Becoming Lean and Losing Muscle Mass (It is possible?)
ReneevdH
Posts: 4 Member
Ok, I understand this may be completely impossible but I thought I'd give it to the forum for some advice/discussion.
Background:
I used to be a competitive swimmer, 2-3hr sets, 6-8 times a week and competitions every weekend. I have the natural/genetic tendency to develop muscle easily and from these years of training, I have relatively strong arms, strong abs and very strong legs (both thigh and calf). I stopped competing a few years ago due to university commitments, so have dropped my fitness significantly and gained a not-so-ideal layer of fat.
So here's my situation. I need to get fit to develop a better lifestyle for myself, take off the fat layer I've developed, but I DO NOT WANT MUSCLE. In fact, I'd really like to reduce all my muscle mass. It's not the look I want anymore and I have no use for it all.
What is my best option for getting fit which will not increase my muscle mass? At the moment, I have been advised running or swimming at medium intensity with a calorie deficit diet.
What are your thoughts on this? (You're welcome to tell me it's impossible, or recommend me something completely different. I'm open to every idea here!)
Thank you,
Renee
Background:
I used to be a competitive swimmer, 2-3hr sets, 6-8 times a week and competitions every weekend. I have the natural/genetic tendency to develop muscle easily and from these years of training, I have relatively strong arms, strong abs and very strong legs (both thigh and calf). I stopped competing a few years ago due to university commitments, so have dropped my fitness significantly and gained a not-so-ideal layer of fat.
So here's my situation. I need to get fit to develop a better lifestyle for myself, take off the fat layer I've developed, but I DO NOT WANT MUSCLE. In fact, I'd really like to reduce all my muscle mass. It's not the look I want anymore and I have no use for it all.
What is my best option for getting fit which will not increase my muscle mass? At the moment, I have been advised running or swimming at medium intensity with a calorie deficit diet.
What are your thoughts on this? (You're welcome to tell me it's impossible, or recommend me something completely different. I'm open to every idea here!)
Thank you,
Renee
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Replies
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If you eat at a caloric deficit without any strength training, you will more than likely lose LBM. It is inevitable. I would say doing light cardio and reducing calories should work. My question is WHY you would want to lose LBM? But it should be fairly simple with reducing anything that helps maintain the LBM while cutting calories.0
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Eh.... if you just lose muscle, then a higher percentage of your body will be fat, which is what you are trying to eliminate....
Anyways, the optimal way to lose muscle is to not use them. Do not exercise. Eat at a deficit, keep protein low (0.36g/lb). You'll get what you are asking for, but I'm not sure if it is actually what you want.0 -
A lot of cardio on a deficit should do it. I wish I could take some of your muscle you don't want.0
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Eating a calorie deficit diet will help me lose weight, but will it help me get lean? Should I be aiming to combine this with a zero-resistance training plan (such as floor work/running), will this help prevent gaining muscle in the process?0
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I want to lose muscle because;
a) I don't need it. I have no desire to be as strong as I am, and it's only weighing me down now
b) I wish to look smaller as I am very short and it isn't a great look to have so much muscle.
Yes, I wish I could just give it all to you..0 -
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Eating a calorie deficit diet will help me lose weight, but will it help me get lean? Should I be aiming to combine this with a zero-resistance training plan (such as floor work/running), will this help prevent gaining muscle in the process?
You don't build muscle in a deficit without trying to do so. There are no accidental bodybuilders, just as there are no accidental concert pianists or accidental master plumbers. Eat in a deficit to lose weight. Refrain from resistance training to lose muscle. You'll have less fat and muscle in the end and look softer and skinnier than you do now.0 -
I want to lose muscle because;
a) I don't need it. I have no desire to be as strong as I am, and it's only weighing me down now
b) I wish to look smaller as I am very short and it isn't a great look to have so much muscle.
Yes, I wish I could just give it all to you..
I wonder if you are being too hard on your natural body type. Do you have any pictures from when you were a competitive swimmer?0 -
kshama2001 wrote: »I want to lose muscle because;
a) I don't need it. I have no desire to be as strong as I am, and it's only weighing me down now
b) I wish to look smaller as I am very short and it isn't a great look to have so much muscle.
Yes, I wish I could just give it all to you..
I wonder if you are being too hard on your natural body type. Do you have any pictures from when you were a competitive swimmer?
I also wonder if you are overestimating how strong you are and how much muscle you have. If you haven't competed or seriously exercised in years, then the muscle probably already disappeared.0 -
Hi Renee,
I'm glad your getting some supportive answers in here. Often if anyone, no let me correct that, if a WOMAN says she wants less muscle/to look less muscled/desires a slender svelte look, she is attacked in forums. Recently it seems like that attitude is changing.
Two places to get an expert opinion on this topic would be Rusty Moores website "Fitness Blackbook" (which is no longer updated but the site and all the articles are there) and Leigh Peele at leighpeele.com
Rusty was a bodybuilder for years and eventually got fed up with not being able to find pants that fit his overly muscular legs or shirts for giant biceps. He worked at a men's tuxedo shop and couldn't wear anything there. He decided he wanted a more "Hollywood" look and accomplished it. His whole site is dedicated to how to achieve that look through strength training (or in some cases NOT strength training), cardio, feeding, ect. Good good stuff on there.
