Help !! Losing Muscle along with Fat !!!

vikramtag

hello ,

my weightloss and muscle gain went hand in hand for couple of months. Then i decided to have a couple of Low calorie weeks.Im 21 years old ,185 lbs and in the last 7 days i lost 8 pounds...i weight train in the mornings and do a 40 min cycling in the evening..And i consumed 1200 calories ( I know thats too less ) .And i can feel considerable,evident loss of muscle .I dont want to lose anymore muscle. Need help ASAP .And any help with my calorie needs is highly appreciable. I do intense weight training and moderate intensity cycling daily ..thank you

herblackwings39

Your calorie needs will vary depending on whether you're trying to lose fat or gain muscle. Set your account to lose 1 lb a week and eat the number it tells you + exercise calories to lose fat. To gain muscle set it to gain .5 lbs a week and eat that number + exercise. I don't think you can both lose fat AND gain muscle at the same time though.

BigGuy47

Eat more.

You didn't mention rest days. Do you have rest days in your program?

Here's an example:

Monday- Heavy Lifting
Tuesday - Rest; light cardio
Wednesday - Heavy Lifting
Thursday - Rest; light cardio
Friday- Heavy Lifting
Saturday - Rest; light cardio
Sunday - Rest

Rest days are important.

jacksonpt

What exactly are you looking for? A daily calorie recommendation?

There are zillions of calculators on-line for this very purpose. Hell, even MFP has one. Use one of those. Get a number, do it for a month and see what happens. Some trial and error is a necessary part of getting started.

vikramtag

Eat more.

You didn't mention rest days. Do you have rest days in your program?

Here's an example:

Monday- Heavy Lifting
Tuesday - Rest; light cardio
Wednesday - Heavy Lifting
Thursday - Rest; light cardio
Friday- Heavy Lifting
Saturday - Rest; light cardio
Sunday - Rest

Rest days are important.

Monday- Weights
Tuesday- weights
Wednesday - Cardio
Thursday - Weights
Friday- Weights
Saturday- Circuit training
Sunday- Rest

No_Finish_Line

you can't gain muslce and loose fat at the same time. one requires a calorie defecit, the other a surplus.

also, your virtually garunteed to lose SOME muslce while you burn fat. thats really the point of eating back your exercise calories and weight training while in a defecit, to try to limit the amount of muscle you lose while burning fat.

probably you made the assumption that you were gaining muslce because your lift numbers were going up.

Its possible to get stronger without increasing muslce mass. This is because only so many muslce fibers are actaully recruited to do work when the brain sends a message for a muscle to contract. As you train, your body gets better at recruiting more muslce fibers.

So IMO you were never really building muslce mass, but when you went down to 1200, you went below the point where your body could sustain the level of lean body mass you already have... hence the more then 1lbs weight loss per day. if you're dropping more then 2 lbs a week and your not very obese, your probably losing muscle.

No_Finish_Line

Monday- Weights
Tuesday- weights
Wednesday - Cardio
Thursday - Weights
Friday- Weights
Saturday- Circuit training
Sunday- Rest

conventional wisdom would tell you not to train the same body part on consecutive days. maybe you don't do that, but i thought it worth mentioning as your scheduel look sort of, unconventional.

vikramtag

What exactly are you looking for? A daily calorie recommendation?

There are zillions of calculators on-line for this very purpose. Hell, even MFP has one. Use one of those. Get a number, do it for a month and see what happens. Some trial and error is a necessary part of getting started.

My target is a healthy weight loss along with some lean muscle gain . I must have reduced my calorie intake way too much . I just ate the amount of calories MFP asked me to but i did not account for the calories im losing in my workouts .Now i know where i went wrong..Just want to bring metabolism back on track and eat a little more

BigGuy47

My 2 cents.

Not enough calories or enough rest between strength training days. If you're not eating enough, then your just compounding the problem by exercising intensely. You need to clearly define your goals and adjust your program to meet those goals,

vikramtag

Monday- Weights
Tuesday- weights
Wednesday - Cardio
Thursday - Weights
Friday- Weights
Saturday- Circuit training
Sunday- Rest

conventional wisdom would tell you not to train the same body part on consecutive days. maybe you don't do that, but i thought it worth mentioning as your schedue look sort of, unconventional.
[/quote

By weights i meant , Chest , Lats, Shoulder , Arms respectively ,,circuit training included ab workouts mixed with body weight exercises such as squats, lunges etc

pwhowardjr

Buy a BCAA supplement. A google search will tell you why this will keep your muscles strong if you are on a calorie deficit diet.

vikramtag

My 2 cents.

Not enough calories or enough rest between strength training days. If you're not eating enough, then your just compounding the problem by exercising intensely. You need to clearly define your goals and adjust your program to meet those goals,

Will surely consider about the rest days . Thank you .

Capt_Apollo

you're a dude. eat twice as much as you are currently eating.

you can't dictate where your body will take energy from, and muscle is sometimes the easiest place for it to tap. however, if you eat enough, you can limit how much of that it does. protein shakes help.

