Do you lose muscle when you don't eat enough calories?

[AchillesFury]

I hear this all the time everywhere and that is "you will lose muscle if you drop your calories to low", what muscle are they talking about? Is it your natural muscle you have without working out with weights?

[Eastbound]

My take - You'll eventually lose muscle, but only after all the fat is burned up. Your body switches to burning fat in absence of in coming food. It can live on that as long as there's fat there to burn. That's why people living off the land way back in the day would fatten up in times of plenty, then live off the fat reserves when food got scarce. You can actually build muscle while burning fat. Fat is a ligit energy source for your body. One thing to keep in mind is that dropping calories too low too quick may slow your metabolism, which is another way the body survives in lean times. It totally natural for a body to store and burn fat as needed. Most people never get to the fat burning part, they are only adding to the stored fat

[Eastbound]

BTW and to put things in perspective, people can go months while living off their fat reserves depending on how much they got stored. There is one documented case of a rather large fellow going an entire year with no food, only water

[abracada]

I hear this all the time everywhere and that is "you will lose muscle if you drop your calories to low", what muscle are they talking about? Is it your natural muscle you have without working out with weights?

Harsh but fair;


That’s what FAT people say as an excuse to stay fat.

Cut the calories below maintenance and eat about half of every meal protein and lift weights.

[OctoberRed]

Harsh but fair;


That’s what FAT people say as an excuse to stay fat.

Cut the calories below maintenance and eat about half of every meal protein and lift weights.

exactly, Dan Rafael has used that excuse for years.

[Redd Foxx]

You have to really be starting yourself to lose muscle. More often, you'll lose muscle from not maintaining it through exercise.

[R01]

Keep protein intake 1g per lb of bw and a caloric maintenance

[OctoberRed]

You have to really be starting yourself to lose muscle. More often, you'll lose muscle from not maintaining it through exercise.

Thats what most people do when they diet. Practically starve with low calorie intake.

[Zaryu]

I don't know, I don't think I've ever had the "I don't think I ate enough calories" issue. Im more of an "I ate too much, I need to sleep now" kind of guy.

[OctoberRed]

I don't know, I don't think I've ever had the "I don't think I ate enough calories" issue. Im more of an "I ate too much, I need to sleep now" kind of guy.

Im more of a "I ate too much and need to drop a deuce"