Muscle growth while eating in a deficit

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Golfnut5712
Golfnut5712 Posts: 5 Member
edited March 2015 in Fitness and Exercise
Hi all,

Been following a nutrition and exercise plan laid down by a personal trainer I've been seeing, and on my last visit to him he remarked that while my numbers in terms of fat and weight loss were great (down 24lbs and about 7% body fat) he was surprised my lean mass had not improved much since the start. I've gained about 2kg total.

I'm eating on average 200g of protein each day after being advised to up this from around 150g earlier in the programme (I'm mainly focusing on heavy weights with some hiit cardio) yet my calorie intake is around 1500 nett in order to lose weight.

My question I guess is that has he got unrealistic expectations as to my muscle growth while I'm still in a weight loss phase?

For info I'm about 208lbs, 24% body fat at the moment at a height of 6ft. I plan to lose about another 20lbs before looking at attempting to put on muscle, at the moment my aim is to preserve the lean mass I have (about 68kg) and focus on fat loss, which so far seems to be going well.

Any advice from those more experienced in protein intake / lifting would be much appreciated, I'm quite new to resistance training as much of my youth was spent focusing on cardiovascular fitness and performance rather than muscle growth.



Replies

  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
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    yes he does.....it is very hard to build muscle on a deficit...unless you are brand new to lifting (noob gains) or extremely overweight and based on the weight that's not you.

    To build muscle at a decent rate you need to be at a surplus unless you are doing a recomp which isn't fast and takes lots of discipline and time
  • rybo
    rybo Posts: 5,424 Member
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    Sounds like normal progress to me. Stay the course. Although 1500 cals seems really low.
  • raiderrodney
    raiderrodney Posts: 617 Member
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    SezxyStef wrote: »
    yes he does.....it is very hard to build muscle on a deficit...unless you are brand new to lifting (noob gains) or extremely overweight and based on the weight that's not you.

    To build muscle at a decent rate you need to be at a surplus unless you are doing a recomp which isn't fast and takes lots of discipline and time

    What she said :)

  • blearyspecs
    blearyspecs Posts: 21 Member
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    I've been doing resistance training on a deficit similar to yours (except I'm focussing more on cardio/training for running). The good news is that even though I'm not eating very much I'm making progress in strength and my arms look bigger. The bad news is that when I measure them, my arms aren't actually any bigger than when I started. They just look bigger because everything else has shrunk.

    My advice is don't worry about gaining mass while you're losing weight. You're still going to get a lot of benefit from resistance training even if you're not adding a lot of muscle mass.

    Also, the 1g protein per pound body mass (or lean body mass depending on who you're listening to) is for bodybuilders bulking and it's iffy even then. The body's actual protein needs are much lower. It's great to get as much protein as possible, but 200g on a 1500cal budget, in my experience, is not reasonable unless you're going over-the-top with shakes and boiled chicken. Just make sure you're meeting all of your other nutrient needs, especially fiber, not just protein.
  • izalac
    izalac Posts: 20 Member
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    First of all, great job :) I'm doing the similar process as you, I don't intend to go bulk until I'm under 15% body fat - which might take me a while.

    Muscle gain at a deficit is not easy. Your results look great to me. Although, I'm also new to resistance training.
  • asdowe13
    asdowe13 Posts: 1,951 Member
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    200G of protein seems like overkill.
  • _tigerblood_
    _tigerblood_ Posts: 42 Member
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    I've been eating at a deficit for a couple years and I also aim for about 200g protein/day. I lift heavy and do cardio as well. It's worked out for me and I don't feel like I've lost much muscle.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    Usually while losing weight you will lose LBM, the goal while lifting in a deficit is to maintain as much lean mass as you can.

    I see you are only taking in 1500 Net, that could be why your LBM numbers are not as good as you expect. the larger the deficit the more lbm you will lose, I would try upping your cals to 17-1800 Net instead.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    blearyspecs wrote: »

    Also, the 1g protein per pound body mass (or lean body mass depending on who you're listening to) is for bodybuilders bulking and it's iffy even then. The body's actual protein needs are much lower. It's great to get as much protein as possible, but 200g on a 1500cal budget, in my experience, is not reasonable unless you're going over-the-top with shakes and boiled chicken. Just make sure you're meeting all of your other nutrient needs, especially fiber, not just protein.

    Don't listen to this. Protein is actually more important in a deficit than when bulking and body building. When bulking your main fuel is carbs, with adequate protein. when bulking you are not at risk of losing muscle as you are in a deficit, protein is muscle sparing, mixed with strength training, and is needed to retain the muscle you already have.

    That said 200 grams may be over kill, maybe aim for 150 or so instead, gives more room for fat and carbs for energy.
  • AllanMisner
    AllanMisner Posts: 4,140 Member
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    You’ve managed some great numbers, congratulations!

    By keeping the muscle you had, you’re doing awesome. You’re 32 years old and otherwise healthy, so once you’re ready to start eating to maintenance or more, you should be able to put on some muscle mass. That said, you might be what is known as a slow gainer. Meaning you’re body can get stronger without adding much mass.

    What kind of program does he have you lifting? Weight, sets, reps? All of these have some affect on how much strength you’ll develop and how much mass you’ll gain.

    Don’t drop the protein unless you’re having some energy or other issues. What you’re doing is working, it is just so hard to put on mass during a calorie deficit, staying even with muscle mass really is a great thing.
  • Golfnut5712
    Golfnut5712 Posts: 5 Member
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    Thanks guys for the replies, great advice.

    I thought as much with regard to my trainer having unrealistic expectations, I've only been following this programme since Jan 3rd so to be honest I'm just pleased to be maintaining muscle while losing fat. Those suggesting more calories yes I've been thinking about doing this for a while, mainly to avoid plateaus if nothing else.

    My lifting tends to be a mix of Kettlebells and compound lifts at quite a high intensity (10-15 secs rest in between 2 sets of 10), I tend to do 3x rounds of a laid down circuit (maybe 10 different exercises) with the last circuit being done to failure.

    I'm definitely seeing strength and definition gains as you'd expect from the losses I've had so far, so I think I'm going to have another chat to my trainer and try to iron out this issue, maybe reset the goals we've set.

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