Want to loose inches ... Best to eat to gain muscle or loose

dauenhab

I'm currently doing P90X2 right now and I'm eating 1800 calories a day using roughly a 40/30/30 carb/fat/protein ratio. I was just thinking, if I am about 10-15 lbs from my goal weight, is it better to eat for weight loss (have a calorie deficit) or eat to gain muscle (calorie neutral)? I know that muscle will give me a higher metabolism and BMR, so if my calories stay the same I would end up being in a deficit and burn fat. However, if I eat to loose weight, I know that I will not build up as much muscle, but I may get definition quicker.

What are your thoughts? Do you eat to gain muscle or to loose weight?

- Brandy

tameko2

I'm in nearly the same place as you and I think it just depends on what YOU want. I am carrying ALL my excess fat on my belly right now (ok and a BIT on my thighs) and it drives me nuts, I hate it, so I can't stand to not cut at LEAST 5 more lbs of fat because seriously I don't even have a lot of places left to lose it from so its got to be at least SMALLER in 5 lbs.

and I'd say it also depends on how much muscle you've got right now - if you're pretty low on muscle mass I'd say bulk first. If you're already fairly muscular, I'd cut. I've got a goodish muscle base as is right now (Been trying hard to conserve whats there) and like I said - belly is driving me MAD - so I'm cutting still.

LoveAngie23

bump

salxtai

I'd personally cut fat down more before going to maintenance phase.

My reasoning is: You'll have amazing muscle strength but it'll be hidden beneath the fat. Yes, muscle burns more calories, but you'd need to put on some serious muscle for it overcome the 10-15lbs that sit ontop of it (I'm assuming that you're ultimately going for a 'toned/sculpted' body shape)

Thats just what I did though, everyone burn fat differently and its up to you - no right or wrong answer, technically speaking.



Edit: Forgot to mention that muscle weighs more than fat, so you may ultimately not lose 15lbs, but decide that you can tone up at, say, 12lbs to go - Which is what I did. I've stopped doing calorie deficits and I've started heavy lifting and mixing 30DS into my martial arts/gym sessions to help that. So far I've lost cms off my hips and waist, even though the scales bounce between 61.2 - 62kg every morning.

meclight

muscle weighs more than fat... PER UNIT VOLUME!!