Lose Weight? Lose Muscle!
June 23rd 2008 12:59
We continue to counteract the irrational with the factual today and that is never an easy way to go. The fear that women have of bulk is irrational and even a tiny bit of commonsense will prove that,but it does not mean that the fear will disappear. We make the attempt nevertheless. In this post I intend to challenge the methods used by many dieting women and in the next give my pitch for what will really work long term.
If you are a lady and you are not happy with your shape and/or weight there are a number of routes you can travel to try to change the situation. You can diet down to a few hundred calories a day and you will lose weight for awhile and a goodly portion of this weight will be muscle. That is the way that the body does its business. It shepherds fat and throws aside muscle and, while the starving person continues to weigh less, there is no likelihood that she will be shapely. What we can assume is that once a scale weight goal is reached there will be a period when reality sets in and the starver will have to realize that her reduced muscle mass means futher weight loss will be nearly impossible or that normal calorie consumption will bring about rapid weight gain. Muscles burn calories.
A really sincere dieter may want to spur weight loss by adding some intense cardio work to eat up extra calories. Lets use running as an example. The person who runs in combination with dieting will surely lose weight faster than the sedentary dieter, but this runner will also lose muscle tissue faster than the sitter.The principle is the same:the body rids itself of heavy muscle before it rids itself of fat. Running is so tough on the body that it hurries to get rid of the heaviest component it can do without.That is muscle and muscle burns calories. Stop running and the muscle reduced body will burn fewer caloies than before the running spree. It will be that much easier to gain weight.
Treadmill walking and the elliptical are essentially proxies for running. They are only effective to the extent that they mimic the effect of running on the body. They offer a user friendlier approach to the same objective: lose weight by burning it off. They also have the same effect; they cause the body to jettison its muscle to lighten the load. Because they are less intense than running, these proxies are less effective at tearing down muscle and also at burning up calories.
Finally, a dieter may want to add some kind of free exercise instead of running etc. This is a basically sound idea. Yet a few minutes a day will not really burn that many calories and the kind of long free exercise sessions that will burn a lot of calories will also mimic running and tear down muscle etc. Yes, there will be some moderate firming for awhile, but the more effective the weight loss the less the firming will take hold.
So none of the above strategies is really going to work in the long term. You know someone who dieted or dieted-ran or dieted-treadmilled off a lot of weight and then gained it back. They are living proof that muscle gone is not the way to keep off weight. There is a better way. Your servant, as always.
If you are a lady and you are not happy with your shape and/or weight there are a number of routes you can travel to try to change the situation. You can diet down to a few hundred calories a day and you will lose weight for awhile and a goodly portion of this weight will be muscle. That is the way that the body does its business. It shepherds fat and throws aside muscle and, while the starving person continues to weigh less, there is no likelihood that she will be shapely. What we can assume is that once a scale weight goal is reached there will be a period when reality sets in and the starver will have to realize that her reduced muscle mass means futher weight loss will be nearly impossible or that normal calorie consumption will bring about rapid weight gain. Muscles burn calories.
A really sincere dieter may want to spur weight loss by adding some intense cardio work to eat up extra calories. Lets use running as an example. The person who runs in combination with dieting will surely lose weight faster than the sedentary dieter, but this runner will also lose muscle tissue faster than the sitter.The principle is the same:the body rids itself of heavy muscle before it rids itself of fat. Running is so tough on the body that it hurries to get rid of the heaviest component it can do without.That is muscle and muscle burns calories. Stop running and the muscle reduced body will burn fewer caloies than before the running spree. It will be that much easier to gain weight.
Treadmill walking and the elliptical are essentially proxies for running. They are only effective to the extent that they mimic the effect of running on the body. They offer a user friendlier approach to the same objective: lose weight by burning it off. They also have the same effect; they cause the body to jettison its muscle to lighten the load. Because they are less intense than running, these proxies are less effective at tearing down muscle and also at burning up calories.
Finally, a dieter may want to add some kind of free exercise instead of running etc. This is a basically sound idea. Yet a few minutes a day will not really burn that many calories and the kind of long free exercise sessions that will burn a lot of calories will also mimic running and tear down muscle etc. Yes, there will be some moderate firming for awhile, but the more effective the weight loss the less the firming will take hold.
So none of the above strategies is really going to work in the long term. You know someone who dieted or dieted-ran or dieted-treadmilled off a lot of weight and then gained it back. They are living proof that muscle gone is not the way to keep off weight. There is a better way. Your servant, as always.
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