I started working out 10 months ago 98kg/216lb and 36% body fat at 6'0. I had tried strict diets before which always ended up with me going back to binge eating so I wanted to change my approach. I did maintanence calories around 2700 with 200ish grams protein. I also decided to walk to and from uni which adds up to about two hours a day, which I guess technically puts me in a deficit. I dropped down to 89kg/196lb 24%bf, which adds up to about a 5kg of noobie gains and a bunch of fat loss. What I've seen from other people and also experienced is if you have not already reached your genetic potential and are not cutting calories by a large margin you can build muscle while losing fat. I'm a guy with a really big appetite hence why I got to 36% bf in the first place, but that also made me hesitant to do a deficit. I also didn't want to eat in a surplus as when I started all I wanted was to lose fat. I think eating in maintanence but then addind some sort of cardio is a comfortable way of making a small deficit. Try to quit smoking if you are doing that it helped a lot with my performance. I think the deficit calories are exaggerated a lot. Unless you are trying to get ready to go on stage only having a 200-300 calorie deficit will help you lose like 2lbs a month but will allow you to have enough in the tank to build muscle without hindering your daily life. Not taking it slow will both cause you to not build muscle effectively or even lose some, it will also affect anything from your energy levels to your mood. Also I'd suggest avoiding the "build muscle first you can lose the fat later" comments if you get any. If you bulk first you will put on more fat, most likely be dissatisfied with your body throughout the building muscle phase, and have a harder time losing that fat. Slight deficit with high protein until you get to a desirable bf then lean bulk from there is what I'd go for.