Building muscle to lose fat?

coderdan82
coderdan82 Posts: 133 Member
edited November 29 in Health and Weight Loss
I've often heard these two statements:

"You should lift weights when trying to lose fat because increasing your muscle mass increases your metabolism so you end up burning more calories even when you're not doing anything."

and

"You cannot lose fat and build muscle at the same time because losing fat requires a caloric deficit whereas building muscle requires a caloric surplus"

Seems contradictory to me. Can anyone make sense of this?

Replies

  • ilcontreras28
    ilcontreras28 Posts: 12 Member
    🤔
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
    mph323 wrote: »
    Generally it's advisable to strength train while losing weight in order to preserve whatever muscle you already have.

    This.^ And the net effect of building muscle is pretty negligible on metabolism. It's a gain of about 6 to 8 calories per day per lb of muscle added. If you are also losing fat, fat is metabolically active at about 4 calories per day, so the the net is even lower.

    That is not the reason to strength train. The reason is because a strong functional body and having adequate muscle mass is extremely healthy. You look better and you feel better.

    So, weight train while in deficit and keep as much as you can. When you go to maintenance, build some muscle by recomp or a small surplus for a lean bulk if you want. Or, if you are happy with how your body looks and feels, just train and eat to maintain.
  • fitmom4lifemfp
    fitmom4lifemfp Posts: 1,572 Member
    "Although a caloric deficit is needed to lose fat, a caloric surplus isn't necessarily needed to build muscle. This is because stored fat is stored energy. So, those stored fat calories are available for the body to use as fuel for the muscle-building process.

    But get this part straight: Your body can't turn fat into muscle or vice versa. Fat is fat and muscle is muscle. But, if you're overweight, your body can use your stored energy (fat) to actually fuel the muscle-building process when that fuel isn't coming from additional food intake."

    https://www.t-nation.com/training/6-muscle-building-myths-debunked
  • moogie_fit
    moogie_fit Posts: 280 Member
    Thanks for all the responses and for the question OP, this cleared up a lot of questions for me!
  • coderdan82
    coderdan82 Posts: 133 Member
    Lots of good info here. Thanks everyone.
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
    In addition to what has been said, in terms of strength, health, body composition (woohoo!), I would say having more muscle has helped me sit at a higher weight with the same or lower bodyfat%, and while the muscle at rest may burn an insignificant amount to fat, the calories burned from using that muscle plus sitting at a higher weight definitely has had an impact on how much I am able to put away food wise.
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