Is it possible to lose fat and gain muscle?

pjcfrancis wrote: »

"Starvation mode" is when your body is down to just a few percent body fat and you have long term calorie deficit and your body is shifting to just trying to survive. It ain't gonna happen from skipping breakfast or even fasting for a day or two. I don't skip breakfast because I get too hungry and then have trouble sticking to my goals for the rest of the day and I end up eating something that I didn't plan to eat. Other people skip breakfast without problem. Over 3 months I've lost about 15 pounds of fat without losing lean (according to my Fitbit scale). I do lots of walking and some cycling and cardio. My understanding is that you will also gain muscle with weight training provided you have adequate protein.

Yes!

pjcfrancis wrote: »

"Starvation mode" is when your body is down to just a few percent body fat and you have long term calorie deficit and your body is shifting to just trying to survive. It ain't gonna happen from skipping breakfast or even fasting for a day or two. I don't skip breakfast because I get too hungry and then have trouble sticking to my goals for the rest of the day and I end up eating something that I didn't plan to eat. Other people skip breakfast without problem. Over 3 months I've lost about 15 pounds of fat without losing lean (according to my Fitbit scale). I do lots of walking and some cycling and cardio. My understanding is that you will also gain muscle with weight training provided you have adequate protein.

Dependent upon the size of deficit you're running.

I'd personally question a scale that told me I lost 15lbs of pure fat and no LBM.

MityMax96 wrote: »

RGv2 wrote: »

pjcfrancis wrote: »

"Starvation mode" is when your body is down to just a few percent body fat and you have long term calorie deficit and your body is shifting to just trying to survive. It ain't gonna happen from skipping breakfast or even fasting for a day or two. I don't skip breakfast because I get too hungry and then have trouble sticking to my goals for the rest of the day and I end up eating something that I didn't plan to eat. Other people skip breakfast without problem. Over 3 months I've lost about 15 pounds of fat without losing lean (according to my Fitbit scale). I do lots of walking and some cycling and cardio. My understanding is that you will also gain muscle with weight training provided you have adequate protein.

Dependent upon the size of deficit you're running.

If you have a lot of excess body fat and eating at deficit....it is still possible to build muscle....
Reason being is that even though you are at a calorie deficit.
You are never at an energy deficit....since you have a lot of body fat to pull needed energy from.

Yes, of course there's the outlying crowd.

Obese, Severely Undertrained, Returning Athlete, etc who can see early gains.

Lgabrjolek wrote: »

"Lean muscle is gained with higher protein intake" So you're telling me that eating less protein than your daily needs are better for gaining LEAN muscle? You want to gain lean muscle weight, so stay away from bad fatty foods and limit your sugar intake. So JUNK FOOD (food full of sugar and unhealthy fats) is good for your diet regime ? If you do a lot of cardio, you will lose weight more rapidly - (this is false too?) . Lift full slow reps and sets. -must be false! Lift as fast as you can to gain, do half reps! Push yourself hard and rejuvenate your muscles with proteins (baked fish, chicken breast baked) after your workout. - SO a post workout meal isn't good for you? especially something protein rich and healthy? If you stay away from sweets and junk food, you can guarantee yourself results. - I have yet to see or meet someone who has a healthy sculpted body while eating garbage food daily... please inform me. You will even gain more energy to perform your workouts. - when I stopped eating processed and junk, it has boosted my energy levels. MY BEST ADVICE: NEVER SKIP BREAKFAST! SKIPPING CAN ACTUALLY MAKE YOU GAIN UNWANTED FAT! - The reason I say don't skip breakfast? I believe that it is important to eat it because morning workouts are no good on an empty stomach in fact no workout is healthy on an empty stomach.
I suppose you guys are right though, I am completely wrong.

I 100% agree with you. Only from my own experience. After my first pregnancy I gained 250lbs. The first week I would do cardio and not lose a thing until I started eating breakfast. When I skipped breakfast on top of burning over 500 cals a day, my body hit a plateau. Starvation mode is real. Eventually I got down to my pre pregnancy weight.

Now, after having my 2nd child I've hit a another plateau but this time from not eating enough calories. My goal is gaining lean muscle, and not bulking up which I am doing now. Anytime I visited the Wellness Center on the Army installation, my readings from my metabolic testing and body fat testing would tell me how much LEAN MUSCLE I have and body fat. The way they described it lean muscle is different from bulky muscle so where is the confusion?

