Many situations such as unhealthy diets, long-term weight loss adventures and lack of physical activity can lead to undesired muscle loss in individuals, resulting in deterioration of body composition.
How Does Muscle Loss Happen?
The goal of people who follow a weight loss diet or try to lose weight by their own methods should be fat burning. A healthy diet should be applied, regular exercise should be done and attention should be paid to meeting the protein requirement in order to lose weight mainly from fat mass. If these precautions are not taken, the body goes to meet the energy deficit that occurs during the diet as a result of the destruction of muscle tissues and their use in energy production. This causes muscle loss, along with sagging and regional lubrication problems in the body. Apart from visual problems, muscle loss also negatively affects health. While the strength and endurance of the body decrease, physical performance weakens, and disorders related to the functions of the organs consisting of muscles may occur. In order to avoid all these, it is essential to prevent muscle loss while losing weight or, if such a situation has developed, to start the necessary studies to regain muscle loss
Symptoms of Muscle Loss while Losing Weight
Experiencing muscle loss while losing weight may cause some brings symptoms. Being careful with these is very important in terms of not losing health while dieting. Symptoms of muscle loss while losing weight include:
- Weakness, low energy, constant sleepiness, or waking up tired in the morning
- Fatigue or weakness
- Mood Negative changes in state of mind
- Experiencing balance problems
- Sagging in areas where muscles such as cheeks and arm muscles are intensely located
- Lutting in areas such as belly and hips despite weight loss The problem is not sufficiently reduced
When Does Muscle Loss Start?
Loss of a certain amount of muscle mass occurs in every weight loss diet. it is natural. However, an increase in this rate is definitely undesirable in the slimming process. The answer to the question of when muscle loss begins is quite variable. People who follow a very low calorie diet or whose protein intake is not sufficient may experience rapid muscle loss even in the first days of weight loss with the start of this diet. However, interrupting or neglecting exercise during the diet process will also cause muscle loss. Severely reducing calorie intake in order to increase the speed of weight loss can be stated as another misbehavior that will cause muscle loss to begin.
How to Compensate for Muscle Loss?
People who experience muscle loss symptoms while losing weight did not lose health for It is very important to take measures to compensate for this situation. It is possible to compensate for this situation in people who lost muscle due to wrong practices and unhealthy diet. For this, first of all, health checks should be done. If there is no problem regarding blood values, information about daily protein requirement should be obtained by consulting a dietitian, and necessary changes should be made in the nutrition plan to fully meet this requirement. Starting to exercise regularly is among the sine qua non for restoring muscle loss. In order to strengthen the muscles and replace the lost muscle tissues, protein intake and regular sports must be carried out together. In addition, if the weight loss process is to be continued, the nutrition plan should be reviewed, and necessary dietary adjustments should be made in the presence of a dietitian to determine the correct weight loss rate. Individuals who continue to experience muscle loss despite a proper nutrition plan and regular exercise may have a different underlying health problem. In such a case, it is recommended to consult a doctor and undergo a detailed health checkup.
What are the Foods that Prevent Muscle Loss?
One of the issues that can be considered in order to prevent muscle loss while weakening or to compensate for muscle loss is muscle loss. preventative foods. Natural and healthy foods that also contain high protein are very effective in preventing muscle loss and creating new muscle mass. Among these foods, the most important ones are:
- Eggs
- Milk and dairy products such as cheese, yogurt, kefir
- Dried legumes
- Nuts such as walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds (limited amount)
- Fish and seafood
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