Can a person lose weight very quickly w/o losing lean muscle mass?
by Susanne Williams
QUESTION I have heard of weight loss programs where people lost up to a pound a day. Is it possible to do this w/o losing lean muscle mass? ANSWER That's a great and practical question. The answer is not a yes or no answer. It depends on the situation and context. In the page, "Stages of Weight Loss" I talk about three forms of weight loss. There is the detox weight loss, where there are fluids and toxic materials being released from the body. When a person is very overweight it is very common to have a sudden drop in weight but is stops dropping just as suddenly. In the popular show, The Biggest Loser, you can watch any season and see the "Notorious" Week two where all the contestants lose very little weight and some actually gain a bit. Yet in the first week you see these remarkable numbers of weight loss. This is mainly fluids released from the body. If all the contestants took the next two weeks and did very light aerobic exercise for long periods of time with large amounts of fluids consumed, they would all lose much more weight in week two and three. The plateau would not occur. But, that would not be good TV and Gillian Michaels would not be able to yell as much. This type of weight loss is mainly water loss. Then there is actual fat loss. This occurs last and only when the nervous system changes and when there is muscle growth. The nervous system has to change to automatically use mainly fat for energy and stop using only sugar. The reason I wrote all this is that all "weight loss" that is not fat loss can be very rapid. With obese clients I have seen as high as 5 pounds in a day. There was no exercise but a very high supply of magnesium, large amounts of water with baking soda or hydrogen peroxide in it and nutrient dense fluids. This is done for only one purpose - to dramatically relax the nervous system. When it relaxes and gets restored back to normal, it relaxes and lets go of fluids. This will come to an end though and then I start to get exercise in the clients life to start building muscle and strengthening the cardiovascular system and increase oxygen in the blood. Until this time, muscle weight is not necessarily lost. As you will read below, there is more to muscle loss in weight loss. It is not always bad. This is when fat loss starts. Fat loss is slower. I usually see between 2 - 6 pounds a week, depending on the person and situation. Now for the muscle loss part of your question. If you are not overweight and you start carrying about 100 - 200 pounds every day. Trust me, you will eat more and want to sleep more and your muscles WILL get bigger. As a very heavy person loses weight, the muscles can get smaller for logical reasons. Most people are not trying to be weight lifters or body builders so big muscles are not a high priority. Their muscles can get smaller simply because they are not needed as much anymore. I hope this give you more perspective. Cheers! Yegyan
|
