Must Cutting Fat Also Shrink Muscle?
THIS HAPPENS EVERY TIME I try to cut fat: my overall body mass shrinks, too. Basically, here’s what’s happening: as I lose the dreaded fat around my gut, I also lose the layer of fat that’s under my skin everywhere else. Sure, muscle definition starts to get sharper, but the shadow I cast is also smaller.
I don’t like that.
I’m already a pretty big guy. About 6′4″, 220 pounds typically. I’ve been as heavy as 230, though with more muscle. I’m down to around 216 now and I can tell, when pinching and looking in the mirror, that I’ve definitely lost some fat. The tell-tale signs?
My belly button changes shape — so look for that as you shoot for indisputable abs yourself — and my sternum starts to show underneath my skin. The first time I noticed my sternum, about 5 years ago when I was burning fat, I was surprised to see a little asymmetrical bump in the bone at the bottom end. Huh. Never knew it existed.
But back to this shrinking problem. It’s definitely easier to look bigger when you’ve got a layer of fat underneath your skin. It’s like wearing two shirts at once. You look bigger. For guys who have a part of their identity wrapped up in size — I do, I’ll admit it — anything that drops your core size is irritating.
The challenge, of course, is to cut the fat and maintain the muscle. Some experts say that cutting fat while building muscle is impossible — in order to build muscle, your body needs to have an excess amount of calories and plenty of protein. In order to burn fat, your body needs to either be in a situation where it needs to tap your fat reserves for energy or be in a calorie-deficient mode. There’s hormones and complex chemical reactions involved.
Some say that you can maintain your muscle mass if you keep your protein intake high, but not too high, and do special fat-blasting workouts. The building muscle at the same time claims get a little fishy — while it might be technically possible, I don’t believe that even a small percentage of men have the time or inclination to focus so fully on their balance of nutrition and specialized workouts.
For this reason, even today, most clean bodybuilders tend to have two main phases: the first is to do a lot of heavy weight training that works all the muscles they want to build. They do this for weeks or months depending on their goals and competition schedule, and during this time they’re eating more calories than they burn, hoping to provide optimum fuel for muscle growth.
After they’ve built up their muscle, they start the fat cutting phase where they look to burn off the excess fat.
See also: The incredible shrinking fat cell.
See also: Lose weight and build muscle.
They focus on nutrition, eat super lean, low-carb meals, and keep exercising trying to slowly drop the fat without their bodies tapping into muscle mass for energy.
This two-step rule is actually a good way to go. It’s what I should have been doing in the first place — focus intensely on building muscle for a month, followed by another slow month of careful nutrition and exercise.
I’m not that patient.
At times like this, I need to remind myself why I’m going after indisputable abs.
See, indisputable abs isn’t so much about the abs as it is about the side benefits. The benefit is getting off the carb roller coaster. The benefit is changing how I eat, how I relate to food, how I use it to change my emotional state. Yeah, that’s right, emotional state.
Or maybe it’s a mental or physical state of being. It’s not like I’m eating chocolate so I can feel loved. But there’s a buzz to be gotten from bad foods. Eating out of boredom. Eating because damn, it tastes good. Feeding whatever neurotransmitters get so excited over Cosco cake. Something is going on, and the problem is that it’s far from good for you. Eat too much, too often, and might I be looking at overloading my endocrine system that regulates insulin and blood sugar? Racing toward diabetes?
Feeding whatever neurotransmitters get so excited over Cosco cake.
Maybe, maybe not. I do know that when I’ve stopped paying attention, eating with general abandon — still exercising hard — I gain flab and start feeling like I’ve got clumps of Jell-O in my veins. Slow to get moving. Quick to tire. More likely to get a headache, irritated, and more likely to drive to the store to pickup a bag of Tootsie Rolls to finish a big work assignment. More likely to get sick, catch a cold.
Yeah, I know, it’s not like I’m an addict looking my next hit of meth.
See also: Addiction.
Still, I can do way better than eating a couple dozen chocolate chip cookies in 24 hours. Staying mostly ahead of the eating mess just isn’t going to cut it any more. Discipline is another side effect. Intent is another.
But back to my starting point: I’m losing overall size. Hopefully I’m not losing much muscle mass, but it’s hard to say. My core is getting stronger. I can do more weight lifting reps more easily. I’ve got more energy on the basketball court. I’m not looking as hard for my hit of caffeine.
I haven’t eaten candy for 17 days. Wait, in the first week of October, I’m pretty sure I ate a Tootsie Pop. It would have been just one, 60 or so calories, and it wouldn’t have been very satisfying.
A couple of days ago, I had a piece of cake and ice-cream, but it was out of courtesy. I wasn’t craving it. At most, I was ambivalent about it. I’m already starting to feel my focus shift away from crappy foods.
And this is good.
But the size, damn. That still sucks. My strategy?
Stay focused on keeping my caloric intake low. Keep up the workouts. After a big workout, add more protein, maybe a bit of olive oil, and try to get some fruit and veggies in, too. I’m hoping to trick my body into believing that, despite the lack of calories, I’m still getting all the nutrition and building blocks I need to keep my muscle, if not build a little more.
I think I can do that.