I lifted three times a week throughout and still lost lean mass. Not as much as I expected to, but the idea that training prevents it entirely is not what my scan says.
The question I want answered is whether resistance training and protein change the ratio or only the absolute amount.
Happy to be told the question itself is wrong.
Taking the question as asked, rather than the general version of it. The intervention that works is boring and well evidenced: resistance training two to three times a week at a genuine effort, protein at 1.4 to 2.0 g/kg of reference body weight, and not making the deficit larger than the training can support. Cardio does not protect lean mass and in a deep deficit competes with recovery.
Dr.LipidDallas said:The intervention that works is boring and well evidenced: resistance training two to three times a week at a genuine effort, protein at 1.4 to 2.0…
Right, and protein targets should be set on a reference weight rather than current weight. Setting 1.6 g/kg on a starting weight of 130kg produces a target nobody hits on a suppressed appetite.
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Browse GL BiochemNurseKim_ATL said:I lifted three times a week throughout and still lost lean mass.
This matches mine closely enough to be worth saying so. The honest range is roughly 20 to 40% of total loss as lean mass without deliberate resistance training, and roughly 10 to 20% with it plus adequate protein. Both numbers need a caveat that matters: "lean mass" on a DEXA is not muscle. It includes water, glycogen and the lean fraction of organs, and glycogen alone carries about three grams of water per gram. A large early lean drop is mostly the glycogen and water going, which is why the first scan flatters and the second is the honest one.
Clinical perspective, offered as context rather than as advice.
Muscle fiber type changes during GLP-1-mediated weight loss, relevant to lean mass: preliminary biopsy data suggests that weight loss shifts the skeletal muscle fiber type distribution:
This "metabolic remodeling" of muscle may contribute to improved insulin sensitivity independent of total lean mass changes. The muscle you keep becomes metabolically better, even if there's less of it[1].