So, for various reasons, for the past 5 months, I have not set foot in the gym. In the beginning, I was nursing an injury (whilst not being completely bedbound, I was still quite inactive), and in the last month, all i’ve done was running.
Today, I went back and did some free weight and machine stuff for 50% of my old 1RM (if that.) not surprisingly, i’ve lost a lot of strength and quite a bit of muscle mass, but also gained around 10-15 lbs of unwanted fat.
I know that the mechanism of muscle memory would enable one to re-gain one’s pre-break muscle size (and strength) very quickly. Thus i’m wondering if a deficit of ~750-1000 cals per day to get rid of this fat, while i’m starting to lift again, would be OK and still enable me to return to my previous shape in a timely manner? Or would you, in this situation, first focus on getting back all the size and strength, and then focus on getting rid of the fat?
I was recently in this situation after a 4 month break. Gaining the muscle back will obviously be a little faster at maintainance or a slight surplus, BUT you’re in a rare situation where you can chase both goals (fat loss and muscle gain) at the same time. With me carrying a couple of injuries I took full advantage of that.
I wouldn’t go into as deep of a deficit as you’re suggesting. I opted for a basic 500cal deficit. This allowed me to see the scale move down consistantly whilst also feeding my body enough for recomp to happen. It was so motivating to have my strength increase every week with the scale going down. I stayed at this deficit for around 6-8 weeks and as soon as I had a session or two where progress wasn’t as fast or as linear as I expected, I’d up my calories by 200-300 to continue losing a bit whilst feeling more energy and have my performance continue rising. Then my body started to tell me I needed a little more and I was back to maintainance. The intensity I could now train at allowed me to continue to look leaner as the last bit of muscle returned. And now, I’m training at a slight surplus with all my muscle back but 10lbs down in fat.
It’s basically a reverse diet. Stay in the 500 calorie deficit until your body starts giving you the signs it’s not enough (reduced performance, poorer sleep, hunger spiking, increased irritability), add a little bit back in. Ride that out for a bit, add a bit more.
Otherwise, you could just go into a surplus, get the muscle back quicker and then run a 4-6 week mini-cut. Which of these sound better to you will be subjective, no choice is wrong.