Losing Muscle While Dieting

Is This You?

The scale is dropping, but so are your strength, your energy, and your shape. You're losing weight — but it's not the weight you wanted to lose.

Why It Happens

Cardio burns calories, but in a calorie deficit it can burn muscle along with fat. Crash diets and aggressive deficits accelerate muscle loss, leaving you 'skinny-fat': lighter on the scale, softer in the mirror, with a metabolism that's lower than it should be.

The Science of Keeping Muscle

Muscle preservation is a signaling problem. Resistance training activates the mTOR pathway — the muscle-building switch — and keeps it sensitive to amino acids for up to 48 hours after each session. But the signal needs building materials: leucine from protein triggers mTOR, and insulin (from carbohydrates) opens the doors for amino acids to enter the muscle. Signal plus materials plus timing — that's how muscle is built.

The protocol that works: 2-3 resistance sessions weekly, protein at 1.6–2.4 g/kg daily with leucine-rich sources (eggs, poultry, whey), carbohydrates around training, and sleep — because growth hormone peaks during deep sleep and repairs what training breaks down.

Protect your muscle and the fat loss becomes permanent. Call (561) 903-1899.