Title says it all, i want to lose weight and also build some muscle, ive have been hitting the gym and cutting my calories by 500-900cal for the past two months, while i am seeing some muscle growth, its not very substantial or something people around me will notice, ive also lost about 2kgs which is not much so i am thinking of doing a 200cal surplus for a month to see how it goes I wanted to get some advice as well as read other people’s experiences
I lost 125 lbs and lost some muscle, but also re-earned some. I don’t have the muscle I used to have at 300 lbs, though.
One of the amazing things bodies can do is grow and shrink at the same time, but it can’t do both superbly. In fact, to gain muscle superbly, you have to gain some fat. To lose weight superbly, you’re likely going to also lose some muscle).
Not too shabby. Sounds quite right.
Here’s the thing – you’re not only preserving the muscle you had from being the heavier body you were, you built on that. Most people on a cut who aren’t lifting will lose some muscle mass too given not only the smaller need for muscle in a smaller body, but also some catabolization (the body eating muscle cells for energy). You aren’t just not losing muscle, you’re gaining some.
Don’t worry that 2 months work isn’t something to see yet – your habits are your destiny – it’ll happen.
A loss of -2 kgs is over 15000 kcal not eaten, but you’d expect more out of -700 average deficit for 60 days (-42000). Is your food tracking in real time? Complete including condiments, cooking oils, salad dressings, and other (often) forgettables? Are you checking portions with a digital kitchen food scale or measuring cups or some other reliable means? These self-reporting problems are the most common ones.
That assumes he was eating at a maintenance level before. If he was significantly overweight, then it’s likely that he was previously running a surplus. So a cut of 700 calories may only yield a net deficit of something less than that.
Also, the OP may also have a significant gain in muscle mass that’s not very apparent in the mirror over 60 days. So it’s very hard to figure out if something isn’t adding up just from the info we’ve been given.
The only real way to know is to combine weight with a body fat measurement. That way you can calculate out lean mass and body fat mass and see progress.
I use my fitness pal (doesn’t it include cooking oil and condiments) to track calories and cross check sometimes with google as well, however i will say that most of the time i mantained a deficit of about 500, but there were days were i did 900, i shoud’ve worded it a little better, but about the weight, i asked my coach as well and he said not to worry as muscle in denser than fat, so it may look like i have lost more weight than i thought as i wouldve gained some in muscle mass
I will keep a closer eye on the tracking though…
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