Something I am unclear on: Losing flab + gaining muscle mass

I am a bit fat right now and wish to get back to the six pack I had. I am also not lifting a great deal so I wish to lift more and get bigger.
Should I pick one goal and really stick to it or attack both at the same time and perhaps miss a workout now and again?

I have read around and know that you CAN do both at the same time but with my schedule being like it is I'm not sure I could stick to it. Will I lose considerable muscle mass if I stick to cardio mainly (and only do things like chinups, no weight squats and pressups for maintaing strength for a few weeks)? I guess that is my main question.
thanks for taking the time to read/reply.

SO i presume you tried just doing cardio for a few weeks too? Did that cause you to lose any muscle/strength?

Completely agree.

The muscles you currently have are easy enough to maintain, much easier to retain muscle than it is to gain muscle. Muscles only tend to get smaller from long term lack of use, malnourishment and extreme overtraining etc. You would do better to include some heavy lifting than to just do cardio, just to keep your strength levels up as much as possible. Cardio will not make you loose muscle, unless you are running daily marathons or something in which you would overtrain, and yes you would loose muscle that way.

Diet slowly, don't starve youself and you will be fine. The guys are talking about protein requirements 1g protein per lb of bodyweight, but I wouldn't worry too much about that. Just eat lot's of meat and fish daily if you are concerned about it.

Any strength loss you may encounter will bounce back very quickly once you stop dieting.

So I'm also confused about this topic as well. Is it still possible if you are slightly overweight to still gain muscle at the same time as losing fat? Or will it take longer than if you just cut then bulk. I haven't been lifting weights very long, maybe a year tops, and before then all I did was cardio and bodyweight exercises.

There is a relationship between body fat levels and the ability to gain/retain muscle.

Generally speaking (in my personal opinion), a bf above 12-15% will not do anything significant in increasing your ability to gain muscle, if you are a pure powerlifter with no aesthetic/health requirements then being higher than this may be worth the 1-2% strength gain.

Going below say 10% you will find it progressively harder to gain muscle

Going even further say below 6% you may find it hard to retain your existing muscle and going lower will may cause muscle and strength loss, this is quite unhealthy.

This is why you won't find BBers with a BF of 0%.

Taking the same individual but with BFs of 12 and 5% for example, the guy at 12% will have a higher TDEE than the guy at 5%. This is partly due to the body being more economical with energy, which in turn reduces recovery ability. It is also more energetically preferable for the body to loose muscle as muscle burns energy even when inactive.

A similar effect can be caused by eating way under you TDEE, which is why gradual dieting, not crash dieting is not recommended.


Scooby’s target audience is the overweight individual; hence his advice is true for the most part. However his advice does not suit the skinny teen who doesn’t understand why he can’t get bigger yet refuses to lose his six pack temporarily.

Point being, bulking/cutting may work better in some situations.

Also Scooby’s calculator is only an estimate, true progress can be measures by taking a workout log tracking strength week on week and by tracking weight loss over a period of time (your bodyweight will fluctuate hourly by a few lbs making week on week measurements meaningless).

Hope that's cleared a few questions