[Doug Funnie II]

Its a good question and truthfully if you're just starting out, you probably will gain muscle while losing fat for the first few months. When I first started lifting I was definitely at a calorie deficit and I gained around 15 lbs my first year with nothing besides whey protein as a supplement. I wasn't lifting very heavily during that period of time and was almost never pushing myself to failure, but if I had I probably wouldn't have gained much weight if at all. So basically I would say based on my own experience, if you're starting off lifting and really want to lose fat and build some muscle then you could still be very satisfied with the results that you'll achieve. If you've been lifting for awhile or you like to lift heavy (4-8 reps going to failure) then a calorie deficit will really hurt your gains, in fact you could get smaller and weaker.