I tried gaining muscle in a calorie deficit last year and I got a dramatically toned body in about 3 months, eventhough it wasn't crazy gains my body still improved significantly. Now I'm returning after a 4 month break and trying it again.
Hey, I just started doing this. I’m trying to be in a significant calorie deficit and the majority of my calories are coming from protein. May I ask how you did it and how you were able to keep it up for 3 months? And how was your energy levels weight lifting?
@@adreesdon’t go on a crazy deficit or you’ll lose muscle mass too try to be in like a 300 deficit from your maintenance calorie and eat plenty of protein per pound 1gram per pound max
I had the love handles and belly forming at the end of last year. I went on a calorie deficit but with gold standard whey protein daily and workouts every 2nd day. I now have a 6 pack and prominent, larger muscles. So yeah it's possible. For me it was stating away from junk food and making sure I never missed a workout nomatter how tired I was from work. In my opinion you're either happy with your body or not.
Great video as always, Layne! I think it really comes down to absolute goals as well. Most untrained males that have a significant amount of body fat don't want to maximize every lb of muscle growth, but they still want to build some muscle while losing fat. So maximizing a recomp with this population always makes sense to me from a logical standpoint. Then, when they've lost sufficient body fat, we can focus on bulking and cutting cycles independently.
February of 2021 I did a DEXA Scan at 56 years old. I've been a lifter since 1975. I was 166 lbs and tested out at 13.9% bodyfat. 5 months later, I got another scan. During the 5 months, I was in a 200 calorie per day deficit. At the time of the test, I lost 3 lbs. and weighed 163 lbs. The test results revealed that I had gained 6 lbs of lean mass and was 9.9% bodyfat.
@@zucc3866 9lbs fat loss. Gained 6lbs muscle = 3lbs weight loss. It’s not rocket science 💀 it’s easy math. (Approx. 30 days in a month x5 months= 150 days. 150 days x 200 cal. Deficit = -30,000cal deficit, now divide by 3,500cal (how many calories needed to lose 1lb of fat) = 8.57lbs lost. Round up to 9 for those months with 31 days. Easy Peasy. Now go kick rocks. Lol.
I know the priority is usually fat loss in the context of physique/bodybuilding performance but I believe a video on fat loss as it relates to weight restricted sports would be a great topic of discussion!
That would be super cool! As a rock climber there's a constant struggle between trying to get stronger but also staying light. A discussion on strength training for those who aren't actually trying build mass per se but simply get stronger would be beneficial.
@@the_rockdoc_ I feel like the most important stenghts there are developed during climbing type training excercises (outside of climbing) and correct body fueling for endurance.
One of the biggest mistakes I did when I decided to transform from a fat slob to a slim lifter was starting lifting AFTER I had gotten rid of most of my fat. I should have started lifting when I was still obese. Wasted a year of gains there.
@pkingslayer Excess bodyfat is like free extra weight in the gym. Spread out across most of the body. If you start lifting whilst being obese, well, a few dozen pounds overweight ideally, you can burn calories and stimulate muscle growth at the same time. You won't build muscles as quickly during a caloric deficit but your body will already adapt to the extra strain and challenge you put forth. There's also the advantage of muscle preservation. If you lose fat during a long-term diet but don't train your muscles enough at the same time, you will lose some of your lean mass as well. So if you only start hypertrophy training AFTER intensive fat loss, you'll first have to spend several months _re-gaining_ muscle mass that you had BEFORE you started losing all that excess bodyfat. In short: Start doing hypertrophy training at the beginning of your diet, whilst still being overweight. Important: Make sure to only use joint-friendly exercises and training equipment for the first year or so. That way, you'll be far less likely to overwhelm & (maybe) permanently damage joints during the timeframe when your sinews and muscles haven't had a chance yet to adapt to a high-stress regiment. I give thanks to Captain Hindsight.
It’s worked for me - detrained and about two stone overweight. Lost all the excess weight in six months and added an inch to both my biceps and chest. Last few weeks I seemed to have hit the wall in terms of available gains from training at a calorie deficit and have started eating more, but - for a limited time at least - it worked for me.
