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If you can't gain muscle while eating at a calorie deficit...
Tweakfish
Posts: 93 Member
What is the point of weight lifting while trying to lose fat/weight?
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Replies
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You can improve your strength a lot without adding muscle mass.0
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The point is to try to hang on to as much muscle as possible while losing fat simultaneously. Otherwise, a larger portion of your weight loss will come from muscle tissue.0
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That's when you don't eat at a deficit instead you eat to maintain and try to burn fat and create muscle
Or try to eat at a surplus making those extra calories muscle
But in a deficit you'll always lose either fat or muscle or both
But to answer your question you want to burn fat while gaining muscle while not addidng any more cals to have to burn0 -
It actually minimizes the amount of lean mass you lose while eating at a deficit. Will you still lose some muscle? Yes. However it won't be as bad as it could have been without lifting0
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Thank you! I really appreciate the concise answers. I guess I need to stop looking for excuses to not lift
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How does that work?nancyjay__ wrote: »That's when you don't eat at a deficit instead you eat to maintain and try to turn that fat into muscle
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DeguelloTex wrote: »
How does that work?nancyjay__ wrote: »That's when you don't eat at a deficit instead you eat to maintain and try to turn that fat into muscle
Agree. How does fat turn into muscle???
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DeguelloTex wrote: »
How does that work?nancyjay__ wrote: »That's when you don't eat at a deficit instead you eat to maintain and try to turn that fat into muscle
Agree. How does fat turn into muscle???
I corrected it what I meant was burn fat and create muscle. But damn couldn't even correct it before you guys were all over me lol0 -
Any weight loss will result in fat and lean muscle loss. To what extent will matter on the approach. People that do calorie deficit with no lifting will most definitely lose more lean muscle vs someone who does lift while losing weight (the exception would be someone who has a physical labor job, IE a ditch digger, since their muscle is always being stressed).
People want to lose enough body fat and keep enough lean muscle. Resistance training makes it more doable.
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
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Thank you! I really appreciate the concise answers. I guess I need to stop looking for excuses to not lift
One thing though; to preserve your lean muscle mass and improve your strength, you don't have to go heavy with the weights. Start light or even do bodyweight strength exercises and you'll see great improvements.
ETA - and don't underestimate how good it will feel to get stronger
RAWR lol!
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Thank you! I really appreciate the concise answers. I guess I need to stop looking for excuses to not lift
One thing though; to preserve your lean muscle mass and improve your strength, you don't have to go heavy with the weights. Start light or even do bodyweight strength exercises and you'll see great improvements.
Thank you I appreciate this! I still feel like the side of the gym with weights is totally foreign to me. It's very intimidating.0 -
Thank you! I really appreciate the concise answers. I guess I need to stop looking for excuses to not lift
One thing though; to preserve your lean muscle mass and improve your strength, you don't have to go heavy with the weights. Start light or even do bodyweight strength exercises and you'll see great improvements.
Also, eat sufficient protein and one day a week (full body) lifting is probably good enough to minimize muscle loss.
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Thank you! I really appreciate the concise answers. I guess I need to stop looking for excuses to not lift
One thing though; to preserve your lean muscle mass and improve your strength, you don't have to go heavy with the weights. Start light or even do bodyweight strength exercises and you'll see great improvements.
Thank you I appreciate this! I still feel like the side of the gym with weights is totally foreign to me. It's very intimidating.
I have a couplefew sets of dumbbells and I just flail around in front of the TV doing videos and youtube workouts 0 -
nancyjay__ wrote: »That's when you don't eat at a deficit instead you eat to maintain and try to burn fat and create muscle
Or try to eat at a surplus making those extra calories muscle
But in a deficit you'll always lose either fat or muscle or both
But to answer your question you want to burn fat while gaining muscle while not addidng any more cals to have to burn
I know you said you corrected yourself, but I still don't understand what you are stating?0 -
This content has been removed.
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Thank you! I really appreciate the concise answers. I guess I need to stop looking for excuses to not lift
One thing though; to preserve your lean muscle mass and improve your strength, you don't have to go heavy with the weights. Start light or even do bodyweight strength exercises and you'll see great improvements.
