Do we loose muscle when we starve oursleves?

Just eat and you won't have to worry about it. Problem solved.

Yes if you starve yourself you will looose muscle.

Hi,

I am just curious to know what happen when we don't eat when we are hungry: do we lose muscle or fat?

Talking with a bodybuilder, he was saying "it was too late" when you are hungry and we should always keep a snack with us. But what do you think he exactly meant by "too late"?

Jamal

There are many many forms of energy the body taps into to fuel itself. One of them being muscle yes. This is typically the result of a caloric deficit. One thing worth remembering is the body doesn't necessarily operate on a hour to hour basis. Meaning you don't constantly need to eat. If you miss a few hours you body isn't going to switch to "starvation mode" and begin eating its muscles etc.

Hi,

I am just curious to know what happen when we dont eat when we are hungry: do we lose muscle or fat?

Talking with a bodybuilder, he was saying "it was too late" when you are hungry and we should always keep a snack with us. But what do you think he exactly meant by "too late"?

Jamal

He meant it was too late for him to unlearn the bro-science he has been fed.

Going hours without eating? Not at that point, no. Extended periods of time, yes. Not eating after a few hours is not starving.

Define "starve ourselves".

Do you mean malnourished, underfed, etc? Then yes.

Do you mean getting hungry? Then no.

Feeling hungry just means your ghrelin levels are up. And that's a trained behaviour linked to your eating habits. It doesn't mean your muscles are evaporating or anything.

I mean getting hungry and wait hours before eating.

No, that 6 meals a day bro-lore is yesterday's news.

you're not going to lose lean body mass (other than glycogen/water) from not eating for a day. Loss of lean mass does happen with inadequate calorie intake, but exactly when that kicks in depends on all kinds of variables, like how much fat you have and how big your calorie deficit is (if you have more fat to lose, then your risk of losing lean mass is lower .... the bigger the deficit the greater the risk of lean mass)

Don't forget that exercise is a really important variable in this - if you are sedentary you can lose lean mass without being in a deficit at all, because your body doesn't want to spend calories maintaining lean mass that's not being used. Dieting while being sedentary gives a much greater risk of lean mass loss than dieting while doing strength training.

So when exactly your body will start to burn muscle tissue along with the fat to preserve your fat stores depends on all those and probably some other variables as well........... but if you're active it's not going to happen as a result of missing one meal or fasting for a day.

Came to say bro-science. Seems ninerbuff already covered it.

If you are talking from a pure biological standpoint, to provide energy there is a hierarchy of sorts that is in-built.

Carbohydrates > Fats > Protein. This is based on how readily they can be used to produce ATP at the cellular level (energy unit from a biochemical standpoint). Proteins are generally hard to break down and aren't a great source of energy (hence high protein diets on 'cut' cycles etc) because of this. You eat protein for the amino acids it provides so you can build more muscle, as opposed to energy provision reasons.

Unless you are starving severely (as in you have almost depleted stores of both carbohydrates and fat, only then does protein start getting 'digested' within your own body) you will not start eroding away at your muscle when starving yourself. This state however is one of the more advanced stages of starvation or an eating disorder, not something you get from simple fasting or a diet.