Philip Pape 0:00

When you're forced to take a break from training due to injury or illness . How long does it take before muscle loss begins to occur ? And how do I get more muscle to increase my metabolism ? Find out on today's weekend Q&A bonus episode . Welcome to the Wits and Weights podcast . I'm your host , philip Pape , and this twice a week podcast is dedicated to helping you achieve physical self-mastery by getting stronger , optimizing your nutrition and upgrading your body composition . We'll uncover science-backed strategies for movement , metabolism , muscle and mindset , with a skeptical eye on the fitness industry , so you can look and feel your absolute best . Let's dive right in .

Philip Pape 0:46

Hello and welcome to the special weekend Q&A edition of the Wits and Weights podcast , where we supercharge your Saturdays and Sundays with an answer to one burning question so you can put it into action this weekend . These questions are taken from the weekly Ask Philip thread in our free Wits and Weights Facebook community . If you're feeling overwhelmed by the endless amount of information and , let's be honest , misinformation online , and just want a straight up answer without the jargon , that's what this free service is for . With the weekly Ask Philip thread , you can post a specific question relevant to your unique individual situation that week and have it answered live by me on Friday . If you'd like to experience it yourself , I invite you to use the link in the show notes to join the Wits and Weights Facebook group . It's totally free and you'll quickly find out what a positive and supportive community it is . With that let's get to today's Q&A and supportive community it is . With that let's get to today's Q&A .

Philip Pape 1:50

When you have to take a break from training due to injury or illness and she had a recent injury , I won't divulge details out of privacy unless she wants to share , but it limits her with certain movements . In the short term , how long does it take before muscle loss begins to occur ? So we don't want to freak out about breaks in our training because it takes probably two to three weeks before you even begin to experience any muscle loss at all . And that's if you're not doing anything . And also , you know , if protein isn't very high and you're probably you're keeping the protein high , right ? If you listen to my show , if you're in this community , you know we want to go for 0.7 to one grams per pound of body weight in protein . So if you're keeping the protein high , that helps a lot . And then , if you're able to , you know , keep walking . That helps as well with recovery . If you're able to keep eating , at least at maintenance and Carol was in a very lean gaining phase and I suggested we bring her back to maintenance for now because you don't want to over consume when you're not able to use that nutrition to build muscle . She's just trying to hold onto that muscle . So if you're able to do some level of resistance training , even if it's like a quarter of the volume of normal , and that's after like a week or two break to just totally rest and let the injury heal , you're probably not going to lose anything .

Philip Pape 3:07

To be honest , if you have to ease back in because of the injury , the areas of your body and the muscle groups that you're not able to train at all will get a little bit detrained . But there is this cross-training effect . We've seen I noticed it personally when I went through my shoulder surgery last year where if you're just able to train other parts of your body , there's just a little bit of a crossover that maintains more of the muscle mass in even the parts you're not using , especially if it's like an opposite limb type of thing . Of course , if you could only work legs or only work upper body , there may be a little bit of detraining . But I would say , to answer your exact question , it would start occurring around two or three weeks for most people . But again , it's going to take a long time to actually lose a decent amount of muscle and if you're not in a deficit , it's going to really coast for a while . Right , you're definitely going to lose some strength , potentially because of the lack of the neuromuscular adaptation , because you're not doing those movements . But that's fine , that'll come back quickly . So , yeah , I would say two to three weeks it starts . Keep the protein high , don't be in a diet when you're recovering , and that process will take a lot longer than you think . So that's a good thing , all right .

Philip Pape 4:15

Second question , the second question today from Denise . I've been weight training three years . I've lost approximately 25 pounds . By the way , thank you for all the numbers . This is helpful . Based on four in-body scans , I've only gained one pound of muscle . I train four days a week . I eat approximately 14 to 1500 calories a day . Protein ranges from 90 to 140 grams daily . How do I get more muscle to increase my daily expenditure ? Great question , denise , and I can give you some simple guidelines for this .

Philip Pape 4:50

Before I do , a couple of comments on your question itself . When you say you've lost 25 pounds , that implies to me that the 1,400 to 1,500 calories you're eating has had you in a deficit . So I want to make that assumption . I don't know that's true , but I'm going to assume that that's the case . You've also said you've had in-body scans that showed you gained a pound of muscle . Nobody's gonna be surprised who followed me a while .

Philip Pape 5:12

But I don't trust those scans at all . I do like those things for trend numbers , meaning if you have multiple in-body scans over time under the same conditions , same time of day , same amount of clothing , same amount of food and water , like usually in the morning , right when you haven't eaten , you haven't drunk anything , although with InBody they suggest having a little tiny bit of water , like a few hours before , so you're not fully dehydrated . Anyway , if you do one of the same conditions , the body fat percentage and how it changes is somewhat reliable , meaning that not the number but the trend over time , like if it's going up or down . That's a good indicator of what's happening . But I don't necessarily trust the number itself and therefore you can't trust the absolute pounds of muscle or fat that it's telling you .