Also, eat sufficient protein and one day a week (full body) lifting is probably good enough to minimize muscle loss.
This doesn't sound too intimidating! It's good to know that just one day a week could make a difference.Thank you! I really appreciate the concise answers. I guess I need to stop looking for excuses to not lift
One thing though; to preserve your lean muscle mass and improve your strength, you don't have to go heavy with the weights. Start light or even do bodyweight strength exercises and you'll see great improvements.
Thank you I appreciate this! I still feel like the side of the gym with weights is totally foreign to me. It's very intimidating.
I have a couplefew sets of dumbbells and I just flail around in front of the TV doing videos and youtube workouts
This is a great idea too! Thank you
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dieselbyte wrote: »nancyjay__ wrote: »That's when you don't eat at a deficit instead you eat to maintain and try to burn fat and create muscle
Or try to eat at a surplus making those extra calories muscle
But in a deficit you'll always lose either fat or muscle or both
But to answer your question you want to burn fat while gaining muscle while not addidng any more cals to have to burn
I know you said you corrected yourself, but I still don't understand what you are stating?
I know I kinda confused myself lol. What I think I mean is I want to eat a surplus and to avoid turning that into fat I have to turn it into muscle and at the same time hope im burning fat. This all confused the ish outta me when I was competing. My coach wanted me to eat 1200 while not losing my muscle at 115lbs.
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nancyjay__ wrote: »dieselbyte wrote: »nancyjay__ wrote: »That's when you don't eat at a deficit instead you eat to maintain and try to burn fat and create muscle
Or try to eat at a surplus making those extra calories muscle
But in a deficit you'll always lose either fat or muscle or both
But to answer your question you want to burn fat while gaining muscle while not addidng any more cals to have to burn
I know you said you corrected yourself, but I still don't understand what you are stating?
I know I kinda confused myself lol. What I think I mean is I want to eat a surplus and to avoid turning that into fat I have to turn it into muscle and at the same time hope im burning fat. This all confused the ish outta me when I was competing. My coach wanted me to eat 1200 while not losing my muscle at 115lbs.
The human body isn't efficient enough to partition calories to muscle only. Surplus calories will lead to weight gain, both fat and muscle, if you are lifting progressively. A deficit in calories will lead to both muscle and fat loss. Heavy lifting and adequate protein intake will spare some muscle loss, but it's impossible to lose weight by ONLY burning fat and not muscle.
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I'm guessing she is stating "recomp" in a long, close enough, sentence?dieselbyte wrote: »nancyjay__ wrote: »That's when you don't eat at a deficit instead you eat to maintain and try to burn fat and create muscle
Or try to eat at a surplus making those extra calories muscle
But in a deficit you'll always lose either fat or muscle or both
But to answer your question you want to burn fat while gaining muscle while not addidng any more cals to have to burn
I know you said you corrected yourself, but I still don't understand what you are stating?
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dieselbyte wrote: »nancyjay__ wrote: »dieselbyte wrote: »nancyjay__ wrote: »That's when you don't eat at a deficit instead you eat to maintain and try to burn fat and create muscle
Or try to eat at a surplus making those extra calories muscle
But in a deficit you'll always lose either fat or muscle or both
But to answer your question you want to burn fat while gaining muscle while not addidng any more cals to have to burn
I know you said you corrected yourself, but I still don't understand what you are stating?
I know I kinda confused myself lol. What I think I mean is I want to eat a surplus and to avoid turning that into fat I have to turn it into muscle and at the same time hope im burning fat. This all confused the ish outta me when I was competing. My coach wanted me to eat 1200 while not losing my muscle at 115lbs.
The human body isn't efficient enough to partition calories to muscle only. Surplus calories will lead to weight gain, both fat and muscle, if you are lifting progressively. A deficit in calories will lead to both muscle and fat loss. Heavy lifting and adequate protein intake will spare some muscle loss, but it's impossible to lose weight by ONLY burning fat and not muscle.
