Am i losing fat or muscle?

DannehBoyy
DannehBoyy Posts: 546 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
This could be a stupid question. But i'm not sure if i am losing fat of muscle. Is there a way to tell?

Replies

  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    whenever you lose 'weight' you are in fact losing fat, muscle and water... you can minimise the muscle loss by doing strength training and eating plenty of protein.
  • Tophielicious
    Tophielicious Posts: 5
    Generally at an energy deficit you will lose some mixture of both.

    Now are there ways to circumvent this and help skew the ratio? Yes. Diets higher in protein and heavy resistance training is usually enough to help maintain lean mass and mitigate losses of muscle and strength while on a deficit. Basically this means that a core part of your exercise routine should be 3-4 days of heavy lifting (compound lifts and associated auxiliary exercises) accompanied by moderate cardio such as walking/jogging/swimming etc.

    If you're new to lifting and have quite a bit of excess fat to lose you can even still make strength gains for some time as you do this.
  • DannehBoyy
    DannehBoyy Posts: 546 Member
    That's ok then. I am at the gym 5-6 days a week and i make sure i do HIIT once a week, maybe twice. Every week i do 3+ days weight training so it should be alright. Thanks for the help
  • edwardkim85
    edwardkim85 Posts: 438 Member
    whenever you lose 'weight' you are in fact losing fat, muscle and water... you can minimise the muscle loss by doing strength training and eating plenty of protein.

    No... if you're new to lifting and have lots of 'fat' , aka morbidly obese, you can use the fat to build lean muscle , thus increase your lean muscle mass.

    This isn't the case if you're already lean. You WILL lose fat + muscle.

    I don't like tagging research articles here, just google them. Thousands of legitimate journal /research articles proving my point above.
  • lmd_1979
    lmd_1979 Posts: 130
    whenever you lose 'weight' you are in fact losing fat, muscle and water... you can minimise the muscle loss by doing strength training and eating plenty of protein.

    No... if you're new to lifting and have lots of 'fat' , aka morbidly obese, you can use the fat to build lean muscle , thus increase your lean muscle mass.

    This isn't the case if you're already lean. You WILL lose fat + muscle.

    I don't like tagging research articles here, just google them. Thousands of legitimate journal /research articles proving my point above.

    Really? So someone who is morbidly obese can turn all that fat into muscle and look like the incredible hulk?
  • edwardkim85
    edwardkim85 Posts: 438 Member
    Most people get weak and lose muscle mass while on a fat loss because of the following reasons:

    1. Too low of a deficit

    2. Too much cardio/ not enough strength training

    3. Lifting too 'light' and too many reps.

    4. Too little protein

    Especially as for #4, if you're doing heavy lifting and you adhere by the ' 0.8 / kg protein' rule, you will fail.

    Go look up articles on bodybuilding.com , many supporting articles for heavy 'lifters' losing fat and gaining lean muscle mass at 2 - 2.6/kg of body weight in protein.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    whenever you lose 'weight' you are in fact losing fat, muscle and water... you can minimise the muscle loss by doing strength training and eating plenty of protein.

    No... if you're new to lifting and have lots of 'fat' , aka morbidly obese, you can use the fat to build lean muscle , thus increase your lean muscle mass.

    This isn't the case if you're already lean. You WILL lose fat + muscle.

    I don't like tagging research articles here, just google them. Thousands of legitimate journal /research articles proving my point above.

    Really? So someone who is morbidly obese can turn all that fat into muscle and look like the incredible hulk?

    No that's not what was said...

    If you are new to lifting or morbidly obese you can build some mucsle while eating at a deficet...not lbs mind you but some.
  • edwardkim85
    edwardkim85 Posts: 438 Member
    whenever you lose 'weight' you are in fact losing fat, muscle and water... you can minimise the muscle loss by doing strength training and eating plenty of protein.

    No... if you're new to lifting and have lots of 'fat' , aka morbidly obese, you can use the fat to build lean muscle , thus increase your lean muscle mass.

    This isn't the case if you're already lean. You WILL lose fat + muscle.

    I don't like tagging research articles here, just google them. Thousands of legitimate journal /research articles proving my point above.

    Really? So someone who is morbidly obese can turn all that fat into muscle and look like the incredible hulk?

    Yup. 5 months ago 6' 280lbs close to 40% bf. 0 gym or walking for 7 years.

    - Couldn't walk 10 min
    - As for lifts(eg)

    Bench: 205 (2R)
    Squat: 225 (3R)
    Deadlift: 275 (3R)

    5 months later 6' 240lbs 21% bf(dexa).

    - Run 5k in 24:26 min
    - Bench: 275(2R)
    Squat: 315 (7R)
    Deadlift: 405 ( 4R)

    ---

    My diet

    2k - 2200kcal / day. 150g carb/ 40 fat/ 220g protein. Lots of chicken breast, veggies, brown rice, fish.

    Supplements

    Omega 3 fatty acid, multi vitamins, rivalus promasil protein

    Workout

    First 3 months: bootcamp, basic strength lifting

    Last 2 months: Crossfit, Olympic lifts, Strength training

    ----

    I don't post half naked pics on forums, if you want before/after, send a pm.


    * OH, forgot to add, I did have one cheat day every 7 - 10 days usually eating 6kcal or so of whatever I wanted.

    My weekly average was still at an overall deficit, allowing me to lose fat.

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