Am I losing muscle?

jerb00
jerb00 Posts: 155 Member
edited November 2024 in Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
I stopped lifting weights a few months ago and switched to bodyweight exercises. After 1 1/2 years of lifting and increasing weight and eating at maintenance or slightly below my measurements never changed. I felt like I looked better than I had before lifting (even though before lifting I consistently practiced Pilates) and showed more definition - which is my goal. But in the last few months of practicing 10 core body weights exercises my measurements in my thighs has done down by 1/8 inch. This is a big deal as I have been measuring consistently with no change. I am up to 50 reps a day on upper body exercises - push ups/dips/horizontal rows, and 125 lower body exercises - hip thrusts/flute ham raises/Bulgarian split squats and shrimp squats. So, I now understand progressive overload as it pertains to calisthenics and time under tension. So I do three seconds lowering and 1-2 seconds coming back up. My arms back and shoulders are def more defined. So my question- I always read over and over that weights are the way to go when you want to change body composition, gain mass, etc. so, I am still eating the same as I always have at maintenance but my thigh measurement went down. Since I am not moving any additional weight, should I assume I am losing muscle? Not really what I want and I don't want to go back to skinny fat but I really feel good after I am done exercising - like I worked really hard without the depleted feeling I was beginning to have after using weights. Thoughts?

Replies

  • usmcmp
    usmcmp Posts: 21,219 Member
    So your upper body is looking leaner, but your legs are getting skinnier and you are maintaining weight. It could be recomposition with a bit of overall leaning out and your upper body benefiting from the work you are doing. There is a chance you are losing lean mass in your lower though. You might need to figure out how to add some weight to your leg days. I know that I reached a point very early into my glute ham raise training where I absolutely had to add weight because there was simply no slowing the tempo down any more.
  • jerb00
    jerb00 Posts: 155 Member
    usmcmp wrote: »
    So your upper body is looking leaner, but your legs are getting skinnier and you are maintaining weight. It could be recomposition with a bit of overall leaning out and your upper body benefiting from the work you are doing. There is a chance you are losing lean mass in your lower though. You might need to figure out how to add some weight to your leg days. I know that I reached a point very early into my glute ham raise training where I absolutely had to add weight because there was simply no slowing the tempo down any more.

    Thanks for the reply. Yeah, my upper is looking the best ever but I am concerned that you are right about the lower body. But the problem is that adding weight to squats, dreads, and thrusts was really draining me. That's why I stopped in the first place. If I add weights, but very low weights, I will eventfully have the same problem right?
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,463 Member
    jerb00 wrote: »
    usmcmp wrote: »
    So your upper body is looking leaner, but your legs are getting skinnier and you are maintaining weight. It could be recomposition with a bit of overall leaning out and your upper body benefiting from the work you are doing. There is a chance you are losing lean mass in your lower though. You might need to figure out how to add some weight to your leg days. I know that I reached a point very early into my glute ham raise training where I absolutely had to add weight because there was simply no slowing the tempo down any more.

    Thanks for the reply. Yeah, my upper is looking the best ever but I am concerned that you are right about the lower body. But the problem is that adding weight to squats, dreads, and thrusts was really draining me. That's why I stopped in the first place. If I add weights, but very low weights, I will eventfully have the same problem right?

    Add weights 10-20% less than what was draining you. You could try reducing reps instead.
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