Thread: confused....fat or muscle?

i thought that going into ketosis meant that we were losing fat.....however i have just read that people who lose weight so quickly such as those on vlcd will mostly be losing muscle. this has me a little concerned that if i lose much more weight i will become weak etc etc.
please can anyone confirm either way

tia

The fact is you lose muscle and fat on a VLCD (the same as you do on any diet).

Remember some of the muscle loss is needed as for example you don't need such big calf muscles if you have lost 5 stone as they don't need to hold up so much weight.

It was proven in that diet programme at Xmas that Cambridge showed less lean muscle loss than the other diets tested such as SW and WW so don't get too hung up on it.

Remember though to always have your packs as it is the high amount of protein in the packs that helps protect lean muscle and push the body into burning a higher percentage of fat.

Mike

Loss of fat, water, and protein during very low calorie diets and complete starvation.

Weck M, Fischer S, Hanefeld M, Leonhardt W, Julius U, Graser W, Schneider B, Haller H.

Abteilung Innere Medizin, Medizinische Akademie Carl Gustav Carus, Dresden, DDR.

The magnitude and composition of weight loss obtained in obese women on two forms of very low calorie protein-supplemented diets (Cambridge diet, Dresden drink) as well as by complete starvation has been investigated. With the VLCD, nitrogen equilibrium was reached on the 10th day of fasting, the cumulative nitrogen balance also being compensated. Nearly half of the body weight loss is due to loss of fat. In order to assess the benefit of fasting regimes, we propose to measure at least two parameters which are independent of each other, e.g., nitrogen balance and total body water. Both types of VLCD were equally effective, safe, and acceptable in achieving rapid body weight reduction.

so it sounds like half of what we lose is fat

the trouble is, if we are also losing muscle then when we revert to normal eating we will have to eat a lot less than other people of the same weight as we will have less fat burning muscle

What I did was carried on doing some sort of weight exercises during Cambridge and then when I got to goal, I rejoined the gym.

My scales tell me that I have a higher amount of muscle than the average 50 year old...so something has worked

I agree with everyone else.

We are going to be losing muscle as well as fat because the day to day demands on our body of carying less weight will dictate that we don't need as much muscle.

Having said that I have been doing toning exercises and have actually been able to start running round with my 3 year old so my daily activity has increased as the weight has dropped off.

Ages ago I bought a body fat monitor after reading a few discussions on DH and I haven't used it for ages. In fact I forgot I had it

In light of this thread I have just tested myself again out of interest. When I first got it my body fat ratio stood at over 43%. Today it is under 34.9%

I think I'll keep testing for every stone I lose.

I also think that I read somewhere that for every 10lb of muscle you have instead of fat, your normal body energy requirements increase by 50 calories a day. Don't quote me on that though!