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How to lose weight while building muscle?

xxsicknessxx

xxsicknessxx

Bluelighter
Joined
Jun 26, 2008
Messages
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Any tips on someone trying to gain muscle and is setting there weight creep up so I'm eating lots of calories and protein. Would cutting my calories or fasting stop my muscle growth? Or is there a point to go to the gym eating only 1500 calories. I'm eating more like 2500 ATM and 120 grams protein. Thanks
 
How do you know the weight you are gaining isn’t muscle? The scales are not really the best indicator of body composition.

Honestly, it’s definitely possible to lose weight whilst building muscle if you are a newbie to the gym or you’ve come back from a long time off working out.

It’s also possible to lose weight and build muscle even when you’re a seasoned gym goer but it’s not optimal. I’d always say chose one or the other. Work on bulking and gaining muscle then do a cut.

I use this as a very rough guide for my calories, obviously you need to experiment to see where you are at. When I’m focusing on building muscle I aim for 2g of protein per KG of lean muscle.
 
If I recall correctly gaining muscle mass will in itself produce a gain in weight and the more muscle we gain the more fats and calories will be "burned" in the process. It may appear that we are weighing less but muscle is more dense than fat so the weight may stay the same as we shed the fat in our body.
A kg of muscle weighs the same as a kg of fat, but the fat will have a greater volume and the muscle fibres will have a greater density. So, a kg of muscle will take up less space and look smaller, than a kg of fat. - Source
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How long have you been working out to attain the loss of weight?
Also... if there is any sugar intake in the form of fructose or glucose as opposed to sucrose there may be a difference in how our body processes the calories and fats we intake.
Stick to "real" foods/nutrients as opposed to processed is a good idea in my opinion and observations.
 
This makes no sense whatsoever. Muscle obviously has mass so if you add muscle to your body then obviously you are going to add weight.

It’s as good as impossible to gain muscle whilst losing fat even if you’re using performance enhancing drugs, this is why body builders work in bulking and dieting/cutting cycles.

Yes cutting your calories or fasting will stop your muscle growth, youve had all of this explained to you before.
 
THECATINTHEHAT said:
This makes no sense whatsoever. Muscle obviously has mass so if you add muscle to your body then obviously you are going to add weight.

It’s as good as impossible to gain muscle whilst losing fat even if you’re using performance enhancing drugs, this is why body builders work in bulking and dieting/cutting cycles.

Yes cutting your calories or fasting will stop your muscle growth, youve had all of this explained to you before.
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Well I use a scale that shows my muscle mass, fat% so assuming the scale works and it does seem to follow my doctor's even more expensive scale she's uses that's like 8 feet tall and it gives you a print out. But so I weigh every day because in waiting for the muscle mass to go up. My weight went up recently so maybe Im missing something. But it seems like I gained fat not muscle recently.

In last two years I started working out and walking. I started lifting dumbbells a year ago pretty reliably, i think I've been going to the gym 3 maybe 2 months but two days a week upper/lower every day with a day of rest.

Don't want this to long. But I go see my doctor Friday to get this body scan in taking about.

I am following stuff I learned from here, YouTube, Google but I never worked out for real by entire life. I was fat then I was a drug addict I've only been sober three years and so everything normal for you is new to me. I really depends on Google just to not accidently kill myself... But I'm just trying my hardest but I'm willing to do anything except break the law to gain muscle and I know it's just a matter of somehow getting a explanation that makes everything click..

It is possible that I will see gains shortly. But in the mean time I like weighing 175 and I'm 182...

I went from 190-200 a year ago to 170s 175 Max.
Hmm I workout tomorrow. I just keep adding more stuff and I'm thinking of extending my rest from 30 second in-between sets to 45 seconds. Hmm I just need to see a increase of 5 pounds.. I would be happy with a pound a month. This seems reasonable to me. Hmm not giving up on the meantime. Just a nagging feeling I'm just missing something obvious.
 
You are missing something obvious, you’re not working out enough or eating enough. It’s hard to say without watching your workouts but it’s very possible you’re not putting enough effort in to the workouts too. Without wanting to sound like an arsehole you’re not willing to do anything to gain muscle because it has been explained before what is required and you’re not doing it. Working out for an hour twice a week ain’t enough.

I am also a drug addict and when I got clean seven weeks ago I weighed 154lb and I’m 6’5”…so like a fucking auschwitz victim. I can’t imagine I had any strength advantage or anything like that would have made it easier for me to progress over you. In that seven weeks I’ve gained 22lb, sure some of it is going to be fat but a lot of it isn’t. My ten rep for bench press has gone up 25% in that time. This has been achieved with just protein powder and creatine.

If you do:

4 x 90 intense minutes weight lifting workout a week separated in to one muscle group a workout (chest, legs, back, core + arms is a good split)
Eat 1g (or close to…nobody is perfect) protein per lb of body weight EVERY day
Smash down as many total calories a day as you can manage, you should be thinking 3000 minimum
Rest up otherwise and get plenty of sleep

…then you WILL get bigger unless you have some sort of muscle wasting disease or digestive disease which you almost certainly don’t as you would have realised.

