Can exercising while dropping pounds preserve your muscles and help keep them 'young'?

When we drop some weight, we don't just lose body fat—we also lose muscle.

This could be a problem for a lot of reasons, as skeletal muscle is far more than tissue that helps us move. It plays a very important role in it Metabolic healthregulating Blood sugar And Healthy Aging. Losing muscle mass is related to reduced mobility, increased risk of injury and is assumed to potentially worsen long-term weight reduction.

Millions of individuals now use weight reduction drugs equivalent to Vigovi and Ozempic, realizing the results of this muscle loss. It may affect their health is vital.

Loss of muscle mass can also be a big challenge for athletes, as many sports encourage them to keep up a low body weight while still encouraging them to keep up a high training load and high power output. So an energy deficit can put a big strain on an athlete's body – however the extent to which it affects their normal functioning, Not clear.

Yet despite these far-reaching implications, we still know surprisingly little about how human muscle responds on the molecular level to a mixture of caloric restriction and exercise. Understanding what happens to the muscles when exercising in a calorie deficit is incredibly essential.

Newly published research From myself and my colleagues sheds light on this very topic. We showed that weight reduction with aerobic exercise is probably not so bad for muscle—and will even have positive effects.

We recruited ten healthy, fit young men who accomplished two rigorous five-day experimental trials in our laboratory. During their first trial period, they ate enough calories to keep up their body weight. But throughout the second, we cut their every day caloric intake by 78%—a severe energy deficit.

During each trials, participants accomplished 90 minutes of strength-controlled, low-to-moderate-intensity cycling exercise thrice over a five-day period.

Throughout the trials, we measured blood markers equivalent to glucose, ketones, fatty acids and key hormones related to energy conservation. We did this to find out if – and to what extent – the energy deficit is affecting them.

We also collected muscle biopsies before and after each testing period. is named using a sophisticated method Dynamic proteomic profilingwe analyzed the production and abundance of lots of of muscle proteins. This allowed us to construct an in depth picture of how muscles adapt to sudden, substantial caloric restriction – even when the demands of exercise are maintained.

During the five days within the energy deficit, the participants lost about 33 kilograms. Hormones like leptin, T3 and IGF-1 also dropped rapidly—clear signs that the body is entering energy conservation mode.

But contained in the muscle itself, something more unexpected was happening.

Muscle tissue changes

Muscle tissue mounted a robust and surprisingly positive response to the mixture of exercise and calorie restriction.

First, we saw a rise in the quantity of mitochondrial proteins throughout the muscle – and these proteins were also being created more rapidly.

Mitochondria are the facility generators inside cells. They convert fats and carbohydrates into usable energy. High amounts of mitochondrial proteins, and their rapid production, are characteristic of healthy and more efficient muscles.

We also observed a marked decrease in the quantity and production of collagen and collagen-related proteins.

Collagen is an abundant protein that plays a job in providing structure and strength to muscles. However, collagen accumulates an increasing number of as we age – contributing to stiffness and impaired function.

Taken together, these changes resemble a shift toward a more metabolically youthful muscle profile.

An identical response has also been observed in long-term calorie restriction Studies in monkeys. But that is the primary time it has been demonstrated in humans.

Healthy Aging

At first glance, it seems counterintuitive that the body would invest energy in maintaining or improving muscle mass during times of scarcity.

Muscle tissue is demanding and expensive to keep up – and movement can also be energetically expensive. Shouldn't the body simply reduce muscle activity to conserve energy?

The answer to this query may lie in our evolutionary past. Humans evolved as hunter-gatherers, who often faced periods Low food availability. During these times, the flexibility to maneuver efficiently—walking and running long distances—was the flexibility to forage or prey Essential for survival. A body that shuts down muscle function during starvation can be less prone to survive and reproduce.

So the protective response we saw may reflect a deep evolutionary adaptation: muscles are able to move even when fuel is running low.

Our study included only a few young men who were intentionally following an extreme energy deficit for a brief time period. Thus, we cannot assume similar responses in women, older adults, or those that are obese or have chronic health conditions.

Future studies will need to match weight reduction with and without exercise, examine less extreme caloric deficits, include women and older adults, and measure how these molecular changes translate into actual physical performance.

Nonetheless, our findings support the concept that exercise during weight reduction may protect muscle quality—and will even increase characteristics related to healthy aging.

These findings even have key implications for many individuals. People who’re taking weight reduction medications or attempting to drop some weight may profit from structured exercise to assist maintain muscle quality. Older adults, who’re at higher risk of muscle loss, can especially profit from exercise during weight reduction. Athletes can approach any energy deficit with care, but know that muscle stimulation adapts to exercise.

Our study shows that human muscle is remarkably elastic. Even under severe stress, when a lot of the body is attempting to conserve energy, muscle tissue responds strongly—boosting its energy-generating machinery and limiting age-related degeneration.

In other words, dropping pounds and exercising doesn't just help preserve muscle—it will possibly help keep it young.