Caloric restriction and muscle loss

**llbeastcd** · 01-19-2002, 11:10 AM

I'm having this debate right now in usenet. I contend that if one drops his or her daily caloric intake greater than 500 cals/day below maintenance (either by increasing cardio, or by decreasing food intake), they run the "risk" of losing muscle mass (assuming that you are not using AS). The greater the defecit, the greater the risk.

I do realize that these losses can be minimized with proper nutrition and training among other individual variables, but in general terms, with little or no experience in training, muscle loss is possible.

I would like to link the results and your reponses of this thread to the usenet group. Besides offering opinions and knowledge, the link may even drive some readers to these boards which IMHO offers a great body of knowledge and training from a great bunch of people.

**Mallet** · 01-19-2002, 12:14 PM

I agree with you 100% IIbeastcd!

Losing weight" O NATURAL" is a lot different,just like training natural is different than when on AS.
I trained naturally for 9 years and just a slight correction in my calories made me either gain weight or loose weight, and that was often losing muscle and gaining fat!

Cardio I think Is a big problem when training naturally, I think keeping it to 20min a day is better for burning fat while preserving muscle.Remember we don't have anything in our blood stream blocking the effects of cortisol.it's not to say that a natural guy can't reach a ripped looking physique, it just takesd longer, it's a slower process because we have to be more careful with our diet and exercise routines.JMO

**Billy Boy** · 01-21-2002, 06:03 AM

Changing your diet so it is below the maintenance calorie limit will result in muscle loss.It has been proven then dieting or dropping cals rapidly encoourages the body to actually store more fat.The body was designed to carry some fat as a source of feeding.As we have progressed the body has not woken upto the fact we can eat 24/7 and don,t need to store as much!

You can limit this loss by correct nutrition and supplementation and to monitor your lean body mass.Doing this weekly will determine if you are losing fat or muscle.Lowering the cals gradually will help reduce the muscle loss stage of a diet.I also believe including days where you go above the maintenance dose will activly encourage the body to shed more fat.

Either way you will lose some mass but you should look bigger and better if you drop the fat.

**dumbells101** · 01-21-2002, 07:37 AM

I'm not a calorie person per say. My diet plans are designed to feed only lean mass and in every case the total is determined by activity. The more weights and or cardio then the more protein, carbs and fat required by your lean mass. And the fats "m referring to are EFA's

**Tobey** · 01-24-2002, 01:13 PM

Originally posted by Billy Boy
Changing your diet so it is below the maintenance calorie limit will result in muscle loss.It has been proven then dieting or dropping cals rapidly encoourages the body to actually store more fat..

Enough said right there. The fact that it takes energy for your body to burn fat is another issue. Think about it they body can'y burn fat if there right amount of calories are not taken in to do so.
IC