I need to lose muscle weight...how can I achieve this?

3laine75 · January 2014

I wouldn't worry about your muscle mass being slightly over....even in a small deficit you will lose muscle mass if you aren't actively trying to retain it.

You've been on the site a while, surely you can see retaining as much muscle as possible is a good thing - don't buy into all that 80/90s crap about weight loss.

livingleanlivingclean · January 2014

This is where weight isn't always a great indicator - your body composition is much more important.

Work on reducing your body fat. This is what matters! So what if you're "overweight". If you're in the healthy bf% range, you'll be all good, and look hot! According to BMI, I'm overweight. I'm not!! I'm well under 20% bf, but have a high muscle mass

Lose the weight slowly, make it a sustainable lifestyle - something you can do forever is the biggest reward you can give yourself

cecebrite · January 2014

Thanks guys for the advice. I think I will just focus on lowering my body fat. I have so much to learn about all this. Thanks again!

mumblemagic · January 2014

Ok, just a suggestion but....

When you are overweight, you have more body to lug around, so your muscles must need to be bigger than a healthy weight person with the same activity level as you. This means that some of the excess weight will be fat and some will be muscle. As you lose weight, you need less and less muscle strength to support yourself and move, so your muscles will decrease to the size they need to be for your level of activity.

Anyone who disagrees with this, please feel free to pick holes in my logic!

Based on this assumption, I would suggest you focus on fat loss and allow the muscle loss to come naturally. Don't give up exercise, in fact if you don't do any at the moment, take some up.

joolywooly33 · January 2014

why, why, why :noway:

KyleB65 · January 2014

You may be misinterpreting what you have been told.

As many have mentioned above. Very rare and normally not a good idea to try and lose muscle mass.

If you need to improve BMI scores? Start with a cardio intense exercise regime with a smallish calorie deficit. Try running. If you are not a runner? Look for programs like the Couch to 5K program or join a local running group that has a learn to run program. BUT! And it is a BIG BUT, once you get going with running you will need to do some amount of resistance (weights) style exercise. Running alone is hard on the body. It does burn a lot of calories. But it also causes a lot of injuries if you are not careful and have a balanced exercise program.

Might be a good idea to speak with the person who told you that you have too much muscle and ask them to explain why and what your options are.

Best of luck!

tattygun · January 2014

Sounds like you need to run away from this Geauxlite Louisiana and fast. Stick around here, use mfp and learn. You'll soon realise why I've told you to run, it's plain bad advice on their part.

My_Own_Worst_Enemy · January 2014

So whats the goal? To look like this?

Ummmm... Usually to create a massive deficit, exercise or moving or burning calories (whatever you wanna call it) is needed, as starving yourself alone to create a massive deficit isnt exactly the healthy way to go about it.

Ahhhhhh. So now I see whats going on here. Ummm, you dont want to lose muscle, you kinda need that for burning calories (fat). A lot of people on here are wanting to build lean mass in order to burn more fat and here you are wanting to get rid of it? Blasphemous! Okay, well maybe you feel like you are too muscular, but do you only think that because of some computer printout? A suggestion is to concentrate on getting rid of your fat first (youll probably lose some muscle as well), and then re-evaluate yourself when you are done with this "contest".

mumblemagic · January 2014

Unhelpful and combative. *sigh*

jeffpettis · January 2014

What kind of "body analysis" did they do? Was it a fitness, medical professional, that did this "analysis"? I wasn't even aware there was a "guideline" for too much muscle...:huh:

I think I would run far far away from this. Whoever told you this BS should be high fived in the face! This probably takes the cake for the WORST body analysis EVER!!!

Good Luck! :drinker:

BeckyMBisMe · January 2014

Samstan101 · January 2014

Definitely this!

I do cardio and strength training. My aim is to retain as much muscle as I can whilst losing about 150lbs of fat. I'm working on the basis that I must have decnt muscles in most places from lugging 300lbs around for so long. I'd rather maintain as much of this as possible so that when i get to goal I'm toned and don't have to start lifting to build muscle. It also has the benefit of keeping my BMR higher which means I can eat more. I don't want to be skinny, no muscle tone, have the metabolism of a slug and have to live on lettuce and boiled chicken to maintain

AllonsYtotheTardis · January 2014

Why the hell would you want to lose muscle?

My_Own_Worst_Enemy · January 2014

mccindy72 · January 2014

I think your confusion is coming from this: When BMI is used in programs designed for weight loss, people with higher levels of muscle mass will measure in the "obese" range, because BMI is only calculated using height and weight. So anyone with a larger than normal muscle mass will look, on paper, as though they are overweight. This is the problem with using only numbers on a scale or BMI measurements. It's better to take your body measurements, and calculate your body fat percentage. Keep your muscle, it keeps your metabolism higher.

mccindy72 · January 2014

ndj1979 · January 2014

and your contribution to this thread is what exactly? commenting on other posters that you feel are unhelpful? Hmmm how ironic...

fleetzz · January 2014

OP--please don't try to lose muscle. It is the one cell in the body that helps you burn calories. If you lose muscle (and most people do while trying to lose weight), then you HAVE to eat less once you get to maintenance--which you will anyway because you have less mass to move.

