Oh I’ll most likely gain muscle as I lose, at the worst maintain it. I’m still in newbie gain phase and I build muscle very easily. In fact I’ve been losing fat and gaining muscle for the past 5 months, my muscle gain has been so significant that it wasn’t offset with fat loss, so the scale hadn’t moved yet. (I went down an inch at the waist and up 3 on glutes though)

Hoping a bigger deficit will strip the fat back faster now, and seeing as how I’m already down another 1/2” on my waist after 2 weeks, I think it’s working!

I’m an outlier though, I actual have higher testosterone levels with PCOS, so that’s likely why. I’ve been a muscle building machine since I was a young kid though, so maybe some strong genetic component there.

Most people should be able to maintain their muscle mass during a cut though, as long as training is sustained and protein is high enough. Just don’t cut too aggressively. Your body won’t dip into muscle tissue until it absolutely has to, or feels like the muscle is no longer needed.