Anybody who gained muscle and lost weight(fat), how did you do it?

Recomp, it's slowwww. Here's my journey so far doing a bit of what you described. Hope it helps with expectations.

I had a lot of weight to lose and not sure what my goal was besides shedding fat at the start. Midway through my journey I realized muscles were cool and focused on that.

I (5'10"M) went from 330 to 260 with a standard caloric deficit with some cardio mixed in from March - October 2022. Weight came off fast but my body needed a break.

Started weightlifting at maintenance/ slight caloric surplus at the very start of November 2022 up until March/April 2023. I gained about 10lbs during this timeframe. Wasn't intending to gain weight, but I was sooooo hungry from the weightlifting.

With the amount of fat I had it was hard to notice gains and definition until about 3-4 months in. 6 months in it was much more apparent to myself and other people. I was doing a 6 day PPL routine the entire time. Shoulders, back, and arms became my main visual indicators that everything was working. Strength gains were increasing as well so I knew I was on track.

From April until now I started a cut and dropped from 270 down to 250 and the muscle definition is way more noticeable now. My strength gains have slowed down dramatically on this cut though. I'm at about a 600-800 calorie deficit. Recovery time is definitely longer as well.

The 6 months 'recomp' pause was great. It let my body catch up and I think it even gave my skin a chance to catch up. Muscle filling in the gaps definitely helped too.

2 months is definitely short. Keep grinding and it will snowball into bigger changes.

I got a gluten intolerance and then a job in a warehouse. I ended up doing a ton of heavy lifting and eating high protein because i couldn't eat anything else.

First off, hats off to you for putting out the effort to start taking care of your health. I've been someone who has lost 20kgs at one time and have gained 25kgs in another time.

The two most important things that a person getting into fitness should take care of are: 1.) Discipline: Do NOT miss a day of exercise. If you're going to a gym, make sure you show up every day. If you go running in the park make sure you get up and run no matter what. Do it ONE day at a time. Don't do it to reach a long term goal of gaining muscle and losing fat, do it for the daily goal. It is important that you be disciplined, even if you are giving 10%, just do it! 2.) Mindful Eating: You don't have to do fancy diets, or gulp down drywall just to get into the shape of a greek God. Just be mindful when eating. Get into the habit of mindful eating.

These are the two most important factors. Now, once you've nailed these two down, all you have to do is tweak your daily habits to add specific exercises and eat calculated amounts of food to reach whatever goal you want to achieve!

Good luck pal!

What lifts are you doing?

If you focus on compound lifts (bench, chin-ups, squats), and push them to your limit, you will burn an insane amount of calories.

• Hey - a lot of lifters would love to be in your position (you already have additional mass to convert to muscle!)

As for losing weight - my buddy lost 35lbs in 6 months, just by eating paleo (all natural foods).

On top of that, if you go for a full-sprint every day (or a mile jog), it will kick your metabolism into another gear.

Slowly? Eat right and lift progressively heavier weights. You'll eventually end up where you want to be. Consistently working out is the most important thing.

For what it's worth, I'm old af so at this point my routine is basically an oly lift main with accessories 3-4 times weekly.

Seems to be working (at least until I fucking hurt myself).

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).

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

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.