HELP! Burning muscle instead of fat?

chigby77
chigby77 Posts: 21 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Has this happened to you? If so let me know how you overcame the muscle loss and still dropped fat......I had my third body compilation analysis (measured everything) and I was pleased to see I'd reduced my body fat %, but really bummed I'd lost 3.5 Lbs of muscle (lean Mass) as well. I still have about 7Lbs. of body fat to lose (or more if I choose to really get my BMI low), but my body is hanging onto the fat like a kitten to a curtain.

I do a lot of cardio and perhaps it's too much. I also strength train with a trainer, and weight train on my own. So here's what I'm doing now: I bumped my protein up and I've added some workout calories back in (altho I still come in 500 or more under everyday), I've reduced the amount of cardio cals. I burn and try to do more weights to burn the cals. (heavy weights) BUT the scale ain't budging yet. It's only been a few days, so perhaps I need to be patient. Just curious how others tricked their bodies into burning the last few pounds of fat and maintained and built muscle at the same time.

Replies

  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    you dont need such a deficit, 200 cals would be ample if you want to target fat loss.

    its quality not quantity for your strength training.

    you would probably be better off working out your TDEE and taking 10-15% off that and not worrying about exact burns for cardio and lifting....
  • baileysmom4
    baileysmom4 Posts: 242 Member
    Not sure, but doesn't the body retain water when you weight train? Maybe that is why it looks like you aren't losing??? I just have heard that, don't know it to be true!!!
  • LaMujerMasBonitaDelMundo
    LaMujerMasBonitaDelMundo Posts: 3,634 Member
    Well when we are in a calorie deficit we lose both fat & muscle, that's normal and there's no way we can avoid it & vice versa. Now the only thing possible when we are in catabolic (muscle burning) mode due to deficit is to minimize muscle loss as much as we can. What you're doing so far is great, give it a little more time.
  • chigby77
    chigby77 Posts: 21 Member
    What's TDEE?
  • Mads1997
    Mads1997 Posts: 1,494 Member
    .
  • craigmandu
    craigmandu Posts: 976 Member
    When you are in a calorie deficit you will lose some muscle...that's very normal. The goal is to minimize it. Strength training is the best way to minimize that loss or ensure you burn more fat vs. muscle. It requires that you have the right nutrients for your muscles to use...aim for at least 110-120g of protein or so each day.

    Also realize that since you are upping calories now, even just on your workout days, you may see some weight gain in the temporary as your body acclimates to the new calorie levels (just the way the body works, can't really stop it from happening).

    Where the muscle loss gets a bit tricky is that if your deficit is big enough in relation to your intake (and you are relatively lean), the body will still consume a fair amount of muscle, as it "knows" you simply aren't getting enough calories to sustain your activity. Personally, I would shoot for about a 250-300 daily deficit if you are really trying to "maintain" muscle mass as you lose. Of course that will make the process take twice as long, but it will result in less muscle mass lost.
  • chigby77
    chigby77 Posts: 21 Member
    Patience, more weights, more protein and adding 100-200 more cals seems to be the advice. The extra cals. is going to be the tricky part for my brain to accept, after beating it into submission all these months, I've become fully content eating 1200-1500 clean calories a day. I think a bigger breakfast and lunch might be the key, since I'll use those cals up at the same time.
  • Lisa1971
    Lisa1971 Posts: 3,069 Member
    No advice but you look fabulous my dear!:flowerforyou:
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
    What's TDEE?

    Total Daily Energy Expenditure - or the number of calories you burn in a day. There are several online calculators that will give you the average TDEE for someone of your age/size/acitivity level. Just do a search for "TDEE calculator"
  • affacat
    affacat Posts: 216 Member
    Patience, more weights, more protein and adding 100-200 more cals seems to be the advice. The extra cals. is going to be the tricky part for my brain to accept, after beating it into submission all these months, I've become fully content eating 1200-1500 clean calories a day. I think a bigger breakfast and lunch might be the key, since I'll use those cals up at the same time.

    i'm in pretty much exactly the same spot. i was overdoing cardio (i didn't even know that was possible) and undereating (never would have guessed). i just found ways to add around 400 cal to my diet and reduced my workout time by 2/3 (but upped intensity). seems counter-intuitive but... yea. it hasn't been long enough to know how it's working, but...
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 49,039 Member
    Has this happened to you? If so let me know how you overcame the muscle loss and still dropped fat......I had my third body compilation analysis (measured everything) and I was pleased to see I'd reduced my body fat %, but really bummed I'd lost 3.5 Lbs of muscle (lean Mass) as well. I still have about 7Lbs. of body fat to lose (or more if I choose to really get my BMI low), but my body is hanging onto the fat like a kitten to a curtain.

    I do a lot of cardio and perhaps it's too much. I also strength train with a trainer, and weight train on my own. So here's what I'm doing now: I bumped my protein up and I've added some workout calories back in (altho I still come in 500 or more under everyday), I've reduced the amount of cardio cals. I burn and try to do more weights to burn the cals. (heavy weights) BUT the scale ain't budging yet. It's only been a few days, so perhaps I need to be patient. Just curious how others tricked their bodies into burning the last few pounds of fat and maintained and built muscle at the same time.
    Weight may not shift much. I had a client who didn't do much but run, then worked with me. She went from "soft" to this in 8 months:

    96f1bc12-1c97-4430-8c88-f3698b980a98_zps6d315e90.jpg

    So just keep working at it. Nothing wrong with heavy weights to help "lean up".

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • Yanicka1
    Yanicka1 Posts: 4,564 Member
    bump
  • mongolianfireoil
    mongolianfireoil Posts: 17
    Have you tried a cortisone blocker?
  • moonjuleigh
    moonjuleigh Posts: 12
    When you're close to your goals and you're trying to gain muscle and lose fat, maybe the scale won't budge at all? Seems to me that the muscle gains would offset the fat loss.
  • thinklivebefree
    thinklivebefree Posts: 328 Member
    LOW INTENSITY CARDIO....Its that simple...You bascially stated what you were doing wrong in your initial post
  • kdiamond
    kdiamond Posts: 3,329 Member
    Agreed with the others, 500 is too much of a deficit for someone so close to goal and switch up your cardio to do 2-3 days of HIIT instead of all that steady state boring cardio. You're kinda spinning your wheels it seems.
  • nmb0717
    nmb0717 Posts: 130 Member
    Like a lot of others have said, lower your cardio some and don't eat such a deficit. If you are very close to goal, you should be eating about TDEE -10%. Here's a calculator to give you an idea of what that number would be.

    http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

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