Gaining weight on energy deficit

[Sihartist]

Hi doctor!

First, I want to start by thanking you for your help in a previous post about my mom experiencing back pain after DL. It was very helpful and she is now back to training pain free.

Secondly, I used to believe it was impossible to build muscle hypertrophy on a deficit as you always say. Recently, I was reading this course that says that stored energy doesn’t correspond with bodily mass and if you program your training well you can lose fat and gain muscle at the same time even in trained individuals.
And it gives the following example: (see picture attached)

And it also mentions this study (and a few others) : Effect of two different weight-loss rates on body composition and strength and power-related performance in elite athletes - PubMed

I see the logic in this but why would the body choose to use the protein for building muscle and not turn it into energy since you are on a deficit? Why would it choose to use fat storage for protein synthesis and energy instead? Can you really achieve this by optimizing your training?
Can you please give me a little help:)

Thank you so much for your time!
Siham

[Jordan_Feigenbaum]

@Sihartist

Secondly, I used to believe it was impossible to build muscle hypertrophy on a deficit as you always say.

I don’t say this.

@Sihartist

I see the logic in this but why would the body choose to use the protein for building muscle and not turn it into energy since you are on a deficit?

Because other energy sources (carbs and fat) are way more efficient for creating energy than protein.

@Sihartist

Can you really achieve this by optimizing your training?

You’re asking can you gain muscle and lose fat mass at the same time and the answer is yes. It happens more significantly when people are untrained and overweight. Most folks who are well-trained and not overweight won’t be able to gain significant muscle or lose significant amounts of fat trying to “recomp” and it gets very inefficient.

I think the training certainly matters, but not that much provided we’re limiting training to something adhering to general exercise programming principles.

[Sihartist]

Thank you doctor for your response,
So if I understood well, working on bulking and cutting phases is way more efficient, and gaining muscle at the same or higher rate than you are losing fat is just not possible in well-trained individuals.