Question about building muscle

teacher205
teacher205 Posts: 9
edited October 2 in Fitness and Exercise
I've been on a diet and exercising regularly doing cardio 5 days and weights 3-4 days a week for a while now. I've slimmed down quite a bit and i was wondering if the muscle I'm seeing way always there and now can been seen or is it newly built up?

I read before that you can't build muscle on a calorie deficit diet so I'm just wondering what the muscle I'm seeing and feeling is and is the weight training i've been doing just maintaining the muscle I already had?

Replies

  • bubbab666
    bubbab666 Posts: 54
    what was your bf% before and what is it now?
    & what was your before weight and what is it now?
  • medoria
    medoria Posts: 673 Member
    How overweight where you and have you been overweight a long time? Ive been overweigth my entire life and many people whove been that have loads of muscle underneath, the body has built muscles to help you carry all that excess weight.
  • teacher205
    teacher205 Posts: 9
    According to my scales I was about 116lbs and 26% and now I'm 108 and 23% but I don't know how accurate the scale is!

    Forgot to mention I'm only 5ft on a good day, explaining the low weights. That 8lbs makes a huge difference on a small person
  • Fattack
    Fattack Posts: 666 Member
    According to my scales I was about 116lbs and 26% and now I'm 108 and 23% but I don't know how accurate the scale is!

    Forgot to mention I'm only 5ft on a good day, explaining the low weights. That 8lbs makes a huge difference on a small person

    As a fellow shortie, I can understand!

    Ok, so 26% of 116 is 30lbs of fat. 23% of 108 is around 25. So effectively you've lost 5lbs of fat! As you've lost 116-108 = 8lbs altogether, around 3lbs of that will be "other stuff" (water, muscle). So probably you've not really gained any muscle, but lost some - but brilliant job on losing fat!
  • flimflamfloz
    flimflamfloz Posts: 1,980 Member
    Well, technically you can and will "build muscle" if you do weight training (even running, with leg muscles), but it is just difficult to "bulk" on a calorie deficit (I mean, gaining a lot of muscle mass), because of the way you eat (you should be on maintenance calories + exercise calories to "bulk").

    So you have built muscles, for sure but probably not as much as people that want to look big.
  • 8rules
    8rules Posts: 169
    You have more lean tissue (muscle) as a percentage of your body weight.

    It is now more visible.

    Building muscle size WHILE losing weight is the holy grail of the fitness world. You can get stronger through neurological and vascular reasons, but you usually do not add to muscle bulk while dieting.

    I know people here will argue this point, but hop onto any muscle training based forums and you will find pretty much universal agreement on this.
  • bubbab666
    bubbab666 Posts: 54
    You have more lean tissue (muscle) as a percentage of your body weight.

    It is now more visible.

    Building muscle size WHILE losing weight is the holy grail of the fitness world. You can get stronger through neurological and vascular reasons, but you usually do not add to muscle bulk while dieting.

    I know people here will argue this point, but hop onto any muscle training based forums and you will find pretty much universal agreement on this.

    Agreed, with 1 stipulation: If this person has weight trained in the past, stopped and now with returning to weights is gaining back muscle. Making NEW muscle would be nearly impossible.
  • teacher205
    teacher205 Posts: 9
    Thanks! That really clears things up! :)
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