Preventing Muscle Loss On A Cut - Nutrition Strategies
Summary
TLDRIn this Renaissance Periodization video, Dr. Mike Israel discusses strategies for preventing muscle loss during fat loss phases. Key tips include maintaining adequate protein intake, keeping calorie deficits small, and ensuring frequent meals rich in protein and carbohydrates. He also advises against extreme low-fat diets, emphasizes the importance of high activity levels, and suggests gradual calorie reduction. The video aims to educate on how to retain hard-earned muscle while cutting.
Takeaways
- 🥩 Keep protein intake above minimum levels (1 gram per pound of body weight per day) to mitigate muscle loss.
- 🔥 Maintain a smaller calorie deficit to reduce the risk of muscle loss; aim for a deficit of 500 calories or less per day.
- 🕒 Keep the duration of your diet short (preferably under 8 weeks) to minimize muscle loss.
- 🍽️ Consume at least four meals per day to support anabolism and anti-catabolism, which helps in muscle retention.
- 🍚 Prioritize carbohydrates, especially around workout times, to fuel training and reduce muscle breakdown.
- 🥑 Don't drop fat intake too low; aim for 0.3 to 0.4 grams of fat per pound of body weight daily for hormone production and muscle sparing.
- 🏋️♂️ Maintain high activity levels with regular weight training and cardio to support muscle retention and fat loss.
- 📉 Start with a minimal calorie deficit and adjust as needed to avoid rapid muscle loss and diet fatigue.
- 💪 As you get leaner, it becomes more challenging to retain muscle, so be realistic about muscle loss expectations when dieting to very low body fat percentages.
- 🔄 Consider cycling between diet and maintenance phases to allow the body to recalibrate and minimize long-term muscle loss.
Q & A
What is the recommended minimum daily protein intake per pound of body weight for preventing muscle loss during a cut?
-A minimum of 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight per day is recommended to prevent muscle loss.
How does the size of a calorie deficit impact muscle loss during a fat loss phase?
-A larger calorie deficit increases the likelihood of muscle loss. A deficit of 500 calories a day or less poses a low risk, while deficits over 500 calories per day can lead to significant muscle loss.
What is the significance of keeping the duration of a diet short to minimize muscle loss?
-Diets under eight weeks, especially if losing close to a pound of tissue per week, minimize muscle loss. Diets longer than 12 weeks become a calculated risk for muscle loss.
How does meal frequency affect muscle retention during a cut?
-Having at least four meals per day, with adequate protein and calories in each, helps maximize anabolism and minimize muscle loss. Fewer than three meals per day is considered a higher risk for muscle loss.
Why is it important to maintain a certain level of carbohydrates during a cut to prevent muscle loss?
-Carbohydrates are protein-sparing, providing energy for workouts and reducing the body's reliance on muscle for fuel. They should be prioritized, especially around workout times.
What is the recommended daily fat intake to support hormone production and muscle retention during a cut?
-A daily fat intake of around 0.3 to 0.4 grams per pound of body weight is suggested to support hormone production, which aids in muscle retention.
How does physical activity level influence muscle loss during a fat loss phase?
-Higher activity levels allow for more food intake without risking muscle loss, as most of the calorie burn comes from fat rather than muscle.
What is the advised approach to starting a diet to minimize muscle loss?
-Start with the minimum calorie deficit necessary to initiate weight loss, usually around 500 calories, to avoid rapid muscle loss and diet fatigue.
Why might someone still lose muscle despite following all the strategies to prevent it?
-Extreme leanness, such as going from 10% body fat to 4% for a bodybuilding show, naturally involves some muscle loss. It's part of the process and not necessarily an indication of做错了什么.
What is the role of diet breaks in managing muscle loss during a long-term fat loss plan?
-Diet breaks, where one returns to maintenance after an 8 to 12-week diet, allow the body to recalibrate and reduce the risk of muscle loss when starting another diet cycle.
Outlines
💪 Preventing Muscle Loss During Fat Loss
Dr. Mike Israel discusses strategies for preventing muscle loss while dieting. Key points include maintaining protein intake above minimum levels (1 gram per pound of body weight), keeping calorie deficits small (ideally under 500 calories), and being cautious with longer diets (risk increases with duration). He emphasizes the importance of a balanced approach to diet and training to ensure muscle retention during fat loss.
🍽️ Diet Strategies for Muscle Preservation
This section focuses on diet strategies to preserve muscle mass during a fat loss phase. Dr. Israel recommends eating at least four meals per day with adequate protein and calorie distribution, maintaining carbohydrates to fuel workouts and spare protein, and not dropping fats too low to ensure hormonal balance. He also advises against extreme calorie restriction and intermittent fasting, suggesting a more consistent eating pattern for muscle retention.
