possible to gain weight/lose fat/gain muscle?

Here's the story: I'm underweight. I'm 5'4" and 96 pounds and want to get that up to at least 100 pounds.

Around July, I was 100-ish pounds and was happy with the way I looked. I was running 6 days a week and doing light strength training 3-4 times a week. I could've kept on like this, but the problem is I wasn't eating enough to fuel working out that much and ended up losing too much weight.. not to mention feeling like crap!

Two weeks ago I stopped running and started eating maintenance cals because I knew I couldn't afford to lose any more weight. My mood improved as well as the condition of my skin & hair, and I was feeling generally better. I stayed around the same weight, and decided I needed to gain.

The problem is, I think stopping the exercise was a mistake. Maybe it's all in my head, but I really feel like I'm bigger--like I've got more fat in certain places of my body, particularly my thighs. I feel like I've maintained my weight, but lost some muscle and put on some fat. I know I can't afford to lose any more weight, but I don't want to gain muscle and end up looking even bigger.

My question is, is there any way I can lose fat and gain muscle at the same time? Obviously I'll be gaining weight like this because muscle weighs more than fat--I just don't know how to go about doing this :/ Should I just keep running/doing light strength training and getting 1500 net calories a day and see how that works out? Do I need to eat more in order to gain that muscle? Do I need to lose weight/the fat first? How do I lose the fat? Is there a way to ensure that not a lot of the weight I gain will automatically be fat? Gah I'm so confused and this is probably a bit unclear, so ask questions if you need to, and any help will be much, MUCH appreciated!

Did you continue doing strength training? How much running were you doing? Maybe try 3x a week weights (forget light ;)) and 3x a week cardio (not killing yourself, but to keep up with exercise), on alternate days? It's a bit hard balancing the two, since to lose fat you have to eat less calories and to gain muscle you have to eat more calories :) One way people work around it is to eat more calories on workout days...but that's for people who are trying to lose weight, so I would maybe try upping the calories to gain some weight with muscle.

Just briefly, I think it would be a mistake to work on losing fat at this point. Focus instead on gaining wegiht "any way you can" and also use weights.  From my own experience (not as thin as you but similar situation) weight redistribution will happen on its own and getting some muscle bulk in there is key.

And yes, you do need to eat more, both to gain actual weight as well as to fuel your activity.  I don't know how old you are, but I'm 17 and eating 3000 cals along with vigorous workouts.

Hope this helps, and congratulations on moving toward healthfull-ness.

Being female, it's practically impossible for you to get bigger due to great muscle gain.  And if you are still eating at maintenance level with no deficit or overages, it's absolutely impossible.

In order to maintain or gain muslce, which is desirable, slow down on the cardio, running, and increase the weight lifting.  Also, eat a high protein, lower carb diet.  A ratio of 40-40-20 of carbs, protein, fat will give the muscles the protein they need to develop. 

Developing muscle will help you burn the fat.  You will end up being a healthy lean.  Yes it's true you could gain wgt but keep in mind you will be gaining muscle wgt and not fat weight.  It's possible you could end up actually weighing more but losing inches and actually measure smaller.

Try upping your protein to 100g per day...That's 1g per lb of body wgt.  Seriously cut back on the running/cardio and increase your calorie intake to maintenance level which I'm sure is way above 1500.  Check out what your total "burn" is each day and eat that much in calories. 

If there's a Walmart near you, they have the best protein bar that I eat everyday.  It's in the diet supplement aisle and it's called "Pure Protein."  I love the S'Mores flavor and it has 19g of protein!  Also, much on some raw almonds...they have the good fats your body needs and lots of protein.

To further illustrate my point, I'm 5'3, weight 129 lbs but wear a Size 2 and I don't mean the new vanity size 2's but the size 2's from 5 years ago.  I guess now they would be a size 0....  I'm an avid lifter and have lost (which you don't need to do) 48 lbs and 57 inches.  Nobody believes I weigh as much as I do cuase I'm very compact, no jiggle fat.

