Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsCalorie DeficitProtein & Resistance TrainingLose Fat & Maintain MuscleSet Calorie Deficit GoalHelp With Your Goals
Table of ContentsView All
View All
Table of Contents
Calorie Deficit
Protein & Resistance Training
Lose Fat & Maintain Muscle
Set Calorie Deficit Goal
Help With Your Goals
If your health goals include building muscle while losing fat and excess weight, you may wonder if you can build muscle while in acalorie deficit(when you eat fewer calories than your body uses). You can, but there are some qualifications.
Building muscle while in a calorie deficit depends on getting enoughproteinand using resistance training.This article looks at how you can build muscle while working on weight loss.
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How a Calorie Deficit Works
A calorie is a measure of energy. Your body uses energy even when you’re sitting orsleeping. If you are moving orexercising, you use more calories. When you expend more calories than you take in, you are at a calorie deficit, and that can result in losing weight.
You can safely lose weight as long as you’re still getting the nutrients you need. However, weight loss can include losing muscle mass as well as fat.
Is It Possible to Gain Muscle When In a Calorie Deficit?
If you want to lose weight and still build muscle, it’s possible as long as you find a balance in your routine, which includes:
Protein and Resistance Training for Building Muscle
That amount varies according to age, weight, general health, and activity level. If you’re calculating calories, there are 4 calories per gram of protein.
Effective resistance training stimulates the creation of muscle fibers. First, the exercise breaks down muscle protein, which is called “catabolism.” That causes the tissue to rebuild, which results in an increase in muscle mass called “anabolism.” The gain is greater than the loss.
If you don’t consume enough dietary protein, your body doesn’t have the components it needs to build more muscle.
Any exercise that incorporates working against the force of gravity is resistance training—you want to make your muscles contract. The type and amount of resistance training need to be challenging enough to break down muscle tissue, which stimulates it to rebuild.
When you do resistance training, as with any exercise, it’s important to use proper techniques to avoid injury.
Losing Fat While Maintaining Muscle
If you aim to lose fat and maintain muscle rather than increase muscle mass, you can adjust the amount and type of exercise you do. Resistance exercise is still key to maintaining muscle mass while dieting, and endurance exercise can also help.
6 Nutrition Mistakes That Might Be Holding Back Your Muscle Gains
Setting the Right Calorie Deficit
Drastic dieting can lead to unhealthy muscle loss and other harmful health effects, including dehydration, loss of bone density, malnutrition, and hormonal and immune system imbalances.
This rule of thumb is disputed and depends on many other factors. How manycalories a dayshould you aim for? It depends on age, fitness, activity level, and other factors. A good quality online calculator can help you determine caloric intake for weight loss.
A diet of about 1,000 to 1,500 calories a day is considered a low-calorie diet.Anything under 1,000 calories is a very low-calorie diet and should also be done only under professional supervision. To preserve muscle mass, aim for about 10% to 35% of your diet to be protein.
For comparison, a maintenance diet typically ranges from about 1,600 to 2,400 calories a day for an adult female and 2,200 to 3,200 calories a day for an adult male.
Who Can Help in Setting Your Goals?
Losing weight and building muscle at the same time is possible, but to do it in a healthy way, you may need the advice of a professional. Consider consulting a registered dietitian or a certified personal trainer to help you set effective and reasonable goals.
If you have not been active, have chronic health concerns, or have obesity, talk to a healthcare provider before you begin a program of diet and exercise.
A Word From VerywellWith the amount of contradicting information online, figuring out where to start your fitness journey can be challenging. Working with registered dietitians and certified personal trainers can help clear up misinformation and gear your nutrition and training to your needs.—JONATHAN PURTELL, RD, MEDICAL EXPERT BOARD
A Word From Verywell
With the amount of contradicting information online, figuring out where to start your fitness journey can be challenging. Working with registered dietitians and certified personal trainers can help clear up misinformation and gear your nutrition and training to your needs.—JONATHAN PURTELL, RD, MEDICAL EXPERT BOARD
With the amount of contradicting information online, figuring out where to start your fitness journey can be challenging. Working with registered dietitians and certified personal trainers can help clear up misinformation and gear your nutrition and training to your needs.
—JONATHAN PURTELL, RD, MEDICAL EXPERT BOARD
Summary
It is possible to build muscle mass while at a calorie deficit, but it takes finding a balance between cutting calories, eating sufficient protein, and using resistance training to stimulate the creation of muscle tissue. Slow and steady weight loss while building muscle is the healthiest approach, with protein forming about one-third of your diet.
10 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
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