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Does anyone have any idea how to retain muscle mass for longer? I was previously strength training daily, but took a week off (a dangerous combination of a toot

Does anyone have any idea how to retain muscle mass for longer? I was previously strength training daily, but took a week off (a dangerous combination of a tooth extraction and internet fearmongering) and my arms are already looking noticably slimmer. As soon as I can I'll get back to my daily routine, but I can't imagine this will be the last week I have to avoid it, these things happen, so I'd like to keep more of what I've got if/when that happens again.

presentation 4y ago
I'm pretty sure that it takes significantly longer than a week to start losing muscle mass, so it might be in your mind.
- bodge5000 4y ago
  Yeh that seems likely, though I swear to my eyes it does look different
  - weberer 4y ago
    Have you been taking creatine, but stopped in the past week? It could just be water weight lost.
  - leksak 4y ago
    It could be that they previously were inflame from training and thus held more water. Or, if you've been eating less (seems likely) your body might have had to take some glycogen from the muscles which also binds water. Lastly, sure, you may have atrophied some but probably not a substantial amount. Do something, if you can, that exerts the muscle (heavy being preferable over 15+ reps) to retain muscle tissue.
- barry-cotter 4y ago
  People vary a lot. One of my friends lost 10kg of muscle mass in less than a month without being sick. He just stopped going to the gym every day and went on holiday. If your natural build is skinny as a rail and you’re buff and you stop some people just deflate like a balloon.
  - smcl 4y ago
    If they're starting out at a decent size I could definitely believe someone dropping 10kg after a month. However I have a hard time believing anyone would be visibly different after a single week's worth of working out. However I can sympathise, I was in that position myself and I guess I had a sort of (very mild) body dysmorphia where I felt like I looked chunky and bloated if I missed just a couple of sessions in a row. I realise now that I was being ridiculous, I was in very good shape and it was all in my head. I picked up running and gym again earlier this year and I'm making a conscious effort not to fall into that trap again
  - wiseowise 4y ago
    No they didn’t, lol. If you lose 10 kg of MUSCLE mass in a month, you’re seriously sick, like starving sick. And there’s no “natural skinny as a rail”, you either eat and workout enough, or you don’t.
    - barry-cotter 4y ago
      > And there’s no “natural skinny as a rail”, you either eat and workout enough, or you don’t. Just as some people are short and others tall people produce different amounts and proportions of hormones which leads them to put on muscle easily or not. For the most extreme ethnic examples of this consider the Kalenjin of East Africa who are skinny and wildly over represented as marathon runners and Polynesians who are wildly over represented as rugby players and in US Football, who are more muscular.
      - wiseowise 4y ago
        Easily or not, the point still stands.
  - xxs 4y ago
    10kg of 'muscle mass' would be close to 40k kCal. Even if half of was water 20kCal is still tons - like mass starvation - 10day of not eating at all.
sawmurai 4y ago
That is completely normal. For example, I lose about 0.5-1kg of weight after a week of not training, and I look pretty flat. That will mostly be water tho. After two weeks without training and while eating a shit (but oh so tasty) diet and drinking wine everyday for one of those two weeks, I lost about 20% of strength on the main lifts. And it felt way worse than that. But it’s just a temporary loss, and I was back up after a couple of weeks. My unsolicited advice is to not worry about it and just start from what you end up being capable of after a break. It probably is not your first, and it definitely won’t be your last because life happens.
swat535 4y ago
I lift weights and do strength training 3 times a week (Julian, if you are reading this, thank you for getting me started on this! [0]). In my experience, you won't experience muscle loss for up to like ~2 weeks as long as you eat your daily calories including your protein requirements. Going on a calorie deficiency is a big problem for your muscles; hence if you want to lose weight after gaining muscles, you should lose it slowly and include daily protein in your diet. I know this because I measure and keep all my metrics as I'm a data geek as well and I've had several periods where I had to stop (vacation, family, etc). Also, I agree with everyone else, I've noticed that consistency is king. You can pretty much take any strength training program you want and it will grow your muscles assuming that you get enough protein, calories, sleep and keep lifting heavier (or the same weight if you want to maintain). Just my 2c. [0] https://www.julian.com/learn/muscle/intro https://www.julian.com/learn/muscle/intro

presentation 4y ago

I'm pretty sure that it takes significantly longer than a week to start losing muscle mass, so it might be in your mind.