It is deffinatley possible. I started fasting and weight lifting 7 days a week. Whilst also watching my calories. I became obsessive and at one point was only having about 1200 calories a day. Which I don't recommend ( I eat much more now ). I lost like 3 inches in waist size. And a stone and a half. My belly fat is going down. But the scale is not saying I am putting on weight . Despite the fact I look more lean now in my arms and shoulders. At a certain point you start ignoring the scale and start seeing how you look instead.
I did an accidental recomp. On a cut, strict calorie deficit (~500 cal/day), tracked macros, 10k steps, 3x strength training per week, fat loss and muscle gain verified by consecutive DEXA scans two months apart. I was surprised. I am obese but not new to lifting so your category 2.
Makes sense. I am trying to gain strength/muscle in maintenance calories. I have been taking it slow and focusing on hitting my protein every day. So far, so good. You can't beat science, tho.
I'm in a recomp right now; weight is staying the same while I'm reducing body fat and making strength gains. It's not intentional since I'm trying to cut to a lower weight for health, but I just accept it at this point.
Intermittent fasting has been a great tool for my calorie deficit, you still feel satisfied and full during your eating window and have to sacrifice a little during the fasting window, but if has other added benefits so it's overall a good idea if calorie deficit is your goal.
@Sbs Nate When I did IF, I'd overfeed outside my fasts, and it was a serious detriment to my ability to work that I'd be so tired on my fasting days. I've seen results with flexible dieting in that my body fat percentage has been steadily decreasing despite my weight staying stable.
Thanks! I've found intermittent fasting to work well concerning this issue. Not so much "bulk" building but lean sculpting. I also find sufficient energy in the gym compared to other dieting.
I think I related too much to the "bulk then cut" repetitions and getting nowhere that you mentioned earlier. I can put on weight pretty easily and lose it easily too. But, when I bulk, I really don't like getting to the point of not being able to see my abs anymore ~15% body fat. I'm currently trying to cut while being in a deficit but still getting >1g protein per pound of body weight. I don't fit in any of those 3 categories for deficit gainers, so I'm hoping if I repeat this bulk then high protein cut that I can make better long term gains.
@@adrees right now I'm doing ~2200 calories and ~210 grams of protein (at 6'5" 205lbs), with the other macros split between carbs and fat, not paying as much attention to those. I previously didn't do high protein deficits, so I'm hoping this time around I maintain muscle, but it's still too early to tell
When I started a carnivore diet I went down from around 175 lbs to 159. I didn’t go back to a regular diet because I really like the benefits I have seen. One month ago I started lifting weights again and so far I gain 3 pounds of muscle. I hope I keep gaining at that rate. I will update this comment in the future.
I’m in a very similar situation 185 to 158 and I just sent my self into a clean bulk phase cause I want more muscle bad, will let u know what happens, plan to cut in about six months and will have a better bmi
I was able to recomp at 45 as an experienced lifter in a deficit. I’d never really used creatine consistently so I started that every day while tracking a calorie deficit. The creatine helped me gain while I lost fat. It did plateau after about six months but it’s definitely possible. I pretty much stayed the same weight for that six months but got stronger and visibly more jacked.
Thank you, I have been waiting for this video my whole life. I fall in the first 2 categories and I was very confused for years, the info out there is so contradictory
Of course you can. I personally have but also especially when you first start your using your own fat as fuel so there's no reason why it can't contribute to muscle building if your deficient isn't too large. Your not complelty losing body tissue just fat at first and that is your fuel for workouts and muscle building as opposed to outside food.
How much of a deficit is the question ! You can find the Goldilocks area with a small deficit (100-200 calories under maintenance) as long as protein is requirements are met . Mixing few days maintenance will also help keep metabolism up. Add Walking as active rest . It will take a year or more but it can be done ✔️
Yes!!! Because I have multiple times! Now is it a fast muscle gain?..... no, but it still is happening and I am fine with the slow muscle gain. I think most people want to gain muscle way way way faster. But for me I don't care so long as it's gradually happening and I'm not losing muscle.
