Losing hard earned muscle mass can happen in various situations. Fitness enthusiasts sometimes think muscle loss only happens if you skip the gym for days. But the truth is that it doesn’t happen if you skip your training for days. So what causes losing muscles?

Read the whole content backed with scientific literature.

1. Volume

Volume decides your overall muscle growth. Volume is simply defined as load x sets x reps.

Example- 100lbs x 3 x 10 = 3000 lbs

Your volume should go up over time but be doing too much volume and not able to recover also can hinder your progress, which leads to muscle loss.

2. Cardio

Cardio should be used as a calorie expenditure during fat loss. If an individual is in a fat loss phase doing too much cardio can lead to muscle loss as the individual is already in a negative energy balance.

3. Protein

Protein is the muscle building macronutrient. Protein deals with muscle growth, maintenance, and repair. If one eats very less protein then he or she can lead to muscle loss easily. The ideal range is 0.6-1g/lb of bodyweight.

4. Nutrition

Nutrition is one of the nuts and bolts to get good results. Following any fad diets can harm your health and hormones. So opt for a healthy and balanced diet with a combination of carbs, protein, and fats.

5. Sleep

Sleep is the testosterone booster plus the magical pill. Your muscle grows when you rest. If you have sleep problems and you don’t recover from your training sessions then muscle loss is guaranteed.

6. Longer Fat loss phase

If an individual is dieting( fat loss)  for too long without taking any diet breaks then he or she might lose some muscle tissue.

7. Faster fat loss phase

Planning to lose fat faster per week can lead to muscle loss increasingly risky to muscle as glycogen stores, fibre type alterations from high volume training and cardio, and general fatigue become more and more proclaimed. The ideal limit is 1-2 lbs of fat loss per week.

8. Jumping into Fat loss phase immediately after bulk phase

Similarly to the bodyweight set point, there may be an independent muscle set point. Many experienced athletes, fitness enthusiasts, and coaches have stated that muscle seems to hang in better during dieting and detraining if it has been held on the body for longer, at least a month and 2. This is supported by the research that experienced coaches tend to lose muscle more slowly than novices, and gain back faster whatever they do lose. Right after gaining a lot of new muscle (which comes with added fat due to the calorie surplus), it may be wise to hold the new bodyweight constant for several months before attempting to diet the fat off, as that might be a more effective way of sparing the new muscle.

Yashovardhan Singh is a fitness coach with GetSetGo Fitness and a former national football player. He likes to keep a no-nonsense approach to fitness by applying scientific literature to provide results to his clients. Reach him at yashovardhan@getsetgo.fitness for coaching.