Losing weight while gaining muscles?

[Emevas]

For those 3 studies, there are literally thousands of others that say otherwise, and as you've said, there are tons of variables to be had, such as the experience level of those in the experiments (the whole "newbie gains" thing), what the exercise was, what the diet was, etc etc.

If people wanna try and put on muscle while on a caloric deficit, they're more than free to try.

[Cullion]

Anecdote alert: I managed to 18 months ago when first starting to lift, but the stronger and better conditioned I got the harder it got to tweak out improvements in both directions simultaneously and now I don't try to.

[Emevas]

Yeah, like I said, with beginner gains, a lot of stuff can happen, but once your body stops trying to rapidly adapt to the new stresses, a little more orthodox approach is necessary.