For example: 200 lb person may have a maintenance requirement of 3000 calories per day, but once you get down to 120, you may have a maintenance of 1700 calories per day. If you lose a bunch of muscle you look crappy and you can only eat 1600 calories, while if you exercise, weight train whatever to keep the muscle you may be able to eat 2000 or more to maintain at 120 lbs.

ndj1979 · January 2014

This does not even make sense….

why would you recommend that someone "lose muscle naturally" ….you need muscle to pick stuff up, look somewhat good, and it helps increase your metabolism because muscle burns more calories then fat does…

Are you really recommending that OP go for the "skinny fat" look…?

Supertact · January 2014

don't purposely lose muscle !

kimmymayhall · January 2014

Do not worry about having a higher muscle mass. That's a good thing. You want to preserve as much of that muscle as possible while you are losing weight, but you will lose some of it with the fat. In the end, I think you will be happier if you try to keep your muscle mass. To do that you should have a reasonable deficit, eat enough protein, and do some weight training. You will look leaner, have a little higher metabolism, and be stronger. That's a win, right?

cecebrite · January 2014

I'm not sure how to post a pic from my phone so I changed my profile pic to my analysis so you all can take a look if you like, tell me what you can make of it. I'm still learning how to read this. Our first meeting is tomorrow and I have lots of queations to ask. Thanks!

mccindy72 · January 2014

It's too small to see, really, as your profile picture. But honestly, I think you should drop out of this group. Any program that is advising you to drop muscle mass is obviously misinformed and giving out bad advice. Stick to counting your calories and your regular exercise program.

jessicaebixby · January 2014

Unfortunately it is to small like McCindy said. If you had a scanner that would work better. Noobs to health fitness tend to not realize that 1lbs. of muscle is leaner than 1lbs. of fat. When you start exercising you may become frustrated cause after 8 weeks of running your but off almost every day for 8 weeks you only lost 3 lbs. The thing is you body has been burning the fat & converting to muscle so you see little to no change in weight. You can also measure once a week your waist and not notice changes because you can't target fat burning. (FYI, yes I'm talking about myself. I have over 80lbs to loose but no set target date.)

There are all kinds of factors that come into play with weight loss. It's possible you misunderstood what they said and talk to them more. If you still feel they are asking you to loose muscle then I'm in agreement with the other posters. It's not a good plan and you may want to reconsider doing their program.

Ok this is longer than I wanted it to be sorry. You may want to change your direction like I did, seeing as we both have a lot of weight to loose. Instead of being focused on the weight focus on small healthy lifestyle changes. It'll take time to undo a life time of unhealthy habits but you will start feeling better and may even start noticing those tight pants are not so tight anymore despite, what the scale tells you.

Good luck.

vintagelaisance · January 2014

Well my dear... do you still think you need to lose muscle? Obviously not!!!

journey_man · January 2014

OP spoke from candid ignorance and has acknowledged as much. She seems humble and willing to learn. But please, let's keep piling on!

Serah87 · January 2014

:huh:

Must be a full moon!! :sick:

bcattoes · January 2014

It's quite natural to lose muscle along wth fat. You don't have to do anything special to achieve it.

Do strength training, but don't overload. Use weights or resistance bands that are not "heavy" for you. Only do it 2-3 times a week and don't work to failure.

Do cardio every day or almost every day. Don't overdo it, just do a normal amount (30-60 min a day).

This should allow you to maintain strength and some muscle, and to naturally lose some muscle along with fat.

cecebrite · January 2014

Thanks! I am beginning to see I may have misunderstood. Hopefully tomorrow things will be clearer. Here is what my stats are:
Its shows my body composition is 80.5lbs water, 30lbs dry lean mass, 87.5lbs fat.
Body compostion analysis shows weight 198lbs, skeletal muscle mass 61.1lbs, body fat mass 87.5lbs.
Obesity analysis shows my bmi is 32, body fat percentage is 44.3
BMR is 1451

MoreBean13 · January 2014

That's not an abnormally high muscle mass. In fact, I would suggest preserving what you have. Given only this information, I would suggest around 1500 calories, 100 g protein, strength train 3x/wk 30-45 minutes, and cardio 3x/wk 30 minutes.

ETA: I have high muscle mass for my body size and I'm very healthy- it's a good thing to have extra muscle!

I need to lose muscle weight...how can I achieve this?

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