Gaining muscle?

rlprice1231
rlprice1231 Posts: 23 Member
edited 4:10AM in Health and Weight Loss
Can you gain muscle while eating at a deficit and working out? Or do you lose some of your muscles while eating at a deficit and working out?

Replies

  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    Generally, no. Putting on muscle requires gaining weight and that isn't going to be happening in a deficit. Any time we lose weight we will be losing some muscle and some fat. Eating more protein, doing resistance training, and avoiding extreme deficits can help us retain more muscle while we lose weight.
  • Hornsby
    Hornsby Posts: 10,322 Member
    If you are new to lifting, you might get some initial gains. If you do lift, you can counteract the loss of muscle while eating at a deficit. This will be dependent on workout routine, protein intake, size of deficit...
  • vismal
    vismal Posts: 2,463 Member
    rlprice1231 wrote: »
    Can you gain muscle while eating at a deficit and working out? Or do you lose some of your muscles while eating at a deficit and working out?
    If you are brand new to lifting weights, there is the chance that you can build some muscle while in a deficit at least in the beginning. As time goes on this becoming less and less likely to happen. If muscle gain is your primary goal, a deficit is not the best choice. If fat loss is your primary goal, then worry more about maintaining muscle mass rather than building it.
  • vinbar1
    vinbar1 Posts: 40 Member
    Yes that is the answer. when dieting you will gain muscle slow with lower cals. Once you have lost your fat increase your cals a little and continue to workout and you will continue to gain muscle. Check out Mike Chan sixpackshortcuts on youtube. He has some great tips that work.
  • dolliesdaughter
    dolliesdaughter Posts: 544 Member
    It is not easy to gain muscle, check out bodybuilding forums.
  • juggernaut1974
    juggernaut1974 Posts: 6,212 Member
    edited November 2015
    vinbar1 wrote: »
    Yes that is the answer. when dieting you will gain muscle slow with lower cals. Once you have lost your fat increase your cals a little and continue to workout and you will continue to gain muscle. Check out Mike Chan sixpackshortcuts on youtube. He has some great tips that work.

    I'm sorry that's simply incorrect -at least as a general rule.

    I agree that you can gain muscle AFTER losing fat by increasing calories...but total calories need to be increases to a level above your maintenance (i.e. A surplus) AND you must be doing proper resistance training with progressive overload. They don't just grow out of nowhere
  • Unknown
    Unknown
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  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
    When you're brand new to lifting, you get to ride the "noob train" for a bit, so it is possible, but that ride is short.
  • cnbbnc
    cnbbnc Posts: 1,267 Member
    edited November 2015
    Liftng4Lis wrote: »
    When you're brand new to lifting, you get to ride the "noob train" for a bit, so it is possible, but that ride is short.

    I do believe I've experienced this a little bit myself, but if you truly want to ADD muscle over time you would need to eat more, but you can preserve muscle, gain strength and firm up a lot by strength training while in a deficit now. That's what my true goal is right now. Just holding onto what I have. It's made a big difference in my body despite the deficit.

  • brower47
    brower47 Posts: 16,356 Member
    Noob gains can come your way with the right lifting and eating programs but we're all differ. While it may be highly unlikely, I'm not going to be so arrogant as to say it's completely impossible.

    (Not that other people that say it is are arrogant, just I would be if I professed it .)
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