@@SurfyStories It's not possible for anybody without adequate protein intake. You can get plenty of protein while in a deficit though, and if you're fat you can build muscle while losing that fat. I'm getting like 200g of protein a day on 1400 calories.
@FyreWanderer Yes lots of lean chicken, but other stuff with a high protein/calorie ratio as well. Lean beef, greek yogurt, eggs, protein powders, cottage cheese, etc. I still eat other stuff that isn't as protein rich so I can have a more balanced nutrient profile but it's relative caloric impact is lower. Spinach, broccoli, kale, cucumber, celery, etc. Foods with a decent amount of bulk and nutrients/vitamins but very low calories. Most of them also bring along some protein too, even if it's not as prevalent as in something like chicken breast. I still have leeway to snack on small amounts of other stuff too, like some feta cheese or almonds or whatever I feel like really. A slice of aged cheddar here and there. I'd struggle a lot more if I was just eating chicken breast all day. The variety of stuff makes it okay.
I tore my ACL a year and a half ago, Ive been training for a bodybuilding show thats in 11 weeks, i started 6 months ago. About 16 weeks out from the show i started my deficit. My surgical leg was about 10% smaller than my stronger leg. Ive spent the past month bringing up with weaker leg with unilateral movements, while keeping the stronger leg at maintenance volume. Its now the same size as the non surgical leg For what its worth
I've been strength training for almost 4 months. Never lifted weights before. Went from 260 to 173 since February. I'm at 18.5% body fat. I have no idea how long it's going to take to get to around 14% I've been told this time of year I should go into a calorie surplus. I'm lost. (49yrs old)
I did for a bit, as another comment eluded to About 8-10 weeks of deficit I noticed greater musculature but in the end I’m pretty sure from measuring and weighing in daily that I could maintain size for smaller muscles Biceps for example remained @ 16” for the whole of that experiment but a lat/pec measurement dropped by 20% same with a shoulder wrap measurement approx. 20% I lost about 20lbs and looked bigger I believe now it was more the cutting aesthetic and not muscle growth after the fourth week or so In addition my energy and strength suffered a bit dropping my orm on bench from 265 to 245! Ouch I was 168lbs before to caloric drop and at the reintroduction of caloric surplus I was down to 147lbs As a small guy at 5’8” And 62 years of age Food protein and whey isolate No creatine I still looked good but would prefer to keep the calories and muscle size up
I do it all the time, but you have to keep cycling your activity and eating cycles. You will NOT gain more than small amounts of muscle this way, however, and you will plateau easily. It’s taken me ten years to kinda dial in, and I couldn’t write up how I do it even if I wanted to. It’s more intuitive at this point, and wouldn’t recommend it to most if they asked. I’d point them to a more traditional bulk/cut cycle.
Yes: enough stored energy, permissive amino acid, fatty acid, and micro-nutrient intake, sufficient stimulus with training paired with sleep/rest/recovery; most likely with an overfat, untrained individual with proper diet, exercise, and lifestyle; extremely unlikely for an exotically lean, advanced trainee, deep into a long cut, especially if hormonally tanked by poor sleep.
7 месяцев назад
The last months I have gained muscles and lost fat so yeah, it is possible. Im in the furst category though and ive had around 1.8g protein/kg bw while at 600-1000kcal deficit
I 1000% believe you could have recomped your way there. Over how many years? Absolutely possible. It also sounds like what you did in your earlier years of bulking and cutting was, by definition, NOT even body recomp...? (As you quite clearly stated you gained a ton of fat and so you quickly switched to then cut in a way that lost you muscle mass). Essentially what you said was that you took the approach of bulking and cutting, but simply didn't give either of those phases enough time to effectively work. And then you did and you saw better results. In a nut shell, what we are arguing is - do we want to take the approach of 3 steps forward and 1 step back (experiencing a "fluffy" phase and then cutting back and losing some mass) or do we want to take slower steps that all march progressively forward (experiencing a leaner look year-round). I personally think one consistent year or maximizing protein intake and training hard while minimizing fat gain is both a more sustainable and more enjoyable way to experience my body and my gains journey than this back and forth of excess fat into big cuts.
