How do I lose fat while gaining muscle and what do I eat.

Its a tricky balance to do both at once. I understand you have to eat at at a slight calorie surplus, and get 1 gram of protein per 1 pound of existing lean body mass. You can calculate your lean body mass with an online calculator and set your micronutrients goals on MFP to fit those calculations.

I suggest joining the mfp group called Eat Train Progress. Good help from great people with tons of information.

I have found that as I am losing weight my muscles are beginning to make an appearance, they have been hiding under all that fat. So, I would focus on losing weight first while doing whatever exercise plan that suits you. You might want to check out http://www.nerdfitness.com/, they focus on a lifting exercise plan and a paleo diet. I am not a real paleo, but I like the exercise plans and they have some great inspirational stories of men and women losing massive amounts of weight and getting buff. Check it out and lose weight first so you can see the muscles you already have. Don't give up and Best of Luck!

contingencyplan wrote: »

Gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time is only possible when you're in the beginner phase of initially starting strength training. And as long as you're eating slightly below maintenance and training hard that'll happen on its own. After that initial phase ends though you can't focus on both at the same time. You've got to choose one or the other to focus on right now and address the other later.

What do you mean by "below maintenance"?

I think the important question is, what is your weightgoal?

For weightloss:
To lose weight you need to eat at a calorie defecit to lose weight. If you don't do any resistance training while eating at a calorie defecit your weightloss will be both muscle and fat loss. If you do resistance training you will gain little to no muscle mass (only noob gains) because you eat at a defecit. To increase muscle mass you need to eat at a surplus.
However, it is definitely recommended to do resistance training while eating at a defecit to preserve the existing muscle. If you do this, almost all your weightloss will be fat loss. Furthermore, it will look like you have more muscle simply because the layer of fat covering your muscles is coming off. Eating enough protein, about a minimum of 0.8 gram per pound of bodyweight will help you in preserving those muscles.
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10232698/muscle-gaining-misconceptions

For maintenance:
Some people reach their goal weight and don't want to lose more weight but do want to look more muscular and less fat. For those people recomp can be a solution. It basically is losing fat and gaining muscle while eating at maintenance. It is a very slow process that can take years.
More info on this in the recomp thread in the maintenance sub forum.

As to lifting weights, for either of these two to work you need to follow a progressive overload program. Also, if you are new to lifting a full body program rather than an upper/lower split is best. Which program are you following?
I'll list some of the recommended beginner programs here:
- stronglifts 5x5
- Icf 5x5
- New rules of lifting
- Starting strength

Hope this helps.

Interesting article I found yesterday which is on topic here - wonder what people's thoughts are?

http://www.muscleandfitness.com/nutrition/lose-fat/death-bulk-and-cut-diet