Can you lose muscle in a deficit if you’re untrained?

I would also recommend recomp for your current height and weight. Eat more protein at maintenance calories. Do strength training

40 yo woman, 5'5 here. My last ten pounds I went crazy cardio to just get the deficit up and get it done as it got tougher. It worked but it was really all muscle I lost at the end, in spite of having lifted fairly lightly throughout the most of the process. I remember clearly when I realised, I was trying to move a piece of fibreboard in the yard, like 4x8 maybe, the flimsy pressed board kinda stuff, and I had such immense difficulty moving it it was striking. I toss around boxed of records and CDs and do all kinds of of big DIY project stuff and have always had sufficient strength. So not only did I 'lose muscle' in the sense that I lost this abstract seeming thing that is a good health and fitness marker, but I literally got weaker in a functional, observable way.

I also find that sometimes my heavier lifting days make me hungrier than others - being women it's just the way things are, fluctuations in everything are the norm. I encourage you to stick with it best you can, lighten up the weights maybe see if that makes you less starving or experiment to see if it's cyclical and you can lift heavier sometimes without bringing on the hunger.

eth3rium wrote: »

I have been reading around different places that if you’re not lifting weights while eating at a deficit to lose fat it’s possible you will lose muscle mass that you’ve built. But does someone who hasn’t built any muscle lose any if they are dieting?
I’ve tried to incorporate weights into my routine in the past (while dieting) but it always makes me famished and I have huge urges to eat after about a week so it just makes it harder to eat at a deficit.
I’m just wondering if it’s worth it to do weights while dieting if it’s not going to save much muscle since I have not built any.
I do want to try my first bulk and experiment with bodybuilding once I’ve reached my goal weight and get my bf% down to a reasonable point. But I definitely need advice

I am a woman 26 yrs old, 5’3 tall, 128lbs, 25% bodyfat (Measured by bio electrical impedance scale so may not be accurate)

I just wanted to make sure you are eating back the calories you earned from exercise. If not, no wonder you're famished.

MFP uses the NEAT method (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis), and as such this system is designed for exercise calories to be eaten back. However, many consider the burns given by MFP to be inflated and only eat a percentage, such as 50%, back. Others, however, are able to lose weight while eating 100% of their exercise calories.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf/p1

@eth3rium, so glad you took on the advice that was posted.

Quite often on the forum we see that people don't eat their lifting calories back because it is a relatively small amount.
When I first started lifting I followed that advice (even more petite than you) and though I wasn't over hungry, I did get lethargic, and slowly lost weight. The extra 200 cals made a the difference in my performance in and out of the gym.
I think if one has a larger calorie allotment the cals may not make as much difference, but on my 1400 it really did.

Make sure you take rest days and get enough sleep.

Cheers, h.

You lose muscle in any deficit regardless. You can limit this through specific resistance training and protein intake, but a degree of loss is inevitable. This is why bodybuilding utilize bulking and cutting cycles.

Start a beginner progressive lifting program (Strong Curves, New Rules of Lifting for Women, Stronglifts 5x5, etc.) take it easy when in a deficit. Push boundaries when in surplus/bulk. Attempting to increase performance while on a deficit is just a bad idea and why so many diets fail - they are unsustainable.