Yes, you can gain muscle while cutting. However, it may be more complicated than if you were maintaining your weight, trying to lose fat, or trying to gain muscle individually. Regardless, focus on eating a healthy diet and getting enough protein. You will be able to support your fat loss and muscle-building goals.
Cutting is an increasingly popular workout technique. It's a fat loss phase that bodybuilders and fitness enthusiasts use to get as lean as possible. Typically started a few months before a major workout regimen, it involves a weight loss diet that's meant to maintain as much muscle as possible.
I'm assuming that during your cutting phase, you also intend to build a lot of muscle. When you reveal your muscles more after shedding fat, your body tends to look more bulky and chiseled. More fat usually makes your body look “soft” unless you had a significant amount of muscle mass underneath the fat.
If you can sustain a lifting program and eat a caloric deficit, your body will be able to pull from its fat stores to both fuel itself and potentially build muscle mass. Prioritizing foods rich in protein is a key component to both losing body fat and building muscle at the same time.
For beginners, it isn't too uncommon to build muscle while cutting. For intermediate or advanced lifters, maintaining your muscle mass during a cut is often a more realistic goal, and if you are able to train hard enough to actually increase your muscle mass while cutting, then that is just a bonus.
As long as you're using an appropriate volume and intensity in your workouts and maintaining a moderate calorie deficit, you probably won't have any trouble recovering from your workouts, and thus don't need to change anything while cutting. In fact, you may even be able to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time.
The leaner you get, the more body fat you lose, the more your veins will appear to 'pop' out of the skin. There are a few other variables at play (hydration, genetics, muscle mass etc) but assuming it does, this, in turn, gives you the illusion of having more muscle, and thus bigger.
Cutting is nothing more than lowering your fat percentage by adhering to a strict diet plan. This makes your muscle mass more visible. The difference between cutting and a regular diet is that with a regular diet you often lose muscle mass. Cutting is adjusting your diet so that the loss of muscle mass is minimal.
Protein. Protein is the most important macronutrient during a cutting diet. Your body uses protein to build muscle and organ tissue. The combination of weight training and protein is powerful enough to build muscle even when cutting.
If you want to gain muscle and strength as quickly as possible and you're at or below 10% (men) or 20% (women) body fat, then you should bulk. And if you want to lose fat as quickly as possible and you're at or above 15% (men) or 25% (women) body fat, then you should cut.
If you are clearly overweight and have a lot of fat to lose, cut first. As a beginner, you'll be able to gain muscle in the process of losing a significant amount of fat, and lowering your body weight.
While in a growth phase, we typically recommend consuming about 2.2g of protein per kg of bodyweight (1g per pound). However, during a cut, you should actually up your intake slightly, somewhere in the range of 2.3g/kg-3.1g/kg (1.1g/lb-1.5g/lb) (Helms et al. 2014; Ribeiro et al. 2019).
If you currently have a lot of fat to lose, cutting is better than bulking, because it will improve your physique and improve your health. Also, as fat loss can happen faster than muscle can be gained, cutting is easier to stay motivated for.
Should You Train Abs While Bulking? Absolutely! Your abs grow like any other muscle group in your body, which is why you should train them with the same consistency and intensity as you do the rest of your body.
Adding cardio into a cutting phase is not necessary, however, it can help in that it burns additional calories. In some instances, burning 200 calories more a day may be easier than eating 200 calories less per day. That is ultimately up to the individual.
Thus, as long as your body has sufficient stimulus to build muscle mass, which it has if your training program is optimized, it has both the means and the will to build muscle mass while simultaneously losing fat. There you go, muscle growth during a cut.
And one pound of fat contains 3,500 calories. This means that you can lose about 1-2 pounds in a week (16). Next multiply this by 8, and you will get 8-16 pounds. So, that is the answer to your question “How much weight can I lose healthily in 8 weeks”.
Newbie gains is a term used to describe the phenomenon among beginners where they put on an appreciable amount of muscle mass and strength in a much shorter time frame than more experienced lifters.