Gaining Muscle vs Burning Fat Question

That is interesting I would like to know the answer to that as well.

I do not know this answer in scientific facts but can talk from personal experience. I am a big guy (300+). I have been doing crossfit for months because I love lifting weights, building muscle, and pushing myself to the limits. I have noticed through this that my weight will stay exactly the same and maybe increase, but during this time my stomach starts shrinking and my muscles are growing. So I would say that both of these can occur at the same time. I hope this helps

jemhh wrote: »

I'm just going to go ahead and quote Lyle McDonald on this:

"There are a handful of situations where the combination of muscle gain and fat loss occur relatively readily. The first of those is in overfat beginners. I want to really stress the term overfat in the above sentence...A second situation where this phenomenon occurs readily is folks returning from a layoff. Folks who are previously lean and muscular but who get out of shape (whether deliberately or not) often find that they get back into shape much faster than they did initially: they seem to magically replace fat with muscle." - SOURCE

So yes, it can happen, but in specific circumstances (which I think often apply to MFPers.) Also, keep in mind that "overfat" is not defined in what he wrote above. I have never seen it defined so I don't know if it means obese, overweight, above a certain bodyfat percentage, etc.

^^This.

And also note that women will only put on an average of .5 - 1.5 pounds of muscle PER MONTH in women who are deliberately trying to build it through training and diet. So keep that in mind.

hill8570 wrote: »

jaggerjia wrote: »

whats your opinion on following the 5X5 strong lifts program, only with 3X10 (with cardio on the rest days). Thats what i've been doing for about 3 weeks. I enjoy it, but am a total novice and have a lot to learn. I appreciate any opinions/advice

Remember, the mantra of SL is "more weight equals more strength". It's just a fact of life that your 10RM is going to be significantly less than your 5RM, so the weights you're going to be lifting are always going to be smaller (i.e. you have "less strength"). And I cringe at the thought of doing 5lb increments (or even 2.5lb increments) at working weight and 10 reps...I suppose you could pull it off using microplates.

If you're more interested in muscular endurance (which is what a 10RM workout gets you) than strength, then go find a program at bodybuilding.com that focuses on that aspect. Trying to modify an existing program into something it's not meant to be is just going to get you in trouble.

Agreed. If you like the slightly higher reps, you might like All Pro's Simple Beginner Routine, which has you move through 8-12 reps during 5 week cycles.

Someone had posted this and I found it helpful.

http://scoobysworkshop.com/gain-muscle-lose-fat/

As has been stated - its a generalization/simplification that makes a lot of sense.
The reality is that protein turnover is going on constantly as is fat/protein utilization.

It's a question of balancing needs. In a calorie deficit the body breaks down fat and lbm as substrate to other needed metabolic processes. It is therefore much harder to build muscle because the signaling is principally to feed those processes but it does occur, especially if the deficit is small and the signaling for hypertrophy strong (large muscle workouts with heavier weights ...).

It isn't an all or nothing process. However, if your objectives are to build muscle, it is often sub optimal to do it with even a small deficit - one just isn't providing protein substrate when the signaling is the strongest unless you workout every day - and mentally it is very hard to doubt slow change as one "spins their wheels". This is why cut/bulk methods are more popular but it is possible to "culk" and combine the cutting and bulking aspects of both.

And it's easier when there is a lot of fat available - hence the newbie gains.