Gain weight while losing bf%?

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Hey, I was wondering is it possible to gain weight (as in muscle weight) while losing body fat?

I have some extra fat on me but I'm also pretty skinny/small... and at the same time a bit muscular, hard to explain but I basically don't want to cut because I don't want to lose my muscle and look even skinnier, but I don't want to bulk then cut because I have low-self esteem and can't stand having a lot of body fat.
So is there some way I can balance them both out, to slowly gain muscle while slowly reducing fat or something like that?

I was thinking something along the lines of eating a normal healthy "maintaining" weight diet, doing 3 full body workouts per week and 3 cardio days in between (30-45 mins of jogging)?
 
when you are new to lifting its possible, but otherwise no. for best results id recommend going on a bulking then cutting phase, or the oposite.
But i would bulk (gain weight, most muscle but a little fat too) then cut (loose the fat while keeping most of the muscle)
 
Code, you could bulk up 10 pounds and then cut back 10 pounds and repeat until you have your desired look then you could deside between long bulking or long cutting.. I'll give you an example of how this would work..

100 Pound guy, 20% body fat. Gives him 20 pounds of fat, 80 pounds of muscle

After bulking......
(assuming you gained 9 pounds of muscle, and 1 pound of fat)
110 Pounds, 21 pounds of fat, 89 pounds of muscle
After cutting
(assuming you lose none of your hard-worked muscle)
100 Pounds, 11 pounds of fat, 89 pounds of muscle
The guy with 11 pounds of fat now has 11% body fat. Hes most likely has a flat stomach and he is ready for a long bulking phase.
 
Hm, so maybe I should cut down to 10 percent body fat (don't know my current amount... I'll check it out soon, but id say 12 or 13) then because I look and feel better about myself, but also realize I'm skinny, I'll begin to bulk up gaining a little body fat... but because I've already had this amount of bf% before I don't mind so much + a lot of it will be muscle so it looks better?

I'm 5'5, 120 pounds... would it be ideal for me to lose a bit of fat and go down to 115 then bulk up?
 
tonymcclellan said:
Read this article

Testosterone Nation - The Truth About Bulking
Click to expand...
quote from the article:

So what if you're at 13% body fat and don't have that much muscle? Should you bulk up? No! You should go down to 10% then gradually increase your nutritional intake until you reach a point where you're gaining 1.5 to 2 pounds per month. This will allow you to gain muscle at your optimal rate while staying at 10%.
aha, thats actually pretty creepy as I just asked the exact same thing in my above post. :eek:

Thanks for the very informative article. :)
 
jmanjman47 said:
Code, you could bulk up 10 pounds and then cut back 10 pounds and repeat until you have your desired look then you could deside between long bulking or long cutting.. I'll give you an example of how this would work..

100 Pound guy, 20% body fat. Gives him 20 pounds of fat, 80 pounds of muscle

After bulking......
(assuming you gained 9 pounds of muscle, and 1 pound of fat)
110 Pounds, 21 pounds of fat, 89 pounds of muscle
After cutting
(assuming you lose none of your hard-worked muscle)
100 Pounds, 11 pounds of fat, 89 pounds of muscle
The guy with 11 pounds of fat now has 11% body fat. Hes most likely has a flat stomach and he is ready for a long bulking phase.
Click to expand...

There's more to the body than muscle and fat, j... Bones, interstitial fluid, blood, lymph, organs, for instance :D
 
But the thing with that is, if I cut I'll be 105-110 pounds at 5'5... it just doesn't seem right? :S
 
A junior on my wrestling team is around 5'4 and 112 lbs. but he is probably one of the strongest guys on the team. What BF % are you? Being 5'5 120 isn't THAT bad. 5'5 110 is ok, but I wouldn't go too much lower.
 
Merciless said:
A junior on my wrestling team is around 5'4 and 112 lbs. but he is probably one of the strongest guys on the team. What BF % are you? Being 5'5 120 isn't THAT bad. 5'5 110 is ok, but I wouldn't go too much lower.
Click to expand...
No clue what my bf% is... I'd say around 13%... could be wrong though since I don't have any experience in telling.

Here's my pics though if it'll help you give a range estimate.




and to cut, I should basically decrease my calories by about 500, cardio 3 times a week (no problem for me, I love running), 3 full body workouts a week (5x5 in reps to maintain my muscle?), and low on carbs? (current amount of carbs i get is around 300... would 250 be good or would something more like 200 be ideal? Guess I'd have to re-work my diet first to figure out)
 
Yeah I would say your in the 13-16% range. But it doesn't look like you have that much fat on you. It looks like cutting shouldn't take to long for you.
 
Roughly how long should it take do you think? and how much of my weight that I lose should I expect to be fat and how much of it will be muscle?

And if anyone could answer my last few questions
and to cut, I should basically decrease my calories by about 500, cardio 3 times a week (no problem for me, I love running), 3 full body workouts a week (5x5 in reps to maintain my muscle?), and low on carbs? (current amount of carbs i get is around 300... would 250 be good or would something more like 200 be ideal? Guess I'd have to re-work my diet first to figure out)
Click to expand...
I'd really appreciate it
 
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