Leigh wrote "More bulky truth", a blog post that went viral. She is a fat loss and performance expert to celebrities and housewives alike. She doesn't judge what you desire to do with your body, just tells you the truth about how to accomplish it. Even though she works with bodybuilders as well, she will be the first to say that there is nothing wrong with that look - that there is nothing wrong with ANY look that people desire for themselves - but she personally chooses a more dense muscular frame because she dances. Please check her out, she's amazing.
I am in the same boat as you. I was very active in my 20's and followed all the advice in Muscle and Fitness Hers for years trying to slim down and ended up developing a body that wasn't what I was after. I am also petite, 5'0ft. After I became a dancer and instructor, it was clear that large quads and biceps were not only not needed for my job, they got in the way. It takes more then just not using a muscle to let it atrophy, though that is a part of it. It's possible to change your composition, it just isn't a very fast process. More then just a deficit you need to ensure that the ingredients for muscle building are not available.0 -
Eating a calorie deficit diet will help me lose weight, but will it help me get lean? Should I be aiming to combine this with a zero-resistance training plan (such as floor work/running), will this help prevent gaining muscle in the process?
Maybe I'm dense, but I don't understand what "getting lean" means to you--my impression is that most people mean decreasing BF% when they say "getting lean," but you say actually want to lose muscle. Are your goals to lose weight, with as much of that weight being muscle as possible? If you're just saying you want to lose the recently acquired fat plus as much muscle as possible, no special exercise is required. Just eat at a deficit, and don't do any strength/resistance training, and it might be best to avoid high levels of cardio (you wouldn't want to hold on to any leg muscles that you have, would you?).0 -
Sorry, have to.I'd really like to reduce all my muscle mass
Yep. According to Eric Helms, leg-centric MISS cardio in addition to your deficit would be ideal, as that's what he recommends avoiding for muscle retention during cuts, due to the muscular adaptations or 'interruptions'. For example, marathon runner legs vs. sprinter legs.I have been advised running or swimming at medium intensity with a calorie deficit diet.
And this ^bologna111 wrote: »I wish I could take some of your muscle you don't want.
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Eating a calorie deficit diet will help me lose weight, but will it help me get lean? Should I be aiming to combine this with a zero-resistance training plan (such as floor work/running), will this help prevent gaining muscle in the process?
Some of this you can't really change though. I have really muscular calves. Is it exacerbated by running? Possibly. I would literally have to not use my legs to make them smaller than a certain point, meaning sitting around and moving them as little as possible. I know this because I spent six months in a cast. My right calf was several inches smaller than my left due to complete inactivity. I could also barely walk, because the muscles didn't function properly. The point I am trying to make is understand if what you are trying to accomplish is realistic according to how your body is constructed.0 -
Eat in a calorie deficit to lose weight. Guaranteed you'll lose muscle unless you're actively trying to maintain it, which I'm assuming you aren't, so you shouldn't have any worries about gaining (which is extremely difficult to do in a deficit, even when you do want to!)0
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@ReneevdH I'm sorry for derailing your thread, but will someone please explain to me under what circumstances your body is going to prioritizing muscle building over any other function in a caloric deficit. Maybe your brain will take a break to beef up your biceps?0
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I think we all have a body aesthetic we admire
If you wish to lose weight eat at a calorie defecit
If you don't wish to preserve as much LBM as possible as you lose weight then do not follow any progressive resistance programme
How much muscle you will lose is indeterminate
But if you don't use it you will lose it0 -
Eating at a calorie deficit you will lose both fat and muscle, that is just how it works. Most people want to maintain LBM because of how it helps in various aspect of life, but since you don't, just eat at a deficit and you will not only lose fat you will lose some muscle. I am not sure what sort of body you are looking for, but this will do what you stated you wanted, losing fat and muscle.0
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RobotPhysique wrote: »@ReneevdH I'm sorry for derailing your thread, but will someone please explain to me under what circumstances your body is going to prioritizing muscle building over any other function in a caloric deficit. Maybe your brain will take a break to beef up your biceps?
I don't think there is one. Except maybe newbie gains and I think it would have to be a small deficit for that.
Most people want to hold on to as much existing LBM while losing. @ReneevdH does not. Cardio with little strength training would work for her.
Cheers, h.
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@middlehaitch I was being facetious--If OP was a competitive swimmer, there are no noob gains to be made, and thus no reason for her to worry about adding muscle in a deficit. It's not "difficult"; it's not going to happen.0
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I'll never understand why people get crucified if they say they want to lose muscle. Not everyone likes how muscle looks on them. How they want their body to look doesn't affect anyone but them.0
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I'll never understand why people get crucified if they say they want to lose muscle. Not everyone likes how muscle looks on them. How they want their body to look doesn't affect anyone but them.
