I am currently on a 3 week break from uni and what have I spent the last few nights doing? Studying nutrition!
Oh well, I guess you know you chose to study the right thing if you are still interested in learning about it during your holidays, after you've already completed the major! I think I'm also looking at it from a different perspective, now that I'm a gym junkie and all. It's official. I was one of those people lining up outside the gym this morning at 5.45am, waiting for them to open the doors. It's worse because I don't even have a job to go to!
Anyhow, I started my research the other night because I am at that point of my weight loss journey where I've lost the majority of the weight and I am now interested in increasing my muscle mass and getting super toned. I figured I would complete the rest of the 12WBT on the weight loss plan and then maybe sign up for round 3, but do the lean and strong plan instead. That gives me a few weeks to lose those last few kilos and actually see my goal weight on the scales before it potentially goes up again!
My mum said to me, "why don't you just start doing more resistance training now?", and I automatically replied "Because you can't really gain muscle while your body is in a calorie deficit. I need to start eating more food, and I'm not quite ready to do that yet."
After I said that I thought, "hang on a second... is that actually right?"
I absorb a lot of information, and sometimes I don't remember where I heard something from. If I can't remember the source of the information I start to question whether I actually learnt it, or if my head just made it up! So now I had to go looking for the answer.
I did a quick Google search and the results were inconclusive. Most of the stuff I found was on body building forums, and sites like that are notorious for misinformation. Some people were adamant that you could gain muscle while losing weight, some were adamant that you couldn't, and some were sitting on the fence. Not overly helpful. I asked Mr. Personal Trainer boyfriend. He said, "Maybe, but not really. It depends." From this I could only gather that it's probably quite complex and that the general exercising population don't really know.
Because I couldn't get a straight answer, I decided to turn to my nutrition text books. I wasn't sure if they would contain what I wanted to know, but at least I knew the information was reliable! I re-read the chapter on protein and discovered a chapter on nutrition for athletes that we hadn't been required to read as part of the course (love it when that happens!). While the textbook didn't explicitly state what I wanted to know, here's the conclusions I have come to from all my reading and observation:
- When our bodies are in calorie deficit; ie. we are eating less calories than our body needs to sustain itself, we begin to break down body tissue to use as fuel. This is why we lose weight. While this process includes the breakdown of fat, it inevitably includes the breakdown of muscle as well. Therefore it seems that muscle gain would be difficult while the body is undergoing this breakdown process.
- You need more than just protein to increase muscle size. The process of building up muscle requires carbohydrates, fats and micronutrients in adequate amounts as well. So even if you are on a higher protein diet, muscle increase will still be hindered by a lack of the other macro-nutrients that inevitably occurs during calorie deficit.
- BUT, my strength has definitely increased despite calorie restriction. But strength comes from using the muscles and isn't necessarily indicative of increased muscle size. But it does seem that I am a lot more toned as well, which would have to come down to increased muscle right? I did read some forum posts that suggested a surge of muscle growth when people first start training that slows down quite quickly. I also read that people may be able to increase their muscle mass while losing weight when they have more weight to lose (and therefore more stored energy available for use). Muscle growth would then become harder, the more weight a person loses, if they kept restricting calories.
- It would be interesting to know if you can minimise muscle deterioration during weight loss by ensuring you maintain adequate protein intake.
Conclusion:
Overall it seems that you will not be able to significantly increase muscle mass while restricting calories because your body needs access to abundant nutrients if it is going to build tissue. Building muscle requires a shift of focus and priorities from losing weight to improving strength and tone. I think this shift of focus naturally occurs as people get closer to their goal weight.
I'm a bit intimidated by the next phase of my journey. I've spent all this time restricting what I eat and trying to reduce the number on the scales. Now I'm getting to the point where I need to change things up, training and food wise. I know logically that eating more is a good thing and that weight gain is not necessarily a bad thing if it is due to increased muscle. But it's still a bit scary! At least I still have 4 weeks to get used to the idea.
I like seeking out and sharing accurate information, so hopefully you found this stuff helpful :).
I am thinking about writing some posts on protein and supplements in the near future. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or suggestions: creatinghealthykatie@gmail.com
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