6 replies to this topic

[snakeeater]

I am losing weight at a good and steady pace, so I don't have any complaints there, but as the fat has been dropping off the muscles underneath it all seem to be smaller than I expected they would be. Now I may just be imagining this, but has anyone else lost muscle mass while on Jenny Craig? I am on the 1500 calorie menu and have gone from around 270 down to 220 in around 6 months.

[I Called Jenny]

Just a quick question. Are you exercising in addition to the diet?

If you're not, you're right, you "could" be losing muscle mass too because your body doesn't "necessarily" distinguish between unused muscles and fat. But if you work out, your muscles will help "push out" the fat so to speak.

Phyllis

[CMECRZN]

hmmm... sorry for the question.... but at the risk of sounding ignorant, how can you tell??? I mean how do you know for sure that you have lost muscle?

[FitIsFun]

hey snakeeater,

To answer your question, yes you will almost always loose muscle mass when you are on a diet. Lifting weights and getting in enough protein can certainly help to minimize it however. How many lbs are you loosing each week by the way? It shouldn't be more than 3 to start with and around 2lbs per week at your current weight. Any more than that and the extra weight lost is likely coming from muscle mass. If that is the case, talk to your JCC about moving to a higher calorie level and have them ask the JC nutritionists how you can add more protein to your diet.

In the end however, we all loose a bit of muscle in the process. Once you get to your goal you can focus on regaining some muscle.

FitisFun

[NaturalWoman205]

I have experience losing a lot muscle on the JC program. I did a bod pod test the one they do for "the Biggest Loser" and did initial baseline test. After 12 weeks I did the follow up test and it showed I lost weight but I lost muscle verses fat. I was doing strength training & alot of high intensity cardio during those 12 weeks and was following JC program. Although I lost weight and inches I was still considered in the high fat percentage for my height and weight.

I did another test for my Resting Metabolic and found out I was working at too high heart rate during cardio and that burned muscle verses fat. I also drink protein drink after a strength training within 45 min, so I don't lose more muscle. I want to keep my muscle and bone mass, since I am getting older and don't want to have brittle bones like my mom did at my age.

Check if your health club offers these tests, or a sports dr does. It has helped me learn alot about how my body burns calories (which I am finding out I need to really watch my carbs intake, which is hard to do on JC).

[CMECRZN]

Wow that is really interesting!!

I didn't even know those tests were available. What do you ask for? I want to maintain what little muscular I have so I can keep increasing that metabolism.

[NaturalWoman205]

The Bod Pod test is available at some health clubs. It is a test that measures what your percentage of fat, and lean (muscle, water, internal organs & bones) is for the weight measured.
From that you can find what your BMI percentage currently is.

The other test is VO2Max. It is test where you wear a mask you breath in while walking\running on a thread mill. They also measure your heart rate during the tests. You walk\run for several minutes at different heart rate being measured. It calculates from your breathing and heart rate, how your body burns FAT. Example. FOr me it calculated that in say Zone 2 (certain heart rate for your age) I burn 8.2 calories per minute, and 3.4 of those calories burn FAT. If I work out in Zone 3 (higher heart rate range) I burn 8.8 calories per minute and 2.8 of those calories burn FAT. I need to train in ZONE 2 to burn more FAT than muscle during my cardio workouts. As your heart rate\recovery gets better (like in 3 months), you may burn more FAT at higher ZONE.

I hope this makes sense....