Losing fat without burning muscle
dmiivanov
Posts: 49 Member
Hi! Does anyone know a good way of dieting without burning muscle?
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My vote is for impossible.
You can limit it by eating enough protein and lifting heavy objects but I think you will always lose some muscle.0 -
It is impossible. If you are in a caloric deficit, your going to burn some muscle. However - there are ways to try to minimize the impact on your muscles. Basically, lift weights often and eat your protein!0
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I heard some people claim to even have built some while dieting.. But last year I've lost 30lbs in 3 months and a ton of muscle! I was lifting really heavy too0
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Eating high fat, medium protein and next to no carbs is the only natural muscle sparing eating lifestyle that ever worked for me. It is not very popular because carb addiction can be hard to break for some of us. I only got off carbs when if I did I was going to have to start on Enbrel injections for pain management and Enbrel can lead to developing cancer.0
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Most people have way less muscle mass then they think. So you could think you lost a lot of muscle but maybe you didn't have that much to begin with.
Sprints are a good way of burning fat but not breaking down muscles as much as running or longer cardio activities.0 -
Carbs are also muscle sparing though.GaleHawkins wrote: »Eating high fat, medium protein and next to no carbs is the only natural muscle sparing eating lifestyle that ever worked for me. It is not very popular because carb addiction can be hard to break for some of us. I only got off carbs when if I did I was going to have to start on Enbrel injections for pain management and Enbrel can lead to developing cancer.
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I heard some people claim to even have built some while dieting.. But last year I've lost 30lbs in 3 months and a ton of muscle! I was lifting really heavy too
How much is a ton of muscle? 5 pounds? 10 pounds?
I think when people claim they gained muscles while in a deficit it's when they start off with barely any muscles to begin with. Noob gains I think is the term.
The hints and tips I hear are to eat 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body weight. Lift heavy things and to not lose to much. Smaller the weight lose per week the less comes from muscle it seems.
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About 5lb0
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**LOW deficits**
HIGH protein.
HEAVY weights.
= "MAXIMUM SPARING"
If your profile picture is you now, you're looking at 250Cal a day deficits AT MOST.0 -
250 deficit sounds like I good idea but I doubt food scales and calorie count on labels are that accurate. That's what I've been doing for the past month with no results0
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6'2'' and about 210lb0
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It's either that, or how you determine your "maintenance" . Which is now experimentally found to be 3k in my case. The problem is that some weeks you're gonna work out more, and some less (to.repair, recover and get stronger ) so this maintenance fluctuates a lot too0
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250 deficit sounds like I good idea but I doubt food scales and calorie count on labels are that accurate. That's what I've been doing for the past month with no results
The labels are not that accurate, variance exists in product, weight of product is not always as advertised, logging is not always that accurate, etc.
It doesn't change the facts. You are essentially doing a body recomp "set" to a very small deficit. It will be slow but maximum lean mass sparing. Or you will set a larger deficit and risk more lean mass.
There are multiple reasons why I personally think that "dieting" for "vanity" lbs is not a very good idea when viewed from a long term perspective.
But people do what people want to do!0 -
Well that's true, slow gains are he sustainable gains they say. Even in the weight loss. On the other hand, you don't want to be in a deficit for too long no matter how small it is. Because if you're a natty, you generally want to spend as much time as possible on building muscle and getting stronger.0
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Ah. But you are going to have to calculate for yourself where you will get the most bang for your buck.
A long bulk and correspondingly steeper cut with more lean mass lost during the cut; or less time bulking because you spent more time cutting but lost less lean mass as a result.
Or get all scientific and explore eating during a tight post workout period hoping to generate an anabolic period among a mostly catabolic day.
Seems that the exercise forum or a bodybuilding site may have more people with experience in what you want to do.
You may also want to consider how you will go about measuring your body fat and muscle mass as even dxa has considerable error...0 -
Ah. But you are going to have to calculate for yourself where you will get the most bang for your buck.
A long bulk and correspondingly steeper cut with more lean mass lost during the cut; or less time bulking because you spent more time cutting but lost less lean mass as a result.
Or get all scientific and explore eating during a tight post workout period hoping to generate an anabolic period among a mostly catabolic day.
Seems that the exercise forum or a bodybuilding site may have more people with experience in what you want to do.
You may also want to consider how you will go about measuring your body fat and muscle mass as even dxa has considerable error...
nope there are lots here who can help with this.
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I actually lost 15 kgs by simply eating less calories and living healthy (no soda, limited alcohol etc.). Only for the last 5 kgs I started working out, so from my experience yes you can lose without exercise. However, with exercise you'll create a larger deficit thus losing faster and if you have a lot to lose I can imagine it helps with skin tightening as well!0
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yopeeps025 wrote: »
In practice, it's extremely difficult to be that precise. Even if you manage to get perfect accuracy on the intake side, you won't on the burn side.0 -
Ah. But you are going to have to calculate for yourself where you will get the most bang for your buck.
A long bulk and correspondingly steeper cut with more lean mass lost during the cut; or less time bulking because you spent more time cutting but lost less lean mass as a result.
Or get all scientific and explore eating during a tight post workout period hoping to generate an anabolic period among a mostly catabolic day.
Seems that the exercise forum or a bodybuilding site may have more people with experience in what you want to do.
You may also want to consider how you will go about measuring your body fat and muscle mass as even dxa has considerable error...
Nonsense just because you don't know how to does not mean no one in MFP has cut weight while lifting. In fact I know some who lift competitively while cutting weight.
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I started doing a program that is called eat to perform and I lost abotu 2% body fat and gained 1.5lbs of muscle mass in 6 weeks (and hit personal best on two of my lifts). I was really shocked. Have certain protein/carb/fat goals, and on off-days from the gym I only cut carbs a little bit and hit my same level or protein and fat. Definitely can be done if you don't rely too much on cardio and you lift a lot (and feed your workouts with carbs and proteins so you don't use your muscle to fuel your lifts). (edit: I was already in pretty good shape before this, but had hit a plateau; I workout 4x a week doing crossfit)0
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yopeeps025 wrote: »
In practice, it's extremely difficult to be that precise. Even if you manage to get perfect accuracy on the intake side, you won't on the burn side.
Trial and error. Some people can figure out the numbers to be this close.0 -
yopeeps025 wrote: »yopeeps025 wrote: »
In practice, it's extremely difficult to be that precise. Even if you manage to get perfect accuracy on the intake side, you won't on the burn side.
Trial and error. Some people can figure out the numbers to be this close.
This sounds rather delusional.0 -
yopeeps025 wrote: »yopeeps025 wrote: »
In practice, it's extremely difficult to be that precise. Even if you manage to get perfect accuracy on the intake side, you won't on the burn side.
Trial and error. Some people can figure out the numbers to be this close.
I very much doubt that. The day to day variation in BMR/RMR alone is larger than 50 calories - unless you put someone in a coma it's going to be virtually impossible to do this.0
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