20 lb loss but lost huge ant of muscle and no fat. PL HELP

adchak

Im 5 ft 7 inches female, 44 yrs, lost 20 lbs last yr in 4-5 months by eating clean, maintaining same amt of exercise. I started at 203 lbs and went down to 181 lbs. My protein was 100 gms, carbs 70-80 gms and rest fat. I was at 1300-1400 cals. I worked with a nutritionist who used one of those weighing scales that gives fat%, lean body mass% . I had101-104 lbs of lean body mass, 44% fat last year. I got down to 40% fat.
This yr my protein intake has hone down to 60-70 gms, carbs went u to 120-130 gms mainly because I started eating less meat and more vegs/friits. My wt came bck, I’ve gained 9-10 lbs back. Shockingly when I stepped onto the same weighing scale it showed my lean body mass at 80 lbs, fat at 44%!!!
Holy cow, I lost 20 lbs of muscle.
I have decided to go bck to my old eating incorporating 100 gms of protein, if its animal protein so be it. I really need to lose the wt and some more. My goal wt is 150-160 lbs.
Any tips, suggestions on losing weight on a calorie deficit and also building muscle? PL Help

MikePTY

There are two important things to know: one is that if lean body mass is not just muscle. It also includes water as well. So if you actually have lost some lean body mass, then a lot of it could have been water. It's not necessarily muscle.

But the most important thing is that there is no scale that can accurately measure body fat, even one at a nutritionist office. There are a lot of factors that can throw them off, including your hydration level. I would not think of them as particularly accurate. It seems very unlikely that even if you had lower than ideal protein intake, that you lost 20 pounds of lean mass and no fat, especially with a high body fat. Even someone starving themself would probably lose something like 50/50 at most.

I think upping your protein intake is probably a good thing, but I would not put too much stock in a body fat reading from a scale.

If you really want to know your body fat, look into getting a Bod Pod reading or Dexa Scan done. They still can have a margin do error but are much more reliable than a scale.

CipherZero

Ignore impediance sacels as @MikePTY has already said. DEXA scans are the "gold standard" however a seven-point caliper test performed by someone competent can get you close enough to a DEXA's results for a lot less money.

As for retaining and building muscle mass, this requires resistance training of some form.