Loosing both fat and muscle.
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mdlcmj
Posts: 11 Member
Hi all, I'm looking for some advice. I began my weight loss journey 21 months ago at 455 lbs and am now 218 lbs, my initial goal was to get under 200lbs which now seems attainable. I've done it thru diet and both cardio ( brisk walking and cycling)and strength training three times per week. I currently eat about 1900 calories per day with about 150 grams of protein, 200 grams of complex carbs and 60 grams healthy fats. My dilemma I'm loosing muscle, for example my bench press has gone from 3 X 10 @ 160 lbs to now @ 140 lbs and I struggle to do 8 reps. I don't want give up on my goal of getting under 200 lbs but I also don't want to keep losing muscle, any ideas?
I'm a 63 year old male by the way, 6 feet tall and in reasonably good health.
I'm a 63 year old male by the way, 6 feet tall and in reasonably good health.
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Replies
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It's inevitable that you'll lose some muscle while losing that much weight, and feeling a bit weaker while in calorie deficit is normal too. Your age is likely a factor also.
Your protein is good.
Have you been doing deloads every few months? If you haven't, one possibility could be that you are over-trained and need some recovery time.
Are you getting sufficient carbs in the hours before your workout?
If you were doing 3 sets 3 times per week, that's only 9 sets for chest unless you're doing other stuff too? If so, that's not enough for a non-beginner. YMMV, but what I do is chest in one workout is rep range 8-10, and in the next workout it's 80% of that weight for a 12-15 range. This means more weekly volume total, and I probably don't build up fatigue as much.
If you aren't doing anything else for chest, maybe add something, like incline press at around 30 degrees, db fly's on the ground, or if you have access to cables then crossovers.4 -
Hi all, I'm looking for some advice. I began my weight loss journey 21 months ago at 455 lbs and am now 218 lbs, my initial goal was to get under 200lbs which now seems attainable. I've done it thru diet and both cardio ( brisk walking and cycling)and strength training three times per week. I currently eat about 1900 calories per day with about 150 grams of protein, 200 grams of complex carbs and 60 grams healthy fats. My dilemma I'm loosing muscle, for example my bench press has gone from 3 X 10 @ 160 lbs to now @ 140 lbs and I struggle to do 8 reps. I don't want give up on my goal of getting under 200 lbs but I also don't want to keep losing muscle, any ideas?
I'm a 63 year old male by the way, 6 feet tall and in reasonably good health.
It's inevitable that you'll lose some muscle with the fat however that's a pretty big drop for bench and also those are some pretty low numbers. Maybe review your training program and look into meal timing for max energy in the gym. A good carb inclusive meal 1-2 hours before working out may help.
Regardless, nice work on dropping the weight!3 -
First off, major kudos for the progress you've made! Losing 237 lbs (107.5 kg) is nothing short of incredible! Over 21 months is an average loss of 2.5 lbs (1.1 kg) per week.
At your height and goal, you may want to consider slowing down the rate of loss to only .5-1.0 lbs per week, as it'll make transitioning from loss to maintenance easier, but that's a personal decision which doesn't impact your question.
As far as losing muscle, experts may weigh in, but IMHO you're not losing muscle as fast as you think you are, given your good amount of protein, overall calories, and exercise pattern. Two things spring to mind to help explain your lifts going down:
One, your age. Getting older by no means you must stop lifting, but it often does start to place limits on how much we can lift, especially compared to our younger selves. This is not likely the issue here, though, as losing strength via age requires years to have a significant impact, where you're describing the loss as over a much smaller time frame.
Personal opinion is you need a deload week. Have you scheduled deload weeks into your fitness routine? These are times taken periodically where we reduce our physical fitness output to give the body time to recover before ramping back up again. The frequency and depth of these deload weeks are highly personal. Some have one every month, or every three months, or simply when their body starts to feel sore, tired or underperforming. Some choose to still workout, just at a much lower intensity; others take a break from the gym completely, give themselves over to nothing more strenuous than walking the dog.
Your body has undergone massive changes in a relatively short period of time (less than 3% of your lifespan to date), and you've been demanding much of it. Your hard work and dedication are showing and to be applauded. But I fully believe you need to slow down, just for a week or so, both in diet and exercise intensity, give your body a breather before resuming the final sprint to the sub-200 finish line. I wager your gym results will show a marked improvement if you do.8 -
A fabulous story. I'm sorry you ever got that heavy, but here you are, doing something about it. I'm wondering what enabled your change. Did you go on one of the new weight loss drugs? No shame in that, IMHO, I think they are going to help a lot of people.
I wouldn't worry about how much you lift. If you keep at it, it will eventually increase again. Eating some carbs is essential before all your workouts.
I'd like to hear about your walking and cycling. You're already half as heavy as when you started, which must have an effect. How do they feel?0 -
As an aside, being in a deficit, especially a fairly big one hampers Muscle Protein Synthesis so it’s a good idea to bump up the protein. That coupled with the proper training program greatly reduces muscle loss. Protein feedings every 3 or 4 hours also assists in MPS. Aging also can hamper it so there are many factors to consider.
