I’ve curious with this due to trying to build muscle while also cutting extra body fat.
Say if you hit 1g of protein per body weight while your also in an overall caloric deficit can you still build the muscle or would it just be maintaining?
I understand it won’t be as efficient if you broke into a bulking and cutting phase.
Yes. But the key is to be in a smaller deficit.
For example, instead of eating 500 calories less per day, you’d aim for 250 calories less per day. It’s kind of tricky because you do have to that sweet spot between being in a deficit, but also enough to support muscle growth. It’s also a slower process
Other people have done recomps, (recomposition) which is where a person maintains their weight, but loses body fat and gains muscle. It takes hard work and again, a slow process
Yes.
While protein is still calories your body uses aminos as a last choice behind carbs and fat. It’s metabolically expensive to convert aminos to glucose so your body will use every other available energy source first. Protein synthesis is always prioritized by the liver.
Absolutely you can; a classic example is ultramarathoners. Keep in mind that you are maintaining metabolic flexibility by working harder in this fashion. Hypertrophy is easier with insulinogenic diets but it is a bit of a zero-sum game. If you’re doing it for yourself, there is nothing wrong with a balanced approach.
Your body will change. So it might not look like you are becoming muscular. But your overall body composition will be changing slowly and over the duration you keep up the training for. So ultimately you will be left with a leaner, stronger, more muscular looking body. The reduction in body fat and training of the muscles will make you appear more muscular than if you ate in a surplus and trained.
Generally speaking with an all meat diet you would still burn more calories than average for the simple fact that meat has a thermal affect on the body making it heat up causing you to burn more calories, Meaning you could still be in a calorie deficit while Intaking a huge amount of protein. Don’t cut carbs completely though or you’ll have no pump in your workouts and you’ll feel real slow and drowsy. For the deficit your looking for ide say a 20/80 split 20% clean unrefined carbs like rice or broccoli. And 80% lean game or beef. If your looking for less fatty meat go with fish or chicken. Your body does need fats. Without them it can cause sleeplessness itchy skin and can cause your hair to fall out. So personally ide add 6 grams of avocado a meal.
Edit- Recent studies have shown that your body will waste most of the protein you consume so ideally the best window to get protein in after a workout is 10-14 grams every 1 1/2 hours for the next 5 hours. Of course this was a small control study of only 80 people the evidence is promising.