Muscle loss

adrian_indy

Hey everyone. I know that it is almost inevitable that muscle mass will be lost when losing weight, and more will be lost when losing weight rapidly. Does anyone know what the average muscle loss would be statistically when losing fat, what kind of diet can mitigate that from happening? The only reason I ask is that I used the electric BF machine at my gym. On June 6th, at 330 lbs, I had a Lean body mass of 219 after figuring out the numbers. When I used the machine again last week, I had lost 32 lbs, but my LBM had shrank to 211. I am eating 5 times daily, roughly 2,000 calories a day. I'm not terribly worried about the muscle loss since my plan is to hit the weights harder and heavier once I am at a kick *kitten* body fat percentage, but if the loss of muscle is true, it changes my goals of how much I should weigh. Somewhere in the 240s sounded good before, but if my LBM gets lighter, the 240s might be too fat. Thanks.

1_up

The slower you cut the more LBM you'll retain (2 lbs a week would be fine for awhile). Try eating your LBM in grams for protein, eat a healthy diet and use free weights.

ninerbuff

Hey everyone. I know that it is almost inevitable that muscle mass will be lost when losing weight, and more will be lost when losing weight rapidly. Does anyone know what the average muscle loss would be statistically when losing fat, what kind of diet can mitigate that from happening? The only reason I ask is that I used the electric BF machine at my gym. On June 6th, at 330 lbs, I had a Lean body mass of 219 after figuring out the numbers. When I used the machine again last week, I had lost 32 lbs, but my LBM had shrank to 211. I am eating 5 times daily, roughly 2,000 calories a day. I'm not terribly worried about the muscle loss since my plan is to hit the weights harder and heavier once I am at a kick *kitten* body fat percentage, but if the loss of muscle is true, it changes my goals of how much I should weigh. Somewhere in the 240s sounded good before, but if my LBM gets lighter, the 240s might be too fat. Thanks.

Hit the weight hard and heavy, and eat at least 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight. It doesn't sound like the numbers are off.

adrian_indy

Hey everyone. I know that it is almost inevitable that muscle mass will be lost when losing weight, and more will be lost when losing weight rapidly. Does anyone know what the average muscle loss would be statistically when losing fat, what kind of diet can mitigate that from happening? The only reason I ask is that I used the electric BF machine at my gym. On June 6th, at 330 lbs, I had a Lean body mass of 219 after figuring out the numbers. When I used the machine again last week, I had lost 32 lbs, but my LBM had shrank to 211. I am eating 5 times daily, roughly 2,000 calories a day. I'm not terribly worried about the muscle loss since my plan is to hit the weights harder and heavier once I am at a kick *kitten* body fat percentage, but if the loss of muscle is true, it changes my goals of how much I should weigh. Somewhere in the 240s sounded good before, but if my LBM gets lighter, the 240s might be too fat. Thanks.

Hit the weight hard and heavy, and eat at least 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight. It doesn't sound like the numbers are off.

Thanks for the reply. I used to heavy lift, but since I started this whole thing I have been using a trainer 1-2 a week. We do a lot of curcuit training. It has been really odd for me, since I used to only concentrate on 1 body part per workout, but now I am doing my whole upperbody twice a week, lower once. 6 days of cardio. When you say 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight, do you mean actual body weight, because that would be 294. Or do you mean 1 gram of protein per pound of my target weight? Or did you mean 1 gram per pound of LBM. I really appreciate the input, but at my current level of fat, I think I might have to kill a cow and eat it to get that much protein a day.

Ellem86

I've found that I burn the same number of calories when lifting heavy (for me) in 60 minutes as when doing a 60 minute spinning class. If this is the same for you, you might therefore consider hitting the weights hard now instead of doing so much cardio and waiting until you reach goal weight. Then again there are so many different approaches to weight loss and whatever you are doing is clearly working as you are already doing so well. Congrats on your weight loss!

Azdak

32 pounds in 8 weeks is a pretty fast loss of weight. In our 12 week medical weight loss program, I have noticed that seemingly the "best" that anyone can do is to lose ~20lb of fat in 12 weeks. Some lose more scale weight, but the additional loss is almost always "non-fat" weight. (Our program is "medical" in the sense that we are owned by a hospital and utilize a multi-disciplinary approach--we do NOT use any medications or supplements).

Research shows that, in response to a substantial calorie deficit, a loss in lean mass of up to 25% is to be expected. IMO, the psychological boost and physical benefits of losing that much weight at the start of a program is worth it. It's not like your lean mass has been substantially depleted or anything. And you have plenty of time and opportunity to build it back up as you progress on your program.

We tend to have this reflex reaction that any loss of "non-fat" mass is BAD, and must be avoided at all costs. However, in the case of someone who starts off really heavy -- like over 300 pounds -- the simple fact is that there is a certain amount of "excess infrastructure" that you just don't need any more once you start to lose weight. That can be muscle, but it can also be other things as well--even bone density. Basically, the body is reshaping itself to accommodate the lighter weight.

In short, it's not necessarily a bad thing. It's not like you are fixed into your current routine forever, and different stages of weight loss require different approaches.

Azdak

Hey everyone. I know that it is almost inevitable that muscle mass will be lost when losing weight, and more will be lost when losing weight rapidly. Does anyone know what the average muscle loss would be statistically when losing fat, what kind of diet can mitigate that from happening? The only reason I ask is that I used the electric BF machine at my gym. On June 6th, at 330 lbs, I had a Lean body mass of 219 after figuring out the numbers. When I used the machine again last week, I had lost 32 lbs, but my LBM had shrank to 211. I am eating 5 times daily, roughly 2,000 calories a day. I'm not terribly worried about the muscle loss since my plan is to hit the weights harder and heavier once I am at a kick *kitten* body fat percentage, but if the loss of muscle is true, it changes my goals of how much I should weigh. Somewhere in the 240s sounded good before, but if my LBM gets lighter, the 240s might be too fat. Thanks.

Hit the weight hard and heavy, and eat at least 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight. It doesn't sound like the numbers are off.

Thanks for the reply. I used to heavy lift, but since I started this whole thing I have been using a trainer 1-2 a week. We do a lot of curcuit training. It has been really odd for me, since I used to only concentrate on 1 body part per workout, but now I am doing my whole upperbody twice a week, lower once. 6 days of cardio. When you say 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight, do you mean actual body weight, because that would be 294. Or do you mean 1 gram of protein per pound of my target weight? Or did you mean 1 gram per pound of LBM. I really appreciate the input, but at my current level of fat, I think I might have to kill a cow and eat it to get that much protein a day.

All the research I have seen suggests that 1g protein per KG of body (not per pound) is sufficient.

ninerbuff

Thanks for the reply. I used to heavy lift, but since I started this whole thing I have been using a trainer 1-2 a week. We do a lot of curcuit training. It has been really odd for me, since I used to only concentrate on 1 body part per workout, but now I am doing my whole upperbody twice a week, lower once. 6 days of cardio. When you say 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight, do you mean actual body weight, because that would be 294. Or do you mean 1 gram of protein per pound of my target weight? Or did you mean 1 gram per pound of LBM. I really appreciate the input, but at my current level of fat, I think I might have to kill a cow and eat it to get that much protein a day.

Yes, 1g per pound of bodyweight. So if you're 294, then that would be 294 grams. Lol, about the cow. It doesn't have to be in the form of meat. I would drink a double scoop of my protein powder (48 grams of protein) twice a day minimum to make it easier to ingest the 185 grams I needed a day.

tigersword

The formula that I've seen from medical professionals is 0.8 to 1g of protein per kilogram of bodyweight, not per pound.