Eating at a deficit and gaining muscle

1. newbie gains
2. fat loss that makes muscle show...

I am not sure if I am not reading your post correctly, but you seem to be conflating fat loss with muscle gain. The reason that your waist is smaller is because you lost fat and weight....

Question was asked "Can you gain muscle while eating at a deficit"
I say I did.
People keep saying "Newbie gains...newbie gains...newbie gains"
Newbie gains of...what? Say it with me now... Muscle.
At the same time I lost fat.

In the 15 months that I have been working on changing my life I have watched as for 11 months measurements got smaller and smaller, and then some of them started to get bigger while others, mainly my waist, continued to get smaller. Some of my measurements are now bigger than when I was fatter, and heavier.

For the first 9 months I was doing lots of cardio, and my lifting consisted of doing 15-20 rep sets on machines at weights that didn't leave me hurting the next day.
6 months ago I moved over to free weights, and started doing 5x5 Strong Lifts, and cutting back on the cardio. I also changed from eating 1300 to 1700 to 2000 to 2100...but with workout cals, I average 2400 now. According to Bodymedia, and 6 different TDEE cacluators I average burning 2900 cals a day now. Yesterday I burned 2362...Day before that 3439.
Two months after that is when I started noticing my arms, chest and thighs stopped getting smaller, while my waist was still shrinking.
Now I am at 4 months of seeing the tape tell me my arms are bigger than the month before, same for thighs and chest.
I looked at my numbers from Jan 2013...and those three things are higher numbers now then they were back in Jan 2013. If you put the numbers on a graph it would be a V. They went down for a long time, and now they are going up.

Now, gains are easy, because there is lots of untapped potential... Do I think I'll still be able to add muscle at a deficit after 2 years of doing this? No. I won't still have all this extra fat, nor will I have muscles that have been lying around basically unused for decades.
Does it mean I am not doing it now? Well, you all seem to think I am, as you keep saying I have newbie gains... of muscle.

If my measurements were still going down...well, then it would be just fat loss, no question. But when I started seeing my arms getting bigger...can any of you give me an answer as to what other than muscle it could be....6 months after I started lifting?
I told more than enough people on here "Water weight...new workout...muscles repairing themselves"...And if I am carrying 1.5" of water weight in my arms, why am I seeing more definition then I was before I started lifting heavier? So what else could it be?
And why has my weight basically stalled, while my waist is getting smaller, my arms, legs and chest bigger?

No
I'm not sure what your argument truly is here. You are trying to prove a point to have you been some sort of anomaly and want to disregard the notion of "noob gains". But then when someone reads what you wrote you are basically describing mood gains. You seem to want to believe what you want because it's what you want to be true. It's easy for us to do that.

You are saying that you spent months training on machines and didn't really get into a barbell routine with progressive overload until after 9 months and I get that but you are then taking the statement that noob gains will generally last between 6-8 months and applying it to your situation when that shouldn't be the case. During those months that you were on those machines there is a very high probability that you were not maximizing your strength training potential and doing everything possible to achieve option MPS. Especially with your statement that you were eating under 1500 calories and were training in a 15-20 rep range. Then you move over to a well structured routine with built in progressive overload and you think that just because you were on some machines for 8 months prior you maxed out your noob gains? It doesn't work that way.

You saw some increase in some physical areas but you have to look at the bigger picture, what really happens with our muscles with proper training. Increased glycogen, noob gains added strength mostly due to CNS adaptation. All of these factors coupled with fat loss creates the illusion of us putting on a considerable amount of actual muscle.

No.... I am saying I gained muscle, while eating at a deficit. That is the point I am trying to make.

If you cut my arm open there would be more muscle and less fat then was in there 15 months ago, 9 months ago, 1 month ago.
You can call it newbie gains, or even Sammy Hagar for all I care.
It is muscle, no matter what you call it.
Doctors can't look at a persons arm and point at a section and say "Well, that section is newbie gains" like a ring on a tree.
There is no biological difference between a pound of muscle added in the first 6 months of a person working out, and a pound added 10 years into working out....other than the guy who just started likely added it way easier.

OP asked if it is possible to add muscle while eating at a deficit.
I said yes.
So did some others who have recently gotten into lifting.
I pointed out I spent 9 months focusing on losing weight, and lost about 30lbs, before I started lifting...which is when I started adding muscle.
You are telling me that I added 1.5" onto my upper arm over 6 months, and that it is all increased glycogen/water...and yet, I have more definition now, then when it was smaller? Remind me again why bodybuilder dehydrate themselves before they go on stage.... Oh yeah, it is because the water dulls all the definition. And mind you, I am not saying I have huge arms...I am saying I've gone from 11" to 12.5" in 6months....but at 220lbs in Jan 2013 the same arm was 12.25".