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

[abracada]

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

Or a mondo duke

[cv808]

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

So, than even if I'm at a very low calorie net, until the fat in my body is used up (become lean), I don't have to worry about muscle breaking down? What would be the lowest calorie net that I can go without it being actually unhealthy?

[Eastbound]

I'd say a good daily calorie deficit for healthy weight loss is anywhere from 200-500 calories. I fast 20hrs per day and do all workouts in a fasted state, no problems with getting tired or running out of energy. I'm pretty even on my calories as I am not gaining or loosing weight at this point. Your body will use fat as energy before it starts to break down muscle. Now, after you've eaten some food, this will get stored as glucose in the muscles and liver. The body will use this for fuel first before turning to the fat.

[cv808]

Mmm, I only fast for 12-14 hrs a day, but physically I feel fine, I don't tire easily (or more than normal), I'm focused, other then some days I feel like I'm starving before I go to bed, I wake up actually fine. It's more my mood-swings lol. I get agitated easily because I'm hungry, again, maybe it's an adjustment period. It's the days I'm starving, that I wonder if maybe I'm eating far too little to sustain my workouts, but I don't want to over eat. I've added nuts and cheese to my breakfast for more calories, fat, dairy and protein. Maybe that'll help.

[Mamo]

So, than even if I'm at a very low calorie net, until the fat in my body is used up (become lean), I don't have to worry about muscle breaking down? What would be the lowest calorie net that I can go without it being actually unhealthy?

What he said is false. Remember this: You can't lose fat without losing a bit of muscle. And, you can't gain muscle, without gaining a bit of fat.

The bigger caloric deficit you have, the more muscle your body will burn.

To maintain as much musclemass as possible while being on a caloric deficit, have a high protein diet, around 1.2-1,4grams of protein per pound of bodyweight is definitely enough.

Also, try to maintain your strength in the gym while cutting, to help maintain muscle.

If you have a too big of a deficit, your metabolism will slow down very much, making it hard to lose weight.
You will eventually hit a "wall" and won't be able to maintain the diet, making you binge-eat.

If you are new to the gym/lifting weights, you can gain muscle and lose fat at the same time. In that case I would recommend eating at your weight maintenance calories, or a very small deficit.

[GhostofDempsey]

The average adult can lose about 2 - 3 pounds of fat per week following a health exercise/diet regiment, anything beyond that they will be losing muscle and/or water.

[cv808]

I've been losing weight steadily at about 1-2lbs a week for the last 3 weeks. Nothing drastic. I do, do a cheat meal once a week, and that helps me stay on track. Though for all intents and purposes, it's usually at a restaurant and never at a fast food place.

I know for a fact I'm not in-taking enough protein (more days then not). I'm slowly working on that. I need to get over the hurdle (oddly enough) of the fear of over eating to actually eat enough protein to bridge the gap of what it is my body needs to sufficiently stay healthy. It's almost ingrained in me to eat a certain amount, hungry or not, and not go over that. I'm always in shock at the sheer amount of calories you guys eat lol.

[GelfSara]

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?

If you eat fewer calories than you burn, your body will make up the deficit by consuming part of itself for fuel. Depending on a number of things, including how large the caloric deficit is, how much protein you are ingesting, your body's hormonal state, how long you have been dieting, what kind of exercise you have been doing, etc. it is possible for you, while dieting to 1) lose both fat and muscle at the same time or 2) lose fat and gain muscle at the same time.

Obviously, when athletes diet to lose "scale weight" they generally wish to have as much of the lost energy come from fat as possible, and to either lose as little lean body mass (muscle, bone, organ tissue, etc.) as possible or to gain some lean body mass while losing fat. To accomplish this, they generally wish to 1) keep the caloric deficit small rather than large, 2) consume a relatively large percentage of their calories from dietary protein, 3) do resistance training that briefly, intensely and relatively infrequently overloads all major muscle groups, 4) avoid overtraining, and 5) get adequate sleep. Obviously, 6) certain drugs can be incredibly powerful at accelerating fat loss and promoting muscle gain (or minimizing muscle loss) in the presence of caloric deficits. Among them: anabolic steroids; HGH, clenbuterol, SARMs, ephedrine, DNP, thyroid, etc.

[OctoberRed]

The average adult can lose about 2 - 3 pounds of fat per week following a health exercise/diet regiment, anything beyond that they will be losing muscle and/or water.

Unless they are Canelo. He loses around 20 pounds in a week...LOL

[cv808]

What he said is false. Remember this: You can't lose fat without losing a bit of muscle. And, you can't gain muscle, without gaining a bit of fat.

The bigger caloric deficit you have, the more muscle your body will burn.

To maintain as much musclemass as possible while being on a caloric deficit, have a high protein diet, around 1.2-1,4grams of protein per pound of bodyweight is definitely enough.

Also, try to maintain your strength in the gym while cutting, to help maintain muscle.

If you have a too big of a deficit, your metabolism will slow down very much, making it hard to lose weight.
You will eventually hit a "wall" and won't be able to maintain the diet, making you binge-eat.

If you are new to the gym/lifting weights, you can gain muscle and lose fat at the same time. In that case I would recommend eating at your weight maintenance calories, or a very small deficit.

Yes, sorry for the late reply. I've been upping my calorie intake with more protein. I guess, I wasn't eating enough calories lol. I was wondering why I was always starving at night. Now it's a lot better! I think I was stuck on what the general population considers a "diet", starve (which helped me gauge and understand how to tell I'm full and not over eat). I'm not anywhere near where I need to count calories, I do a general guestimate, but until my frame gets leaner, right now I'm on a steady (hopefully, I only weigh myself once a week) path of weight loss.