I'm sure when you were talking about carbs you meant whole wheat, brown rice, etc. Of course that is the sugar you don't want to stay away from. Just the processed stuff. I understood that the on your first post. I started riding my bike for endurance, 15 - 20 miles but the last D.A.S.H diet book did not support that type of training. I needed more carbs. The author advised me to instead refer to her first book which has meal plans for 1200 cal 1600 cal and 2000 cals. She also said if I'm training for endurance like that, you will need protein, veggies but most of all good carbs. My doctor put me on the D.A.S.H diet because i have hypertension. And exactly what you said, this book is based on high lean protein, veggies, low fat dairy, and healthy fats.

Everything you said I did and received great results after my first pregnancy. Now I'm trying to gain the same results all over again. Just recently I noticed i have been at the same weight for 3 weeks. My eating was not consistently great but on top of that I was eating less. My TDEE is 2444 so with a 500 cal decrease I should be eating 1944 calories. I knew this since last year but still tried to eat at 1400. I''m stubborn. lol My body went into a deep starvation mode or I would binge after 2 weeks of eating only at 1400 calories. As of yesterday I started to up my calories to 1900 calories and increasing my cardio to 5x a week along with bodyweight workouts. I hope this works. I build bulky muscle already and now looking to lean out.

Thank you for your post and advice. I thought this was common knowledge and I was late to the party. But i see everyone has their own opinion. idk

CrusaderSam wrote: »

Yeah you can build muscle and lose fat at the same time, if you lift hard. Muscles and bones dont grow very fast once your an adult. Force feeding them doesnt make them grow any faster. Its going to be slow no matter what you do, but this should be a lifestyle change so it shouldn't matter if it takes you 3 years or 5 just do what makes you happy.

I cut for a year and recomped for a year, so top and bottom are about 2 years apart. The bottom pic is a year old and I have about 2-4 pounds more muscle now. I never bulked.



To be honest I think most of the guys here have an unhealthy obsession with just how much muscle they can build. In life people just dont care how big your pecs are or what you can deadlift. This is something you should be doing because you enjoy it, having big biceps wont make you happy.

Whoa!! you look amazing! Congrats on your progress. I love lifting weights but for a women, i hate when I look so bulky. I mean it is better than being fat but ugh, I just don't like it. My body naturally bulks up, and quick too so now I'm focusing on cardio 5x a week and do some body weight workouts. I hope that works.

MrM27 wrote: »

Lgabrjolek wrote: »

pjcfrancis wrote: »

"Starvation mode" is when your body is down to just a few percent body fat and you have long term calorie deficit and your body is shifting to just trying to survive. It ain't gonna happen from skipping breakfast or even fasting for a day or two. I don't skip breakfast because I get too hungry and then have trouble sticking to my goals for the rest of the day and I end up eating something that I didn't plan to eat. Other people skip breakfast without problem. Over 3 months I've lost about 15 pounds of fat without losing lean (according to my Fitbit scale). I do lots of walking and some cycling and cardio. My understanding is that you will also gain muscle with weight training provided you have adequate protein.

Yes!

It's cute how you agree with posts that say something that goes against what you said. Lol.

I was gonna say the same thing...lol. Seriously, that post says damn near the exact opposite of what she started with.

MityMax96 wrote: »

Lgabrjolek wrote: »

MityMax96 I believe we have figured that out. The word "can" doesn't mean that it WILL happen.

It won't happen at all that's the point. There is no "can" in that equation.
It comes down to over all calories, not when you do or do not eat them.

Agree here. Like MityMax96, I don't eat breakfast (morning meals) either or on very rare occasions. For years.
It's important that accurate correct info does get verified because there are so many that lurk on the boards looking for answers and won't ask or question source of information.

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

rachylouise87 wrote: »

would HIIT training combined with resistance be enough to lose fat and gain muscle? i have been doing this for 2 months lost some body fat and i can see muscle definition but it is certainly very slow. [/quoteto

to answer your question, yes. My friend started doing that and got really good results but. It doesn't matter what you do it will be a long journey. All you can do is enjoy it. good luck!

I lost 10% body fat and stayed same weight in one year eating at maintenance, lifting heavy and doing Crossfit. I followed a nutritional plan called Eat to Perform. I don't sell it. I just use it. I ate starchy carbs around my workouts, tracked my macros and ate lower carb on my rest days. I found it easy and flexible. If your goal is performance, it helps a lot with that and the recomp just comes with it. If you want to change your body comp more quickly, people say (I don't know, never tried) that a bulk and cut is better. For me, ETP has fundamentally changed my relationship with food for the better and has led to a ton of PR's as well.

