What happens to muscle...

mich19025
mich19025 Posts: 55 Member
edited November 21 in Fitness and Exercise
Currently I have been lifting for 10 weeks now. Compound moves with some accessory work built around it. 10-12 reps and have been gradually upping the weight weekly, where I can. Diet/calorie wise I have been upping my calories the last couple of weeks to find my true maintenance (Have been eating 1400 and below for years and was hitting a brick wall with no loss and lack of energy). I have also been eating adequate protein levels. I have definitely lost some body fat. My question is what happens to the muscle when you are neither bulking or cutting, suppose you could say in a re-comp? Does it just get firmer and encourage your body to keep the muscle that you have? My legs for example take ages to shed fat as i'm typically pear shaped but my quads feel a lot more firmer and the muscle 'pops' out more than it did before, especially flexed even though there has been hardly any inch loss from them.

Replies

  • yopeeps025
    yopeeps025 Posts: 8,680 Member
    mich19025 wrote: »
    Currently I have been lifting for 10 weeks now. Compound moves with some accessory work built around it. 10-12 reps and have been gradually upping the weight weekly, where I can. Diet/calorie wise I have been upping my calories the last couple of weeks to find my true maintenance (Have been eating 1400 and below for years and was hitting a brick wall with no loss and lack of energy). I have also been eating adequate protein levels. I have definitely lost some body fat. My question is what happens to the muscle when you are neither bulking or cutting, suppose you could say in a re-comp? Does it just get firmer and encourage your body to keep the muscle that you have? My legs for example take ages to shed fat as i'm typically pear shaped but my quads feel a lot more firmer and the muscle 'pops' out more than it did before, especially flexed even though there has been hardly any inch loss from them.

    In a body recomp you do get smaller body fat wise. The scale may not change at all. I am not sure if you increase muscle mass. I would say it doesn't but you keep the most muscle mass in a recomp.

  • mich19025
    mich19025 Posts: 55 Member
    Thanks..I was thinking along the same lines. I'm going to be at maintenance until around January 2016 as I just feel my body could do with the diet break. I will still be lifting 4 times a week and be progressing in strength as much as I can, before I do a cut in the Jan. I was just curious if I will just continue to get 'firmer' but look sort of the same as I do now...hopefully with a little drop in body fat too :)
  • XavierNusum
    XavierNusum Posts: 720 Member
    I agree, you should be doing some recomp by staying at maintenance. Understand it will be slow, stay patient, don't expect measurable changes weekly like cutting.
  • jeffpettis
    jeffpettis Posts: 865 Member
    If you are eating at maintenance, eating enough protein, and lifting, your body will maintain the muscle you have. The only time you are going to add any muscle, especially a female, will be if you are eating a surplus of calories.
  • usmcmp
    usmcmp Posts: 21,219 Member
    You are a beginner. You will make beginner gains whether you are eating in a deficit or at maintenance. Over time as you become an intermediate lifter with lifting experience your ability to gain without a surplus diminishes. Take advantage of the beginner gains.
  • tomsarno
    tomsarno Posts: 105 Member
    If you are eating in a deficit as a beginner, your gains in strength will be from improved technique. You must be in a surplus to add muscle. During maintenance you can increase the appearance of muscle mass by driving more blood to the muscles through resistance training. Actual increase in lean body mass will not occur unless in a surplus.
  • LolBroScience
    LolBroScience Posts: 4,537 Member
    edited July 2015
    tomsarno wrote: »
    If you are eating in a deficit as a beginner, your gains in strength will be from improved technique. You must be in a surplus to add muscle. During maintenance you can increase the appearance of muscle mass by driving more blood to the muscles through resistance training. Actual increase in lean body mass will not occur unless in a surplus.
    jeffpettis wrote: »
    If you are eating at maintenance, eating enough protein, and lifting, your body will maintain the muscle you have. The only time you are going to add any muscle, especially a female, will be if you are eating a surplus of calories.

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21558571

    Other studies show increases in LBM while those individuals are overfat, obese, retraining, etc. So no, it's not always black and white.
  • Katzedernacht
    Katzedernacht Posts: 266 Member
    edited July 2015
    Awesome,we are on a similar situation, I barely ate my BMR and I did perform ok but I now start to think I could of been so much better if I had eaten properly before.

    Anyway I am eating on my maintenance when I lift, which is 2,100 cals that's 6 days a week,and on sunday I eat around 1,600 calories.

    I got much more energy,I sleep better,I can lift more,it's been only 4 days,but when time passes by I will check the muscle thing ;)
  • finick
    finick Posts: 2 Member
    It's important to understand the goal of a recomp. Several people will gain muscle during a recomp, if not everyone. Coming from a point of view where I strength train and dabble in powerlifting, it's not unusual for me to recomp often.

    A simple way to look at it is just how you approach a recomp. If you change nothing about your daily activities then you'll see very little change, adding in some light/medium intensity steady state cardio to your routine (and accounting for this with extra calories) will have significant positive effects on your physique.

    Someone who starts a recomp at 230lbs and 18% body fat could end at 230lbs and 12% body fat, effectively gaining more muscle and losing fat.
  • mich19025
    mich19025 Posts: 55 Member
    Thanks all for your imput. I should be hitting maintenance in the next couple of weeks. I havent lost anything since I started upping my calories (which I expected). Recomp wasn't my original goal per se but im happy to do it until I feel ready to cut again. There was no way I could progress in lifting on a rubbish 1400 calories! Hoping to be able to cut on around 1700 (tdee -20%). The driving of blood to the muscle makes sense. I obviously knew I wasnt gaining muscle but it definately feels harder and I suppose the little drop in body fat makes it look more protruding. If it stays like that and I can drop some more body fat in the next 6 months then i'll be happy...especially if I can eat more to perform :)
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