ShellyBell999

You need to try those crazy wrap things! I've been doing them and have had great results with them. You can out the wrap anywhere you want and they shirk the fat...not just water weight. it breaks down the fat so you can pass them and detoxify your body. It also works great great on stretch marks, cellulite!

vikramtag

Buy a BCAA supplement. A google search will tell you why this will keep your muscles strong if you are on a calorie deficit diet.

Thanks for the suggestion ! But i had decided not to use anything except natural foods. I'll give it a thought though

vikramtag

you're a dude. eat twice as much as you are currently eating.

you can't dictate where your body will take energy from, and muscle is sometimes the easiest place for it to tap. however, if you eat enough, you can limit how much of that it does. protein shakes help.

I know I should be eating more. I never imagined a day will come when i thought i should eat more but yeah :P
The frequency of meals is a problem for me. Because of college and other busy schedule I'm not able get in 5 meals a day
and each meal i have is with portion control ..so that is how i end up not eating

No_Finish_Line

that routine seems ok, but idealy you want to hit the same body part twice a week.

if your hitting all of them in the circuit training, then it adaqute.

Vincentsz

Eat more fish, chicken, lean meat! 1.5 gram per pound of your weight.

SRHelicity

hello ,

my weightloss and muscle gain went hand in hand for couple of months. Then i decided to have a couple of Low calorie weeks.Im 21 years old ,185 lbs and in the last 7 days i lost 8 pounds...i weight train in the mornings and do a 40 min cycling in the evening..And i consumed 1200 calories ( I know thats too less ) .And i can feel considerable,evident loss of muscle .I dont want to lose anymore muscle. Need help ASAP .And any help with my calorie needs is highly appreciable. I do intense weight training and moderate intensity cycling daily ..thank you

Take some solace is knowing that you didn't lose 8 pounds of fat and muscle in 7 days. Using the 1 lb = 3500 calories guideline, that'd mean that you'd need to have run a deficit of 28,000 calories over 7 days, which comes out to a net deficit of 4000 calories per day. You don't give your height to allow us to estimate your BMR, but let's just assume your BMR is 1800 calories and your TDEE is 1800x1.4=2520 calories. If you were eating at 1200 calories but needed a daily 4000 calorie deficit, you'd need to have been exercising off more than 2700 calories per day (total deficit: +1200 eaten - 2500 TDEE - 2700 additional exercise = 4000 calorie daily deficit). So, it's obvious that a lot of your weight loss can be attributed to water loss.

If you exercise intensely and are running a very high daily calorie deficit (which it sounds like you are if you are eating only 1200 calories), you could be elevating your cortisol levels for extended periods of time and reducing your fat loss -- see "Why Big Caloric Deficits and Lots of Activity Can Hurt Fat Loss" --> http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/why-big-caloric-deficits-and-lots-of-activity-can-hurt-fat-loss.html . I'm usually not one to jump on the "eat more food!" wagon since I lost quite a bit of weight and maintained strength pretty well by consuming 1200-1300 calories per day (running ~1000-1100 / day deficit), but I also wasn't exercising much if at all when I was doing that. For what it's worth, I've now switch to a calorie cycling program (-30% deficit on rest days and 0% deficit on weight-lifting days with lifting 3x per week) to try to find a better balance between fat loss and muscle loss.

I think some in the weight lifting "arena" would also argue that you're spending too much time in the gym and not giving yourself enough rest and recovery, especially since you are running such a large calorie deficit (and thus providing your body less opportunity to "repair" and rebuild following the lifting sessions). But hey, I'm not a personal trainer or even that well-versed in exercise physiology; I have, however, spent a lot of time reading through material from Lyle McDonald, Martin Berkhan, Alan Aragon ,and others who do have the expertise in this field.

AmyRhubarb

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Losing fat and keeping a good portion of my muscle while eating 1800-2000 calories a day. And I'm a chick, twice your age, and probably workout half as much as you do. EAT MORE FOOD! :bigsmile: 1200 is way too low for most women, let alone an active 21 year old dude.

Best results I've had with fat loss has been eating at about 15-20% off my TDEE - following the info and using the tools in this topic: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/974888-in-place-of-a-road-map-2k13

Eat well, drink water, lift weights, don't go gonzo on the cardio, get good rest, repeat.

vikramtag

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Losing fat and keeping a good portion of my muscle while eating 1800-2000 calories a day. And I'm a chick, twice your age, and probably workout half as much as you do. EAT MORE FOOD! :bigsmile: 1200 is way too low for most women, let alone an active 21 year old dude.

Best results I've had with fat loss has been eating at about 15-20% off my TDEE - following the info and using the tools in this topic: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/974888-in-place-of-a-road-map-2k13

Eat well, drink water, lift weights, don't go gonzo on the cardio, get good rest, repeat.

thank you !! will check the tools and try to eat