Losing too much muscle

[desidou]

I just completed another Whole30 (my second, did one prior in January 2012). This time, I had my body mass calculated to help me track my progress. I lost 11 lbs in the 5 weeks between testing, but 7 of those were muscle loss. I did start to slowly reintroduce foods after my strict 30 days was up. I started with half 1and half in my coffee, some butter to fry my eggs in (when I ran out of ghee) and I had a few tortilla chips and a little bit of cheese dip (oh my, was it addicting) at dinner a few nights ago at a mexican restaurant when we were out with a group. I did not experience any noticeable negative side effects from either reintroduction.

I have not been in the gym at all during the 30 day period, so I will be honest about that. Still, I am stunned at the huge loss of muscle. I lost almost twice as much muscle as fat. I know I need to get back into the gym, but seeing this much muscle loss is making me consider that I may not be eating enough. For breakfast I'll have 2 scrambled eggs with broccoli or spinach, maybe a link or two of chicken (or turkey sausage) and a small apple or clementine (maybe 2 tiny clementines) and coffee with coconut milk creamer (homemade, not the junk out of a carton).

Lunch is usually a good sized helping of protein, 1-2 veggies (one may be a starchy one like sweet potato) and a 16 oz glass of water. Dinner is about the same. I weight around 125 and my activity level is low-moderate (right now). I'll usually have a serving of fruit with dinner or lunch. I've been limiting my nut consumption as I think that caused issues in my first Whole30 - I believe it was contributing to gut irritation.

I've had headaches frequently in the past week, but I was thinking it was dehydration, not undernourishment.

Any thoughts on this massive loss of muscle? I will start to incorporate some body weight exercise to help me maintain what I have until I feel like getting back to the gym. I also recognize that I tend to overschedule myself and that can lead to stress. I am trying to reign that in and may consider starting to practice yoga so I can teach myself how to relax and lead such a stressful/busy life. I know adrenal fatigue is a real possibility for me, so I am very aware of trying to control that.

I guess my biggest lesson from this is that it's a learning journey. I have to learn what works for me and how my body responds. I am disappointed in the results, but I know that my lack of gym time this month had a LOT to do with it. I guess I didn't realize it was that important.

Thoughts/advice?

Desi

[Tom Denham]

There are many possibilities to explain your experience. One is that your body mass measurements were not accurate either at the start, the finish, or both. Other possibilities include not eating enough, not staying adequately hydrated, and not exercising for the month.

I think your plans to hydrate better, make sure you are eating enough, exercising, and being careful about stress are smart.

[desidou]

Thanks Tom! I did hydrostatic body fat testing before and after this challenge (http://www.dunktruck.com/),so i feel confident that it was an accurate measurement. I'd tried calipers previously and that resulted in unpredictable and inconsistent results, so I refused to do this body fat analysis until I found a better solution. This option intrigued me and I felt it was more consistent and predictable.

I will incorporate some yoga and bodyweight exercise. I felt like I was eating enough, I was hungry every 3-4 hours. There was a day or more where I missed a meal or was late eating and I would get a headache that evening or the next day.

I was a bit worried that I was eating too many sweet potatoes and fruit, but tried not to stress about it since that would work against any progress I was hoping to achieve. I stressed too much about my food in my first Whole30 and probably impeded my own progress. I tried not to repeat that mistake. I've heard that eating too much protein can be bad for you, so I've been careful about that, but I can safely say that I'm eating a palm (or more) sized portion of protein at every meal. I thought that would be enough to stave off muscle loss. I suppose that was incorrect.

I will re-test in a few months. I'll keep a clean diet and may do another Whole30 in January to see how adding in some exercise helped. I was initially excited about the 11lb weight loss, but when I saw that 7 of it was muscle, I was not pleased. I think I can safely say that I am moving in a direction where I don't want to go. Loss of muscle is not what I want.

Thanks for your input.

Desi

[whitjm5]

I will incorporate some yoga and bodyweight exercise. I felt like I was eating enough, I was hungry every 3-4 hours. There was a day or more where I missed a meal or was late eating and I would get a headache that evening or the next day.

I think you wanna shoot for more like 4-6 hours between meals. Perhaps you weren't eating enough, then?

[Robin Strathdee]

Hi Desi,

If you were working out consistently, and then stopped, it would definitely follow that you've lost muscle mass. You have to use those muscles to maintain their size. Until you are back to training at the same level you probably won't get that back. To minimize your loss in the meantime, make sure you're getting enough protein.

[Keri W.]

A personal trainer once told me that you lose muscle quickly when you stop working out. I even read an article somewhere that broke it all down and gave approximate amounts of muscle loss after every 4 days of not working out. I remember it being pretty substantial.