Is it impossible to gain weight in mostly muscle?0 -
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I'm guessing she is stating "recomp" in a long, close enough, sentence?dieselbyte wrote: »nancyjay__ wrote: »That's when you don't eat at a deficit instead you eat to maintain and try to burn fat and create muscle
Or try to eat at a surplus making those extra calories muscle
But in a deficit you'll always lose either fat or muscle or both
But to answer your question you want to burn fat while gaining muscle while not addidng any more cals to have to burn
I know you said you corrected yourself, but I still don't understand what you are stating?
What is recomp0 -
nancyjay__ wrote: »
I'm guessing she is stating "recomp" in a long, close enough, sentence?dieselbyte wrote: »nancyjay__ wrote: »That's when you don't eat at a deficit instead you eat to maintain and try to burn fat and create muscle
Or try to eat at a surplus making those extra calories muscle
But in a deficit you'll always lose either fat or muscle or both
But to answer your question you want to burn fat while gaining muscle while not addidng any more cals to have to burn
I know you said you corrected yourself, but I still don't understand what you are stating?
What is recomp
eating at maintenance while lifting burning fat and building small amounts of muscle too.
OP I lift to prevent muscle loss while I lose mostly fat, I lift because I love being strong....and I lift because damn it's fun.
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nancyjay__ wrote: »
I'm guessing she is stating "recomp" in a long, close enough, sentence?dieselbyte wrote: »nancyjay__ wrote: »That's when you don't eat at a deficit instead you eat to maintain and try to burn fat and create muscle
Or try to eat at a surplus making those extra calories muscle
But in a deficit you'll always lose either fat or muscle or both
But to answer your question you want to burn fat while gaining muscle while not addidng any more cals to have to burn
I know you said you corrected yourself, but I still don't understand what you are stating?
What is recomp
eating at maintenance while lifting burning fat and building small amounts of muscle too.
OP I lift to prevent muscle loss while I lose mostly fat, I lift because I love being strong....and I lift because damn it's fun.
It took me so long to get into cardio and enjoy it. I really need to train myself to enjoy weight lifting as well. It still baffles me but I see so many people having fantastic results with it.0 -
Isn't that what I said lol0
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nancyjay__ wrote: »
I'm guessing she is stating "recomp" in a long, close enough, sentence?dieselbyte wrote: »nancyjay__ wrote: »That's when you don't eat at a deficit instead you eat to maintain and try to burn fat and create muscle
Or try to eat at a surplus making those extra calories muscle
But in a deficit you'll always lose either fat or muscle or both
But to answer your question you want to burn fat while gaining muscle while not addidng any more cals to have to burn
I know you said you corrected yourself, but I still don't understand what you are stating?
What is recomp
eating at maintenance while lifting burning fat and building small amounts of muscle too.
OP I lift to prevent muscle loss while I lose mostly fat, I lift because I love being strong....and I lift because damn it's fun.
It took me so long to get into cardio and enjoy it. I really need to train myself to enjoy weight lifting as well. It still baffles me but I see so many people having fantastic results with it.
I enjoy it because I like what it does, how I feel afterwards but not everyone does.
My sister just can't do it...heavy lifting that is.
But she is still pretty lean and lots of muscle shows....but she does do resistance training through body weight exercises. Maybe start with something like that...I did.
I started with JM 30 Day Shred...pushups, lunges, squats....all bodyweight...then I realize what it was doing and bam strong lifts 5x5...I can currently bench 128lbs, squat 205, OHP 98 and DL 230lbs...I weigh 150....
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nancyjay__ wrote: »dieselbyte wrote: »nancyjay__ wrote: »dieselbyte wrote: »nancyjay__ wrote: »That's when you don't eat at a deficit instead you eat to maintain and try to burn fat and create muscle
Or try to eat at a surplus making those extra calories muscle
But in a deficit you'll always lose either fat or muscle or both
But to answer your question you want to burn fat while gaining muscle while not addidng any more cals to have to burn
I know you said you corrected yourself, but I still don't understand what you are stating?
I know I kinda confused myself lol. What I think I mean is I want to eat a surplus and to avoid turning that into fat I have to turn it into muscle and at the same time hope im burning fat. This all confused the ish outta me when I was competing. My coach wanted me to eat 1200 while not losing my muscle at 115lbs.
