You will Lose Muscle.
You will gain all the fat back when you stop dieting.
I find it interesting that so many people use these two ‘arguments’ as the basis of their anti-diet crusade. Granted they are scary statements, but If we look closely at these statements something odd becomes apparent…
Firstly, the fact that you will gain back the fat when you go back to how you use to eat is kind of a no-brainer…if you give it enough time, and don’t adjust your activity level then going back to how you used to eat will result in going back to how you used to look.
Secondly, the ‘given’ that you will lose muscle is very misleading.
I cover both of these arguments in Eat Stop Eat so let’s leave these discussions alone for later. Instead let’s look at what I consider to be the ‘implied’ claim in these arguments:
To me, these statements suggest that the ‘fat loss’ from dieting is only temporary, but the ‘muscle loss’ from dieting is somehow permanent…As in you will never be able gain that muscle back….ever.
In reality, I’ve never come across any evidence to support this accusation.
So, if for some reason you do lose muscle while you are dieting I see no reason why you couldn’t gain that muscle back.
Just some ‘thinking out loud’ for you today….
BP
