losing muscle?

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when we say losing weight that could come from two places - fat and muscle - how do ensure that you are losing fat while still maintaing your muscle?

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  • dad106
    dad106 Posts: 4,868 Member
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    To maintain as much lean muscle mass as possible- Lift Weights. The more lean muscle mass you retain now, the easier maintenance will be later on. Also, keep your deficit small.

    If you do only cardio and no resistance training at all, plus eat at a large deficit, then you will most likely lose both fat and muscle.
  • Helloitsdan
    Helloitsdan Posts: 5,564 Member
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    To maintain as much lean muscle mass as possible- Lift Weights. The more lean muscle mass you retain now, the easier maintenance will be later on. Also, keep your deficit small.

    If you do only cardio and no resistance training at all, plus eat at a large deficit, then you will most likely lose both fat and muscle.


    ^^This


    That > http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12
  • tcunbeliever
    tcunbeliever Posts: 8,219 Member
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    Strength training!!!
  • LiftHuff
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    1. Buy and read New Rules of Lifting for Women
    2. Buy and read Starting Strength
    3. Profit
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
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    There's 2 main factors to muscle loss during weight loss.

    1st and most important, the size of the deficit compared to how much fat you have to lose. I.E. if your body thinks it's starving (a large relative deficit) it will utilize protein as an alternate energy source at a far higher rate than if you use a smaller deficit.

    2nd, muscles in use are given a higher maintenance priority during caloric deficit. this means that if you lift weights or do other anaerobic activity requiring recovery (HIIT training, intervals...etc, exercise other than straight cardio) you're forcing your body to repair and not catabolize muscle protein.

    It was shown via research study that people who exercise during weight loss have a much higher fat loss to muscle loss ratio than those who don't. I have the study somewhere if people want to read it.
  • bpotts44
    bpotts44 Posts: 1,066 Member
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    I think with 115 lbs to lose you have a very low risk of losing much lean body mass if you keep your loss to 1-2 lbs per week. I have lost 30-35 lbs and gained lean body mass doing lots of carbio and primarily body weight exercises. The main culprit for LBM loss is large caloric deficit especially as you get closer to your target weight.
  • erica6732
    erica6732 Posts: 80 Member
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    thank your all for your replies - i really appreciate it