Losing weight and muscle mass.

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warriorx
warriorx Posts: 5 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So I have been running for a month now, lost 32 pounds and I haven't really been lifting that much until recently.
I'm not sure if it would be better for me to reach my goal weight and then rebuild muscles or if I should just lift more to preserve as much as I possibly can. I eat as much protein as my diet allows me and I still have about 20-25 pounds to go. I'm not too worried about my skin stretching what I'm doing seems to be keeping it where its supposed to be.

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  • Alyssa_Is_LosingIt
    Alyssa_Is_LosingIt Posts: 4,696 Member
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    If you lost 32 lbs in a month, then you definitely lost a good bit of muscle mass. What is your height/weight, and how many calories were you eating? Do you know your TDEE?

    Protein is important for preserving muscle mass while losing weight, although not eating at too large a deficit is important, too. Lifting during your weight loss will help to preserve your muscle as much as possible, also. You will not gain significant* muscle in a caloric deficit, but lifting certainly helps.

    *I know there are some exceptions to this, e.g. if the person is severely obese or new to weight lifting.
  • MrDisk
    MrDisk Posts: 9 Member
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    Lifting is always a great idea. If you have the interest I would add it ASAP. You'll see benefits and I know people that would go back and add lifting into their regime as opposed to strictly cardio and a deficit.
    Good luck with the last 25!
  • UrbanCowgurl
    UrbanCowgurl Posts: 2
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    warriorx wrote: »
    So I have been running for a month now, lost 32 pounds and I haven't really been lifting that much until recently.
    I'm not sure if it would be better for me to reach my goal weight and then rebuild muscles or if I should just lift more to preserve as much as I possibly can. I eat as much protein as my diet allows me and I still have about 20-25 pounds to go. I'm not too worried about my skin stretching what I'm doing seems to be keeping it where its supposed to be.


    It's been show that resistance training has a higher calorie burn for a longer period of time that pure cardio alone. You should find switching your routine to moderately heavy lifting and cutting back the cardio to maybe 15-20 minutes of HIIT post workout will be a more effective long term plan for you. It's entirely possible you lost a good amount of muscle AND fat during your previous cardio sessions. Photos would help and hearing more about your beginning stats versus your current stats would be more ideal to give feedback, BUT for most of the population resistance training either through body weight or dumbbells has a higher caloric burn and you stay in a higher burn mode for longer than you would during a normal cardio session. I would definitely just focus on resistance training which will help you with both increasing strength, lean muscle tissue and continue to drop weight... MOST people find this effective granted you're goals are not too far below what the healthy range for your height is :)

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