Q: 562: Isnt it ok to lose weight and lose muscle if the result of that is an improved body composition?

A: The problem is that the way most people lose weight doesn't improve body composition for very long. It's most common for somebody to go on a crash diet when they severely undereat to lose weight quickly, possibly supplement with various diet pills, and do lots and lots of cardio. This approach does indeed lose a lot of weight quickly but a big portion of that weight, in worst scenarios most of it, is muscle. Once this initial weight loss phase ends, after a few weeks usually, the person's metabolism is in the dumps because of the lost muscle and the restrictive diet. At this point weight loss either halts or slows down dramatically with most of future losses coming from muscle.

And of course the person will perceive the slowdown in weight loss as a signal that he/she needs to eat even less and exercise even more, which makes the situation worse still. After several months of this, the person may have lost, say, 40 pounds of which, say, 25 came from muscle and 15 came from fat. They are eating maybe 1000 calories a day, doing lots of cardio, but the weightloss is complete dead and they're far from reaching their physique goals.

This is when most people give up and go back to their old routine. That's when the worst thing happens. Their bodies are used to getting by on 1000 calories/day and have lost much of the muscle that could burn those calories effectively. So they start gaining weight back, almost all in the form of fat. So a year later they're back at the original weight, with less muscle and more fat than when they started!

That's why I always always always emphasize the importance of SLOOOOOOOW weight loss and preserving all the muscle you can. I have found 1 pound/week pace to be a very good target for most people for true sustainable fat loss.

To be fair, some truly obese people can and probably should aim for much faster weight loss than 1 pound/week, but an average person who's looking to lose maybe 20-40 pounds should always emphasize gradual weight loss and weight lifting to boost metabolism and preserve muscle over fast weight loss with few calories and a ton of cardio.