Becoming apparent how much muscle I have lost!

lemur_lady

Been left feeling a little depressed over how much muscle I seem to have lost over the past few years. Before I ballooned in size I was aproximately 17 stone and a size 18 (still big I know). I am now 16 stone and a size 20/22. So obviously my muscle mass has taken a huge hit.

I dont think I have lost too much through this diet (at least I hope I havent). I eat over 2000 calories a day and do some resistance work, get around 100g of protein a day.

I think the loss came from the huge period of inactivity I did in the few years leading up to me joining mfp. To say I was sedentary is probably not an understatment. If I didnt have to move I wouldnt and spent a lot of the last year sitting on the sofa

Despite my current best efforts to maintain muscle mass what is the likelyhood if me still ending up skinny fat? I am thinking I may have to do some cut/bulk cycling once I start nearing my goal weight. Would this be advisable?

Iwishyouwell

Why are you depressed? If you want more muscle mass, build it up. Just like fat, muscle can be increased, or decreased.

And the "skinny fat" condition is SO wildly misunderstood, and often overstated. Skinny fat simply is a condition where you are normal weight on the scale, but with a high body fat percentage. If you wanted to get skinny, and drop the fat part, you could just continue to cut fat until you were pretty lean; this will cause you scale weight to drop lower than you likely imagine it going. True you wouldn't likely have as much LBM as you want, and many people prefer to bulk before cutting in order to avoid that, but "skinny fat" is remedied by cutting more fat, regardless of whether you bulk or not.

So it's your choice as to whether you want the skinny fat look, no matter how much muscle you think you've lost.

lemur_lady

Just a bit saddened that I lost it. I know from reading the forums that muscle, especially for women, is hard to build and can require quite a bit of time. Just wish Id moved my *kitten* more and not sat around wasting away.

I have quite a high fat % so think its envitable I will have to do some bulk/cutting at some point. I definately dont want to lose lots of weight and be skinny fat. I want the lean look.

Francl27

First I'd eat way more protein than that with 2000 calories... 150g or so. Second, I was a size 20 at 213 lbs and hadn't done any type of exercise for over 10 years (not even walking).

Now I'm a size 6 (well 4 to 10 depending on the brand really, but 6 in the same brand I had at the time), 136 lbs, 22% body fat... so definitely in the normal range. I ate 30% of protein (or close) during my weight loss and did some weight/strength training, but definitely not super intense stuff (because I'm so lazy). Lots of walking though but that doesn't really make much of a difference for muscles.

That being said... don't get too hung up on the 'lean look' IMO. I'll never really have it, for example, as I have loose skin and stretching marks that leftover fat is staying stuck in on my stomach (a lot of it) and my arms (a bit of it) and I'm not sure it will really go away (that, and I have a large frame, it will be a miracle if I ever get a 29" waist). Hopefully your genetics are better than mine though.