You can't build muscle at a calorie deficit? Why lift??

People are silly. I lift and have lost a butt load of weight.

Two things (simplified..don't want haters to tell me i'm wrong, blah blah):

1) if you want to lose fat then you need to build muscle to help burn more calories when doing the least amount of work. I.E. The more muscle you have, the easier it will become.

2) if you want to lose weight and just diet, then you will lose both fat and muscle mass which would lead to flabby skin (e.g. bat wings) if you don't have at least some weight training involved.

Lifting is just as important as cardio but will help expedite the fat loss process. You aren't going to look like the hulk by the end of it unless you really want to get there, but you will be nice and toned.

Ok, I am just going to ask for a recommendation here.

I used to be very fat, 5'11 and 274 pounds. Now I am 186 pounds...no longer fat.

But...I still have I estimate about 10-12 pounds of belly I want to lose. You can't tell it when I have a shirt on but I want to not be able to tell when my shirt is off lol. I think I could continue my calorie deficit and cardio and ab workouts and get that done, but I want to be building some more muscle in my upper body and I'd like to rebuild my flat *kitten* too.

How should I cycle my calories and my workouts to try and get both done at the same time? Any knowledgeable guidance is appreciated.

I am going to go against the grain of what the other poster recommened..

I would recommend a heavy lifting program built around compounds as well. I would also recommend picking up a copy of starting strength and/or new rules of lifting, or looking at strong lifts 5x5...

For a sample program, I would consider something like..

Monday - chest/arms
Tuesday - cardio (HIIT/or steady state)
Wens - legs
thurs - cardio/abs
Friday - back/shoulders
Saturday - cardio/abs/active rest/whatever
sunday - rest... < you should have at least one, one hundred percent rest day..

after say three to six months you could back off cardio and transition to an upper/lower split and say one day of cardio...

I would also suggest eating in a calorie deficit of about 500 per day to burn off the rest of the body fat...once you get to sub 12% body fat, you can do a bulk cycle to add more muscle...

You should also set your macros to 40% protein/30% carbs/30% fats..

that is just my two cents...

Notice that on the comparisons it says "fat free mass". That would include water and glycogen. Just someone taking up intense training alone after/either not training at all would increase their "fat free mass" with glycogen/water.
What's not mentioned in the study was the history of the men. Were they former athletes? Were they new to lifting? Were they extremely obese?
While there are some exceptions to building muscle in a calorie deficit, building muscle is an anabolic process. Calorie deficit is a catabolic process. The 2 don't run simutaneously with great success.
I find Finn much more tolerable than other PT's because he at least looks at science based evidence. I do believe he overlooked at the term of fat free mass on this study and just concluded that all the weight gain was just pure lean muscle.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

So why do people keep saying I should be lifting weights at this stage in my weight loss journey? If I can't build muscle eating at a deficit, then why bother?

- for one thing, its a big part of being "all around fit" as you state your goal to be

- you can make considerable strength gains without putting on actual mass as your body learns to recruit the muscle you have and make neurological adaptations

- you preserve the muscle mass you have. muscle is a use it or lose it kind of thing. think of muscle as a very expensive commodity for your body to maintain...in a deficit of energy (calories) if you are not recruiting use of that muscle, there is really no reason for your body to hold onto that very expensive commodity. it thus becomes more efficient to burn off that lean mass in order to better cope with that deficit of energy. Using those muscles (weight training/strength training/resistance training) helps preserve that mass and maximizes fat loss. In the absence of resistance training you will lose a great deal of muscle mass along with the fat.

- when you preserve that muscle mass and shed fat, you get "toned". you have to have muscle to look "toned"...so if you're burning up a bunch of lean mass while you diet, you're not really going to have that "toned" look...because you will be lacking in muscle mass.

- It promotes fat-free body mass with decreasing sarcopenia.

- It increases bone density which in turn reduces your risk of osteoporosis.

- It Increases the strength of connective tissue, muscles, and tendons. This leads to improved motor performance and decreased injury risk.

- It burns more calories at rest as your body repairs what has been broken down in the training process

- It improves your quality of life as you gaining body confidence. Strength training will not only make you strong, but will also help with managing your weight.

How do you REALLY know if you're eating at a deficit and how much more you should eat? I was basing my information on BMR and TDEE calculators (the average of multiple sites) and it said I need 1900 (TDEE - 20%) and I lost no weight in 8 weeks of T25.

- for one thing, its a big part of being "all around fit" as you state your goal to be

- you can make considerable strength gains without putting on actual mass as your body learns to recruit the muscle you have and make neurological adaptations

- you preserve the muscle mass you have. muscle is a use it or lose it kind of thing. think of muscle as a very expensive commodity for your body to maintain...in a deficit of energy (calories) if you are not recruiting use of that muscle, there is really no reason for your body to hold onto that very expensive commodity. it thus becomes more efficient to burn off that lean mass in order to better cope with that deficit of energy. Using those muscles (weight training/strength training/resistance training) helps preserve that mass and maximizes fat loss. In the absence of resistance training you will lose a great deal of muscle mass along with the fat.

- when you preserve that muscle mass and shed fat, you get "toned". you have to have muscle to look "toned"...so if you're burning up a bunch of lean mass while you diet, you're not really going to have that "toned" look...because you will be lacking in muscle mass.

- It promotes fat-free body mass with decreasing sarcopenia.

- It increases bone density which in turn reduces your risk of osteoporosis.

- It Increases the strength of connective tissue, muscles, and tendons. This leads to improved motor performance and decreased injury risk.

- It burns more calories at rest as your body repairs what has been broken down in the training process

- It improves your quality of life as you gaining body confidence. Strength training will not only make you strong, but will also help with managing your weight.

This is brilliant.