deconditioning - good time to lose some weight?

J

jmm

New Member
Time for a break from training soon
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I'm near the end of a 6wk programme and will be away from home for a week soon-ish, so will time deconditioning for then. One question, though, I've been bulking, and will keep doing so when I restart training; however, would losing weight while not training be a good idea?

Losing a little fat wouldn't hurt, and losing a couple of pounds in a week shouldn't be hard (last time I had a week away I lost a pound or so just by not stuffing my face all the time, and this was over xmas
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) If I lose weight while not training, though, is that more likely to be muscle loss?
 
im certainly no expert and im sure more knowledgable folks will be chiming in soon but this is what my reading and exper has shown.

1st, its best to cut when you are lifting and lifting heavy wgts at that. getting in the proper amount of protein and lifting heavy are key to maintaining the muscle you already have. obviously during sd you are not lifting anything.

2nd, its best to ease from bulk to cut and back again. by this i mean move to maint. levels for a few weeks before going one direction or another.

having said all that, your sd is prob going to last @ 2weeks at best and like you said your wgt moves around a couple lbs even on maint. during this period. its just not long enough of a period to lose any signif. amount of fat or muscle so why bother. the best youll do is drop a couple lbs of fat but without heavy lifting you run a real risk of losing a couple lbs of muscle too. neither can be considered a signif. amount but who wants to lose muscle. personally id cut only when im lifting heavy or on a designed prog like UD 2.0 or something like it.

good luck
 
<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">One question, though, I've been bulking, and will keep doing so when I restart training; however, would losing weight while not training be a good idea?</div>

If you plan on continuing your bulk during your next cycle, then why would you want to cut for a short time? Regardless, aiming to lose weight while not training is not a good idea, unless you actually want to lose some muscle. During any SD, it's best to eat at or above maintenance levels.
 
the only logic was that presumably muscles won't grow through most of deconditioning so I wouldn't need to eat to grow in the same way, and when I'm not training have found it hard to motivate myself to shovel in enough food to maintain weight... At any rate, if losing weight without training is likely to lose muscle, will just eat enough to maintain or slightly gain weight.
 
You are right that you do not need to eat the same amount. Since you are not training, you are burning less calories. Therefore your maintenance levels go down.
 
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(jmm @ Feb. 15 2007,21:35)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">the only logic was that presumably muscles won't grow through most of deconditioning so I wouldn't need to eat to grow in the same way, and when I'm not training have found it hard to motivate myself to shovel in enough food to maintain weight...  At any rate, if losing weight without training is likely to lose muscle, will just eat enough to maintain or slightly gain weight.</div>
no the opposite is true,you grow and recover during sd thats part of the reason for doing it.
 
If you reduce your calories while not working out, you run the risk of losing muscle. Eat to keep it and cut while lifting.

During the strictest part of your cut, you should be lifting the heaviest part of your program. Why? To tell the body it needs to keep the muscle. When the body senses deficit it will sacrifice muscle which is expensive caloricly to keep (which it thinks it doesn't need) to make up for the deficit unless it senses a NEED for the muscle, i.e. heavy lifting.
 
lcars- I thought muscles just grew for a couple of days, at best, after training?

Anyway, will make sure I eat enough for the week's deconditioning...
 
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