Losing weight is usually most men’s goal especially as we age because our metabolism can slow down. While we want to drop the fat we also need to make sure that the weight-loss does not come from our muscles.
it’s pretty common to lose weight and some muscle at the same time. Here are five things below that you can do to prevent muscle loss while losing weight and help make you stronger in the process.
- Eat enough Protein
- Don’t lose weight too quickly
- Strength Training
- Focus on recovery
- Go easy with the cardio
Making sure you have enough muscle in your body is not necessarily a vanity issue but it also plays a key role in your health. obviously you don’t have to look like some jacked bodybuilder but having lean muscle on your body is ideal.
The reason we want to make sure we have an adequate amount of muscle on her body is that it is closely related to our metabolism. it’s natural to lose some muscle while losing weight on a lower calorie diet because you are sending signals to your body that keeping muscle is not the priority. Also, as we lose weight hour metabolism naturally slows down.
Weight loss can be a double-edged sword, losing the way can slow down metabolism and we can lose muscle is related to our metabolism.
This makes perfect sense as to why when people do lose weight they usually can’t keep it off because their metabolism has slowed down. It’s best to take a slower approach to weight loss instead of a quick one. Let’s take a look at why down below and things we can do to prevent muscle loss while trying to lose fat.
Are You Eating Enough Protein?
One of the most important and overlooked things to do is to eat enough protein to make sure you maintain a healthy weight and lean muscle. All macronutrients have their place, but protein is king to building muscle and keeping you full. Protein works by increasing thermogenesis which helps you lose fat.
TEF Stands for the thermic effect of food, which is an increase in your metabolism. Carbs and fat are a much lower thermic effect of food than protein. There have been studies have shown that carbohydrates can raise the thermic effect by 5 to 10%, fat by 3% or less, and protein with the most thermic effect by 20 to 30%.
It is natural for our metabolism to slow down as weight loss occurs and can even be slower during maintenance. But the good news is there is proof that higher protein intake can will limit the effect of your metabolism slowing down.
There was a study done that focused on one of three diets to sustain weight loss at 10 to 15%. The diet where the participants consumed the most amount of protein lessened the total daily energy expenditure by 97 calories. as compared to 297-223 calories and the participants who consumed less protein.
one study found that after weight loss .5 grams of protein per pound of body weight was needed to keep their metabolism from slowing down after the weight loss. this just goes to show that increased protein is great for weight loss and able to help your metabolism after for the maintenance period.
How Fast Should You Lose Weight
It can be difficult in the beginning one try while trying to lose weight and maintain strength because it’s those early winds that help keep us motivated. when it comes to losing weight though we don’t want to lose it too fast.
the downfall of losing fat too quickly is that we can also sacrifice muscle and the process. This is bad not only from a standpoint of working hard to gain muscle but for health factors as well.
One study in obesity was performed where people did an extremely low-calorie diet and 18% of their weight loss came from their muscle.
Those who followed a less extreme approach dropped San average of 7.7% muscle then compared to 18%. this is a pretty big difference and also shows that we should not be trying to crash diet and lose all her weight at once.
I am definitely guilty of this in the past and have led me to yo-yo dieting. when ultimately we should be focusing on our nutrition nourish our bodies when we train and for our overall health.
The standard is to try to lose 1-2 pounds per week according to most, but in my humble opinion it may be okay to lose 2-4 to help stay motivated and get those early wins.
not that you need to be losing 4 pounds every week but if you have a lot of body fat it shouldn’t be that big of a deal in the beginning. should work to decrease your calorie smell between 250 to 500 calories I’ll keep you in the moderate and less extreme range. Here is a free calculator To help figure out your calories.
Weight Lifting for Maintaining Strength while Cutting
It’s normal and a lot of people think that to lose weight you should just be doing cardio in that weight training does employee that big of a role. while it does help and will factor into weight loss it is not a substitute for weight training.
“In one 2015 Harvard School of Public Health study of 10,500 adults, those who performed strength training gained less abdominal fat (while building more muscle) over a period of 12 years compared to those who spent the same amount of time dedicated to cardio.
This is a huge misconception I not only focusing on weight loss but also health. in fact, too much cardio can actually be bad for your health such as long-distance running. too much weight training can also be bad but I see it much easier to overdo cardio then trying to lift weights 6 to 7 days a week before your body experiences overtraining.
This is a huge misconception I not only focusing on weight loss but also health. in fact, too much cardio can actually be bad for your health such as long-distance running. too much weight training can also be bad but I see it much easier to overdo cardio then trying to lift weights 6 to 7 days a week before your body experiences overtraining.
not only does weightlifting prevent strength and muscle during weight loss it is also anti-aging. Sarcopenia is actually a deterioration of muscle as we age and is slowed down by strength training and not by cardio. It helps keep muscle on our bodies well into our older years.
