Muscle Loss prevention
By stopping weight training and focusing strictly on cardio excercise for awhile, will I loss quite a bit of muscle mass? The reason I ask is I’ve been weight training for a couple months and gotten some results but I found out that my cholesterol level is a bit high so I decided to change my diet and do alot more cardio. I do need to lose more weight however so I think the cardio will do good for me.
answer:
Patients with involuntary weight loss (IWL) are at risk of losing critical muscle mass; however, a high intensity resistance training program can help prevent or reverse this process.
Strength is the amount of force the muscle can generate. Power is force multiplied by speed and is a more powerful
predictor of functional capacity than is strength. Power also includes, in addition to strength, the impact of joint pain, muscle stiffness, and connective tissue composition, all of which affect how rapidly a person generates force. Function is reflected by activities of daily living.
The best way to manage IWL and muscle wasting may be through a triple combination of resistance training, megestrol acetate, and testosterone. In other studies, megestrol acetate alone caused patients to eat more and gain weight but to lose lean body mass. The addition of testosterone still resultedin a loss of muscle in these patients, but when exercise was added, patients gained weight without a significant loss of lean body mass.