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Muscle loss is always bad news

Last week, I had a feeling that I might have come to my natural limit of fat loss while eating junk food. I let the past week as an experiment to see if I will continue to lose fat while still eating junk. But it backfired. In the last week I lost a mediocre 0.03 lb of fat. But that is not the worst part. I lost 0.25 lbs of muscle! Some of it may be just water weight but still losing even a tiny bit of muscle is not good.

Here are some numbers that led me to this conclusion

  • Last week
    • Weight: 123.74 lbs
    • Fat%: 10.07
    • Fat: 12.46 lbs
    • Lean Mass: 111.28 lbs
  • This week
    • Weight: 123.36 lbs
    • Fat%: 10.07
    • Fat: 12.43 lbs
    • Lean Mass: 111.03 lbs
  • Difference
    • Weight: -0.28 lbs
    • Fat%: 0
    • Fat: -0.03 lbs
    • Lean Mass: -0.25 lbs
I am still doing well with my weights, but this muscle loss is very unsettling. At this point I can add cardio or reduce junk food. I don't want to add cardio so this week I will try to eat cleaner and add a few more calories to see how things pan out.

I am also worried that my metabolism may be slowing down, because I theorize that the loss in weight is perhaps because I am not eating as much as I should. And I am not eating as much, is because I am not as hungry as I used to be. After I experiment with cleaner food this week, if my muscle loss still continues then I might have to switch to bulking phase prematurely. I still have 3 more weeks in leaning phase, but adverse results call for adverse measures...
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