Muscle on calorie deficit?

[Thanatos]

After going on caloric deficit for a few months, I've lost a lot of fat. But I still have some around the midsection. Even so, I look extremely thin, like a matchstick.:mad:

It is a dilemma. Logically, I must continue on deficit to lose the final midsection fat. But if I do that, I may become thinner still overall. If I therefore want to add muscle (so as not to look abnormally thin), then I will again add fat to my midsection.

WTF am I supposed to do? I am frustrated. If I lose weight, I look abnormally thin. If I gain weight, it is never muscle but simply fat in midsection. Both options are unappealing.

So the only thing I can think of is continuing caloric deficit (to lose midsection fat) but also doing exercises every day (to add a little definition to NOT appear too thin).

Is that possible at all?

[Sperm-Doll Setsuna]

You are thin, from what you have told. You seem to have a problem in your head relating to your weight and I advise you to deal with this and perhaps try to get help for this instead of trying to train and lose weight when you are at a good weight. This obsession is indicative that you might have an eating disorder, and those are nuffin' to joke about.

[Tenka]

If you have a lot of muscle it'll probably help to burn off any "excess fat" so, if that is your intent, a combination of certain exercises would be in order.

However, as Takayuki implied above, your fixation on getting your body to be an ideal shape could be indicative of an eating disorder, like anorexia. An ideal is rarely if ever healthy to attain.

[BIXX]

^^^ what these two said.

However, if you add calories, and work out heavily, you should still have a calorie deficit but more of it will go to building muscle.

[Tim Cornelis]

There's no need to pathologise either poor self-image or aspiring weight loss / muscle gain necessarily. I don't think the sentiment toward these expressed indicate either anorexia (not wanting to look abnormally thin) or muscle dysmorphia (no obsession with gaining muscle mass). Though it may evolve to that. I don't think your desire to cut down fat is pathological, but I'd wager it's not warranted either.

Exercising everyday is not advised if you want muscle gains since they need 48 hours to recover. If you want muscle gains you need to eat plenty. It will make you gain in body-fat percentage somewhat (or maybe not, depends on how high or low it is now) but at the same time build muscle mass underneath. Once you've accomplished your muscle gain goals, you can focus on lowering your body-fat percentage again. You may not have shredded muscle definition in that period (though that's often not perceived as desirable anyway) and it strikes me as being healthier than bulking and cutting with x months intervals and far far far more productive than trying to gain muscle mass on a calorie deficit. It's an investment.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

If you're worried about putting on fat, then just eat at calorie maintenance (i.e. neither deficit nor surplus) and increase your muscle training programme.

You can increase your protein intake, and the quality of your protein intake (i.e. just using stuff like whey protein, grilled lean turkey breast, poached eggs) and supplement your diet with something like creatine if you want to make sure you're increasing muscular size without increasing body fat %.

As others have said, though, don't stress too much about it. If you're thin and healthy then focus on having a positive body image - i'm sure people will be positive about your body if it's as you've described. See any changes you make now as fine-tuning, not problem solving! :)