How do I keep and gain muscle on a low calorie diet?
I am an 18 years old,male,5’8,and 325 pounds I’ve been on a diet for the last 5 weeks and have lost 15 pounds.I take in 1200-1500 calories a day and lift weights 3 days a week unfortunately I’ve lost muscle.Does anyone have suggestions on what I can do to keep and gain muscle on a low calorie diet?
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you need about 2500 cals a day. you are starving. that,s why your body is eating itself.
Are you sure 325 is correct? At 5′ 8″ 20 stones is very heavy. I would suspect you are losing fat that looks like muscle mass loss.
But, if I’m wrong, looking at your dietary intake the only way you will keep muscle mass on 1200-1500 calories a day is with a good protein supplement. You need about 10g per lb of body weight per day of protein to build good lean muscle mass. @325 that is 3,250g a day or over 7lbs! The only way you will get that much a day is to supplement.
You should be in the 2-3 thousand range. I would also suggest some protein shake or other supplements.
its cuz your calorie intake is too low. find out your correct calorie intake level and stick to it. you are most likely in starvation mode now and your body is going to reverse weight loss via body fat. you are drastically losing too much weight per week which can also cause muscle loss. muscle protein is the easiest source to use for energy other than carbs because it takes too much energy so the body prefers to use it that is why your body has decided to use proteins instead of body fat. keep weight loss to about 1-2 lb per week. if anything drop carb calories and up the protein to compensate. as of right now, you need to be taking at least 325g of protein regardless if your calorie intake is too high or you are dropping calories. take in 1gprotein/lb body weight.
You need to get 1-1.5grams of protein per lb of body weight (not 10 as someone else suggested!).
Really it just looks like calorie intake is low but I doubt you are really losing actual muscle at this range just a lot of fat as someone else mentioned 20 stones is quite heavy for your height.
If you do feel you are losing too much muscle try getting some more calories in your diet with an extra meal during the day.
Go a little heavy on the protein and that may help for a little while
You need a special diet to achieve this, You can read more on nutrition for bodybuilders here:
http://xa.ly/GzH
hope it helps
you should strive for a healthy weight loss of 3%/month maximum. Your calorie intake is much too low. You arent eating enough to feed your body, especially if you are lifting. Your body is likely using all of your protein as an energy source. Increase your calories to closer to 2500 on off days and 2700 on lifting days and make sure you are consuming at least 100g of protein daily, ideally from lean meats or a whey powder. you also need to make sure you are consuming adequate quantities of carbs and fats for your body to use as energy so it will allow your protein to be used for muscle mass retention. also, stay hydrated and avoid caffeine and junky supplements like muscle milk, creatine and eas.
There’s [this one that says supplementing a very low calorie diet with MCT oil (like coconut or palm oil) helps to preserve muscle mass and to alleviate hunger for the first couple of weeks while your body is adapting to ketosis.