Muscle Gains on Caloric Deficit

read this: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/adding-muscle-while-losing-fat-qa.html

not possible if your natural

not possible if your natural

I disagree. There are cicumstances where this can occur. I am hypothyroid so I can pack muscle on like I am a raging roider but struggle to lose the fat. Weight is weight but based off bodyfat% I can gain muscle and lose fat...but my endocrine system is a mess.

in my case, not so much muscle gain but strength gains.

Between May of last year and now I have gone from 41% body fat to 24%. In that same time I have gained 3 pounds of lean mass. I don't think it's possible, I know it's possible because I've done it.

How are you measuring your body fat%? If you're using a scale, equation or calipers, it's not accurate.

I love the answers so far. Didn't get as much of debate on this as I'd thought. The article was a great read also, very good insight. So in short:

It is possible by very fat people in the beggining of their workout and people who were once trained and started to train again after getting out of shape. It gets really hard once you are lean.

I was also thinking it depends on what you are eating, because if you are taking in High Protien very low carbs, where does your body get the energy? Wouldn't fat be easier to break down for energy than protien?

There seems to be sooo many variables involved.

Genetics and your beginning fitness level as well as your current body fat percentage have to do with how fast you can build, but most people cannot gain muscle mass at a deficit. I started as morbidly obese at 47% body fat and am now at 27% (still overweight). It comes to about a 14 lb gain in lean mass (note: not just muscle mass). My understanding is that most of this is due to fat loss and water retention in the muscles.

EDIT: Measurements for me were done by calipers by my trainer and are consistent over the last 11 months (consistent technique used and the numbers are not fluctuating wildly). I also lift heavy 3x per week and was brand new to lifting when I started.

double post

Between May of last year and now I have gone from 41% body fat to 24%. In that same time I have gained 3 pounds of lean mass. I don't think it's possible, I know it's possible because I've done it.

how have you calculated BF%, if you are using the electric pulse devise or scale I would not go by it. You would have to use a Bodpod or have hydrostatic weighing to get an accurate reading make the claim you are making.

I don't use a BIA scale, I know they can vary up to 5% depending on just how much water you have.

Between May of last year and now I have gone from 41% body fat to 24%. In that same time I have gained 3 pounds of lean mass. I don't think it's possible, I know it's possible because I've done it.

I would need to know a bit more about what you've done to speak to this. It is possible that part of that LBM came towards the beginning of your workout push, as small muscle mass gains are possible when just starting a strength training regime or when very overweight. Regardless of the time period though those improvements are tremendous, and debate aside congratulations.

Edit to account for posts while I was typing mine up: I am currently able to gain a small amount of muscle mass while losing because of how high my bf % is. It's around where you started, I think that would account for the 3 lb gain you saw, particularly since you had already been lifting.

Reason I ask: If I'm doing nothing and then start a diet and exercise program, I could be getting stronger. Does this means I'm gainning muscle? Also, why am I not losing weight, but losing inches? I would think fat is being loss, water and other things may be retained, but my muscles sure look healthier and like they are bigger.

There's a fairly large debate over this in general. I, like a lot of folks (there is research behind this as well), believe that except for a few cases (being very obese to begin with or coming back to lifting after a long period off) it isn't possible to grow muscle mass without a calorie surplus to support that growth. That doesn't mean that you can't become stronger, as muscles can grow stronger without growing in size. Also lowering your body fat % can make muscles look bigger even though they haven't grown, simply because you can see them better.

If you never worked out and started or are heavier set it is possible however, you won't be gaining near as much muscle as you think.

I have read about the whole survival loss things as well and I'm not talking about going into that much of a caloric deficit. I'm thinking along the lines of a normal caloric deficit, but tailored diet for high protien. You won't have the carbs to burn as fuel for your exercise so where do you get energy? It just sounds bad to say that the energy pulled would be by breaking down muscle, but if you are doing strength gaining exercise, wouldn't that be STUPID of your body so to speak? lol, I am not making any sound statement here, more brainstorming and trying to understand. I defintiely appreciate your feedback.

I'm not going to try to go too much into the technical aspects of it because I'll probably flub it up and misspeak. Check out bodyrecomposition.com for more info on this (there's other sites too but this is what I've been reading lately).

1) One of the reasons people strength train while cutting fat is to promote the preservation of lean mass. If you strength train on a deficit: you can increase your strength even though mass will most likely not increase, and you will slow or (ideally) stop lean mass loss as a result of your diet.

2) Carbs aren't the only way to get energy. Read this (and note the carb section):
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/nutrition/a-primer-on-nutrition-part-1.html
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/nutrition/a-primer-on-nutrition-part-2.html