MrM27 wrote: »

tomatoey wrote: »

@MrM27 - "correct" people if you feel you must, but the hostile sort of smugness that's all over some of your posts here is just unnecessary. People are offering what they know in good faith. No need to be rude about it that I can see.

Hostility and smugness are all subjective. You should work on how you view others.

1) Not true. In any case, there's apparently a commonality of views on this. 2) Lol. I'm good, thanks.

No, no one's forcing me to get involved. But I'm a member here, too, and I had an interest in this conversation. People come here not only information, but for support. The whole point of MFP is for members to encourage each other in their weight loss goals. If the first things a newcomer encounters are posts like some of yours above, and they get turned off, that's not really being helpful, is it. Assuming that the goals of providing information include being helpful in such a way that it actually gets heard (along with it being "correct").

nakima wrote: »

eating in a caloric deficit while maintaining my strength along with low intensity cardio seems to be working for me and yes I eat breakfast!

Maintaining strength isn't the same as actually add lean muscle. To ensure lean muscle gain (which one is adding mass), a calorie surplus is usually needed.


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

MrM27 wrote: »

tomatoey wrote: »

MrM27 wrote: »

tomatoey wrote: »

No, no one's forcing me to get involved. But I'm a member here, too, and I had an interest in this conversation. People come here not only information, but for support. The whole point of MFP is for members to encourage each other in their weight loss goals. If the first things a newcomer encounters are posts like some of yours above, and they get turned off, that's not really being helpful, is it. Assuming that the goals of providing information include being helpful in such a way that it actually gets heard (along with it being "correct").

If a newcomer is going to lurk this forum and read 1 post and get turned away then I question their desire to achieve their set out goal. I have no control over that. I spent a good amount of time just lurking on this forum along with another one before I got involved. I fact checked everything and sought out information for myself without simply accepting regurgitated bro-science.

And as far as I'm concerned MFP's primary function isn't to support everyone on weight loss goals. We all have different goals. Support comes in many forms.

Well, you do, you can choose to say things in one way and not another.

And I'm not sure that only science-oriented, laser-focused members have a right to try to improve their lives by using - and participating - in MFP's forums.

You do know quite a lot, that's not even in question. I think it'd be a shame if all that knowledge didn't get across to the people who most need it. Suboptimal use of MFP imo.

Anyone has the right to use the forum. I wouldn't stop using it if I didn't like some people's attitudes. I can only be me. If someone doesn't like me and isn't receptive to any information I might be able to provide them then I think they lose out. I'm not going to start sugar coating everything and telling people are the things they consider supportive, which is a lot of the time, to validate their ideas. You could instead of trying to change me, try to convince all those sweet, nice people to go apply themselves and do some real studying and stop spreading false information.

So basically the outcome of this conversation is you've said your piece and told me how much you don't like my approach. I'm okay with that. I think at this point we can move on and continue our paths. If you didn't notice, this was your first interaction with me so in reality what I do doesn't affect you. At least it shouldn't.

It's not the part of the message that contains information about fitness that people have been responding negatively to, but ok. I'm not interested in changing you, just in calling attention to how the way some of your messages above were framed might create some noise in the signal you were trying to get across. Although, the truth is, more people than just you communicate that way here. I guess I've been a little tired of snark-fests in threads, and I've seen others similarly frustrated. Beyond those kinds of posts being unpleasant to read (imo), like I said, I worry that it puts people off - maybe in the same way you seem to worry that people are being misinformed. (We have actually interacted before this, at some point, can't remember about what exactly, though.) Anyway, sure, agree, you say something, I say something else, let's call the whole thing off.

Talk to your doctor or nutritionist they will say to help lose weight don't skip breakfast. That is the important meal to eat.

neverquit33 wrote: »

HITT is a good to do on a empty stomach?! I do recall the last time I tried that, I almost passed the hell out. Never again. haha!

Everyone reacts differently and we all have different lifestyle and patterns.

I exercise (including my HIIT Camp) on empty stomach. I guess it's because I have trained my body to this pattern, for I don't know how many years, exercising on absolute empty stomach is my body's comfort zone including running half marathons.

However I have to drink my tea/coffee and food immediately after exercise. Else I've potential of roasting the nearest furniture and eating the wood. I'm very much capable ;-)