🏋️♂️ Activity and Calorie Management for Lean Muscle
The final paragraph emphasizes the role of activity level and calorie management in maintaining muscle mass. Dr. Israel suggests staying active with both cardio and weightlifting to support muscle retention and hormone production. He advises against drastic calorie cuts at the beginning of a diet and being realistic about muscle loss as body fat percentage decreases. The summary highlights the importance of a gradual and balanced approach to dieting for long-term muscle retention.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Protein
💡Calorie Deficit
💡Diet Duration
💡Meal Frequency
💡Carbohydrates
💡Fats
💡Activity Level
💡Dietary Fatigue
💡Body Recomposition
💡Hormones
💡Training Intensity
Highlights
Maintain protein intake above minimum levels to prevent muscle loss during fat loss phases.
Aim for at least 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight daily for muscle retention.
Keep your calorie deficit smaller to reduce the risk of muscle mass loss.
A deficit of 500 calories or less per day minimizes the risk of muscle loss.
Diet duration plays a role; shorter diets under eight weeks are less likely to cause muscle loss.
Consider taking diet breaks after 8 to 12 weeks to prevent muscle loss and recalibrate your body.
Eating four or more meals per day can help maximize anabolism and minimize muscle loss.
Carbohydrates are crucial for sparing muscle mass; prioritize them around your workout window.
Don't drop fat intake too low as it's essential for hormone production and muscle retention.
Maintain a high level of activity to support muscle retention through increased calorie burn.
Start with a small calorie deficit and adjust as your body adapts to prevent rapid muscle loss.
The leaner you get, the more challenging it is to retain muscle mass, so adjust expectations accordingly.
Be realistic about muscle loss when pushing to extreme leanness for bodybuilding shows.
Muscle loss during extreme dieting is part of the process, but it can be regained quickly post-diet.
Use all strategies to minimize muscle loss, even when dieting to extreme leanness.
Transcripts
hey folks dr mike israel here for
renaissance periodization
video series part two of our preventing
muscle loss on a cut strategy's
nutrition this time the last video if
you want to check it out
was how do we alter our training or
really checklist our training to make
sure we're doing all the things
that basically prevent or try to prevent
muscle loss on a cut now
what can we do with our diet to make
sure that during our fat loss phase
we're not like doing anything stupid or
not doing anything
obvious that needlessly sloughs off
muscle
our hard-earned dearest muscle most
important thing in the world here we go
number one some of these are basic as
shit some more nuanced
number one keep your protein above
minimum levels for the love of god
gram of protein per pound per day
uh if you want to be extra sure are
there studies in which people don't lose
muscle unless
yes there are are there studies when
they do with contest bodybuilders
that they still lose muscle on more yes
so if you want to
shoot that middle ground but a little
bit air on the side of
plenty gram per pound is a real good
place to start so
you know if you weigh 200 pounds 200
grams of protein per day
anything less i would just describe as
not a very serious attempt to try to
mitigate muscle loss okay so if you
eat 170 grams of protein every day and
you lose a bunch of muscle on a fat loss
plan and you sort of
come to someone and you're like hey look
i lost muscle like what did i do wrong
like they're going to be like
i'm only eating less than a gram per
pound of protein per day now eating much
more than that it's probably not
super advantageous but you gotta at
least eat at least that to get like a
good old
junior varsity attempt at preventing
muscle loss number two
again a pretty obvious one keep your
deficit smaller
the greater your deficit the more likely
it is past a point
that you'll start to lose some muscle
mass so
if you have a deficit of 500 calories a
day or less
unless you're really messing up
somewhere else you're not a really big
risk of muscle loss
anything over 500 calorie deficit per
day so let's say your maintenance is 3
000 anything under 2500 in that case
is a calculated risk now look up until
you get to a thousand calorie deficit
per day for many people
it's a calculated but low risk of course
north of a thousand it's a calculated
and probably pretty high risk of muscle
loss so just know that
in other words if you're losing weight
and
you're keeping track of your body weight
really well and all the salt and water
is balancing out
anything much faster than a pound of
weight lost per week
is going to risk muscle loss somewhat
but the more that is than a pound the
more it's going to risk it so for
example if you say hey
i want to be extra careful i don't lose
muscle i'm doing a 12 week diet how much
weight should i lose i'll say 12 pounds
but no more
if you say hey i'm like you know i don't
want to lose a ton of muscle but it's
okay if i lose a little bit
i'll say you can lose up to like i don't
know like 16 pounds of
of body weight maybe 18 and i think
you'd be totally fine
if you come to me and say listen i'm
going to do a 12 week diet i want to
lose 24 pounds during that time
of tissue what are the chances that none
of it's going to be muscle i'll tell you
it's probably pretty low on average now
