my best advice is: keep going. Dont stop. Your doing great. Remember if you are building muscle mass you ought to get heavier. The scale is not the best indicator for your fitness. Ive even heard this as a reason to go diet only. If “diet” for you means healthy eating, go ahead, but dont starve yourself.

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.

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).

Eating at a deficit makes trying to gain muscle a slow process. If you would like to gain muscle faster, your strategy of going surplus seems right. Keep at it, you are doing the right things and it will show eventually! Additionally, here’s some broad suggestions in case some resonate with you and others.

Diets and regimens work differently for different people. So I would preface everything by - what works for me or someone else may not work for you and you’ll need to do some trial and error to figure out what would work the best for you.

I read somewhere that you count calories to manage weight and exercise to get into/maintain shape. So that’s my TL;DR.

• Weight - Weight will always be determined by calories in, calories out. Your metabolism, macronutrients intake, sleep behavior, activity level, genetics, mental health will all impact how much calories your body consumes in a typical day. When starting off, try to count the calories you are consuming as accurately as possible. Monitor your weight over a few weeks and find your average caloric consumption based on that. Then use this to determine how much calories you should be consuming to get to the desired weight within the desired period.
• Carbs - Avoid too many carbs and definitely avoid high glycemic index carbs as much as possible. This is anything with simple carbs that the body breaks up easily. They are great to give you quick boosts of energy but they also fluctuate your glucose levels, and make you feel hungry sooner. This makes it hard to eat within a caloric limit and gives the unpleasant sugar highs and lows. That said, carbs are a macronutrient so don’t eliminate them completely. In fact they may help when trying to push your body harder in your workouts.
• Proteins - Protein is essential for your body to create and grow muscle tissue. It’s hard to get enough protein for muscle growth just from food sources without messing up total calories so supplements help. Get 25% or more of your daily calories from high quality protein when trying to gain muscle.
• Diets - Some of the recommended diets are intermittent fasting (IF), keto, paleo, vegetarian, vegan, etc. These diets have impacts beyond just your body weight but I would not get into them for this post. For your question, the most important aspect of all these diets is that they make it easier to manage your caloric intake. All these diets would also generally help you get the right macronutrients. I would suggest reading about them, finding what resonates with you and giving some a shot.
• Muscle - Compound exercise weight training with exercises that work multiple muscles, like squats, deadlifts, presses, and chin ups are good for beginners. Form is more important than the weight. Some people can get into very good shape with calisthenics only. Try to avoid machines in the beginning. Weight machines work fewer muscles at a time and don’t contribute to improving balance. As you learn more about your body and the exercises, you can add and modify them to what suits you the best.
• Sleep - Get good sleep and maintain your mental health. Sleep is essential for your body to work its magic of building muscle. And, if any of the above is making you miserable, it will be hard to stick with it for the long term. What even would be the point of looking great if you don’t feel good!

Personally, I’ve never been able to gain muscle and reduce weight at the same time. This means my total muscle mass is not increasing however my body is getting more in shape (which is what I’m trying to do). For some people they are able to gain muscle mass despite losing weight especially if they are just starting out with weight training. Don’t be discouraged if you fall in the first group. Once you understand your caloric intake and body, you can modify your diet and exercise to make it work for your goals.

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.

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.

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.