Philip Pape 6:03

Having said that , if you've been dieting for a while , there's a good and you're past your newbie gains , like if you're actually training hard , and I don't know what your training looks like , denise . So that's another thing I would have to break down with you is are you lifting heavy with progressive overload ? Are you following a program that increases , you know , stimulus over time , usually the weight right , but it could also be sets and reps ? Are you doing that like just getting stronger and building muscle , stronger and building muscle ? If you're doing that and you're past that new the first three to six month newbie gains , it makes sense that you're not going to gain a lot of muscle if you're dieting . So how do you get more muscle to increase your daily expenditure ?

Philip Pape 6:44

Before I actually answer the question , I mentioned before I recorded these answers in case people are listening to this on the podcast that you can go to witsandweightscom , click podcast , scroll down to the podcast finder and you can search for a topic you're interested in and look at previous episodes . So in this case , if you'd search build muscle , you'll see episode 108 , how to build muscle without getting fat . Episode 130 , the hard gainers guide , episode 69 , which is one of the most popular what to do first lose fat , build muscle or body recomposition and so I would say , like episode 69 is a really good one , because it gives you seven scenarios that you're starting from and what direction you should go , and then how to do it . It gives you some prescriptive numbers and protocols to consider . But so in your case , what that's going to look like to build muscle is rule number one you can't be dieting . You want to be in a surplus . You want to be gaining weight intentionally , and it's not a lot of weight we are talking about .

Philip Pape 7:45

For you , as a female , 66 years old , I would say 0.1% of your body weight per week , and if we're going to do some quick calculations on that , you weigh 152 pounds . So 0.1% is going to be 0.15 pounds per week . If you extrapolate that to six months , which is the minimum length I want you building muscle that's 26 weeks that's going to come out to a gain on the scale of four pounds . Yes , like that's nothing . You know four pounds is nothing , right ? You're 152 , you get to 156 . You might even go a little more aggressive if you want to try to build a little extra muscle , if you still have a lot of potential to do that . So four pounds over six months less than a pound a month . You might even round that up to a pound a month and then you gain six pounds . Either way , you go into a surplus and then you can determine your calories and macros from that .

Philip Pape 8:39

And if you're not doing it already , denise , definitely go download Macrofactor . We talk about it all the time here . Download Macrofactor . It's the best food logging app on the market and the only one that dynamically adjusts to your expenditure . Use my code WITSANDWEIGHTS all one word to get a 14-day free trial . When you do that , I don't know what your calories are going to be , because I don't know your expenditure .

Philip Pape 9:03

But now I want to address your actual question how do I get more muscle to increase my daily expenditure ? I don't think that should be the reason we want more muscle , and you and others may be surprised hearing me say that . But yes , having more muscle increases your basal metabolic rate , your BMR , a tiny bit . It increases it a tiny bit Now . It increases it a little bit more in the sense that it makes you bigger , stronger , you can push more around , you could be more active , and then it all cascades . So I love that as kind of a piece of why you're building muscle .

Philip Pape 9:33

But the main reason you want to build muscle is , in your case , probably for for function , for strength , for capability , maybe for physique , I don't know . You're 66 . So I usually think of , like you know , you want to be strong and capable and injury free . You don't want to have to be , you know , fall and get fractured and all those things well into your . You know eighties and nineties . So if that , so that's the first thing I would say is like you're not doing it to increase your expenditure , even though that might be a side benefit .

Philip Pape 10:01

However , if you go into a slight gain , like I suggested , your expenditure should start to rise . Right , Even going to maintenance , your expenditure should rise because it's going to recover to what your body needs to balance everything out . At homeostasis gaining phase , your body will . You'll get a little bit heavier , a tiny bit heavier . You're not going to gain much weight , actual weight , but the fact that you're telling your body that you've got tons of nutrition coming in , it's going to relax . You're going to burn more calories . As a result , you're going to become less efficient , which is good for building muscle . You're less efficient , you're going to burn more and your calorie intake will actually start to go up even more . So the first jump in calories is going to come from just going into a surplus and then your expenditure will also increase .

Philip Pape 10:43

From that point and you can do it for a good six months gain four to six pounds on the scale , half of which is muscle , and that's amazing . And then you can do a quick little mini cut to cut off the fat after that . So that's it in a nutshell . There's a lot more details under that in terms of you know , if you were working with me as a client , we would have a whole plan for your movement and step count , we would look at your training , we would look at your meal timing , your supplementation , all that good stuff , and for that you could always reach out to me . We can set up a call or chat by email or messenger on those details , everything . I'm totally open and transparent about how it works and the process we go through and the price and all that good stuff . But that is the answer to your question to get more muscle .

Philip Pape 11:29

That's it for today's weekend Q&A bonus episode . Remember this is just a small part of the weekly Ask Philip live Q&A in the Wits and Weights Facebook group , which you can join totally free using&A in the Wits and Weights Facebook group , which you can join totally free using the link in the show notes . I invite you to join us as we improve our health and physique together . Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Wits and Weights . If you found value in today's episode and know someone else who's looking to level up their wits or weights , please take a moment to share this episode with them and make sure to hit the follow button in your podcast platform right now to catch the next episode . Until then , stay strong .