Congrats on aiming for a healthier wgt.  At 5'4 you could easily afford another 20+ lbs and if added properly, you'll be healthy and look fantastic.  Good Luck :)

In addition to cutting back on the cardio and lifting weights 3x a week, you must also eat MORE than your maintenance calories.  Remember, "maintenance" means maintaining your current weight.  All the weight lifting in the world won't put an ounce of muscle on your bones unless you eat more than your maintenance calories.  I would start with just 100 cals a day more than maintenance for a week, and then work up until you are at least 500 cals a day above maintenance. 

Also, as the other posters have said, you have to eat lots of lean proteins.  Muscle is made of protein, and it can't be built without the available materials.  Add some more eggs, cottage cheese and meats to your daily calories - get at least 100 g of proteins a day. 

You're going to LOVE how you feel when you get some more strength!! 

Personally I have found that keeping a very fresh whole foods high protein diet and a low calorie intake for the day, 1200ish.

+ Cardio

+ Yoga

is awesome.  remember to drink a lot of water as well. it will help keep you hydrated and feeling well.

also your mood might have something to do with a lack of Iron + vitamin B... perhaps you need to take a supplement?

first, a theoretical answer for a general audience:

this question (is it possible to gain muscle + lose fat at the same time) has been addressed in these forums before.  if you're curious, you can check it out here (some very good answers):

http://www.calorie-count.com/forums/post/6268 8.html (if you don't want to read the entire thread, check out responses #7 + #10)

here is an article by tom venuto (thank you tgpish!) explaining why it's GENERALLY not possible:  http://www.gain-weight-muscle-fast.com/lose-f at-gain-muscle.html

now we turn to you, Gloria :-):

having looked at some of your old posts, i see that you're a teenager with a history of intentional, dangerous under-eating.  i've also looked at your pix.  my daughter is a bit younger than you, but if she were as thin as you were at 100lbs, i would still be incredibly concerned. 

focusing on weight gain should be your primary concern right now.  you need to go by your results: if you are losing weight quickly at 1200 calories, that means that 1200 is not nearly enough calories for you (any estimate that this site or any other tells you that you need in order to maintain your weight is A GUESS, nothing more than that.  to use my daughter as an example, she is a bit younger, and a couple inches taller than you [she is not very active], but she needs around 3000 calories/day to maintain her weight, which is around 115 - this site gives her an estimates of 1600-1900.  however, she is naturally an ectomorph, which you may not be)

it is almost a certainty that you have lost significant amounts of muscle through your weight loss efforts.  right now, while you're still a teenager, is the ideal time to try to get some of that back.  the easiest way to re-gain muscle is to eat a relatively mild calorie surplus (start small - 300-500 calorie surplus/day, keep adding calories until you start gaining muscle) and do HARD resistance training (weight-lifting). 

if you want to MINIMIZE fat gain (which, imo, should not be your goal right now - if you were my daughter, i'd be making sure you were eating enough to gain some fat), eating clean can help.  you will need to experiment, weighing yourself + testing your body fat, to see how many calories you need to gain significant muscle without gaining an amount of fat that you're uncomfortable with)

more than 90 mins of cardio/week will significantly impair muscle growth.  when you do cardio while underweight + in a calorie deficit, you're likely burning away your muscles - a VERY bad thing.

i've also been significantly underweight (owing to illness, not ED) - if i were you, i would first boost calories to whatever level you find is necessary to maintain.  once you are steadily maintaining, boost calories even higher and start weight-lifting (low rep, high weight; stick to high-value, compound lifts: squat, deadlift, benchpress, standing military press, dips, rows, pullups/chinups).  gain back your muscle.  if people OTHER THAN YOU (since your body image seems distorted) think you've gained too much fat, drop to a VERY MILD calorie restriction AND continue weightlifting (if you don't, you will likely lose your muscle again).

since it seems that there is a problem in your mind that prevents you from having a normal relationship with food/your body, if you are unable to resolve it on your own, please seek help.

whoa! lotta responses. alright..

vicereine--yes, I kept up with the strength training while I skipped the cardio, and when I was doing cardio I always ate back my calories.. if I didn't, I'd lose weight. Your plan seems to be best, though.. but exactly how much cardio should I aim for now?

cat-girl--you situation realllly eases a bit of my worry, as I was afraid I'd gain all the weight back in my thighs >< haha. I've also heard that if you gain more muscle your body burns fat more easily, so gaining muscle would be beneficial in that respect as well.. though I'm not sure how much truth there is in that.

