Can you lose a ton of muscle if you're enhanced on a deficit?

[Hdrol916]

I don't expect to gain muscle, but let's say I eat~220g protein a day at 1800 calories. If I burn around 3000 a day, will I lose muscle?

Stats:

6'0, 229, 22.6% body fat (bod pod) and 8 years experience (first cycle though)

 

[Hdrol916]

What's your cycle?

Halodrol

 

[MrKleen73]

More than likely you will lose some but not a ton. Doing some intermittent fasting a day or two of the week while eating maintenance the rest of the week is more likely to preserve more muscle mass while producing similar weight loss. You may even be able to gain some muscle in that scenario.

 

[klbsa]

More than likely you will lose some but not a ton. Doing some intermittent fasting a day or two of the week while eating maintenance the rest of the week is more likely to preserve more muscle mass while producing similar weight loss. You may even be able to gain some muscle in that scenario.

^ This…… if you intermittently fast every other day you would do well. That being said, Earlier this year I was able to gain 5 lb of mass and still drop 7% BF at 1400 cals a day in less than 2 months. The key is to eat clean AF.

 

[Nac]

Unless you genuinely have some timeframe you need to reach your goal by, a possibly better strategy (if you are limiting PED use to 6-8 weeks) would be NOT to jump into such an aggressive deficit straight off, but start at a 10-20% deficit of yourTDEE and ride that out naturally until you hit around 16% bodyfat and then jump on the PED and go more aggressive (40% TDEE).

 

[KvanH]

I was going to say something similar, as Nac said. Generally - enhaced or not - starting a cut with a huge deficit is a bad approach, due to multiple reasons. If your calorie expenditure is truly 3 000 kcals, then I would start cutting at 2 500 kcals, for example. And track progress and decrease calories, as you proceed.

It's tough to say anything definitive, if one might/will lose muscle on a cut, wether enhanced or not. But I'd say it's very likely for you to not lose any muscle, if you do things well. As you have quite a bit to lose, you don't have to starve yourself to lose fat, at least for several weeks in the beginning. I would start with reasonable deficit, go trough the first 'easy' weeks without gear (like 4-6) and then add in the PED's and continue the momentum, while adequately dropping calories.

 

[UnrealMachine]

You sound overly concerned about losing muscle
Your fastest progress will be to embrace outright cuts and bulks
And the best utility of AAS at your experience level IMO will come from the upside Ie the bulk. Any muscle you lose you can put back on immediately on cycle.
AAS on a cut have more value once the low hanging fruit is gone as others have mentioned