There is no secret. Work out really hard utilizing progressive overload, eat shitloads including loads of protein, rest up as much as possible when not working out. You are not doing these things.
 
Ok so here's how I looked a couple of weeks ago at probably 5-7 pounds lighter than I am now, that's probably about 170ish at 6'5". As you can see I am still pretty skinny but I'm getting a decent bit of shape on me and I'm not just getting fat.

So far today I have eaten a full english breakfast (sausage, bacon, egg, hash browns, beans, fried tomato, toast), a banana an nutella blondie, a three piece chicken and fries meal....and before the end of the day will have a 50g protein shake and at least another full meal (maybe pasta with meat ragu and a salad). I aim to eat like this every single day, I'm probably on bout 2500-3000 calories and 100g protein already and by the end of the day will probably be around 4000 calories and 170g protein.

It's really simple, not easy but it is simple. Commit to doing these things for a couple of months and I guarantee you will grow.

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THECATINTHEHAT said:
Ok so here's how I looked
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Looking fairly fit and love the tat.
I def get the statement of looking like a camp victim a few months ago in the midst of my own semi-breakdown I looked in the mirror and was like "damn, son, ya need to get your shit together before a wind gust comes along and takes ya to kansas with no toto for a companion". :laughing:
Dropping 90% of sugar intake made a difference in physical appearance but my weight got scarily low. High anxiety and stress will make me lose weight no matter how much I eat.
180 @ 5'10" is my optimal weight and am at around that today.
My highest weight was 230 in mid 90s but was a hard ass mf and a beast with no cares of anything.
Amazing (to me) how we can grow and go through changes when the old addage says a leopard cannot change its spots. That is BS.
Peace
 
Yeah I was about 200lb a few years ago and then relapse caused me to drop right down to about 155lb. Tbf I looked pretty skinny (but very healthy) even at 200lb😂. I reckon I would need to be 220+ before I started looking ‘big’ just because my frame is pretty huge and so it takes a lot of flesh to cover it and start building up. Weighed myself this morning and I was 180, so that’s 26lb gain in less than eight weeks of training and eating properly. I’m aiming to get back to 200lb (but I would expect that might take another six months of this level of work) and then we’ll see what happens from there.

There really is no special secret to it other than that you just have to commit and put the effort in. It’s an every day thing even if you’re not working out on that day, the recovery is probably harder to get right than the workouts. Once you find a routine that starts working it does become easier to then keep on that routine and make gains (before it then starts to get harder again once you reach your body’s natural limitations and diminishing returns kick in).
 
xxsicknessxx said:
Well I use a scale that shows my muscle mass, fat% so assuming the scale works and it does seem to follow my doctor's even more expensive scale she's uses that's like 8 feet tall and it gives you a print out. But so I weigh every day because in waiting for the muscle mass to go up. My weight went up recently so maybe Im missing something. But it seems like I gained fat not muscle recently.
Click to expand...
These scales are bullshit and not worth your time so I would not rely on them at all. How hydrated you are will change your composition results.

I would focus on measuring with tape and even going on how your clothes fit you.

As @THECATINTHEHAT has said, you seem to ask these questions a lot and have been given the answer over and over.

You need to be spending quality time in the gym doing a proper workout. I’d suggest hiring a PT to put together a program for you, show you how to do the compound movements properly and follow that.

Make sure you’re eating plenty of protein and greens. (I’m keto so I do it differently) but you should be ensuring you’re taking carbs around your workout window to ensure you’ve the energy to put into your workout.

Focus on one thing for the time being, if you want muscle then bulk, you’re going to need to eat extra calories and put in proper time at the gym. You will gain some fat but everyone does during a bulk, it’s honestly not that hard to lose it when you do a cut after.

@THECATINTHEHAT has some good advice so I’d listen to what he has told you.
 
+1 for those scales being bullshit. You really shouldn’t be worrying about body fat whilst trying to bulk but if you want to measure it at a later date then get yourself a pair of skin fold calipers.

Like msdiz says though, one goal at a time. Add muscle and strength first, then if you want to lose fat afterwards you can change up your routine and do it then.
 
As other people have said, don't trust the scales too much. And trying to gain muscle while losing fat is very inefficient, it's much better to bulk (gaining both muscle and fat) and then cutting (losing the fat). If your goal is to both gain muscle and lose fat I suggest you continue eating a surplus of calories and then when you are satisfied with your muscle mass you start cutting. Cutting calories now will definitely hinder muscle and strength building

As for routine suggestions, 2x a week is not enough to grow reliably, you should aim for at least 3x a week, ideally 4x. Each muscle group should be worked at least 2x a week to grow, for beginners even a full body workout 3x is great. Another option would be a split like this ABxABxx, where A is a push (Squat, Bench, Overhead Press) day and B is pull (Deadlift, Pull up, Row) day or even a variation like ABxabxx, where A and B are push and pull workouts with high weight and low number of repetitions and a and b are push and pull workouts with low weight and high number of repetitions

My suggestion for exercise is to base everything on compound lifts, mainly Squat, Deadlift, Bench press, Pull Ups, Bent over rows and Overhead press. This will be fine at least until intermediate level. You can add accessory work especially for the arms if you want to see them grow, but this is secondary and they will grow even without.
 
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