Why most people lose muscle while on a diet- Some common mistakes...

Why most people lose muscle while on a diet- Some common mistakes...

Like most things in our society today, I see the weight loss/fat loss people falling into one of three camps. The first camp are the "I have to starve and suffer to lose weight and get lean" folks. They go for hours or days without eating, and may do this sporatically for months at a time. I am sure you know one of these folks and you may actually be one of these folks. They continue to starve themselves and suffer for a few months until they realize two things. First, "I can't do this anymore!" kicks in and they bail and binge. Time to start over in another month or two, worse off than where they were before. These people have also been called "yo yo dieters". The second reason they stop is that they realize they may be lighter on the scale (a little) from all of this suffering, but they don't really look any better, in fact, they often look worse! They have gotten a little smaller but not much, and definitely don't look any leaner, in fact they are flabbier. "Wtf??"
The second group is very similar to the first group, as they feel they must suffer to get lean but they choose to suffer not with diet but with cardio. Daily cardio sessions, for up to hours at a time done for weeks on end only to show minimal, if any, results. They too end up softer, flabbier and not really much leaner and certainly not more energetic. So instead of being lean, strong and full of vitality and energy, they are a little smaller, flabbier, tired and probably pretty achy and sick of exercise.
The third group are the folks who have been reading Muscle and Fitness and Shape magazine for 10 years and are afraid to go 2 hours without protein for fear that they may lose all of their hard earned muscle. (This was me for about 20 years.) They will eat even when they are not hungry to make sure they are in "positive nitrogen balance" because if they are not, the catabolic devil will creep up and eat all of their muscle!
All three of these groups of folks have a few things in common. One, they have a common goal of getting lean and losing fat. Two, they have a misguided, yet completely understandable, approach to getting lean. It is no wonder they are all so confused as their is so much information out there, good and bad, that it is almost impossible to know what to believe. Here is the real deal:
The secret to not losing (maintaining) muscle on a diet is heavy resistance training. Yes, that is the secret. Heavy resistance training gives the body a reason to hang on to muscle (and even build some in the process). If we are not performing heavy resistance training and giving the muscle a reason to stay, once we get into a calorie- reduced state our body chooses to eat up muscle rather than fat. Fat is actually more beneficial for the body to have in a calorie- reduced state. Think about it. If the body perceives that we are starving and may have to go a while without food, would it be better to have 10 lbs of stored  fat available as food down the road or to have nice arms and shoulders? Lol that's a no brainer! Our bodies main goal is survival, not having a nice ass or six pack abs.
If we diet (go into a calorie-reduced state) without heavy resistance training, we will lose muscle and keep the fat. That is what happens with Groups 1 and 2 above. When we starve or cardio-off the calories, without resistance training we lose muscle instead of fat and get smaller and flabbier. If we train hard and heavy, with more focus on weights and less focus on cardio, we can eat less and go for a few hours without protein (Group 3 I am talking to you now) and still maintain our muscle mass and get leaner!
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