Hi IST
I'm currently losing weight and I'm worried about losing muscle mass, bone mass and loose skin as I lose my excess weight, I was wondering if there is a way to prevent all the above?
A few details about myself
>6ft 1
>30, male
>125kg total weight
>76kg muscle mass
>4kg bone mass
>35.9% body fat
I want to be able to keep my muscle mass and bone mass while being at a healthy weight and body fat range but I'm getting conflicting information about if I stop doing strength training at any point, my muscles will turn into fat and that I should just stick with walking and swimming as those are things I can do for the rest of my life.
I'm trying to establish a lifestyle change that will keep me IST for the rest of my life once I have lost this weight but I'm just getting conflicted information irl, could you guys help me please?
Eat high protein and don't stop resistance training.
>I'm getting conflicting information about if I stop doing strength training at any point, my muscles will turn into fat
Absolute nonsense. Disregard anything that comes out of the mouth of anyone who says that. It's the sort of fact that gets parroted by overweight boomers because they've watched someone like Arnie put on fat in his 60s because he's stopped working out without modifying his diet to account for the reduction in calories burned.
Muscle cannot turn into fat. That's just now how the human body works.
Lifting heavy is the number 1 most effective thing you can do to preserve (or even gain) muscle and bone mass while losing weight. It is also the best defence against turning into some saggy-skinned freak when you lose weight.
Swimming and walking are good but start lifting too. Do it.
Yeah I figured as much, it's mainly based on anecdotal evidence people I know have observed, they see someone that was fat, went strength training, gained a lot of muscle, stopped training and then got fat again.
Weird thing is my dad is fit and healthy at 64, doesn't train but does a lot of labour work and doesn't eat much and has said similar things which made things complicated mentally because everything else in life he has been 100% right on but I guess even my dad can be misinformed at times, especially since he has never been fat his entire life so he wouldn't have much reason to do good research into this.
At the moment I am doing squats, bench press, deadlifts, dips, overhead press, bent over row, chin-ups, barbell curls and incline skullcrushers to cover all my muscle groups as far as I am aware, does this sound good?
Thank you for the advice anon.
"Decomping" is real.
You stop training and your muscles shrink. You eat at around maintenance or a slight surplus and start put on fat. Yeah, your muscles don't LITERALLY turn into fat but the net effect is the same.
> they see someone that was fat, went strength training, gained a lot of muscle, stopped training and then got fat again.
Most people who lose weight put it back on again. The strength training is not to blame. Getting fat is 80% diet and getting really fat is 100% diet.
>At the moment I am doing squats, bench press, deadlifts, dips, overhead press, bent over row, chin-ups, barbell curls and incline skullcrushers to cover all my muscle groups as far as I am aware, does this sound good?
Yeah, that hits all the big muscle groups.
Personally I'd add in some lateral raises (hits your lateral delts better than ohp and those are an important muscle for aesthetics), crunches and planks (IST shits on ab and core work but ime the ab growth you get just from doing squats/deads/etc isn't enough to develop a defined six-pack, and there are health benefits to a strong core too).
You'll also want to start stretching. It's easy to neglect but over the longterm that'll really increase your risk of chronic back pain, shoulder injuries and other shit you don't want to deal with.
Finally, once you've lost a bit of weight consider incorporating some more intense cardio into your program. Low intensity/long duration and high intensity/short duration cardio effect your body in somewhat different ways. Ideally you'll do a bit of both.
I'd suggest picking up a sport. I find just running on a treadmill or whatever boring af, especially when I'm feeling the discomfort of a hard run. A sport is a good distraction and performing in front of other people is a strong motivator.
Social gains too.
>I'm worried about losing muscle mass, bone mass and loose skin
Why? You never cared about these things when you were in the process of getting fat. These were literally non-issues to you until they became the perfect excuse to not get your shit together.
Because I had to survive and that took priority.
Got it but there is no reason why I can't do strength training for the rest of my life right? It isn't like once I hit my 60's I can't do strength training anymore?
>It isn't like once I hit my 60's I can't do strength training anymore?
You should continue training as your age, maybe lower intensity and be more mindful about it but resistance training not only help to prevent muscle and bone degradation, which improve your qol drastically, but also will reduce the chance of getting cognitive problems.
Thank you anon, is there anything else you would recommend to add to my lifestyle change that will help me later on in life as well?
why wouldn't you be able to continue strength training for the rest of your life? you don't have to do super heavy singles or keep doing things like low bar squats when you're 80 and your shits all fricked, but I see plenty of grandpa's who hit the machines and get their light weight/high rep work in.
also mate as someone who lost a lot of weight and had similar concerns...it's sorta like being worried about taxes if you win the lotto. like yeah it sucks and youll probably have some muscle loss and lose skin or whatever, but life is SO MUCH better. it's a silly concern to have tbh. eat high protein, lift weights, and lose no more than 1% of your bodyweight in lbs a week to minimize those things happening.
That is true I could always switch to machines later on if it does become an issue.
To be honest anon it is because since the day I was born I had to survive and now at 30 years old I'm finally away from everything and everyone for good that caused me so much damage and loss of time, there is a lot in life I have had no positive experiences with so I want to be start a fresh you know? Like creating a new character in a video game or some shit.
I just wish my life had been different but I can't change the past and I am trying to seize this chance while I still can.
>loose skin
Nope you are stuck with it. I have the same problem. I lost a bunch of weight 10 years ago and the loose skin never goes away. Sorry.
How do women react to the loose skin? How bad is the loose skin? Could you show an example picture from online or something?
Depends how bad your loose skin is. If I am laying on my back and a woman is riding me it's fine because when I'm on my back my body seems to look rather good (skin ain't hanging). I can also have sex with women from behind -- "doggy style" (my preferred position) because they are facing the other way and you are just fricking them from behind. I cannot do missionary with me on top because that's where the loose skin is most apparent.
So you have to assess the situation yourself and "work your angles" so to speak. I don't have any videos of this sort of stuff, sorry.
Just get surgery to correct it. Idk how much it can do, but my guess is a lot.
Keep lifting. Internet is full of moronic information. Lift hard, eat right (high protein, calorie deficit, mostly quality food), get enough sleep. It really is that simple. People over complicate it. And you can keep lifting for the rest of your life. You may have to scale back intensity at some point but you can hold on to the muscle you build for a long time. It doesn’t take much to maintain it, especially at maintenance calories.
And if you don’t lift while in a calorie deficit you absolutely will lose some of the muscle you do have.