The human body isn't efficient enough to partition calories to muscle only. Surplus calories will lead to weight gain, both fat and muscle, if you are lifting progressively. A deficit in calories will lead to both muscle and fat loss. Heavy lifting and adequate protein intake will spare some muscle loss, but it's impossible to lose weight by ONLY burning fat and not muscle.
Is it impossible to gain weight in mostly muscle?
Genetics play the biggest factor in muscle to fat gain, or muscle loss to fat loss (p-ratio). Other factors like bf%, training and diet, exogenous drugs will affect p-ratio, but you cannot only gain muscle in a surplus. Some will argue that if a surplus is at a minimum (oxymoron?), you can effectively limit fat gain while gaining muscle, but this is a very slow process. In competition you seek to strip as much fat as possible while maintaining as much muscle as possible, but make no mistake, in a deficit you did lose muscle mass.0 -
nancyjay__ wrote: »
I'm guessing she is stating "recomp" in a long, close enough, sentence?dieselbyte wrote: »nancyjay__ wrote: »That's when you don't eat at a deficit instead you eat to maintain and try to burn fat and create muscle
Or try to eat at a surplus making those extra calories muscle
But in a deficit you'll always lose either fat or muscle or both
But to answer your question you want to burn fat while gaining muscle while not addidng any more cals to have to burn
I know you said you corrected yourself, but I still don't understand what you are stating?
What is recomp
eating at maintenance while lifting burning fat and building small amounts of muscle too.
OP I lift to prevent muscle loss while I lose mostly fat, I lift because I love being strong....and I lift because damn it's fun.
It took me so long to get into cardio and enjoy it. I really need to train myself to enjoy weight lifting as well. It still baffles me but I see so many people having fantastic results with it.
I enjoy it because I like what it does, how I feel afterwards but not everyone does.
My sister just can't do it...heavy lifting that is.
But she is still pretty lean and lots of muscle shows....but she does do resistance training through body weight exercises. Maybe start with something like that...I did.
I started with JM 30 Day Shred...pushups, lunges, squats....all bodyweight...then I realize what it was doing and bam strong lifts 5x5...I can currently bench 128lbs, squat 205, OHP 98 and DL 230lbs...I weigh 150....
I hear a lot of people talking about stronglifts 5x5. I tried to start reading about it but there was so much information I got bogged down.
Your stats are certainly impressive!! I bet I can barely bench 60lbs right now and I weigh about 160.
Thank you again for the information. It's very helpful (and motivational).0 -
I said mostly muscle i know it would be absurd to only gain muscle if that feature was unlocked so many problems would be solved. And yes I know my body went through it.dieselbyte wrote: »nancyjay__ wrote: »dieselbyte wrote: »nancyjay__ wrote: »dieselbyte wrote: »nancyjay__ wrote: »That's when you don't eat at a deficit instead you eat to maintain and try to burn fat and create muscle
Or try to eat at a surplus making those extra calories muscle
But in a deficit you'll always lose either fat or muscle or both
But to answer your question you want to burn fat while gaining muscle while not addidng any more cals to have to burn
I know you said you corrected yourself, but I still don't understand what you are stating?
I know I kinda confused myself lol. What I think I mean is I want to eat a surplus and to avoid turning that into fat I have to turn it into muscle and at the same time hope im burning fat. This all confused the ish outta me when I was competing. My coach wanted me to eat 1200 while not losing my muscle at 115lbs.
The human body isn't efficient enough to partition calories to muscle only. Surplus calories will lead to weight gain, both fat and muscle, if you are lifting progressively. A deficit in calories will lead to both muscle and fat loss. Heavy lifting and adequate protein intake will spare some muscle loss, but it's impossible to lose weight by ONLY burning fat and not muscle.
Is it impossible to gain weight in mostly muscle?
Genetics play the biggest factor in muscle to fat gain, or muscle loss to fat loss (p-ratio). Other factors like bf%, training and diet, exogenous drugs will affect p-ratio, but you cannot only gain muscle in a surplus. Some will argue that if a surplus is at a minimum (oxymoron?), you can effectively limit fat gain while gaining muscle, but this is a very slow process. In competition you seek to strip as much fat as possible while maintaining as much muscle as possible, but make no mistake, in a deficit you did lose muscle mass.
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This discussion has been closed.
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