building muscle on a deficit / calorie cycling

fitter_happier94
fitter_happier94 Posts: 63 Member
edited November 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
I've been researching this and looking into it but can't really find a consensus on it and I'm not clued up enough to distinguish the reputable resources from the not-so-reputable resources. A lot of people on here practice what they preach and do really well, so I figured this was the right place to ask.

I eat at a caloric deficit daily and want to lose a small amount of weight fairly slowly. I've started doing calisthenics and am hoping to start The New Rules of Lifting for Women pretty soon. Ideally, I'd like to build some muscle mass, but I understand that that's incredibly difficult to do on a deficit. Regardless, I'm going to do strength training anyways to preserve my existing muscle while dieting.

My question is about calorie cycling. If I'm working at an overall weekly deficit, but I have certain days (the days I do strength training) which are surplus days - and provided my protein reqs are met every day - can I gain muscle (beyond the "newbie gains")? Or is it all about whether or not you're working at a deficit over the long-term? If it matters, my goals are to lower my body fat percentage (from about 21.5% to 18%) while decreasing my overall body weight, and gain a bit of strength, but lowering my BF% is #1. I don't know whether my weight is worth mentioning or if it comes into this, but I am a healthy weight.

TLDR; I recognise that there will always be limitations to how much muscle I can gain while eating at a deficit, but will managing my calories this way offset some of these limitations at all, or is it a waste of time?

Replies

  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 49,040 Member
    Building muscle is anabolic. Losing muscle is catabolic. To be anabolic, you'd need to be in positive nitrogen balance and a surplus of calories to support metabolism at the same time. That doesn't happen when you're catabolic.
    Also you BUILD muscle on rest days and not on day you exercise. So essentially you should be eating MORE on rest days than on workout days if you want to build muscle.

    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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  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    ninerbuff wrote: »
    Building muscle is anabolic. Losing muscle is catabolic. To be anabolic, you'd need to be in positive nitrogen balance and a surplus of calories to support metabolism at the same time. That doesn't happen when you're catabolic.
    Also you BUILD muscle on rest days and not on day you exercise. So essentially you should be eating MORE on rest days than on workout days if you want to build muscle.

    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
    9285851.png

    Love this explanation.
  • fitter_happier94
    fitter_happier94 Posts: 63 Member
    @ninerbuff Almost embarrassed that I didn't know that. Do you think the benefits of calorie cycling, with surplus days on rest days, are significant enough in my case to be worthwhile at all?
  • professionalHobbyist
    professionalHobbyist Posts: 1,316 Member
    I do exactly that calorie cycling thing. I had a rest day yesterday after two hard lifting days. I had my 2500 calories. The next 4 days are deficit and cardio.

    I have been doing this for a long time and sustained fat loss over long term and added about 15 lbs of muscle in a little over a year

    Muscle Fitness is a good resource

    They have muscle fitness her - geared to women
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    edited June 2015
    professionalHobbyist wrote: »
    I do exactly that calorie cycling thing. I had a rest day yesterday after two hard lifting days. I had my 2500 calories. The next 4 days are deficit and cardio.

    I have been doing this for a long time and sustained fat loss over long term and added about 15 lbs of muscle in a little over a year

    Muscle Fitness is a good resource

    They have muscle fitness her - geared to women

    Gaining muscle is really difficult, especially while eating at a deficit. According to your ticker, you have been eating at a deficit. While cutting, a person's main goal is usually to retain muscles mass already there.

    Just curious-how do you know you have 15 pounds of muscle? Did you have some kind of testing done?

    I would imagine that calorie cycling is just another dietary plan, which will work for some and not others, but there is no magic in it except the magic we give it. :)

    ETA: went and looked at Muscle Fitness Hers. That looks like a big spam portal, and the full-page ad that popped in front of my face at full age wasn't too inviting either.
  • Jakeroden29
    Jakeroden29 Posts: 3 Member
    Well here's how I view this concept, For losing fat, you need to eat at a deficit, but for gaining muscle, you need to eat at a surplus.you can do both at the same time contrary to popular belief. But your body doesn't really need that much extra calorie to build muscle. It is about 100 calories at most. For gaining muscle and losing fat, you really just need to eat at your maintenance or maybe 100 calorie above your maintenance and make sure you are taking in enough protein. Of course you need to lift very heavy in the gym (go to failure in every set), then you will definitely see muscle gain and fat loss. It will be slower than if you are at a 500 calorie surplus, but when you gain muscle fast, you might gain a bit of fat nothing to worry about though. You need to also get into a routine I can't stress this enough! be consistent! if you need help getting a routine check http://aestheticreview.com helped improve my gains 10 fold!
    Hopefully this helps!
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