There’s a chart I wish to present you at the moment.
It exhibits the share of fats vs. fat-free mass misplaced at completely different ranges of calorie deficit, relying on whether or not you’re power coaching or not. (You’ll discover it under.)
It additionally sheds gentle on one among my LEAST favourite developments I see within the health trade at the moment: making sweeping statements with none context.
And with the rise of GLP-1 medicines like Ozempic and Wegovy, I see this one popping up everywhere:
“For those who don’t eat sufficient protein and elevate weights, you’re simply dropping your entire muscle.”
We’ll get into it, however excessive statements like this are simply wildly unhelpful, and miss a lot of the necessary nuance.
Is power coaching helpful when you find yourself on these medicines or a calorie deficit basically? Sure.
However in the event you hearken to the overall chatter on the web (by no means actually a good suggestion), it makes it sound like muscle is actually falling off of your physique with every step you are taking. And that’s not solely fear-mongering, it’s simply not true.
Let’s zoom out:
I wish to break down what’s really taking place in your physique so we will have some actual discuss in regards to the completely different tradeoffs concerned.
✅ For those who’re in a calorie deficit, you’ll shed pounds
✅ Everytime you shed pounds, there’s at all times some quantity of lack of lean mass. (I.e. stuff aside from fats)
✅ Energy coaching and consuming larger quantities of protein can assist you protect extra of your muscle mass whereas in a caloric deficit
✅ The bigger your deficit, the extra lean mass you are likely to lose regardless of what you do.
✅ And GLP-1s don’t change that – they simply assist individuals keep on with bigger deficits than they may in any other case.
So to recap, at any time when anybody within the historical past of endlessly has misplaced weight, a few of that has come from lean mass.
The bigger the caloric deficit you might be in (i.e. the sooner you might be losing a few pounds), the larger the share of that weight will come from lean mass. That is completely regular and anticipated.
Energy coaching and consuming larger quantities of protein can completely assist you to protect extra of your lean mass. However you’re not going from “dropping all muscle” to “dropping zero muscle.” These adjustments are levels, not all-or-nothing.
How a lot of a distinction can coaching and consuming extra protein make?
I’m so glad you requested!
Right here’s a chart that exhibits on common the place we anticipate weight reduction to come back from. (Particular person outcomes will differ based mostly on genetics, sort of coaching, eating regimen, and so forth.)
On the whole, power coaching helps protect an additional 10-15% of lean physique mass.
So, for instance, in the event you misplaced 10 kilos over the course of three months on a 500 kcal/day deficit, you’d anticipate round 2.5 kilos of that to be from lean mass in the event you weren’t coaching, and 1.5 kilos of that to be from lean mass in the event you have been coaching (I.e. a 1 pound distinction.)
Why this issues:
I see so many individuals get discouraged as a result of they really feel like they’re not “doing it proper.”
Perhaps they’re not power coaching but.
Perhaps they haven’t discovered how you can hit their protein targets.
Perhaps they’re simply making an attempt to keep constant with any a part of the method.
They usually begin listening to issues like:
“You’re simply dropping muscle.”
“You’re ruining all of your progress.”
“You’re doing it incorrect.”
However in actuality? You’re simply making a trade-off.
For example, possibly a slight caloric deficit with no power coaching is less complicated so that you can preserve than a a lot larger deficit with power coaching added in. Positive, it might take longer to see the load loss – however the ratio of fats free and fats mass is actually the identical in every of those eventualities.
Or possibly you consciously go on a bigger caloric deficit for a brief time frame, and comply with that up with a extra targeted muscle-building part to rebuild a few of that lean mass. That’s one other viable technique.
The purpose is: if we will reduce by the concern mongering and wildly overblown statements, we will have an precise dialogue about what’s your best option for you based mostly on the place you’re at presently.
Actual discuss from a coach:
For those who’re simply getting began and weight reduction is your purpose, focusing solely on staying in a modest calorie deficit may be one of the best transfer.
That alone can assist scale back joint ache, enhance power, and increase confidence.
Then as soon as that’s stable? Add in power coaching.
Then protein.
Then possibly some strolling or sleep habits.
You don’t need to do every little thing, in every single place, to achieve success.
In reality, the general public we work with discover success by constructing a basis after which including to it – one behavior at a time.
TL;DR:
- Sure, consuming sufficient protein and lifting weights will assist you to hold extra muscle.
- Larger calorie deficits = extra muscle loss, even in the event you’re doing every little thing else “proper.”
- However these are levels, not disasters.
- Deal with what you can do.
Wish to chat about how you can apply this to your plan? Simply hit reply and let me know.
You’ve obtained this.
-Matt
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