Decrease or Increase my Calorie Intake Help??

Hi,
I'm 6ft and 177lbs, and about 26% body fat.
My goal is to cut fat, but also build muscle. I'm not overly bothered about my actual weight, if it stays around the same but I look and feel better then that is fine.
I've started going to the gym now for 5/6 sessions a week, primarily doing free weights exercises.
My question is, do I need to cut my calorie intake, to aid my fat loss, or increase it to aid my muscle gain?
Thanks

Doing both at the same time will be a very slow process, it can be done. If you're not worried about the weight on the scale, then I would suggest to go for muscle gain and eat a surplus. With a good resistance training program. You'll gain strength and muscle, therefor, making it easier in the long run to cut fat.

What is your calorie intake at present? It's hard to recommend whether to increase or decrease without knowing what you're eating now.

If you're trying to build muscle, you should probably eat more than 2000 calories/day. If you keep working out hard and find the caloric level where your body weight is not changing, you'll be adding muscle while burning fat. However, this is a slow process. Most people work on getting to their desired leanness by burning body fat, and then switch to muscle gaining. You'll see results much faster with this approach.

Allan TerBush
Team Grit