[desidou]

I have been Crossfitting on and off for 3 years (since July 2009). I haven't been to the gym since June of July of this year. Still, this 7lb muscle loss in 5 weeks is a bit surprising. I suppose I'm not getting enough protein. Before July, I was going about twice a week for about 6-9 months. Does that additional info help in terms of estimating why I was losing so much muscle? I've never been a rockstar in the gym nor very strong. I have a small frame and no athletic background. I'm not a muscular woman (5' 4"; about 125-130 lbs). 7 pounds of muscle loss seems to be a great deal for me, which makes it even more shocking.

The motivation for this past Whole30 was to try to get my nutrition and training back on track. I felt that I was solidly back on track with my diet/nutrition, but never made it back to the gym. Like the last time I did Whole30, I was really struggling with energy levels, which I thought would level out - and they seemed to for about a week - 1.5 weeks (at about 2.5-3 weeks in) and then I started to notice the headaches and the urge to nap. Maybe my body was telling me I wasn't eating enough. Years ago (when I first started CF), I would get these headaches after intense activity (a long day of hiking or a CF workout). After some research and advice, I was told that I wasn't getting the nutrition I needed from my food and my body was cannibalizing itself (I think muscles) for fuel. I started to supplement with amino acids and that helped tremendously. Perhaps I'm just not that good at listening to my body and understanding when I need to eat more food for fuel? I was thinking that my body would switch from burning sugar for fuel to burning fat and I'd feel like I was running on 100 octane, but I never seemed to reach that level.

Thanks for all who have given advice so far. I truly appreciate it. I feel silly to be struggling with this, but I was quite surprised at the muscle loss figure vs. the fat loss. I feel like I've taken 2 steps backward.

[desidou]

...more facts that may be key. Before starting this Whole30 in October, I pretty much went through a period of about 3 months where I ate whatever the heck I wanted. My sugar monster was out of control. This was the worst my diet had been since going paleo in December of 2009. I feel like I was able to reign in the sugar monster a bit, but maybe I did more damage in those 90 days than I can undo in 30 days of clean eating.

[Robin Strathdee]

First of all, don't feel silly or beat yourself up about this at all. For even one second. Most of us have no idea what our body composition is really like, so being surprised by a drop like that is probably par for the course. My suspicion is, like yours, that you really aren't eating enough. My first question is always: What does your breakfast look like? I've noticed that, for many folks, a breakfast packed with protein and fat will set you up for the test of the day. Too small of a meal, or a carb-focused meal, will mess your energy levels up for the rest of the day. Start there, and maybe bring in some weight bearing exercise, and I think your strength levels will come right back up.

[desidou]

My breakfasts are typically 2 scrambled eggs with onion or broccoli. Sometimes I have a side of sauteed spinach with garlic (or some roasted brussel sprouts - whatever veggie I have in the fridge). The eggs are scrambled in ghee (or grass fed butter when I'm not on W30). When not on W30, I may have some pork sausage (clean pork source from local farmer/pastured pork). The sausage has some sugar, so I make my own turkey/chicken sausage when I am being strict and just add in the spices on my own. Then I might have a piece of fruit.

Maybe I need to add in more fat? I try not to eat too many nuts as they upset my stomach on my first Whole30 and I have tried but do not like avocado.

During W30, I make my own coconut milk creamer from coconut oil, coconut milk and an egg white. Non W30 is half and half (usually pastured source).

Dairy doesn't seem to bother me in small doses, so I allow myself some butter and half and half when not strict.

Desi

[Robin Strathdee]

I would try to get in at least 3 eggs plus some meat with those veg, if it were me (we're similar in size). I generally do 3 eggs, 2-4 oz of pork belly, sometimes sweet potato hash browns, and maybe some bell pepper or apple. That gets me through 5 or so hours. Then make sure you're shooting for 6oz of protein (maybe more) per meal.

More fat could help your energy levels, too. Coconut milk in coffee or on fruit is a great way to get it in.

[Fenderbender]

I was struggling with my workouts at first with W30 but then really added the fats pre workout...1/3 can of coconut milk, heaping tbsp of almond butter, and three eggs in ghee or coconut oil.... After a few days I really noticed the difference in my conditioning and recovery between sets.... I'll never break any strength records, but those days are far behind me anyway.....

FWIW... Pre W30, if you were eating more carbs, and hitting the gym regularly, a good deal of the muscle you thought you lost could be mostly water.... I have " dried out" to cut weight for boxing/ wrestling and had my trainers test my body comp.... I could swing twenty pounds in a less than a week....body comp would show it a muscle loss... Weigh in, carb,salt,water up.... And blow up 20-25 lbs overnight and the body comp would read it as muscle...... **** Very UNHEALTHY and ill never do it again!!!!! Anyway, that could be an expenation.....as long as you feel good don't stress about it