lose fat or gain muscle, my delimma

bump! (I'm in a similar situation & want to see what everyone says)

Another possible suggestion would be to change your diet up. You could do two things. You could zig-zag calories, do a few days higher calories, then a day lower. Or you could increase your protein, decrease fat & carbs. The higher protein should not only help build muscle, but it should also help burn fat. The more muscle you increase, the higher your metabolic rate will be, thus, fat lose.

Hope this helps.

I am in the same position and do similar training. Have been eating at basically maintenance it seems as I haven't been able to lose the last bit of stubborn fat. Have been feeling quite drained which I am thinking could be because of the amount of training vs the amount of food consumed. So I am now thinking that I am going to up my calories and try and gain some muscle (which I don't think will be hard as I am an endomorph and naturally larger) and I will be analysing results via weight gain and BF% estimates to see if I am on the right track. If I can put on a bit of muscle then BMR will increase and then if I drop back to my previous intake then that "should" be a calorific deficit and as long as I continue the current training and keep protein high then I should be able to lose predominantly fat rather than muscle. Well that's the plan anyway

See http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/116986-g-flux-by-john-berardi

OK so this is a dilemma for a lot of people. And it's a tough one, I went through it, and understand what you mean.

Here's what it took me a long time to learn. Once you start closing in on your goals, you need to reduce your deficit in order to continue to lose fat. The other thing it took me a lot of time to realize (and I still have a tad bit of trouble with it mentally on a personal level) is that you really can't gain muscle mass while in a deficit, no matter how hard you try, it just won't happen. You can define and strengthen existing muscles, and activate a few that were dormant (if you go from inactive to active that is), but you just cannot gain muscle mass while in a catabolic state. That's just pure human physiology. This is different from just becoming functionally stronger, you can do that (to a point), and maybe tone up some by losing some of the fat and adding a small amount of additional glycogen to feed newly activated muscle (which usually pretty much keeps your weight in stasis, and explains people losing inches but not weight), but if you're at a deficit, any deficit, you won't gain any (significant) muscle mass.

I think what a lot of women (and some men too, like myself) have the hardest time with is if they do make a decision to put on a little muscle, it's hard for them to mentally wrap their head around healthy surplus eating.

It's not all about protein, that's a myth, the body will only use so much protein, any extra will just be used for energy and fat storage, just like carbohydrates, it's about eating healthy foods in slight excess, knowing what to expect, and being patient as muscle (by weight) takes 4 to 6 times as long to add as fat does to remove. So where it may take you 1 month to lose 5 or 6 lbs of fat, it can take you 4 or 5 months to gain 5 lbs of muscle. But the up side is 5 lbs of muscle is noticeable in most people, very noticeable, not only in your appearance, but in your ability and strength as well.

dunno if this helps you, I may have gone off on a tangent, but hopefully it does.