A proper training program encompasses the actual trading methods, rest days, proper recovery, etc.0 -
Hi all, I'm looking for some advice. I began my weight loss journey 21 months ago at 455 lbs and am now 218 lbs, my initial goal was to get under 200lbs which now seems attainable. I've done it thru diet and both cardio ( brisk walking and cycling)and strength training three times per week. I currently eat about 1900 calories per day with about 150 grams of protein, 200 grams of complex carbs and 60 grams healthy fats. My dilemma I'm loosing muscle, for example my bench press has gone from 3 X 10 @ 160 lbs to now @ 140 lbs and I struggle to do 8 reps. I don't want give up on my goal of getting under 200 lbs but I also don't want to keep losing muscle, any ideas?
I'm a 63 year old male by the way, 6 feet tall and in reasonably good health.
Wow, amazing job! Congrats!
Now is probably a great time for a diet break: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks/p1
When you resume, consider this when setting your weekly weight loss goal:
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1900 calories for that kind of workout schedule seems really low, especially for your height and current weight. Are you eating back any of your exercise calories, or sticking to a flat 1900?
I eat more than that and I’m a 61 year old woman and almost half a foot shorter than you.
Are you unusually fatigued afterwards? Collapsing on the couch after workouts? Find yourself dozing off? Hangry? Mental fog?
Those are my clues to increase calories. YMMV, but I find increasing calories has little or no effect on my weight, and often causes a small weight loss. In which case I either permit myself a Gloriously Happy Eating Day, or I add even more calories because I’m happy where I am. Even if I bounce up two or three pounds following a GHED, I fall right back down in a few days.
And PS: you, sir, rock!!!!!! Great job!!!!!
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springlering62 wrote: »1900 calories for that kind of workout schedule seems really low, especially for your height and current weight. Are you eating back any of your exercise calories, or sticking to a flat 1900?
I eat more than that and I’m a 61 year old woman and almost half a foot shorter than you.
Are you unusually fatigued afterwards? Collapsing on the couch after workouts? Find yourself dozing off? Hangry? Mental fog?
Those are my clues to increase calories. YMMV, but I find increasing calories has little or no effect on my weight, and often causes a small weight loss. In which case I either permit myself a Gloriously Happy Eating Day, or I add even more calories because I’m happy where I am. Even if I bounce up two or three pounds following a GHED, I fall right back down in a few days.
And PS: you, sir, rock!!!!!! Great job!!!!!
Anecdotal calorie amounts are useless. Between NEAT burn variations and calorie counting accuracy, it's darts at a dartboard.2 -
Thanks for all the replies, I've never heard the term deload before thanks for defining it nossmf, and while I only take off Sunday as a complete rest day I've never taken a full week or even two consecutive days off.
I don't belong to a gym I work out by myself in the garage with some freeweights and a bench I bought off Craigslist. Being by myself I have to be careful because if i can't lift the last rep I'm on my own. I do leave the collars off so if I have to I could dump the weights on the floor which I haven't had to do yet. My routine starts with B P, then leg extension then squats, military press, leg curls, bent over row, lunges, skull crusher and butter fly extension with dumbells laying on my back with the last two. I also do sit ups three times a week on days I don't lift. I'm not sure if I got the terminology correct but I'm sure you can figure out what my routine consists of. I used to do dead lifts but they were killing my lower back so I cut them out.
My pre-workout meal is breakfast which is always the same half a cup of old fashioned quaker oats oatmeal mixed with blueberries and strawberries, some type of lean protein ( 4 ounces of grilled chicken or turkey or steak ) depending what was for dinner the night before and a cup of green tea with lemon.
My walking is at around 4.5 MPH, I walk one mile after breakfast, and on M W F i lift my weghts then, two and half miles before lunch, and one mile after dinner. I ride a stationary bike for thirty minutes after my first walk and do the situps on T T S.
What got me started was elevated blood sugar which is under control I keep and eye on it before it turns into diabetes. I miss beer and pizza but life is full of trade offs.
One change I made very recently is I increased my calories from around 1600 to 1900 my reasoning was my carb intake was about half of what MFP recommended so I had my first slice of bread in almost two years a slice of pumpernickel from the local bakery and I'm going to start including brown rice into my diet.
I think I answered all the questions if I missed any let me know and I'll be happy to answer and thanks again for the help.2 -
You've made tremendous progress.
First of all, you can get safety stands for your bench press, or if you have a squat rack then there are spotter arm attachments for that.
I do suspect you've built up a lot of fatigue, considering your age, your calorie deficit (I agree with a couple of posts above that your deficit may be a little high right now), and doing full body MWF.
This is a great article on the pros/cons of deload:
https://powerliftingtechnique.com/deload-week-vs-week-off/
What I typically do for my deload every is 8-9 weeks or so, depending how I feel, I'll take half a week completely off with zero intentional exercise, then half a week with about 60% usual weight, then back to normal weight and almost normal set count the following week. As noss said, there are many ways to do it.
