Conservation of Lean Body Mass During Calorie Deficit

ericGold15

This is a common concern amongst dieters, and for good reason.
MFP and the echo chamber often promote alone or in combination resistance training and protein intake well in excess of the RDA to limit LBM loss. These recommendations typically originate from either anecdotal reports or studies that have a small number of subjects, carry on for a short time, and/or have confounding variables.

This review
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3648712/
with attached full text (Yay!) is the best I have found. Read it and come to your own conclusions.

Mine are as follows:
1. MFP follows the consensus, for what that is worth.
2. The topic remains obscure. 'We really do not know much' is a fair summary
3. Short term LBM loss is quite a bit different than long term. The body adapts to an energy defcit state over time and learns to conserve muscle mass, all else being equal.
4. I found the discussion surrounding Leucine supplementation interesting personally because at low calorie daily intakes and a vegetarian diet Leucine appears to be the quality limiting amino acid.

kes840

Thanks for posting this. I like knowing what the primary sources are for stuff, even if my understanding of them is more global than particular. Bottom line, looks like some extra protein would be a good idea for this postmenopausal woman.