How do I retain muscle mass while losing weight?

Many gym goers that want to shed a few pounds often contemplate if losing weight will affect their muscle mass. While they want to go down in body weight, they don't want to lose muscle. So they feel conflicted on how to proceed with their training.

Are you bound to lose muscle mass while losing weight?

A major factor is your starting fitness level at the time you plan to carry out a weight loss plan while retaining muscle mass.

Cava (4) reports that:

1) compared with people

with normal weight, those with obesity have more muscle mass but poor muscle quality.

2) diet-induced weight loss (without resistance training) reduces muscle mass.

3) weight loss improves global physical function, because of a reduction of fat mass

4) high protein intake helps preserve lean body and muscle mass during a weight cut but does not improve muscle strength

5) endurance and resistance-type (weight lifting) exercise help preserve muscle mass during weight loss, and resistance-type exercise also improves muscle strength.

As you can see, in order to retain muscle mass, while cutting down in weight (on a calorific deficit), it is important to include resistance training, while also having a high protein intake.

What amount of protein intake is adequate?

Barakat (1) states: "There is evidence exhibiting recomposition effects when individuals are engaged in RT and are consuming a high dietary protein intake (i.e., >2.0 g/kg/d)" (Barakat et. al)

If you consume over 2.0 g/kg of protein of body weight, it should be done if you're on a calorific deficit.

If you're not on a caloric deficit 1.6-2.2 g/kg of protein is optimal, with some studies showing 1.6g/kg of protein per body weight linked with the greatest increases in muscle mass.

Without resistance training, you are bound to lose muscle mass, when you are cutting back on calories.

Although, if you're overweight, I'd recommend to focus on caloric deficit, gradual progressions with cardio and functional movement patterns, then slowly start integrating strength training.

The good news essentially is that you have plenty of muscle mass, you just have to start perfecting functional movement to get the muscles adapted and ready to be used in strength training.

It is essential to not skip the functional movement phase, as you need to give your muscles and nervous system time to learn the proper movement patterns of exercise to prevent injury.

You may also be reading this and not need to lose that much weight. You've been going to the gym for a while, have a solid amount of muscle, but you still want to lose those extra 15-20lbs to get a more lean look, but worry about losing your hard gained muscle.

Will it be detrimental in your case to go on a weight cut? Not necessarily.

Barakat (1) reports "Most importantly, despite the zeitgeist that well-trained individuals cannot gain muscle mass and lose fat simultaneously, there have been many chronic randomized controlled trials conducted in resistance-trained individuals that have demonstrated body recomposition" (Barakat et. al).

I think the key thing is here is phrase "body recompostion".

I believe in most cases, you will lose some muscle mass if you're going on a cut and only need to lose a 10-15lbs of weight.

If you lose those 10-15lbs, get the pesky body fat off and possibly lose (as you saw above this can be argued) some muscle mass, but have a more favorable body composition would that be a problem to you?

But to prevent this, it seems like a good strategy is to have a high protein consumption (>2.0g/kg), calorific deficit (expend more calories a day than you consume), have a combination of an aerobic and resistance strength program and you may retain or even gain some muscle mass.

REFERENCES

1.Barakat, Christopher MS, ATC, CISSN1; Pearson

, Jeremy MS1; Escalante, Guillermo DSc, MBA, ATC, CSCS, CISSN2; Campbell, Bill PhD, CSCS, FISSN3; De Souza, Eduardo O. PhD1. Body Recomposition: Can Trained Individuals Build Muscle and Lose Fat at the Same Time?. Strength and Conditioning Journal 42(5):p 7-21, October 2020. | DOI: 10.1519/SSC.0000000000000584

2. "Cribb PJ, Williams AD, Carey MF, Hayes A. The effect of whey isolate and resistance training on strength, body composition, and plasma glutamine. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab 16: 494–509, 2006."

3. Antonio J, Peacock CA, Ellerbroek A, Fromhoff B, Silver T. The effects of consuming a high protein diet (4.4 g/kg/d) on body composition in resistance-trained individuals. J Int Soc Sports Nutr 11: 19, 2014.

4. Cava E, Yeat NC, Mittendorfer B. Preserving Healthy Muscle during Weight Loss. Adv Nutr. 2017 May 15;8(3):511-519. doi: 10.3945/an.116.014506. PMID: 28507015; PMCID: PMC5421125.