Losing weight and muslce

[jbees14]

Hello! I am new to the fitbit community and have been getting back into being healthy and working out. I have been eating right and working out 4-5x a week. My goal is to get toned and gain/build more muscle. The problem I have is that whenver I start working out, I lose weight and dont notice and muscle gain. I  do incorporate protein powder into my diet as well. Any suggestions as to what I could do differently or what I am doing wrong? 

Thanks! 

[Dominique · Accepted solution]

Almost everyone (me included) would want to lose fat and gain muscle. However, it’s very hard to achieve both at the same time in an optimal way: losing fat requires you eat at a deficit, while for optimal muscle gains, you need to eat at a surplus. Secondly, gaining muscle is a very slow process, especially if you are a woman (as you appear to be), or an older guy (like me), even if you are doing everything right. If your priority is to lose fat, you should view resistance training (weight lifting) more as a way to minimize muscle loss than as a way to gain some. What kind of resistance training are you doing?  If you want to get "toned", you should lift heavy (for you): many women are afraid of doing so, for fear they will become bulky (almost impossible, even if you wanted to).

[A_Lurker]

I would have said pretty much the same things that @Dominique said.  If you're new to lifting you may gain muscle a little faster.  However you need to do that with heavier weights, lower rep lifting.  Also, unless you have a lot of weight to lose a modest deficit is probably your best bet.

[jbees14]

Thank you for your reply! I will look into incorporating heavier lifting, you are right that as a women I am scared to lift too heavy as to not look bulky. I've been doing a lot of body weight exercies but do know how to use heavier equipment. I also know that I need to eat more in order to gain muscle as well. My priority is not to lose a lot of weight, as I am not overweight, but at a healthy weight. 

[A_Lurker]

I think a lot of women think that heavy weights is going to get them to the picture in the top left: 

It takes serious commitment, dieting, lifting, and water dehydration (and flexing) to get to that point.  Most women would not naturally get to that point.  In fact, I would say that few women get to that point without putting in a huge amount of effort.  I suspect that most of us wouldn't mind looking like the woman on the cover of this book:  https://www.amazon.ca/New-Rules-Lifting-Women-Goddess/dp/1583333398/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=148444318...

(and she's also in a flexed pose)