jem599--I think I may have gotten bigger by losing some muscle and gaining some fat, though I'm not sure how much running contributed to my muscle gain in the first place.. does running help build leg muscles, or was it the light strength training I was doing? And about the 40-40-20 diet, I was told I'd need more fat than that in order to get my period back :/ And it's difficult for me to find out how many calories I need to maintain, because I'm maintaining 95 now on 1500 whereas before I was maintaining 120 on 800! I agree that I shouldn't be afraid of the numbers on the scale, but I just don't want to gain weight in fat.

andesite--yeah, I'm aware that I should be eating more than maintenance.. I'm just not sure how much more I should eat without having a lot of my gain be fat!

aurevoirchocolate--thanks for the suggestions, but I know that I'd lose on 1200 even with a lot of protein--and that's one thing I do not want to do!

erinzz--so the bottom line is I should work on gaining muscle AND fat first, and then lose the fat? And I've been hovering around 95-96 on 1500 calories, so how much more should I eat? Should I keep my percentages the same [55% carbs, 25% protein, 20% fat] the same, or eat more in protein, or.. does it matter? Aaahh I'm just at a bit of a loss here! Thanks for all your help though.. you really cleared up a hell of a lot!

hey Gloria: a lot of ?s, one at a time:

And it's difficult for me to find out how many calories I need to maintain, because I'm maintaining 95 now on 1500 whereas before I was maintaining 120 on 800!

presuming that there are no newly developed medical conditions that would alter your metabolism or ability to absorb food, your the reason you were maintaining 120 on 800 (when now you’re maintaining 95 on 1500) is because you were likely in ‘starvation mode’ back when you were at 800:  this sort of calorie restriction, where you are eating so much less than your body requires, causes your metabolism to drop to a snail’s pace.  so, now that you’re eating more, the 1500 at 95 is your “true” maintenance level for the weight at which you’re at now.  as your weight rises, especially if a good chunk of that weight is lean body mass (i.e. muscle), your maintenance calories will rise.

I'm not sure how much running contributed to my muscle gain in the first place.. does running help build leg muscles, or was it the light strength training I was doing?

well, it’s highly unlikely that you were building significant muscle through running.  generally, running (or other cardio exercises) can sometimes help people gain a small amount of muscle during the first few weeks, but not very much.  in your case, you were likely burning muscle, not building it, since you were eating at a calorie deficit (as shown by the fact that you losing weight), and cardio is particularly likely to burn muscle when you’re in an extreme deficit. if ANYTHING helped you build leg muscle [again, unlikely – with such calorie restriction, your best hope could’ve been to preserve the muscle you had at the time, not build more] at that time, it would have been strength training, but since you describe it as “light” [what leg exercises were you doing?], it’s unlikely that you were even preserving the muscle you had then.  FYI, it IS possible to gain strength while losing muscle.  the only way to know whether you’re gaining or losing muscle is to know your weight AND your body fat percentage.  for example, if you weigh 100 lbs, and you’re at 25% BF, that means you have 75 lbs of lean mass (which includes much more than muscle – e.g. your bones) and 25lbs of fat.  if you lose 2 lbs, so you would weigh 98lbs, and are STILL at 25% BF, that would mean you have 24.5 lbs of fat and 73.5 lbs of lean mass; so you would have lost only 1/2 lb of fat but you would have lost 1.5 lbs of lean mass – a real catastrophe for someone like you.  measuring your BF% is essential, especially since you likely have a distorted body image.

eating more calories on days you lift + fewer calories on days you don’t won’t make a damn bit of difference given your goals: to gain muscle, you need to be in an anabolic state (which also means you’ll put on some fat); to lose fat you need to be in a catabolic state (which also burns muscle + makes building significant new muscle nearly impossible) – it takes time to switch from one state to the other + all that is ‘wasted time’ (which is why zig-zagging is SO slow + inefficient, and is best for those who are VERY close to their goal).  muscle is not built WHILE you’re lifting; it is built while you are resting afterwards, so eating fewer calories the day after you lift (your maintenance level or a deficit) is counter-productive. if you are going to eat more on days you lift, that should be because you’re eating a big post-workout meal, but don’t eat less on days when you’re not.

