Can a overweight person (70 lbs over) lose fat and gain muscle at the same time?

Ryan70286
Ryan70286 Posts: 122 Member
in Success Stories
I've been doing quite of bit of research on this and it always goes back to the genetics thing. To gain muscle you will need to adequately feed your muscle with carbs and protein. To lose fat you have to be in a caloric deficit. See how there is a catch 22 with this, does anyone here have any experiences with losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time? I'm currently on a cut phase (leaning phase). Tried to lose fat and gain muscle but you really have to on point with your diet (on point meaning no mistakes....)

Thank you in advance for sharing your stories.

Replies

  • Bob314159
    Bob314159 Posts: 1,178 Member
    If you do it right - your burn the body fat and it turns into protein/muscles. You have to keep the carbs low enough they don't convert into new body fat, so I eat almost no carbs, but right after a gym weight workout I eat more carbs than usual.
  • ericGold15
    ericGold15 Posts: 318 Member
    This is a good question that I have not found good answers to in the medical literature. You *can* lose weight and keep the muscle you have, but even that is not so simple.

    The short answer appears to be not too fast a weight loss, and not that fast a muscle gain. Both together means even slower for each.

    The other short answer appears to be that rapid muscle gain requires heavy loading, but heavy loading places a metabolic demand on the body for carbs. So you can exercise while dieting to keep muscle mass, but do not expect to do 'bulk' type gym workouts.

    I suppose it might be theoretically possible to construct a regimen of:
    1. Carb loading followed by muscle loading exercise;
    2. Then extended endurance type exercise to burn off the excess carbs from (1) and additional adipose tissue

    As a practical matter it sounds like misery, if even doable. I suspect you would have to start out at a very high level for both.
  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
    Maybe make sure that you are protecting the muscle that you already have.
    Good luck. :)
  • Ryan70286
    Ryan70286 Posts: 122 Member
    Thank you for both of your insight very good I would say. Yes I'm protecting the muscle I have now and I'm more patience in terms of weight loss/fat loss.

    I gave up losing fat and gaining muslce. I'm sticking to losing fat and maintain the muscle I have now.
  • FabianRodriguez94
    FabianRodriguez94 Posts: 221 Member
    edited December 2015
    This is only possible for someone who has JUST started lifting weights for the first time. They will experience "noob" gains for a small amount of time before eventually muscle growth halts. After this, you will only be able to maintain muscle while losing fat- although some muscle will definitely be lost as well. You can make this loss much smaller by eating the proper macro nutrients and lifting heavy weights while keeping your calorie deficit at a healthy level.
  • bgaunya
    bgaunya Posts: 23 Member
    It's impossible to gain muscle and lose weight at the same time. But it is possible to maintain muscle and lose weight at the same time. I suggest weight training and dieting to burn off the fat and maintain the muscle that u have now.
  • Ryan70286
    Ryan70286 Posts: 122 Member
    FabianRodriguez94 wrote: »
    This is only possible for someone who has JUST started lifting weights for the first time. They will experience "noob" gains for a small amount of time before eventually muscle growth halts. After this, you will only be able to maintain muscle while losing fat- although some muscle will definitely be lost as well. You can make this loss much smaller by eating the proper macro nutrients and lifting heavy weights while keeping your calorie deficit at a healthy level.

    Define first time user? I use to regularly lift weights 6 years or so ago before getting my degree. Just started back in the fitness life about almost 6 months ago. Does this apply to me?
  • Ryan70286
    Ryan70286 Posts: 122 Member
    bgaunya wrote: »
    It's impossible to gain muscle and lose weight at the same time. But it is possible to maintain muscle and lose weight at the same time. I suggest weight training and dieting to burn off the fat and maintain the muscle that u have now.

    Thanks, I changed my goals to the latter (maintain muscle and loss fat)
  • rankinsect
    rankinsect Posts: 2,238 Member
    bgaunya wrote: »
    It's impossible to gain muscle and lose weight at the same time.

    Not impossible for most people. Slower, certainly, than if you are on maintenance or on a caloric surplus, and it will set an upper limit on how high you can go, but you can certainly build some amount of muscle.

    Net muscle growth means that total day-to-day protein synthesis has to exceed day-to-day protein degradation. A caloric surplus tends to increase synthesis, while a deficit tends to decrease synthesis, but these aren't the only factors involved, and everyone's body is always doing both processes to some level. Even on a diet, there are periods each day (such as after meals) where your hormones favor anabolism, and other periods where your hormones favor catabolism.

    It's certainly true that those who are advanced weight lifters need a caloric surplus to gain further, but that's because as you get closer and closer to your maximum potential strength (primarily determined by genetics) each additional gain requires more and more. By the time you've built most of your potential strength, you really need all of the stars to align perfectly to gain more, and that means you need the boost from a caloric surplus, and the drop from a caloric deficit will not only stall but reverse your progress.

    On the other hand, the vast majority of our nation aren't professionals, or even advanced, they are total beginners, and total beginners can make gains so quickly that even being slowed down by a calorie deficit won't stop their progress entirely.

  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    Yes it's possible to gain some muscle in a caloric deficit, especially if you are "overfat" and undertrained.

    Newbies to lifting, those returning after a break, genetically gifted (e.g. including most young men), novel training stimulus, PED users are all categories where it's possible. Remember that fat and undertrained includes quite a sizeable chunk of the population!

    An excessive deficit won't work of course and an inadequate protein intake would also take away any chance.
    There's also those that can't achieve it and would need at least maintenance calories, highly trained and already lean would be the obvious cases.

    There's often heated debate on here about the subject but the one thing most agree on is that to maximise your chances of muscle growth / minimise any muscle loss then go for:

    A good strength / weight / resistance program.
    Adequate to high protein intake.
    Modest calorie deficit.


  • GenElizabeth
    GenElizabeth Posts: 291 Member
    I did it, check out my page if you like for info. Best of luck! (Lost 75lbs in one year and gained decent amount of muscle from a consistent, slight deficit and strength training alone.)

    ge3xa41drput.jpg

    k5boapukhzja.jpg

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10151694/from-a-size-20-to-a-size-8-with-strength-training-in-one-year-pics

    (photos appear to be super large, not sure why - they should resize on their own...? hopefully, lol)

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