Building muscle at the same time as losing fat

redfisher1974 wrote: »

You just opened a Poop storm...lol Enjoy!

My thoughts exactly.

I'm in just to read the responses.

...but to my knowledge the only way that you can do both is if you are a newbie or obese (for a minimal amount of time). Or a body recomposition while eating at maintenance, but is a very slow process.

You are correct. To lose fat, you eat in a deficit. To gain muscle, you eat in a surplus.

To gain muscle you must eat adequate protein and lift heavy while eating in a surplus.

To lose fat you must eat in a calorie deficit. Still eat adequate protein and lift weights or do other strength exercises, so that you maintain your current muscle mass.

I don't know the science behind it but I have a lot of fat to lose. I notice that I have more muscle but my hips are smaller so I seem to be losing fat and gaining muscle. I just went into my settings and I set my protein % higher without changing my calories. I'm losing a little slower than I was 2 weeks ago but I'm still losing.

I'm obese and started lifting heavy almost a week ago. My goal is to maintain muscle or build some, while losing fat at the same time. I eat between 1900-2000 cals a day, so not a huge deficit but I figured I should feed the muscle that I do have. I'm a newb so not experienced enough to give advice.

ninerbuff wrote: »

Recomp is possible. It just takes a long time to see significant results.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Agreed.

Yes, it's very possible. Yes, it's exceptionally slow, and visible results take much longer to see than with the more common bulk/cut approach.

It's important to lift while eating in a deficit to keep your body from using muscle along with fat stores to make up the energy it isn't getting from food. And if you're new to lifting, this can even inspire some modest gains as long as your deficit isn't too severe and you eat plenty of protein. But for the most part, gaining significant muscle at a deficit doesn't happen.

What some people do is "recomp" or recomposition. They cycle eating at a deficit on rest days (15-20%) and a slight surplus on workout days (10%). I've also seen advice to increase the proportion of carbs on workout days for energy, and of protein on rest days for recovery.

Yes it is possible. Size of deficit, age, athletic experience, macros, training program, genetics will all be factors though and I would not expect a lot.

Interesting article on it.
http://spotmebro.com/lose-fat-gain-muscle/

I really would not worry to much about it. Go lift and follow your diet and focus on those and you will see positive changes. There will become a point where you get down to a low body fat percentage that you can start to consider these types of problems. If you are a noob lifter and have over 20 percent body fat, I really don't see how it matters.

Where I currently am, I know that if I ate more I would be stronger with my lifts, but being stronger is not my main goal. My main goal is fat loss. So I put up with being weaker for now so I can continue to drop weight while I continue to lift and try to maintain as much muscle as possible as I lose the fat.

Total body recomp while losing weight and not losing muscle while you do it is everyones hope while losing weight and lifting, it is the unicorn of weight lifting.

Romey84 wrote: »

It is absolutely possible. Keep protein high to feed muscles, and healthy fats high. Moderate carb intake, or at the very least time intake to right when you wake up and/or right after your workout (strength train) to replace muscle glycogen that was lost during lifting. Keep no more than a 500 calorie deficit at any given time. Also try intermittent fasting along with carb backloading and also monitor your sodium intake in conjunction with getting enough water to AVOID retaining it.

Yikes... that sounds like a lot of work.

Yes is possible you are lucky if you do cardio after training and you weigh lift.