluate progress. And/or photos. (I've started documenting my skinfold mm measurements for each of the 7 sites.)

I think your calorie goals should be reviewed monthly based upon your measurements progress, not the scale.

Finally, think about the quality of your calories. Review your pre-workout and post workout meals. This will help you get the most from your lifting, maximize your chances for gaining the muscle. Personally, I cut out (as you may know) alcohol for October. I was OK on my net calories prior, but doing that changed 350 calories per day (average). So I cut the alcohol, but I added a protein bar = 290 calories right after every workout, cardio or lifting. That's when the body is wanting to uptake the acids to replenish its stores. And my pre-workout meal now is high carb, about an hour to 90 minutes before, usually a clif bar and a banana, or something like that, so I have plenty of fuel for a great workout. I just make sure that my net calories weekly are still on my plan.

So far, I'm happy with what's happening, but I was off plan for week one of October and just re-lost that temporary gain. I'm on a 6 week Max Fitness plan to up my VO2 max for ski season, so my goals are slightly different. But I'm using measurements to see what's happening to my body, and doing a sub-maximal fitness test to estimate my VO2 max, along with documenting my RHR, and monitoring performance times on the bike.