bodge5000 4y ago
Yeh that seems likely, though I swear to my eyes it does look different
- weberer 4y ago
  Have you been taking creatine, but stopped in the past week? It could just be water weight lost.
- leksak 4y ago
  It could be that they previously were inflame from training and thus held more water. Or, if you've been eating less (seems likely) your body might have had to take some glycogen from the muscles which also binds water. Lastly, sure, you may have atrophied some but probably not a substantial amount. Do something, if you can, that exerts the muscle (heavy being preferable over 15+ reps) to retain muscle tissue.
barry-cotter 4y ago
People vary a lot. One of my friends lost 10kg of muscle mass in less than a month without being sick. He just stopped going to the gym every day and went on holiday. If your natural build is skinny as a rail and you’re buff and you stop some people just deflate like a balloon.
- smcl 4y ago
  If they're starting out at a decent size I could definitely believe someone dropping 10kg after a month. However I have a hard time believing anyone would be visibly different after a single week's worth of working out. However I can sympathise, I was in that position myself and I guess I had a sort of (very mild) body dysmorphia where I felt like I looked chunky and bloated if I missed just a couple of sessions in a row. I realise now that I was being ridiculous, I was in very good shape and it was all in my head. I picked up running and gym again earlier this year and I'm making a conscious effort not to fall into that trap again
- wiseowise 4y ago
  No they didn’t, lol. If you lose 10 kg of MUSCLE mass in a month, you’re seriously sick, like starving sick. And there’s no “natural skinny as a rail”, you either eat and workout enough, or you don’t.
  - barry-cotter 4y ago
    > And there’s no “natural skinny as a rail”, you either eat and workout enough, or you don’t. Just as some people are short and others tall people produce different amounts and proportions of hormones which leads them to put on muscle easily or not. For the most extreme ethnic examples of this consider the Kalenjin of East Africa who are skinny and wildly over represented as marathon runners and Polynesians who are wildly over represented as rugby players and in US Football, who are more muscular.
    - wiseowise 4y ago
      Easily or not, the point still stands.
- xxs 4y ago
  10kg of 'muscle mass' would be close to 40k kCal. Even if half of was water 20kCal is still tons - like mass starvation - 10day of not eating at all.

sawmurai 4y ago

That is completely normal. For example, I lose about 0.5-1kg of weight after a week of not training, and I look pretty flat. That will mostly be water tho. After two weeks without training and while eating a shit (but oh so tasty) diet and drinking wine everyday for one of those two weeks, I lost about 20% of strength on the main lifts. And it felt way worse than that. But it’s just a temporary loss, and I was back up after a couple of weeks. My unsolicited advice is to not worry about it and just start from what you end up being capable of after a break. It probably is not your first, and it definitely won’t be your last because life happens.

swat535 4y ago

I lift weights and do strength training 3 times a week (Julian, if you are reading this, thank you for getting me started on this! [0]). In my experience, you won't experience muscle loss for up to like ~2 weeks as long as you eat your daily calories including your protein requirements. Going on a calorie deficiency is a big problem for your muscles; hence if you want to lose weight after gaining muscles, you should lose it slowly and include daily protein in your diet. I know this because I measure and keep all my metrics as I'm a data geek as well and I've had several periods where I had to stop (vacation, family, etc). Also, I agree with everyone else, I've noticed that consistency is king. You can pretty much take any strength training program you want and it will grow your muscles assuming that you get enough protein, calories, sleep and keep lifting heavier (or the same weight if you want to maintain). Just my 2c. [0] https://www.julian.com/learn/muscle/intro https://www.julian.com/learn/muscle/intro