Yes. It is not complicated. They are two completely different things. Muscle gain and fat loss. Muscle gain is based on your protein macros. Fat loss is based on caloric deficit. This should not be a debatable topic anymore
Thanks for another great video. It would be interesting to hear your thoughts on Perfect Amino. They claim to be more effective than whey protein, claiming that only a small percentage of the whey protein aminos uptake.
I'm 5ft 10 weighing at 67KG (147lbs) BMI is normal range but I am skinny with only fat at my stomach. I want to put on more muscle to fill out my frame. Would it be advised to bulk or cut?
Im overweight 32% body fat, im in a calorie deficit (1700 a day) eating mostly only protein, i was kind of muscley/skinny before i stopped working out in covid (2 years of gym 5 days a week) and im on a first s4 sarm cycle 2 does at 25ml a day (total50mg) - 2 weeks in and haven't lost anything! Q_Q i meet 3 of the first categories and still not dropping. And im working out extra hard, 3rd week of Jeff Nippard workout program 5 day split too!!
It’s almost like no you can’t gain muscle if you have a deficit in body fat itself already and you go on a calorie deficit, but you can gain muscle in a calorie deficit if you’re not body fat deficit already. Hopefully that makes sense 😅
As someone coming in from being overweight, been consistent at the gym for 3 months now (have prior experience too) I'm now sitting at 30% body fat 37% muscles. Doing 2 week bulk, 1-week cut cycles. But I don't want to eat in a surplus even during the bulk because I'm already storing enough calories to feed the muscles and so far it's working, but I feel like I'm reaching my first plateau. So I'm wondering what the science has to say about all this (also I'm a natural lifter and don't intend to juicing I just wanna reach my natural peak)
Hi Layne, I heard over our local news that a new China study linked energy drinks to male pattern balding. Would be keen to hear you dissect it and see if there is any validity to it.
I’m almost certain that when he was 145 lbs he was severely underweight cause 60 lbs of lean body tissue it’s almost unnatural unless you were underweight, cause I’m 150 lbs but I’m 5’5 so I don’t look bad at all but at 17 years old I was 100 lbs wet and was severely underweight, I would only eat maybe 2 meals a day but once I stopped running the streets and stopped doing drugs I gained 25 lbs in like 3 months without ever working out so I believe 125-130 was what I should’ve waited that whole time that I was running the streets(if I wasn’t) and once I started working out in a span of like 7 years Ive gained 20 lbs, so I’m like 8 years I’ve gained 50 lbs but I wouldn’t say that cause I was severely underweight when I gained most of it.
Im an ectomorph, very fast metabolism. Very difficult for me to eat enough calories to be in a surplus to build muscle. On top of that I have a very physical job where I walk for 9-10 hours a day, burning even more calories. I require 4000 calories a day just to be in a calorie surplus. I physically cannot eat that amount of food. Im not sure what to do because I want to build muscle but I feel like I physically no longer can eat enough food to sustain my muscle building
I'm fairly overwheight, try to get at least 180g of protein and strength train 3-4 times a week. Being in a calorie deficit while gaining muscle is still very possible for me. I mentally dread the day I have to bulk to gain more muscle. For me, 1750 cal is my cut while 2100 is my maintenance which really sucks as I can eat A LOT of food but choose not to to reach my goals
Add 10k -15k steps a day every day, in addition, to your strength training and I PROMISE your maintenance calories will fly up through the roof. Your NEAT will more than likely go up, just from getting up and walking around.
It's possible if you have plenty of body fat. If you're extremely lean, then it's probably not possible. But if you have plenty body fat and you want to lose fat and gain muscle, then that is totally possible with a calorie deficit, so long as the calories that you cut away from your diet are not proteins. Protein rich low calorie diet and workout. And you will lose body fat and gain muscle mass.
