How can you prevent loosing muscle along with fat?

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allierat84
allierat84 Posts: 73 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Does anyone know which kinds of exercise and how much would be ideal to ensure that I don't loose muscle mass along with fat?
I've rarely got time for proper excercise, but I get a decent amount of steps a day and try and fit in some body weight things like squats and stuff (usually just bits and pieces like when I'm waiting for the kettle to boil and things like that as it's the only way I can seem to make time!) But I'm not sure that's really good enough?

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  • Phirrgus
    Phirrgus Posts: 1,894 Member
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    Make sure you get enough protein in your daily intake. I would personally recommend strength training as well, but really any good resistance workout will help alleviate that muscle loss.

    Take a moment to read through this thread.
    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1
  • ArmyMedic23PFA
    ArmyMedic23PFA Posts: 726 Member
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    Have you thought about investing in a good set of resistance bands
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    Moderate to slow rate of weight loss.
    Higher than usual protein intake.
    Exercise (resistance training sends the strongest signal to maintain your muscle but all exercise helps).
  • allierat84
    allierat84 Posts: 73 Member
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    What sort of protein intake is good? I don't usually get much, have been working on increasing it, but I'm still often a little below the 20% that mfp recommends as standard.
  • allierat84
    allierat84 Posts: 73 Member
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    ArmyMedic23PFA wrote: »
    Have you thought about investing in a good set of resistance bands

    Hadn't thought of them as I don't really know anything about them. I'll look into it
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    allierat84 wrote: »
    What sort of protein intake is good? I don't usually get much, have been working on increasing it, but I'm still often a little below the 20% that mfp recommends as standard.

    I tend to go with 1g protein per pound of estimated lean mass when I'm cutting as a minimum goal. (Very estimated lean mass is fine, it doesn't have to be ultra precise.)

    BTW - percentages are very flawed way of looking at protein intake, 20% of 1200 cals/day is very different to 20% of the 2500 cals/day that I cut at for example.
  • allierat84
    allierat84 Posts: 73 Member
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    sijomial wrote: »

    I tend to go with 1g protein per pound of estimated lean mass when I'm cutting as a minimum goal. (Very estimated lean mass is fine, it doesn't have to be ultra precise.)

    BTW - percentages are very flawed way of looking at protein intake, 20% of 1200 cals/day is very different to 20% of the 2500 cals/day that I cut at for example.

    My scales give a muscle mass (I know it's not going to be accurate), so I could use that as an estimate for lean mass?
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    allierat84 wrote: »
    sijomial wrote: »

    I tend to go with 1g protein per pound of estimated lean mass when I'm cutting as a minimum goal. (Very estimated lean mass is fine, it doesn't have to be ultra precise.)

    BTW - percentages are very flawed way of looking at protein intake, 20% of 1200 cals/day is very different to 20% of the 2500 cals/day that I cut at for example.

    My scales give a muscle mass (I know it's not going to be accurate), so I could use that as an estimate for lean mass?

    Sure - but not the muscle mass number, lean body mass is everything except body fat so work out your estimated LBM by taking the fat % away from your total body weight.
  • allierat84
    allierat84 Posts: 73 Member
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    sijomial wrote: »

    Sure - but not the muscle mass number, lean body mass is everything except body fat so work out your estimated LBM by taking the fat % away from your total body weight.

    Oh right, ok 🙂 going by that I need to eat quite a bit more protein then!

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