I am wondering if the horror stories of massive muscle loss due to dieting are mostly myth propagated by those who severly overestimated their starting point due to poor bf% measurement or greatly inflated self-estimates of their muscle mass pre-diet?
I have lost over 40lbs with fairly conventional methods (3 balanced meals per day, 7 days/week steady state cardio and lifting 3x/week) and while I was worried about muscle wasting at first because of the plethora of posts by those who claimed to become “skinny-fat” due to lack of protein, excessive cardio, etc. My experience has been that this hasn’t happened, and if it has the fat loss has exceeded it by such a margin that the change in body comp is definately positive.
The quote that got me thinking about this in the first place was Alwyn Cosgrove in his list of things he has learned…
“25. In all my years, I’ve never seen anyone lose these massive amounts of muscle that
everyone is talking about when dieting.”
What does the T-Nation think of this…is this concern overblown or legitimate?
[quote]bronco68 wrote:
“25. In all my years, I’ve never seen anyone lose these massive amounts of muscle that
everyone is talking about when dieting.”
What does the T-Nation think of this…is this concern overblown or legitimate?[/quote]
Obviously, this example is kind of retarded, but Christian Bale lost a fuckload of muscle for the machinist. Obviously he did it on purpose, but I’m sure there are people out there who fuck up dieting to the point where they lose a significant amount of muscle mass.
The usual loss is half and half body fat to muscle if you diet like aq dumbass. To someone not that muscular, it obviously doesn’t mean much. To someone who has spent the last ten years of their life building their body up, it can mean quite a lot.
That means that out of your 40lbs, there is a good chance that 15lbs or more was muscle loss (not to mention water loss).
I spent nine months slowly trying to lose fat only with dietary means. I didn’t have a lot of fat to begin with, but I’ll bet I lost 2/3 fat to 1/3 muscle, about eight pounds total. My overall strength increased in that time period.
Reduce calories below 1,800, do a shit load of cardio, and watch happens. About four years ago I did this and went from 190 lb to 160 lb in three or four months. My best guess is that about half was fat loss and the other half lean mass. I looked awful and was both skinny and flabby at the same time. Fortunately I came across Tom Venuto’s site and started to get educated and finally found T-Nation a couple years ago. Today I again weigh 190 lb but look nothing like I did four years ago.
So, yes the skinny / fat thing can happen. The result is more dramatic when there is little muscle mass to start. However, even those of us that have been training for several years should be cautious of losing too much lean mass when cutting. You most likely won?t look skinny / fat, but if you?re not careful you may look more skinny than you?d like.
I just got back from a vacation in cuba with my classmates. They were all dieting about 3 months before they went there. when we got there and took their shirts off to show off, it didn’t even look like they worked out. Congrats guys, you went from a skinny 175 to a skinny fat 155. seriously, it was just retarded, they looked like they were starving and had lost any muscle mass they might have had to begin with.
It definatly happens but I think the risk is minimized with a sensable plan and reasonable goals.
For example I suffered severe depression and could barely force down maybe 1000 calories a day… in about a month I lost 30lbs with no visible reduction in body fat.
I think “skinny fat” applies more to people who don’t really have any muscle to begin with. Like most non-competitive distance runners. They’re soft, with flabby guts and no muscular definition to speak of. I’ve never really heard of someone legitimately turning skinny-fat from dieting down. I tihnk they’re probably full of shit and went from “fat-fat” to “skinny fat”.
This is why you have toactually have some muscular size before you cut. (Preaching to the choir… I hope.)
I always thought ‘skinny-fat’ was in reference to individuals who were afraid of becoming big and freakish looking just from touching weights or move anything with more effort than a walk to the fridge or toilet.
Groups I’ve always associated ‘skinny-fat’ with have been girls (who don’t work out yet are skinny whether they diet stupidly or eat whatever they want), emo kids, and vegetarians (who do not workout or do something in physical culture).
Individuals vary beyond those groups above mentioned.
Well, I’m certainly no expert, and this is only my second post. I started my lifestyle change eight months ago. I weighed 201 lbs at 5’10". Had a fairly nice beer gut and a very tight 34" waist size, but really was probably a 36". I read everything I could find on the web.
I read this site (the best IMO), Tom Venuto’s stuff, Fit over 40, Bodyforlife and many others. I calculated my maintenance calories and reduced it by approximately 300 - 500 a day. I did cardio three to four times a week and lifted compounds twice a week (always full-body). And yeah, I had to put down the beer, that was tough.
Anyway I lost 26 pounds and I believe most of it was fat. My waist is now a 32" and I can actually wear a 31". My weight is now 178 lbs. I am much stronger than when I started and look a hell of lot better. The point is, there are many people who believe you can lose fat and keep and maybe gain a little muscle while eating right and working out.
And I do truly believe that you really can’t gain a lot of muscle and lose fat while dieting. BUt if your goal is to keep your LBM and lose the fat, it can be done, if done the proper way. Just my two cents.