Catabolic Weight Loss
While many dieters are so focused on losing weight that they fail to stop and consider the source of that weight loss. Drawing a distinction between healthy and unhealthy weight loss is important for achieving long-term sustainable health. When losing weight, pounds are either subtracted from the body's reserve of fat mass or from lean mass. Catabolic weight loss refers to the latter--an unwanted subtraction in the body's store of muscle tissue.
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Catabolism
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According to information from the exercise website Body and Fitness, the body is in one of two states at all times--anabolism or catabolism. Anabolism is where the body is synthesizing protein faster than it is being broken down, adding muscle mass. Catabolism is the exact opposite--where the body is breaking down protein (muscle) for energy faster than it is being created.
Significance
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Catabolic weight loss is important to consider because muscle mass is important to long-term sustainable health. Muscle is metabolically active tissue, which means that the more muscle you have, the more calories you are burning (even while standing around), making it easier to lose fat. Conversely, losing muscle through catabolic weight loss makes it far more difficult to lose fat, as your metabolism is running ever slower.
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Features
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The easiest way to test yourself to determine whether you are losing weight from fat or from muscle is to have body-fat testing performed at regular intervals in addition to tracking your weight with a scale. If your total lean mass remains constant across a number of body-fat testings, you are successfully avoiding the dangers of catabolic weight loss.
Prevention
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Avoid dropping calories too greatly while dieting to avoid the danger of catabolic muscle loss. This means aiming to lose weight at a slow and steady pace (one to two pounds per week) as opposed to the breakneck speeds promised by crash and other fad diets. Slow and steady weight loss will take a bit longer to reach your goal, but you will look and feel better when you finally get there.
Considerations
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In addition to losing weight slowly, regular resistance training can help to avoid catabolic weight loss. The body will be more reluctant to breakdown muscle tissue if you teach it that the muscle is required for day-to-day activities (through the use of regular weight training). Therefore, combining slow weight loss with the use of resistance training at least three days a week can help to avoid the pitfalls of catabolic weight loss.
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