How Important is Rest
A big myth is that you get stronger and your muscles will grow if you work out like crazy! This couldn’t be further from the truth, our bodies actually grow outside of the gym
In fact, it’s been proven that this is not the case and can take anywhere from 24-48 hours before that muscle group should be worked out again. If you are not giving your body the rest it needs it will not be able to recover and grow.
You should be trying to get at least 7-8 hours of sleep for optimal health and recovery. You can have your nutrition and workouts dialed in and if you don’t get enough rest you could still be gaining weight or not achieving your goals.
The reason for this is your stress hormone cortisol gets raised when you don’t get enough sleep or are dealing with a lot of stress. Other important hormones are being made while you sleep and this is when your body is repairing itself. If you are having trouble losing stubborn belly fat this post goes more in-depth about your hormones and sleep.
How much Cardio is Enough
Yes, we should still be doing cardio about the right type of cardio. I spoke with my functional medicine doctor and he was telling me that some of the most unhealthy people in his practice are marathon runners or long-distance runners. Here is a study and there are many more out there to back up this claim.
If you’re going to jog a couple of miles that should be fine but I like to do HIIT type of training. It could be done in many ways and as simple as a walk for a minute all-out Sprint for 30 seconds to 1 minute. You would do this anywhere for up to 10-20 minutes continuously.
While we should be doing some form of cardio we need to make sure we are not overdoing it while we are also cutting calories when lifting weights. If we are doing too much cardio it can be very stressful on the body. I try to do mostly 2-3 days a week of HIIT training.
A good rule of thumb is the 80/20 method. You should try to focus on nutrition for 80% of the fat loss while factoring in 20% for cardio weight loss. This is also a good way to keep from overtraining, you will never out-exercise bad nutrition.
It’s possible that too much cardio along with weight training and being in a calorie deficit can put too much stress on your body not allowing you to recover.
Tips that you are Losing Muscle and not Fat
If you are someone who is in shape and works out frequently you could possibly what is your strength and muscle in roughly 3 weeks if you are not working out according to recent studies.
On the other hand, if you are losing muscle there is a good chance that you are losing strength as well. They both work hand in hand, most of the time if you are getting stronger you are gaining more muscle.
- More fatigued during workouts
- Your body fat hasn’t dropped
- Rapid weight loss
Rest and Recovery
This may seem like common sense but if you just don’t have the energy or your workouts this could be a sign of muscle loss or overtraining. if you feel like this it’s best to just take a break for a couple of days or do fewer sets at 60 to 70% Max during those workouts. if you are losing muscle you will definitely lose strength during your workouts.
This has happened to me before as I’ve lost too much weight too quickly but also lost too much muscle it was not nearly as strong as I was before.
To wrap it all up if we don’t want to lose strength while cutting here are some good steps to follow. make sure you’re focusing on your protein as this is a very important macronutrient for rebuilding muscle and also improve strength while losing weight.
There are always changing recommendations on how much protein is needed which says A good rule of thumb this is plenty to be able to stay healthy and accomplish your goals.
Eating enough Protein
When we lose weight there is a very good chance of losing some muscle and eating enough protein can help in the negate that. We should be trying to get anywhere from .7-1.0 grams of protein per body weight.
Losing weight too fast
We don’t want to lose weight too quickly, as previously mentioned there’s a very good chance of losing muscle if we lose weight too quickly. This, in fact, means that we will also lose strength if we are losing muscle.
The Recommendation is one that you lb weight loss per week. This is enough to keep you motivated that is great, a person tried to shoot between 2 to 4 lb per week. when we lose weight our metabolism starts to slow down so it’s important not to lose them too quickly because we want to keep the muscle because this is a good Factor off the terminating how well your metabolism is working.
It’s about to be a reason why people who lose weight end up putting it back on because they are not maintaining or have lost too much muscle during weight loss.
Strenght Training
Strength training is very important you still want to a moderate to heavyweight even if you are trying to lose weight. You should always try to leave at least two reps in the tank and not training to failure on most major muscle groups.
also, as much as we feel like we should go go go we also need to take time to rest and recover. It’s just like yin and yang, if we’re always going card we also need to make time to rest because this is when our bodies will recover and grow.
As far as cardio goes oh, we should not try to focus on being marathon runners. it’s great to run marathons as a personal goal but not something you should focus your exercise around.
With that being said cardio is still very important for your help and for weight loss. But long sustained bouts of jogging has been shown to not be beneficial for your health as opposed to shorter periods of jogging or sprinting what’s walking mixed in.
So when it comes to Cartier we should not make it extreme but two to three days a week at most is beneficial for your health. I personally like to do HIIT for my cardio, there are many different forms of this cardio but I like to all-out sprint for 1 minute and walk for another minute until I’ve reached 15-20 minutes.
Here is a good video that breaks down when cardio is bad. I’m definitely not against cardio but I feel like most don’t understand they shouldn’t be doing too much and should focus more on weight training and intensity during those workouts.