some people can pull it off and have
but just be aware of that what i don't
want you guys to do is get into a fat
loss plan with a crazy egregious like
i'm losing two and a half pounds a week
and then be like shit i lost muscle like
just be aware of this right because it's
a
it's not like a do this or you know this
is the right answer
don't do this this is the wrong answer
there's a spectrum just know the
spectrum
right number three keeping your diet
shorter
is a good way to ensure that muscle loss
is minimized
so if you do any diet under eight weeks
especially if it's within a pound of
tissue or close to that per week
so like if you lose eight pounds and
then take a diet break
unless you're really fucked up or you're
like super lean
you're probably not going to lose any
muscle or a tiny tiny minimum amount
anything much longer than 12 weeks
begins to be a calculated risk
right how you might have more fat to
lose or want
more fat to lose then you can reasonably
with low muscle loss
in 12 weeks or less that's totally fine
what you can do then is
diet for 8 to 12 weeks then take roughly
8 to 12 weeks
or maybe more like 5 to 9 weeks
something like two-thirds or
three-fourths
of the lengths of your last diet into a
maintenance phase your diet fatigue will
fall
your body will recalibrate to its new
settling point and then you can do
another diet of eight to twelve weeks
again
each time muscle loss risk is low and
you'll say to yourself like yeah that's
cool and all but that means it's like 36
weeks or some shit
between when i started and when i hit my
goal well yeah
if muscle loss is important to you or
rather muscle retention is important
you're going to diet slower because
slower diets absolutely result in most
cases in less muscle loss
that's just how it works right so that's
just another way of saying this
if you have to diet for a show and
you've got 12 16 weeks of prep or you've
got 20 weeks of prep or something like
that you have to be in a deficit almost
that entire time comes with the
territory but look if you're dieting for
a show
you're probably accepting some risk of
muscle loss to be super lean on stage
different different uh category of
events there but nonetheless it's
accepting calculated risk and i'm just
here to tell you what that risk is
next up point number four keeping your
meal frequency
at or above four meals per day three
meals per day is pretty low risk
okay but four meals per day evenly
spread
plenty of protein in each meal plenty of
calories in each meal not exactly evenly
but pretty close
spread throughout the day four plus
meals just does a really really good job
at anti-metabolism
if you eat two meals or fewer on a fat
loss phase and you're uh
worried about muscle loss what i would
say is i would consider that as not
really a serious attempt
at muscle loss mitigation it's just not
yes your friend did intermittent fasting
and they got ripped and didn't lose any
muscle
your friend is probably fucking tiny in
a fucking noob or
lying i'm just kidding sometimes
intermittent fasting works out
but it's not dependable enough to be
that much of a guarantee
of a prevention of muscle loss so it's
one of these things where
if you're going to step on a
bodybuilding stage you need to be as
muscular as you can at a lean level
you're going to be eating four meals a
day or more in almost every case
there's a reason bodybuilders do that
and it's not all just myth
okay it fucking works and the literature
reviews on the subject
support that at least four high protein
exposures per day
probably maximizes anabolism and
maximizes anti-metabolism
so i'm not saying that eating one or two
meals a day is just a recipe for crazy
muscle loss it's not sometimes you can
pull it off and it works pretty well
it's just not our best guess as to what
works best right
so you know like if there's some kind of
uh if you're building a plane to go
really high and you have some kind of
like special coating
that has you know stability promotes
stability at high altitudes
um it's not that like if you just put a
regular plane up in at 80 000 feet it's
just gonna fucking blow up like no
you'll probably be fine
but like you know if you don't really
want to use the injection seat or
injection seat little freudian slip
there if you don't want to use the
ejection seat at
80 000 and toast 10 million dollars of
equipment you might as well put the
paint on right
so four meals a day look if if you
really hate eating frequently
one of those can be like a protein meal
replacement shake
another one can be two or three protein
bars it's not the end of the world but
it is that extra special touch
to make sure you're doing everything you
can to minimize muscle loss risk
number five leave as much carbohydrate
in as you can
so you meet your protein needs you meet
your fat needs we'll get to what those
are
actually the next point and then keep as
much carbohydrate around as possible
you in in essence from your mass gaining
diet you want to cut mostly fats to
generate a deficit a lot of times when
i'm asking your diet
eating a lot of fats especially with
cheat meals fats are aplenty if you cut
them out
unless you cut them too low you don't
pay a crazy hormonal price you don't pay
a crazy energy price you don't
pay a crazy price as far as cravings are
concerned and you have all those
carbohydrates there
to power your training and to be very
anti-catabolic one of the most
demonstrated things in the scientific