imo, the better course for you is to focus on gaining muscle until you have a reasonable amount, and only then, if you’re unhappy, do you focus on losing a bit of fat WHILE preserving your muscle.  re-read the venuto article for why this is necessary.

you need to accept that you need to gain muscle, and that some fat will come on with it.  will it be “a LOT” of fat?  hopefully not, based on your goals, but i wouldn’t even start worrying about that until you’re at a weight + BF% that allows you to menstruate.  it’s likely that you NEED more fat than you have now.

how many calories do you need?  how much protein?

nobody can know that but you!  every person is an ‘experiment of one’.  here’s what you can do: raise calories by 300-500, lift HEAVY, not light, weights for one week – then take your weight + BF%.  SEE how much muscle + fat you’ve gained.  if you’ve only gained a small amount of muscle, raise calories by another 200-300 or so – keep raising calories until you find the level at which you’re gaining muscle at a decent rate.  then, if you think you’re gaining too much fat with it, try lowering calories a bit + see if you’re gaining muscle at the same rate.  if so, you can leave it there.  that’s the process: constant tweaking.  unfortunately, common, cheap, easy-to-do-yourself measures of BF testing are not so accurate that you can trust that whatever numbers you’re getting are correct.  but, you can PRETEND that they are, and over time, you’ll see changes in your body based on the changes to your diet + know whether they were good or bad.

same with protein: most people who seriously build muscle recommend at least 1g/day per lb bodyweight.  but individual variation is huge: YOU may be able to do it on .5, or you may need 1.5.  so, maybe start at 1gm/lb: that would be 95 gms = 380 cals from protein, which will put you, if you’re eating 1700 cals, at about 22% - try that for a week or two, and see how it works!  then try raising protein a bit, keeping everything else steady (same workout routine, same # calories): if you get better results, keep it there!  if your results are no better on, e.g. 1.5 or 2gm/lb/day, go back to 1.  too MUCH protein won’t harm you, assuming that you drink enough water, are in good health + don’t have kidney issues.  but protein is expensive, some people (e.g. me) would prefer not to eat any more than necessary.  if that’s the case for you, you can try lowering it + see if you get equally good results (again, keeping everything else steady).

lastly, please consider the possibility that your body image will distort this process.  go by the numbers, not how you THINK you look.  if you can’t do that, it’s time to get help.

regarding cardio: it’s probably ok for you to do SOME cardio while building muscle.  no more than 90mins/week.  you claim that you were eating back calories from the running.  you weren’t eating back enough.  how do i know? because you lost weight!  again, don’t go by what a website or a machine (e.g. treadmill) tells you regarding ‘calories burned through activity’ – that’s nothing more than a guess.  an easier thing to do than try to figure out how many calories you burn per half hour (or whatever time period of activity) is to figure out how many calories you need per week (based on the method given above) while doing a given amount of cardio and lifting, and eat that amount per week, approximately divided between days.  there are a number of ways you could vary this, but you’ll have to figure it out through experimentation whether they work FOR YOU.

but why would you be doing cardio?  what’s your goal?  what benefits do you think it will give you?  that will determine whether you SHOULD be doing it or not, for right now.  it may be that until you get your weight up, any intense cardio will be counterproductive.  take a walk instead!

Revolution, I think that Erinzz has some good suggestions for you! But, I will say from my own experience that you shouldn't get too caught up with figuring calorie burn, body fat, nutritional requirements, precisely planned activity, etc.

 First things first! You do need to gain weight, and ofcourse we'd all like to gain more muscle than fat - I think that just following a sensible exercie program can do that for you. It sounds like you're already an active person with a good attitude about gaining muscle. It was because of the promise of getting stronger that I was willing to gain weight when mine dipped too low - so I think you're on the right track!

I think that working with weights will be great for you now, but remember that you can't gain muscle unless you're eating enough (i.e. calorie surplus) to fuel muscle gains. While you may be maintianing your current weight on 1500, you'll need to go up, probably considerably, to gain weight + gain [feed] muscle.

I think you're doing great!