[quote]eengrms76 wrote:
To address the “muscle loss” issue, as I basically brought it up first…
Some people can probably handle a low calorie diet and not lose much muscle. But they will still lose some, and they may not even know it. Sure their bench press hasn’t changed, but that is not a good accurate judgement on how much muscle you have. It’s not the specifc muscle loss that bothers me, it’s the net effect of that loss that does.
I’m going to get real obvious now, so if you think you know more than me now would be the time to stop reading.
Let’s examine why muscle is good to have. First- you look better. Obvious enough. Second- muscle is more metabolically active tissue than fat. It burns calories by just existing. Fat does not. Third- that’s why we’re all here.
If you go on a low calorie diet and lose muscle, your metabolism will drop. You weigh less, so you need less, but even more you have lost some metabolically active tissue and now have a much lower BMR.
How about an example? Bill (ficticious name) has a BMR or 2800 and weighs 225lbs. He goes on a low calorie (~1500/day) diet for a couple months and manages to lose 20lbs. Good for Bill. Now he most likely lost that weight 50/50, meaning 10lbs fat and 10lbs muscle. Maybe not that drastic, but close enough. He decides to go off his diet. He recalculates his BMR at 2500 cals, but doesn’t take into account he lost any muscle. So his actual BMR may be down around 2200.
After a few weeks of eating 2500 cals/day he starts to gain weight. He’s eating less than before his diet, but gaining weight. After only a month or so he’s put the 20lbs back on, but this time all fat. He weighs the same 225 as before but now his BMR is only 2400. This is the classic definition of yo-yo dieting and has happened to every weight watcher’s client they’ve ever had.
Bottomline- no matter how hard you bust your ass in the gym, no matter how much protein you take in, if you cut your calories too low you will lose muscle and you will damage your metabolism. Simple as that.
There are some exceptions- if you are 100lbs overweight and have a BF% of 40- you probably can’t cut your calories low enough to worry. But if you are only 20-30lbs overweight with a BF% under 20, there is some real concern. The key is determining how low is too low for you and not going below that. That’s why it it so important to measure your BF using skinfold testing, or some other accurate enough way, and keep track of it. If you are Bill and you weigh 225, lose 20lbs and your BF% only drops 4 percentage points- you lost too much muscle.[/quote]
In general I agree with you, but I believe this guy said he is running test.
If that is the case, muscle loss will be extremely minimal, if any.