Every morning after I wake up I go outside in the garage and get on my treadmill and do a mile or two. When im done I go in the kitchen and mix up some EAS whey protein drink mix... 21 grams of protein plus the 8g in the skim milk. I drink this stuff every morning after my workout and I was just wondering if its doing me any good at keeping lean body mass? I weight in at 183 pounds at 6'1... I used to weight 248lbs back in november of 2002 until I started going to the gym at my college and using Xenadrine EFX. I have a small tummy and chest fat to get rid of and i've been eating roughly 1200 calories a day... (im off all weight loss pills) my main goal is to work off the rest of the tummy and chest weight... do you all think by 170 pounts the small tummy and chest fat will be gone... im afraid of going to low like 165 to get the rest of this fat off.

There is some research I have seen to support the theory that you can achieve more benefits in terms of lean mass maintenence and fat loss by consuming your protein drink prior to working out instead of after. Maybe 30-60 minutes prior. For this to work it has to be a highly bioavailable, easily digested protein source, preferably whey with a high content of apha-lactalbumin. Evidently, this works by eliminating the lag time between the end of your workout and the time it takes for your protein drink to be digested, during which the body is in a highly catabolic state. Might be worth experimenting. I find it works for me. Best regards,

P.S. In the studies the protein content of the meal was 70 percent by weight, so go easy on the carbs.

Ramsemonius

I hope that this information from my personal experience in losing a lot of weight (180+) on a VLC (very low calorie)fasting diet helps you realize that the amount of lean body mass loss is nominal if you are doing your cardio.

Basic stats: 6'2" Age at time of diet 37
Body mass done with underwater method and infrared method.

For Cardio I was walking an average of 5 miles per day some on a treadmil some on land. I think it is important not to run but walk to insure a mimimal loss of lean mass.


I started at 408 pounds 49% body fat that I was carrying 208 pounds of fat. Lean weight: 200.


After the diet I weighed 215 pounds at 12% body fat. Lean weight: 189

So I lost a total of 11 pounds of lean body mass or roughly one-half pound of lean mass for every 10 pounds of bodyweight.

And I found it very easy to add muscle after losing weight by increasing the intensity and frequency of my resistance training.