It can be challenging, but it’s a worthwhile goal to lose weight while maintaining lean muscle mass, especially for your general health and wellbeing.
Because lean muscle has a higher metabolic activity than fat, it burns more calories. Your resting metabolic rate, or the quantity of calories your body burns while at rest, will therefore be higher the more muscle you have. Better mobility and heart and metabolic health are also provided by muscle, however it can be difficult to maintain.
Dr. Todd Sontag, a family medicine specialist with Orlando Health Physician Associates in Florida, notes that as we age, we naturally lose muscle mass, which can result in diminished strength and function.Cutting calories might also cause some of your lean muscle mass to be lost, which can make this problem more difficult while trying to lose weight and lower body fat levels.
Michal Mor, co-founder and head of product research at Lumen, a Tel Aviv-based business striving to provide metabolic health solutions to the general public, says that when we lose weight, we frequently lose muscular tissues, which, regrettably, means we burn fewer calories.
The amount of calories your body requires to maintain its essential functions while at rest can be slowed down by this impact, which can make losing weight more challenging.In general, you need to burn more calories than you consume in order to lose weight. For the majority of people, this entails reducing overall caloric intake while increasing physical activity in order to produce a calorie deficit that can result in weight loss.
According to Marie A. Spano, a board-certified sports dietitian and certified strength and conditioning expert with a practice in Atlanta, when you establish a calorie deficit, you instruct your body to burn down fat rather than generate it. Losing weight requires this calorie shortfall. But, a caloric surplus, or taking in more calories each day than you expend, is what signals your body to develop more lean muscle.
The difficulty of gaining muscle while decreasing fat lies in this.Losing fat and gaining muscle can be challenging, but it’s not impossible and it’s an important aim for overall health and longevity. “Losing muscle will cause you to lose strength and stamina,” says Debbie Dy, a board-certified orthopedic clinical specialist with Fusion Wellness PT in Los Angeles. “When you have larger muscles, your metabolic rate increases. This means that you burn more calories when you are at rest, which can be helpful to maintain a healthy weight.”
These expert-approved strategies can show you how to build muscle during weight loss:
Get a baseline.
Keep your caloric deficit small.
Be patient.
Eat lean protein throughout the day.
Consider intermittent fasting.
Strength train frequently.
Use cardio for recovery.
Adjust your exercise program’s structure.
Do HIIT sparingly.
