strength training on a deficiet.

You can still gain strength, retain greater muscle, and improve fitness.

Uh oh. Be prepared for this to be a 100 post war between the YES YOU CAN and the NO YOU CANT folks.

Here's my 2 cents. Go for it. Unless you've been lifting for years and you're absolutely maxed out, then you can get stronger while on a deficit. What is extremely hard, if not outright impossible, is to add a significant amount of muscular size. But I'm better getting really really muscular isn't your goal anyway.

For me, strength training while on a deficit helps me retain as much good looking muscle as possible, and it keeps my body weight from fluctuation too much when I overeat as a large portion of calories taken in go towards muscle repair instead of fat retention.

I'll add one more thing. If I am just restricting calories I find it pretty easy to stay strong and keep getting stronger on some lifts. But if I'm doing a lot of cardio like running or cycling, my lifts get much weaker and there's not a thing I can do about it. I've lost as much as 80 pounds off my bench press when I've been on a running program for 3 months or longer.

This is purely my experience, so please don't take it for scientific fact or anything, but I notice so much more positive changes in my body when I'm strength training while trying to lose weight. I am currently eating at a deficit to lose weight, and doing a mix of cardio and strength training on a regular basis. When I don't do strength training, I lose POUNDS pretty quickly, but nothing seems to be firmer. When I do both, the pounds go more slowly but the INCHES melt away---and that's more important to me anyway. Plus I can really see more definition in my arms, legs, stomach, everywhere.

So while I'm not going to gain muscle necessarily, I'll maintain more of my lean body mass as I lose fat, creating a more streamlined and toned physique. I'm pretty happy with my results so far, so I'm definitely going to continue on the strength training while eating at a deficit plan. The way I see it, I'd rather it be a bit slower process but be doing everything at once instead of lose the pounds quickly and then have to work really hard to gain muscle mass, which would require eating at a surplus---something I don't really want to do.

Thannk you for posting this! I wondered the same thing. There is so much information that it gets confusing!

is there any point to doing it? I know the advantages of strength training, the more muscle you have the more fat you burn ect..

The biggest benefit is lean mass retention. You're going to lose less muscle while losing weight. A greater portion of your losses will come from fat.

Additionally, people often over-state the amount of contribution lean mass plays on expenditure. Gym rats will typically quote 50kcal/lb when a more accurate figure is 6kcal/lb. If you consider that it would take most people a few years to put on 20lbs of lean mass (with good training and good nutrition), that's 120 calories. Not that big of a deal. Here's a good read on this followed by research:

http://weightology.net/?p=192
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9688626

From my research (mostly google and here) you cant gain muscle on a deficiet. you can gain strength but not muscle ( apparently)

This is a very slippery slope that tends to cause fights and it also tends to get stated in very absolute terms. In my opinion, the concise way to say it is that you're not going to gain much lean mass unless you're either new to training entirely, returning to training after a long layoff, or very obese (and note that if you're very obese you will likely fall into one of the previous categories as well). Deficit size and macronutrient intake are also variables in this. (EDIT: So is duration of deficit among other things).

Quite simply, I believe the majority of people who claim they are gaining lean mass while eating at a deficit are either wrong or overstating the perceived gains. I certainly wouldn't say this for EVERYONE.



The bottom line is that you should lift weights if your goal is to look fit when you've dropped the weight you wish to drop.

I've been gaining muscle and losing fat while on a ketogenic calorie deficit plan.

I wish I had saved links to the studies I had read. My understanding is that newbie lifters with some body fat and the obese can gain some muscle while eating a deficit. This is because at these stages, the body will preferentially take energy from fat and use that energy to assemble muscles. The body still needs the correct building blocks to make the muscle, however, so the lifter needs to be eating a ton of protein.

Beyond this, there is a really fierce argument, with both sides making strong cases. It seems that even if you can build muscle on a calorie deficit, it requires supreme dedication to specific eating plans (e.g. specialized calorie cycling).

All of this said, there are many women lifters here on MFP who could tell you specifically what they did to affect body transformation.

This is oh-so-confusing, isn't it?!?! I'm pretty much at goal (though I'd like to lean out a LITTLE more) and have gotten here over the past 9 months doing 2-3 days of weights (45-60 min - quick circuits keeping my HR up) and 2-3 days of heavy cardio (60-75 min) (separate days) and eating on a 1200-1500 calorie diet (I eat when I'm hungry, not when MFP says I can eat - I just make wise choices). I have seen HUGE muscle/strength growth (for a woman, anyway!). Though I'm eating at a deficeit, I make sure I'm getting plenty of protein. I always, always, ALWAYS have a protein shake after my lifting (I use one that's 100 calories for 25g of protein, 0 carbs and tastes YUMMY!)

Body builders do this in cycles - bulk up, lean out, off season - to maximize their results, but that doesn't mean it's the only way it can be done. As long as you're satisfied with a slower progression, any 'ol way will work!

Good luck! Have fun with your trainer - it was the BEST investment I ever made! As a side-note, don't be afraid to fire your trainer and move on to another if it's not a good fit. It was my THIRD trainer that I finally "clicked" with. The first was a young girl - flaky as all get out, canceling all the time, not really pushing me, and not very organized. The second was a meathead dude with a military-like attitude. I'll work hard, but don't yell at me! The third (and final) I've been with for about a year and she's AWESOME! Early 40's, been doing this for nearly 20 yrs, and a fitness rolemodel! I hope to look like her when I'm in my early 40's! I'm keeping her as long as I can afford her!