Do I eat at maintenance or deficit to achieve my target physique?

Question

I am a 5'6" tall 31M. I weigh approximately 165 lbs. My waist size is 38 inches. According to the Evolt app, my lean muscle mass is 115 lbs and my fat mass is 50 lbs. So appearance wise, I have skinny arms and legs but I carry a considerable amount of fat on my torso. My goal is to acquire a beach body. More specifically, I would like to stay 165 lbs and increase my muscle mass and decrease my fat mass. However, I am confused about whether I should eat at maintenance or if I should have a caloric deficit for achieving my body goal.

I watched Dr. Mike Israetel's video and he says skinny fat (I think I qualify as a skinny fat person) people should begin their fitness journey by eating at maintenance and exercising 3-4 times a week.

Another popular fitness influencer, Jeremy Ethier says skinny fat people with over 15% body fat are better off cutting and with such a high body fat percentage, such people are likely to gain a little muscle along with losing fat.

I do not know whose advice to follow given my current situation. Please advise.

Answer 1

Both strategies will probably work, but I would go with Israetel's strategy first because:

1. Eating at maintenance calories will ensure you maintain your weight.
2. A beginner at weight training will gain muscle mass at a relatively fast rate.
3. Your body will lose body fat in order to maintain the weight. It won't be as fast as a cut, but it will happen.
4. Finally, and I think this is the most important, eating at maintenance is far easier than cutting. Long-term cutting sucks for everyone regardless of who you are. It has an increased risk of binging or dropping off. I feel that for beginners, the most important thing is to remove as much adversity as possible. You may even be better off not focusing on calorie composition at all and just eating healthier foods more intuitively. This way, you can focus on learning how to train and getting better at that rather than dramatically changing your entire lifestyle.

Just understand that any strategy you choose will take a very long time to reach that "beach body" goal. So patience, learning, and commitment will always be necessary to advance.

EDIT:

Bonus: Dr. Mike is also far more experienced with training clients than Jeremy Ethier. So I imagine he knows which strategy has a better chance of long-term success.