Lost 5lbs of lean mass in 3 months... help?

Francl27

I am utterly bummed! My gym has nursing appointments every 3 months where they calculate your body fat, take your measurements etc. Apparently I've lost a lot of inches, lost 15 lbs, but lost 5 lbs of lean body mass and went from 32% bf to 29%.

Before that I went from 40 bf to 32 bf in 3 months. They use measurements and some kind of circle machine they put on your arm to calculate bf... does anyone know how accurate it is? Either way though, I do look around 28% bf But my lean body mass was 113 lbs when I started 8 months ago, and now it was 110 lbs... so I guess overall it's not that bad?

The thing is, I've been eating 100-130g of protein every day, I do bodypump twice a week (it's barbell weight training with a lot of reps, for people who don't know, and I know it's working my muscle because they are sore and I definitely have to push through it)... I don't really know what more I can do. It's never the same bodypump workout either (reps are not the same) so surely my body can't just 'get used to it'? I've been increasing weights as it gets easier too...

I don't really know what else I can do. She told me to meet with the trainer again (who just tell me to use machines... I mean surely barbell workouts are better than machines?), and that I need to increase my muscle (hello, I'm on a calorie deficit!), to eat frequent meals to increase my metabolism (which I'm doing, but I know it doesn't increase my metabolism), and to make sure to have some protein within one hour of working out (is that even true?).

So I'm confused and really disappointed. I took an appointment with the trainer anyway, but it seems like a waste of time. I've been thinking about lifting heavy but nobody does it at the gym and there's only one station, so I don't even know if it's possible (or what the trainer will say about that!). I wanted to do Chalean Extreme but I don't have $300 to spend on weights right now...

Any words of wisdom?

Greenrun99

Well that probably isn't the news you wanted to hear, now free weights are better than machines as they make you work on your balance as well as other parts instead of just using a machine.. but that doesn't mean machines aren't useful too. Also bodypump just might not be cutting it for you to keep your muscle you have, might need to start doing traditional weight training or use more weights. Protein is definitely an important part of it, and eating 130g (or more) isn't going to hurt your body (or any of that myth stuff)..

But the 1 thing your going to want to look at is your deficit.. this is what hurts you the most.. so if your deficit is 500+ calories from your TDEE number (number you don't gain/lose weight at) then you may need to adjust your numbers.. bigger deficit means more likely to lose that lean muscle you have.

robinso5

did they say you lost lean body mass or did they say your body fat dropped 5%?

Francl27

My deficit isn't that big. My TDEE is like 2100 and I've been eating 1650. I guess I can increase a bit again...

SpecialSundae

Bodypump isn't really barbell training. It's weighted cardio.

How did they calculate your body fat? My lean mass can go up and down by up to 3kg (6.5lb) according to BIA scales depending on hydration levels (and probably changes by around that depending on bloating etc).

Does your gym have proper barbells and weights?

Francl27

did they say you lost lean body mass or did they say your body fat dropped 5%?

That I lost 5 lbs of lean body mass.

Francl27

Bodypump isn't really barbell training. It's weighted cardio.

How did they calculate your body fat? My lean mass can go up and down by up to 3kg (6.5lb) according to BIA scales depending on hydration levels (and probably changes by around that depending on bloating etc).

Does your gym have proper barbells and weights?

It has one station only... I'll definitely talk to the trainer about it though I guess. And she used measurements and that weird machine that you put on your arm to calculate. I'm not sure how that works.

Misiaxcore

You can't lose weight and expect that it will all be fat loss.

Daws387

I'm no expert, but in my opinion heavy lifting is the way to go. If you lift at your max strength (freeweight and/or machines), and you're able to gradually increase the amount of weight you lift, you will build muscle.

For example, If you go from being able to squat 100 lbs for 12 reps max to 150 lbs for 12 reps after 3 months, then something changed in your body. Muscle gain

Francl27

You can't lose weight and expect that it will all be fat loss.

I was hoping, lol.

Yeah bodypump is weighed cardio, but it still works my muscles like crazy, and I still need to take a day off afterwards... With the added occasional soreness, that takes me twice a week, without much time to do any kind of other weight training really. Unless I dump it and do something else. It's just handy because I can do it at home too (I have the DVDs).

auddii

If it's a machine on your arm, those measure by running electricity through your body and measuring the resistance. It's vastly affected by you hydration levels and it's one of the least accurate ways of measuring BF%. I'd use it for general trends (it's going downwards, so that's good), and ignore the finite numbers.

Also keep in mind that even with lifting and eating tons of protein you will lose some lean body mass as you lose weight. I don't know how much is a typical loss though.

lizsmith1976

1) They are not 100% accurate

2) You can't expect to lose all fat

3) You lost 15 pounds in 3 months, that is over a pound a week, so your deficit is over 500 calories a day. If you lose weight more slowly you can try and make the loss more fat and less LBM

4) If you lose weight, you WILL lose LBM, because you won't need so much LBM to move you around. A 300 pound woman might have 150 pounds of LBM, if 50% body fat. If she loses 150 pounds, and is at a healthy 150, she would then need to have at least 30 pounds of fat to be at a typical healthy female body fat %, which means she would have had to lose 30 pounds of LBM. This is VERY rough math.

I wouldn't worry too much - it sounds like you are on the right track and doing what you need to do. If you are super concerned, then continue the strength-training, and maybe make your calorie deficit slightly less.

SpecialSundae

Bodypump isn't really barbell training. It's weighted cardio.

