Losing fat without burning muscle

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  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
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    PAV8888 wrote: »
    Ah. But you are going to have to calculate for yourself where you will get the most bang for your buck.

    A long bulk and correspondingly steeper cut with more lean mass lost during the cut; or less time bulking because you spent more time cutting but lost less lean mass as a result.

    Or get all scientific and explore eating during a tight post workout period hoping to generate an anabolic period among a mostly catabolic day.

    Seems that the exercise forum or a bodybuilding site may have more people with experience in what you want to do.

    You may also want to consider how you will go about measuring your body fat and muscle mass as even dxa has considerable error...

    nope there are lots here who can help with this.


  • 89Madeline
    89Madeline Posts: 205 Member
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    I actually lost 15 kgs by simply eating less calories and living healthy (no soda, limited alcohol etc.). Only for the last 5 kgs I started working out, so from my experience yes you can lose without exercise. However, with exercise you'll create a larger deficit thus losing faster and if you have a lot to lose I can imagine it helps with skin tightening as well!
  • yopeeps025
    yopeeps025 Posts: 8,680 Member
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    PAV8888 wrote: »
    **LOW deficits**
    HIGH protein.
    HEAVY weights.
    = "MAXIMUM SPARING"

    If your profile picture is you now, you're looking at 250Cal a day deficits AT MOST.

    What about a 100 calorie deficit or 50 calorie deficit to maintain the most muscle mass?

  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
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    yopeeps025 wrote: »
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    **LOW deficits**
    HIGH protein.
    HEAVY weights.
    = "MAXIMUM SPARING"

    If your profile picture is you now, you're looking at 250Cal a day deficits AT MOST.

    What about a 100 calorie deficit or 50 calorie deficit to maintain the most muscle mass?

    In practice, it's extremely difficult to be that precise. Even if you manage to get perfect accuracy on the intake side, you won't on the burn side.
  • yopeeps025
    yopeeps025 Posts: 8,680 Member
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    PAV8888 wrote: »
    Ah. But you are going to have to calculate for yourself where you will get the most bang for your buck.

    A long bulk and correspondingly steeper cut with more lean mass lost during the cut; or less time bulking because you spent more time cutting but lost less lean mass as a result.

    Or get all scientific and explore eating during a tight post workout period hoping to generate an anabolic period among a mostly catabolic day.

    Seems that the exercise forum or a bodybuilding site may have more people with experience in what you want to do.

    You may also want to consider how you will go about measuring your body fat and muscle mass as even dxa has considerable error...

    Nonsense just because you don't know how to does not mean no one in MFP has cut weight while lifting. In fact I know some who lift competitively while cutting weight.
  • bethlivi
    bethlivi Posts: 157 Member
    edited May 2015
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    I started doing a program that is called eat to perform and I lost abotu 2% body fat and gained 1.5lbs of muscle mass in 6 weeks (and hit personal best on two of my lifts). I was really shocked. Have certain protein/carb/fat goals, and on off-days from the gym I only cut carbs a little bit and hit my same level or protein and fat. Definitely can be done if you don't rely too much on cardio and you lift a lot (and feed your workouts with carbs and proteins so you don't use your muscle to fuel your lifts). (edit: I was already in pretty good shape before this, but had hit a plateau; I workout 4x a week doing crossfit)
  • yopeeps025
    yopeeps025 Posts: 8,680 Member
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    Mr_Knight wrote: »
    yopeeps025 wrote: »
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    **LOW deficits**
    HIGH protein.
    HEAVY weights.
    = "MAXIMUM SPARING"

    If your profile picture is you now, you're looking at 250Cal a day deficits AT MOST.

    What about a 100 calorie deficit or 50 calorie deficit to maintain the most muscle mass?

    In practice, it's extremely difficult to be that precise. Even if you manage to get perfect accuracy on the intake side, you won't on the burn side.

    Trial and error. Some people can figure out the numbers to be this close.
  • gotolam
    gotolam Posts: 262 Member
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    yopeeps025 wrote: »
    Mr_Knight wrote: »
    yopeeps025 wrote: »
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    **LOW deficits**
    HIGH protein.
    HEAVY weights.
    = "MAXIMUM SPARING"

    If your profile picture is you now, you're looking at 250Cal a day deficits AT MOST.

    What about a 100 calorie deficit or 50 calorie deficit to maintain the most muscle mass?

    In practice, it's extremely difficult to be that precise. Even if you manage to get perfect accuracy on the intake side, you won't on the burn side.

    Trial and error. Some people can figure out the numbers to be this close.

    This sounds rather delusional.
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
    edited May 2015
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    yopeeps025 wrote: »
    Mr_Knight wrote: »
    yopeeps025 wrote: »
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    **LOW deficits**
    HIGH protein.
    HEAVY weights.
    = "MAXIMUM SPARING"

    If your profile picture is you now, you're looking at 250Cal a day deficits AT MOST.

    What about a 100 calorie deficit or 50 calorie deficit to maintain the most muscle mass?

    In practice, it's extremely difficult to be that precise. Even if you manage to get perfect accuracy on the intake side, you won't on the burn side.

    Trial and error. Some people can figure out the numbers to be this close.

    I very much doubt that. The day to day variation in BMR/RMR alone is larger than 50 calories - unless you put someone in a coma it's going to be virtually impossible to do this.
  • geotrice
    geotrice Posts: 274 Member
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    Merkavar wrote: »
    dmiivanov wrote: »
    I heard some people claim to even have built some while dieting.. But last year I've lost 30lbs in 3 months and a ton of muscle! I was lifting really heavy too

    How much is a ton of muscle? 5 pounds? 10 pounds?

    I think when people claim they gained muscles while in a deficit it's when they start off with barely any muscles to begin with. Noob gains I think is the term.

    The hints and tips I hear are to eat 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body weight. Lift heavy things and to not lose to much. Smaller the weight lose per week the less comes from muscle it seems.
    A ton is 2,000 lbs. in the U.S.A. and 2,240 lbs. in the U.K.

    ;-p
  • mburgess458
    mburgess458 Posts: 480 Member
    edited May 2015
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    MrM27 wrote: »
    yopeeps025 wrote: »
    Mr_Knight wrote: »
    yopeeps025 wrote: »
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    **LOW deficits**
    HIGH protein.
    HEAVY weights.
    = "MAXIMUM SPARING"

    If your profile picture is you now, you're looking at 250Cal a day deficits AT MOST.

    What about a 100 calorie deficit or 50 calorie deficit to maintain the most muscle mass?

    In practice, it's extremely difficult to be that precise. Even if you manage to get perfect accuracy on the intake side, you won't on the burn side.

    Trial and error. Some people can figure out the numbers to be this close.

    The problem is that with a surplus or deficit like that your margin of error is so small that just a little extra life activity or the smallest miscalculation in intake will more than likely have you spinning your wheels. Remember, you're not going to eat the same thing every day, with every other single variable the same. You would have to never go out to eat, never live life the way you want to. If you don't crack from the lack of progress then eventually you'll drive yourself mad from boredom. In theory it would work but when we apply all the sciences and life then it changes everything.

    Not only that, the calories in food aren't that precise. For example, not all pieces of lean meat have exactly the same number of calories even if they weigh exactly the same....not all apples the same weight have the same calories...etc. Plus your body isn't 100% efficient at extracting calories and the efficiency varies based on exactly what you ate so if you aren't eating exactly the same things every day there will be variance from that. No way you can accurately get down to within a 50 calorie deficit on a consistent basis.

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