Calorie deficient, vs. eating more, I just don't get it?

[Anonymous]

People say that there needs to be a calorie deficient in order for you to lose weight.

However, I also hear that you need to eat more to develop muscles which in turn revs up metabolism and helps in weight loss.

Now, I'm a naturally bigger person, and I'm interested in gaining some muscle because it will help me lose weight and be more fit and healthy and help me maintain my weight loss.

So what is better or do you do both. I'm really confused. Some people say you need to eat less, but then if you are hungry you are starving yourself. Can someone explain this to me?

[whiteberry]

Hey :), so how it works is you want to get about half your weight(pounds) in protein daily. Let's say I am 140, I want to get about 70 grams of protein daily. As long as you are eating good calories for girls, we can go up to about 1200-1400 daily to maintain your current weight, if you want to loose weight you probably will want to try to eat around 1200 or less of good calories. By good calories I mean straight up meat(chicken,steak,fish etc and a good size of green vegetables). You also NEED carbohydrates for your brain, if you do not want to eat a slice of bread, try eating about a cup of brown rice daily. This will give you enough energy to do your workouts and function daily.

When it comes to working out, you should look into doing weights, since you wanna gain muscle, but do not forget the cardio! It is important to keep up with it also. What I used to do was to do weigths about 60 min and then cardio for 30, I was able to shed about 10 pounds and replace it with muscle(5-6 times a week). Since your ultimate goal is to loose weight if your muscles are not already strong enough you will want to look into exercises that will make you gain some muscle, like you said, and after about a month or so, you will want to lower the weigh by a few pounds, increase the reps and speed in order to work the muscles you build up to loose the fat. Do not forget to strengthen your core because it is very important to have a strong core when working out! Also after you have strengthened your muscles, you will want to also do more cardio to reach your ideal weight!

A combination of eating good calories and working out, will get you there!

Also if you want you can check out the Dukan diet, if you go to their website and enter your information they will send you an email with a personalized plan.(ps if you do check it out do not prolong the attack phase by more than one or 2 days than they tell you, you are eating very little carbs during it and prolonging it will cause you to get dizzy and fell faint, true story, happened to someone).

Good luck!

[Daph81]

The point is to eat more, but consume less calorie. You can make this happen by replacing high-calorie foods with fruits and vegetables. Look up "Volumetrics". It's basically focusing on what kind of food takes more space in your stomach, but has little to no calories. An apple, for example, only has 65-90 calories. And you'll feel full after you eat one. So it makes a really great snack, compared to, say, milk chocolate, that has >150 calories for a tiny 25 gr.

I'd recommend you the app Noom Coach, they explain everything about calorie density, etc.

Or you can just make sure you ALWAYS read the nutrition label the next time you go shopping. After some time, you'll know what types of food you need to eat in order to eat fewer calories and still be full.

[MyNameIsJonas]

Its completely dependent on your workout and goals. There's no simple answer and I'm not sure of what kind of diet your already on and what kind of workouts your doing.

Generally you want to eat over your base calorie intake and 1gram of protein per lbs you weigh in order to gain sizable muscle. Give more information about your weight height etc and I can give you a better idea. You should read up on anabolism and catabolism. I have an article on my page that has some information.

Developing a sizable amount of muscle has a lot to do with proper stimulation rather than isolation type movements. You want to do Squats, deadlifts, pull ups or dips. These exercises work multiple muscles and cause proper stimulation for all around muscle growth. Rather than a bicep curl which does not induce much growth nor does it burn significant calories.

[Asker]

Thank you! This is very helpful. I'm currently quite overweight, but I would definitely like to lose weight and also gain some muscle. I don't want to disclose weight on here, because I don't want the negativity and nagging, I know it's bad and I go to the doctor regularly and eat okay. I have a thyroid issue, so that's one of my main reasons for wanting to gain muscle, to help combat my low metabolism. I've got a larger frame body, and I'm 5'7".

[MyNameIsJonas]

If you already over weight stick to long cardio sessions with some weight training 3x a week. I'm not sure if you can do most compound movements yet? The diet portion, Eat less and healthier whenever you can. Don't worry about gaining a lot of muscle just focus on dropping your weight.

[WeaponZero]

Basically here's how it works:

Only someone who has untrained or atrophied muscles can build muscle and lose fat at the same time. Once your muscles have become accustomed to rigorous exercise, you will no longer be able to have both happen together. You must focus on one. Muscle gain requires a calorie surplus. Fat loss requires a calorie deficit. For most women, the amount of muscle they gain during this initial phase where both are possible is enough to satisfy their goals. But that varies from person to person.

Your best bet is this: Focus on fat loss until you reach a healthy weight. You will build a small amount of muscle doing this which MAY be enough to satisfy your goals. At that point then decide whether or not you want to focus on muscle gain.

[Anonymous]

In a nutshell:

If you're gaining muscle, you're gaining weight. If you're losing fat, you're losing weight. Weight gain requires a calorie excess (eating more), weight loss requires a calorie deficit. If you want to lose weight, focus on losing fat but maintaining muscle. When you lose the fat, you will lose some muscle too but you can minimize that loss. Maintaining muscle also minimizes loose skin if you are trying to lose a lot of fat. The cardio will focus on fat loss and resistance training will focus on muscle maintenance.

It's hard to gain muscle and lose fat at once, but beginners can for a short time IIRC.

[Theguyoverthere]

What people do is one at a time hardcore pretty much. They'll cut all the weight they can, then weight train to build up muscle. Or they'll do it the other way around.

[standUP]

Don't be dumb. It doesn't matter what you eat just WORK OFF more than what you consume !