How did they calculate your body fat? My lean mass can go up and down by up to 3kg (6.5lb) according to BIA scales depending on hydration levels (and probably changes by around that depending on bloating etc).

Does your gym have proper barbells and weights?

It has one station only... I'll definitely talk to the trainer about it though I guess. And she used measurements and that weird machine that you put on your arm to calculate. I'm not sure how that works.

Measurements don't tend give perfectly accurate measures of body fat.

Honestly, as long as you're shrinking and losing weight, don't worry too much if you lose a little bit of lean body mass.

There's nothing wrong with cardio, but if you're focused on retaining lean body mass then you need to be doing some sort of progressive strength training.

Francl27

Thanks all, it makes me feel a bit better!

Lleldiranne

You're going to lose some LBM when in a deficit. Adequate protein intake and weight bearing exercise can reduce it some, but not entirely. And the lower your bf% goes, the easier it is to lose some lean muscle. That's why body builders do bulk/cut cycles. When bulking, their goal is to put on as much muscle with as little fat as they can, but there's still some fat added and bf% can go up a bit. When cutting, the goal is to lose fat and maintain muscle, but like I said you'll probably lose a bit of muscle too. As long as your overall bf% is going down, you're losing fat faster than muscle and doing okay. (You don't have to do bulk/cut cycles, just using it to help explain).

I would meet with a trainer again, ask for a different trainer if possible. Tell the trainer you don't want machines, you want to learn how to do free weights. Stand firm; some trainers will still pull out the "oh, you want to get bulky" argument - I had a trainer do that when I went in for my free "session" after signing up at a gym. Just confidently state that as a woman you won't get bulky eating at a deficit, and you want to learn how to use free weights.

Finally, the arm band machines aren't especially accurate and can be thrown off by things as little as hydration, so don't put too much stock in those. Calipers, when used by someone trained properly, are much better, if you have access to that. But go by how you look and feel more than anything, because that's what really matters, right?

minizebu

Some amount of lean body mass loss will occur with weight loss. However, it may be that you need to reduce your deficit as some of the others have suggested. My understanding is that lower deficits along with resistance training (which you are doing) and adequate protein intake (which it sounds like you are getting) are what will help to preserve lean body mass.

So, perhaps it is time to reassess your BMR, TDEE and go for a lower deficit of 5% to 10% off of TDEE.

cwolfman13

1) when you "diet" you lose LBM regardless. This can be mitigated with strength/weigt training as well as adequate protein intake, but you're still going to lose some LBM, that's just the way it goes.

2) Body Pump is a lot of cardio...just weighted. If you're doing a lot of cardio, regardless of wheter it's weighted or not, you get to a point of diminishing returns...and you do get to a point where you'r body will burn more LBM than fat. Pretty much if you're doing more than about 45 minutes to 60 minutes of cardio per day, you've reached that point...again, whether it's weighted or not.

Body Pump is a muscular endurance, weighted cardio exercise...it's purpose is not to preserve or build mass. As with any cardio, the purpose is, first and foremost, cardiovascular fitness...but also, burn, burn, burn,burn...which ultimately means you will "burn" LBM too if done in excess.

3) No, you can't build significant mass at a calorie deficit, but you can go a long way in preserving what you have with an actual progressive weight training program. Such a program would have you regularly increasing the weight...8-12 reps are typical for a hypertrophy program and 1-5 reps for a "strength" program. The key is that you progressively overload your muscles...thus making them work to max potential...thus your body will determine that it's important to preserve as much of this mass as possible because it's being consistently overloaded as is.

4) Your deficit looks ok, but I don't know exactly all of what you do exercise wise or your daily hum drum...it really depends on if you've accurately calculated your TDEE as to whether your deficit is too large or not. Also, it will depend on how much you have to lose...the leaner you are, the more LBM you will burn with bigger deficits...mind you, you don't have to be super lean for this to be happening...this started really happening to me when I got down to about 30 Lbs to lose and I had to dial back the deficit because I was losing all of my muscle.

Francl27

Thanks again. I'm going to decrease my deficit a little. It's a bit hard to determine my TDEE! I guess I need to get my fitbit out again.

ComebackJack

You may be doing to much cardio for your calorIc intake at this point. Also, I would look into finding a facility that does hydrostatic body fat testing. This is the most accurate BF testing available. If your not familiar with this,look it up on the web.My suggestion,cut back on the cardio and start a more traditional weightlifting program with rest periods no longer than 1 minute between sets. Having short rest periods keeps your heart rate up, burning more calories and building muscle at the same time. Remember,the more muscle you have, the faster your metabolism. Don't worry about "bulking Up" women don't have enough testosterone to bulk up like men. Shoot for 3 sets of 10 -12 reps. Do a total body workout 3 days a week. Cardio should consist of HIIT. That stands for High Intensity Interval Training. This basically means you combine short bursts of intensity into your normal cardio. On a treadmill it would be something like this. Run 4 mph for I minute , increase speeg to 7 mph for 15 seconds,return to 4 mph for another 1 minute and repeat .tRy to do 8-10 cycles to begin with. As you become more fit,increase interval time,keep slower speed the same time . Look up HIIT on the web, it's a great training tool. You burn more fat, and build muscle at the same time. Hope this helps!!!

mustgetmuscles1

Lean body mass includes everything that is not fat. WATER is big contributor to LBM and can fluctuate a LOT day to day. Most of the test for BF% can only get you an estimate and are not accurate at all.

Like the others have said start a strength program and get enough protein with a small calorie deficit and you will be fine.