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by pa5tabear 4665 days ago
Is this true?

I used to work out a lot, and was in good shape- muscular and probably 12% body fat.

I haven't been working out for about eight months and I've lost probably ten pounds. I don't feel leaner though. I'm pretty sure I'm still at least 12% body fat, and that I've lost a significant amount of muscle.

I think I have been significantly losing muscle without losing any significant amount of fat.

1 comments

If you're at 12% body fat, the ratio will be about 3:1 lean to fat loss[1] unless you're working out very, very hard and eating a ridiculous amount of protein (1+g/kg)

You'll need to work out a lot and be very careful with how much of a deficit you're running if you want to isolate fat instead of just reducing total body mass.

[1]http://www.nature.com/ijo/journal/v32/n3/full/0803720a.html

I just want to point out that (1g protein / 1kg body mass) is high, but not a ridiculous amount for someone doing lifting. The rule-of-thumb number I've seen quoted a lot is (1g proten / 1 lb body mass), or in metric, (2.2g protein / 1kg body mass), as the maximum useful intake.
1g/kg is at least double what most people eat :) it's ridiculous from a general population standpoint. Personally I aim for more than that, but I'm not sure it's indicated for people who don't work out.