Significant muscle loss after implementing low impact cardio

[jskywalker]

@basabeo Those scans don't measure "muscle mass." They measure fat-free mass. Implementing cardio (or extra exercise in general), without a compensatory increase in carbohydrate intake, would probably lead to some glycogen depletion. This would also decrease the amount of water in your muscles. This would all show up as a decrease in lean mass on a body scan. Adding 30-minute walks is almost certainly not causing you to lose muscle.

 

[jskywalker]

Also, the results of most body scans are DRASTICALLY impacted by hydration status and should not be used to monitor progress unless the variables are very tightly controlled.

 

[dontwant2say]

@jskywalker these body scans are so fucking shady and whack. OP you should use bodyfat calipers which - while are inaccurate at first, is a better way to consistently track ur progress rather than draining money on scans

 

[dcarrington]

@basabeo 0% chance your extra 300 calorie/week deceit did anything measurable out side of standard deviation

 

[jrprusak]

@basabeo Eat more,simple as that.

 

[semiday]

@basabeo 400 mg caffeine pre workout is a shit ton in one setting. Hope you're training early in the day.

 

[jeremyg3]

@semiday Legitimately! The training split is super weird too

 

[paintergal73]

@basabeo Man do you always do full body workouts every week? Try to cut back on the caffeine, 400 mg is a lot, if possible. I quit taking pre and now I prefer natural energy, sometimes a cup of coffee.

 

[kaiisbae]

@basabeo This is called over thinking and it’s killing your gains

 

[njp2020]

@basabeo Nahhh when i got shredded i was doing cardio everyday and didnt lose muscle. Gotta keep the protein up.

 

[sbrodhagen]

@basabeo Losing 1 Kilo and than concluding from a scan that 60% of that was lean mass is a bit of a reach.

There's something called regression to the mean.

Plus the fact that humans are 70% water and there easily could be a few pounds differential just based off of water..

 

[bencromwell]

@basabeo The reason why is simple when you think about it: you increased your calorie expenditure by adding walking without increasing your calories in your diet so weight loss would be expected. Eat extra on days that you walk if you want to maintain. Keep in mind when you lose weight that muscle comes off too. Sounds like your doing everything right already to mitigate this so not sure how to help you there.

 

[sugarcookies]

@basabeo Sounds like you forgot to compensate for the additional activity in your diet, so you went from a caloric surplus to a deficit. That's why you look smaller and likely also why you lost strength.

Don't trust the body scans, they're effectively useless.

 

[femio13]

@basabeo you don't need that much protein it's not healthy

 

[neshemah]

@femio13 He may not need that much protein but it’s not so much it’s unhealthy

 

[femio13]

@neshemah

Chronic high protein intake (>2 g per kg BW per day for adults) may result in digestive, renal, and vascular abnormalities and should be avoided.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26797090/#:~:text=Long%2Dterm%20consumption%20of%20protein,abnormalities%20and%20should%20be%20avoided.

 

[neshemah]

@femio13 Maybe read the sentence right before - he’s fine. “Long-term consumption of protein at 2 g per kg BW per day is safe for healthy adults, and the tolerable upper limit is 3.5 g per kg BW per day for well-adapted subjects.”

 

[femio13]

@neshemah or below he's not fine

 

[neshemah]

@femio13 Did you miss the part about max being 3.5? He’s way below that lol

 

[nevergiveup0925]

@basabeo Lol no