literature about carbs
is that they are protein-sparing if you
have plenty of carbs coming in with
protein of course
your body just isn't into burning muscle
much if you have a low carbohydrate
environment your body doesn't mind
burning a fuck load of muscle
to make ends meet so at the very least
if you have to cut your carbs because
the calories just have to be that low to
meet your goal
make sure you're cutting them from
everywhere first other than your workout
window which is to say
if you have any carbs left in your day
at all they had better be in the
pre-workout meal
and the post-workout meal the
pre-workout meal gives you crazy energy
because look if you're on a low-carb
diet you get some carbs you're like a
fucking psycho
have a great workout put in tons of
anabolic and anti-catabolic stimulus
through that workout
in addition to that the post-workout
meal if you have carbohydrates in it
probably helps
the anabolic machinery and thus the
muscle sparing machinery
get rolling a little bit better promotes
recovery so on and so forth
next point number six don't drop your
fats too low
you need them for hormone production for
testosterone production
which means you spare a ton of muscle
not only through
you have uh more drive to train more sex
drive which is just fun
and also more actual chemical drive by
directly by testosterone
to keep muscle on your body huge factor
if you're enhanced if you're not drug
free less of a factor but it still plays
a role in other hormone
areas so cutting your fat like crazy
usually isn't worth it
if you're at about .3 grams per pound
per day which if you weigh 200 pounds
that's like 60 grams of fat per day for
example
anything lower than that probably not
worth the trade-off
but anything much higher than 0.4 which
means like 80 grams of fat per day or
above for some of the weighs 200 pounds
then you're starting to get into the if
i'm eating more fats than this i might
as well just take out those fats
go down to somewhere between 0.3 and 0.4
grams per pound per day
and just use uh the calories to have
extra carbs
because extra carbs up until the fats
get super low are more anti-catabolic
they do spare more muscle mass
number seven keep your activity high
lift plenty do plenty of cardio or just
be more active as even the best
this is because at some level just
eating a small amount of food is the
trigger for muscle loss
doing plenty of activity means your
calorie burn is so high
you can eat lots of food and that feeds
your muscles and does everything else
especially supports your hormones
you never really have this huge
catabolic influence
from just not eating enough because
you're eating plenty and even though you
have plenty of activity
most of that just burns fat and doesn't
touch your muscle what you don't want to
do
is have a super low level of activity
just basically sit on the couch all day
because then in order to lose weight at
the prescribed date you want
you're gonna have to dip your food so
low you start losing muscle just because
of that
so a little bit counter-intuitively make
sure you're plenty doing plenty of
cardio
lifting weights aggressively and often
and having plenty of daily activity
point number eight don't slash tons of
calories up front
create the minimum deficit that you have
to in order to get going
that's it you want to lose a pound a
week cut 500 or so calories and go
it's always tempting to be like oh i
have so many calories left i could slash
way more of them i feel great
and i'm gonna lose tons of weight well
yeah you are for a short term
your diet fatigue is going to spike up
and then you'll have to
recede from that if you don't want to
lose muscle so when starting a diet
think of it as the start you don't rev
into 10th gear right away
right just start nice and easy fat loss
is easy at the beginning of the diet
use the easy times with plenty of food
not crazy drop calories
as your body begins to resist fat loss
more you have that high of a calorie
load
to slowly take away from and because
you're never pressuring your body to
lose too fast
muscle loss risk isn't ever as big as it
could be
now lastly the leaner you get
the harder it is to keep muscle on your
body
you have to be realistic here if
you're wondering why you're losing
muscle and why your strength is going
down
when you're dieting from i already have
abs and veins to
question mark question mark question
mark i want face striations
then it's not really much of a question
shit happens
when you push your body to the extremes
so if you're starting out at 20
body fat you're dieting to 15 or 13 you
can reasonably lose no muscle at all
if you're starting at 10 body fat and
you're dieting to 4 for a bodybuilding
show
you can expect to lose a little bit of
muscle i shouldn't shock you it
shouldn't surprise you
and it's not like you did anything wrong
it's just part of the process and you
will regain it back quite quickly i
might add
but it's a thing it's just a thing so
know what you're getting yourself into
so you're not unrealistic
about what's going on that means even if
you're dieting from ten percent to four
percent then you know you probably run
into some muscle loss
you should still use all these
strategies because when we say sum it
could be this
it could be that you want it as little
as possible do all these tips
hopefully you have some good luck see
you guys next time for the cardio
portion
you
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