Impossible for me personally to chase two rabbits at the same time. The level of appetite induced by muscle synthesizing levels of resistance training is simply not worth the, nor do I have adequate levels of frankly, willpower to do so. I would become a very ornery person. In fact I remember seeing a study in young Males attempting to shed fat and gain muscle with adequate protein and the commentary regarding the mood of the participants was notable ….and not good.
I was both fat and a new lifter and successfully recomped over a few years. It took a while to develop the habits, so only in the past year have I been totally consistent both in diet and training. Now I'd say I'm high-beginner or low-intermediate lifter. 2 days home workout with KBs during the week, then a heavy day at the gym on Saturday. It's probably time to focus on distinct phases of gain/cut, but I have a beach vacation in 2 months. Would you suggest cutting for the next 8 weeks, sacrificing some of my possible gains for a little vanity, or just go on a slow bulk and wait until next year? I'd estimate my bodyfat at low-to-mid 20s%.
As a 43 year old, I personally don't recommend eating 10% more calories as it will be harder and harder to get the fat of when you get older. I personally do believe in natural maingaining, of course bear in mind. You may add less muscle than during a bulking phase, but you won't get to fat and have an issue taking of the fat afterwards. Believe me, as a natural lifter, things change after 40, certainly in terms of losing fat
@@benz6217 depends of your goals of course, I want to be muscled and lean, at this point I drift around 17% bodyfat, 6feet tall and 200 pounds, good enough for me however I did notive some strenght gains lately so I did add some extra muscle
Don't let that parrot who is screaming and yelling about "maingaining" on his couch all the time hear that over the long term you need a surplus to build muscle...
Great video 👍 with regards to overweight people being able to do both significantly at the same time, what sort of body fat percentage we talking? Even then would you say it’s much more efficient to do dedicated bulking and cutting phases instead of trying to do both at the same time?
I was at 242 Jan and now about 187 waist size from 40 to 36 but strength lifting dumbells mostly at home not going gym just yet.. and Carlioc deficit as well.. but really do not see the lean mass taking in.. I see the fat lost yes I would assume I was over 30 percent still going down though.
What exactly does "overweight/obese" mean? I think that's the main question. Can you recomp at sub 10% BF? Very unlikely. At 20%? Yeah, could be. After all if you bulk, you also have to cut at some point. Usually people try to bulk as lean as possible, to build muscle without accruing too much fat that they'll have to cut later. Even if a dirty bulk builds more muscle, you will lose some of it during a cut, so lean bulking is better in an overall view. The question is: Can you bulk so lean, that you don't even need to cut? I think you can, if your BF% is high enough that your body has enough energy available.
This is easy af... Get 5lbs of weigh protein, take 2scoops for 60g protein at 240calores immediately after you work out for 1hr in the early morning 7 days/week, Then no fat greek yogurt, get 20g protein for breakfast, 40-50g protein, fish or chicken salad, another 200-300 calories, boom dinner, get another 20-60g protein again... whole folds, 0g carbs unless fat,
Having more slow twitch fibers, does it make any difference ?!! since two months I work legs 3.5 times a week (quads then hams/glutes). I'm seeing a big diffrerence in growth. so about 8 times a month for both side.... and a lot of series, sets from 16 to 5...... my question is, if you've got more fast or slow twitch fibers, does it make any difference ?
Let's be honest from a bodybuilding standpoint most of the population is fat enough to recomp. So the population that can just recomp is actually much larger then the population that needs gain and cut phases. Also if we are talking about general population they can usually get "big enough" without phases. The life expectancy of bodybuilders is pretty shit - so its probably not healthy to do gains and cuts anyway. So why encourage it?
As an advanced lifter (14 years training) what about for example adding muscle to an untrained areas e.g neck, would you still be able to build muscle with that in a deficit if the area is untrained but not the individual?
