Am i losing muscle?

jreeves628

I asked the trainer to do my measurements so I can see my progress. I have lost 13 lbs and I lost inches but body fat percentage barely moved. She was a little confused and said it was probably just water weight I lost. 13 lbs of water weight?? The she said that I need to up my weight training as I must be losing muscle. I only do the weight machines for about 20 minutes 2x a week. Is this the problem? Am I losing muscle because I'm not lifting enough weights? I feel a little self concious being a chubby girl amongst all the muscled guys and gals.

lglg11

You will always lose some amount of lean muscle while eatting at a calorie deficit. The point of strength training now is to prevent as much loss as possible and to possibly make what's left stronger. You will not gain muscle while losing fat .

I think its possible a majority of that weight is water and the rate at which you are losing will slow down.
DON'T GET DISCOURAGED. I repeat ... Don't get discouraged! Add another day a week to strength train and keep eatting in a deficit but make sure you are eatting enough. Sometimes 1200 calories just doesn't cut it and you need 1500 or 1600. Get 75 or more grams of protein a day. Do cardio.

You are doing great. 13lbs is awesome!

trelm249

On a caloric deficit, you will lose muscle as well as fat doing no exercise or cardio only. It is a calorie economics question. When in deficit the body will shed what it is not using and muscle has a higher caloric cost than fat.

You prevent that by using the muscle. Add more protein to the diet to support the muscle and lift heavy to keep it. Free weights use more muscle than machines. If you are only lifting twice a week for 20 minutes at a time, it better be heavy compound moves with free weights to get the most out of that time.

meshashesha2012

also lift as heavy as you possibly can while still keeping good form. basically the more your body is forced to use the muscle (which is don by lifting heavy) the less likely it will be to go after it.

i've been lifting heavy from the beginning mainly doing compound lifts like things in new rules of lifting for women and strong lifts, but i'm thinking i might need to start doing a few isolation movements as well because certain muscles (biceps, quads, triceps) are starting to feel smaller than before when i flex, even though my overall size has decreased. makes me think i've lost muscle.

Easywider

Don't dwell on the schematics. Baseline your protein and cycle your aerobic and anaerobic exercises and you'll be fine.