You should maybe consider my suggestion of alternate workouts being lower weight and higher reps, or maybe do that for your midweek workout. As I said for my bench, I'll do 8-10 reps one workout and then the next workout will be 80% weight for 12-15 reps. Same goes for your rows and squats, and actually I wonder if squats MWF is too much anyway, especially at your age. I'd suggest do squats MF and do other stuff on W, like higher reps with goblet squat e.g. You're almost a decade older than me, and I do upper/lower every other day, giving four days rest between the major groups.
As a non-beginner you should probably be aiming for about 12-15 working sets per muscle group per week.
You mentioned back issues with deadlift. If you feel similar with squat, let me recommend the old school style barbell hack squat. I do this at home because I don't have a squat rack. It's also known as the hack deadlift. Starting with the bar behind, I keep my core and back engaged, lift it then do a controlled descent, which is all quads and some back but no lower back strain, and repeat. To make the initial lift easier because I'm tall, I raise the bar up on a couple of 10's.
I've never seen this channel before, but it's a good example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aEQJikHwWk 1 -
tomcustombuilder wrote: »springlering62 wrote: »1900 calories for that kind of workout schedule seems really low, especially for your height and current weight. Are you eating back any of your exercise calories, or sticking to a flat 1900?
I eat more than that and I’m a 61 year old woman and almost half a foot shorter than you.
Are you unusually fatigued afterwards? Collapsing on the couch after workouts? Find yourself dozing off? Hangry? Mental fog?
Those are my clues to increase calories. YMMV, but I find increasing calories has little or no effect on my weight, and often causes a small weight loss. In which case I either permit myself a Gloriously Happy Eating Day, or I add even more calories because I’m happy where I am. Even if I bounce up two or three pounds following a GHED, I fall right back down in a few days.
And PS: you, sir, rock!!!!!! Great job!!!!!
Anecdotal calorie amounts are useless. Between NEAT burn variations and calorie counting accuracy, it's darts at a dartboard.
Yes it’s anecdotal, but your response to everything is “cut calories” or “you’re eating more than you think”. Granted, that’s correct in many situations, but judging from OP’s height and activity level, 1900 seems low to maintain or build muscle.
OP has lost a shedload of weight, so I’m hazarding a guess he’s pretty accurate with logging and counting.
More anecdotal, 1910 is my husbands goal, and he’s 68, 5’10”, moderately active, and does not do any weights at all, only cardio.
Just looking at it from a different perspective. 😇2 -
springlering62 wrote: »tomcustombuilder wrote: »springlering62 wrote: »1900 calories for that kind of workout schedule seems really low, especially for your height and current weight. Are you eating back any of your exercise calories, or sticking to a flat 1900?
I eat more than that and I’m a 61 year old woman and almost half a foot shorter than you.
Are you unusually fatigued afterwards? Collapsing on the couch after workouts? Find yourself dozing off? Hangry? Mental fog?
Those are my clues to increase calories. YMMV, but I find increasing calories has little or no effect on my weight, and often causes a small weight loss. In which case I either permit myself a Gloriously Happy Eating Day, or I add even more calories because I’m happy where I am. Even if I bounce up two or three pounds following a GHED, I fall right back down in a few days.
And PS: you, sir, rock!!!!!! Great job!!!!!
Anecdotal calorie amounts are useless. Between NEAT burn variations and calorie counting accuracy, it's darts at a dartboard.
Yes it’s anecdotal, but your response to everything is “cut calories” or “you’re eating more than you think”. Granted, that’s correct in many situations, but judging from OP’s height and activity level, 1900 seems low to maintain or build muscle.
OP has lost a shedload of weight, so I’m hazarding a guess he’s pretty accurate with logging and counting.
More anecdotal, 1910 is my husbands goal, and he’s 68, 5’10”, moderately active, and does not do any weights at all, only cardio.
Just looking at it from a different perspective. 😇
It's inevitable that you'll lose some muscle with the fat however that's a pretty big drop for bench and also those are some pretty low numbers. Maybe review your training program and look into meal timing for max energy in the gym. A good carb inclusive meal 1-2 hours before working out may help.
Regardless, nice work on dropping the weight!
As an aside, being in a deficit, especially a fairly big one hampers Muscle Protein Synthesis so it’s a good idea to bump up the protein. That coupled with the proper training program greatly reduces muscle loss. Protein feedings every 3 or 4 hours also assists in MPS. Aging also can hamper it so there are many factors to consider.
A proper training program encompasses the actual training methods, rest days, proper recovery, etc.
^^^^Please show me where I suggested dropping calories or that he was miscounting. And yes anecdotal calories are useless for the most part. Anecdotally, I maintain on 2,000 and I'm 6-0 and 180-190 however my NEAT is low and I don't use that as a comparison to anyone else.0 -
Yep, defo time for a deload .I deload probably every 8-10 weeks (depends on my training aims) and I’m also tapering just at the mo before testing my 1RM next week. I fatigue easily (I’m 48) and really notice my ability to lift the heavier weights decreasing if I don’t manage my recovery. I also struggle to fuel my workouts on low calories, so I’d also second having a diet break, or increasing calories slightly so that your rate of loss slows. Hopefully you haven’t lost as much muscle as you fear, and your body is just saying it needs to deload before you hit those weights again. Awesome work on the weight loss!0
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