Losing weight, gaining muscle, but will need to lose muscle, I'm confused!

Enna10
Enna10 Posts: 18 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hello, I'm pretty early on in my weight loss journey at 19lbs lost, I'm now 223lbs. I've started going to the gym followed by swimming three times a week and am really enjoying it!
I've been using a machine there (Bodytrax) which gives a readout on all aspects of your body including muscle mass. I can see that mine has gone up which is a good thing, stronger fitter muscles, but the "ideal value" of my muscle mass is much lower. As I lose weight at some point will I start to lose muscle too, but the muscle I will be left with will be stronger than what I had before I started exercise? Can someone explain this.

Replies

  • sllm1
    sllm1 Posts: 2,130 Member
    Why do you want to lose muscle? Are you simply speaking of "getting smaller" in general? If so, losing the fat surrounding and covering your muscles will make you look smaller. I don't think such a machine is terribly accurate and I wouldn't focus on those numbers. Just follow the deficit and it will all work out.
  • MiniMansell1964
    MiniMansell1964 Posts: 188 Member
    Ignore the machine. all it does is weigh you and send a small electic current through you.
    based on the science of how the current passes through it makes some assumptions.

    Just eat less.
    excercise more
    love the new you
  • sgt1372
    sgt1372 Posts: 3,997 Member
    It is most often the case that, when you lose weight, you lose both fat and lean body mass (LBM), which includes but is not limited to muscle).

    The only way to prevent this is to eat a lot of protein (at least 35-40% of your calorie allotment) at only a minor deficit to your maintenance level and to lift weights or engage in exercises that build strength w/o expending excessive energy.

    Exactly how much of a deficit will depend on your individual situation; there is no formula. How much strength training is necessary to maintain or increase LBM will also vary but you need to lift or do things that require you to exert and build strength continually. One way to do this is to engage in a linear progression program with increasingly heavy weights, like Starting Strength or Stronglifts.

    For example, over a 2 month period, I recently dropped 5# from 171 to166 by gaining 3# of LBM and losing 8# of fat reducing my BF% from 20 down to 16% by limiting my daily cal intake to 1800 cals (about 20% below my TDEE of 2300) based on a macro of 40% protein, 40% carbs and 20% while lifting heavy weights of at least 80-85% of my 1RM doing squats, deadlifts, overhead presses and bench presses (as well as other things) 3-5 days a week w/o doing any cardio.

    So, you CAN gain LBM (and muscle) while losing weight but it takes discipline and a lot of hard work. Losing weight by just eating less is much eadier but you will have to accept that you will lose both fat and LBM doing it that way.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    The machine doing the measuring and the software interpreting/displaying the results are two different things. What the software is doing is using a "reference body" to provide a constant to which it can compare all results. The "reference" is not necessarily the "ideal", as I understand it.

    If I interpret the OP correctly, the display is merely showing that the muscle mass reading is higher than the "ideal" (i.e. Reference) value. I don't think the machine is RECOMMENDING that you lose muscle mass to achieve that value. The reference is used as a tool to analyze body structure and as a teaching tool. For example, someone with a fat level that is 150% of "ideal" in the lower body but only 105% of "ideal" in upper body could indicate a genetic preference for storing fat in the lower body. That's a pattern that might be instructive to a client. We use a (better) machine at our center that uses a similar concept on its results printout. It took me a while to get my head around it.
  • Enna10
    Enna10 Posts: 18 Member
    Thanks for taking the time to post a reply. I know I need to not read to much into what a machine is telling me, I just found the results interesting and puzzling in equal parts, as I said I am pretty new to this.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    Enna10 wrote: »
    Hello, I'm pretty early on in my weight loss journey at 19lbs lost, I'm now 223lbs. I've started going to the gym followed by swimming three times a week and am really enjoying it!
    I've been using a machine there (Bodytrax) which gives a readout on all aspects of your body including muscle mass. I can see that mine has gone up which is a good thing, stronger fitter muscles, but the "ideal value" of my muscle mass is much lower. As I lose weight at some point will I start to lose muscle too, but the muscle I will be left with will be stronger than what I had before I started exercise? Can someone explain this.

    Ignore the machine, it lies. It's so close to being total *kitten* that it's scary.

    Focus on the weight loss, get your body fat down.

    Continue to workout, follow a progressive resistance programme and eat adequate protein to maintain as much muscle as possible as that scale weight goes down

    Muscle is what makes everything tight, and taut, and in the right place and shape. You do not want to lose muscle until you are at a low enough body fat % to truly consider your overall shape

    Stay away from the bodytrax
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    Enna10 wrote: »
    Thanks for taking the time to post a reply. I know I need to not read to much into what a machine is telling me, I just found the results interesting and puzzling in equal parts, as I said I am pretty new to this.

    In an ideal world (or in our fitness center), a knowledgeable staff member would present the report to you and explain what it means.

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