**Edit 3: This is OP’s question: “Is it possible what weight in fat I am loosing is made up for with an increase in muscle mass?”
OP couldn’t have lost 4-5 inches in his waist which is probably 20+ lbs while gaining 20+ lbs of muscle mass in 3 months. That would be the amount of muscle he would have to gain in order to maintain his starting weight. You guys are answering the wrong question. You’re only answer if a person can lose weight and gain muscle at the same time. Which is yes, that’s possible . What he wants to know is if he can gain the equivalent of 4-5 inches of waist size in muscle in order to be at the same weight he was 3 months ago.**
Probably not. Here is a recent video by Jeff Nippard on gaining muscle mass, both naturally and with steroids. He gained 20 lbs of muscle in the first 5 years of bodybuilding.
If you really have lost that much fat from your belly but have remained the same weight, I’m going to say it may not be from gaining the same amount of weight in pure muscle.
I’m currently 40 lbs heavier than I was 5 years ago. I’ve also increase 4 pant sizes. I don’t know if that correlation is typical but I don’t think you’ve gained 40 lbs of muscle while losing 4 inches of belly fat.
It’s not easy to gain that much muscle naturally.
Edit: Is this really how Lemmy is? Just people who don’t know what there talking about just giving answers while down voting people providing some actual science behind gaining muscle?
Edit 2: This is my personal experience with gaining muscle/losing fat.
My 5x5 personal best completed within 3 months of lifting. 3-4 times a week. Eating ~.75 gram protein per pound of my bodyweight while eating well and supplementing creatine. Each exercise started with just the 45 lbs Olympic bar. Adding 5 lbs to each lift on the next routine.
Deadlift: 255 lbs - 25 total reps. Squat: 235 lbs - 25 total reps Bench: 175 lbs - 25 total reps Overhead press: 115 - 25 total reps Bentover barbell row: 155 - 25 total reps
-fat +muscle= a negative of ~15 lbs at the end of 3 months.
I most likely lost ~20 lbs since I went down 2 inches on my waist. That means I probably gained about ~5lbs of lean muscle.
In other words I didn’t gain 20 lbs of muscle even when trying my hardest.
The science was literally in the video I linked.
The anecdotal evidence was to support that I actually have some experience with trying to gain muscle while losing fat.
Everyone else is just giving opinions(probably from hearing someone else say it on Lemmy, a fitting name I guess) without any science or in the very least anecdotal evidence of them even attempting to gain muscle mass while losing fat.