Nobody is "crucifying" anyone. Yes, it is bewildering when people want to lose muscle mass because preserving it while losing weight has a number of aesthetic benefits, such as decreasing the likelihood of excessive loose skin and preventing the "skinny fat" look.0 -
Thanks Everyone, this has been super helpful, and thanks for the links some people have directed me to as well. I understand that what I'm trying to do isn't what a bodybuilder wants, and your comments have helped direct me to where I need to go from here.
At 5'3 with a size 6 waist and size 12 thighs, I look forward to this challenge and getting back to a physique that suits me in a post-competitive athlete life. Thank you.0 -
Thanks Everyone, this has been super helpful, and thanks for the links some people have directed me to as well. I understand that what I'm trying to do isn't what a bodybuilder wants, and your comments have helped direct me to where I need to go from here.
At 5'3 with a size 6 waist and size 12 thighs, I look forward to this challenge and getting back to a physique that suits me in a post-competitive athlete life. Thank you.
Renee - it is absolutely possible. It's a technique that competitive cyclists, runners, ballerinas, etc... who use it all the time to get in their best "ideal" fighting weight/body composition. All the extra muscle bulk on the upper half of the body serves little purpose on the bike, or running, triathletes, or dancing for ballerinas - especially when going up hills and when the ballerinas are jumping and being lifted into the air by their male dancer colleagues - so using cardio workouts with a deficit in the CICO equation will have your body fueling itself on both fat and muscle in the upper body to get "lean and mean".
Triathletes do it...
Professional dancers do it...
Professional marathon runners do it...
Those who want to wear the yellow jersey in the Tour de France do it...
A
No matter what we may or may not think of Lance Armstrong, after his first "retirement" from the sport, he bulked up with a lot of weight lifting. So much so that he weighed too much to hang with the rest of the doped crowd going up the hills in the mountains. When he decided to come out of "retirement" and do the Tour de France again, his trainers had to devise a 6-8 month program to take him from this overly muscled frame for cycling...
...to this lean and mean climbing machine...
You will want to keep your muscle tone, just not the muscle bulk. So a combination of running a deficit in the CICO equation, using cardio (power walks, running, cycling, endurance swimming) and lifting of lighter weights with high reps will transform you into a much more lean and mean machine.
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Thanks Everyone, this has been super helpful, and thanks for the links some people have directed me to as well. I understand that what I'm trying to do isn't what a bodybuilder wants, and your comments have helped direct me to where I need to go from here.
At 5'3 with a size 6 waist and size 12 thighs, I look forward to this challenge and getting back to a physique that suits me in a post-competitive athlete life. Thank you.
It has nothing to do with what "bodybuilders" want, many individuals 18-80 any various points of weight loss want to maintain as much LBM as possible because it's so important, especially as we get older.
If you want to lose some mucscle, that's fine, that's up to you. Eat at the largest deficit you can handle and don't use your muscles.
I just wanted to make the point that it isn't just "bodybuilders" who are concerned about LBM. That's a misconception.0 -
Other posters using WTF memes to belittle a personal choice on how they want their own body to look and are seeking advice from some people that may feel the same or are going through the same journey
?
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Here's another one just for you.Other posters using WTF memes to belittle a personal choice
1. It was simply a lighthearted joke that prefaced the sound and supported advice I provided OP to reach her goal.
2. If that's crucifixion, I feel bad for you when you actually wake up to reality.
Cheers.
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RobotPhysique wrote: »
Here's another one just for you.Other posters using WTF memes to belittle a personal choice
1. It was simply a lighthearted joke that prefaced the sound and supported advice I provided OP to reach her goal.
2. If that's crucifixion, I feel bad for you when you actually wake up to reality.
Cheers.
I don't see how being facetious is helping make a point. And also, if you are being lighthearted and not defensive, you'll see that I wasn't the original poster for saying "being crucified" nor did I say that I agreed it was crucifixion. I answered a question in a way that some people may not see.
Everyone comes from all walks of life on here and some people find it difficult to ask for help, which is what the point of the forum is for.
Immediately trying to then attack anyone that even remotely responds to a thread or in a way you don't agree with patronising statements like "I feel sorry for you when you actually wake up to reality" only reflects on what weird short fuse you have or how intolerant you are to any statement that you disagree with.
Also I have no idea what that means in this context as you have no idea about my personal or professional life nor do I have of yours.
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nor did I say that I agreed it was crucifixion.
Incongruous.
Yet, I'm the bad buy for being perplexed by OP's unorthodox objective?which is what the point of the forum is for
Don't think we'll be seeing eye to eye on this one. Let's chalk it up as a loss and save each other some time. Have a nice day.
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RobotPhysique wrote: »nor did I say that I agreed it was crucifixion.
Incongruous.
Yet, I'm the bad buy for being perplexed by OP's unorthodox objective?which is what the point of the forum is for
Don't think we'll be seeing eye to eye on this one. Let's chalk it up as a loss and save each other some time. Have a nice day.
Sure, I didn't say you were a bad guy, only your response to my answer on someone's thread was a bit much.
Anyhoos, it's NBD in the grand scheme of things!
have a good day and hope you have a good 2016 0
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