Adding the numbers, since they settle part of this. If you are tracking this properly: same scanner, same time of day, same hydration, at least six months apart, and read grip strength or a lift number alongside it. Function is the outcome; the scan is the proxy.
I would rather be corrected than agreed with, if it comes to it.
One thing that is still open after james_edin’s answer:
Whether the RDA is the wrong reference entirely during rapid weight loss, and what the actual target should be?
PeptideSynthNJ said:If you are tracking this properly: same scanner, same time of day, same hydration, at least six months apart, and read grip strength or a lift number…
There is a second half to this that has not been said yet. The intervention that works is boring and well evidenced: resistance training two to three times a week at a genuine effort, protein at 1.4 to 2.0 g/kg of reference body weight, and not making the deficit larger than the training can support. Cardio does not protect lean mass and in a deep deficit competes with recovery.
Worth separating that from lean-mass preservation, which this thread keeps folding into the same question. They behave differently and the advice does not transfer.
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View ResultsReporting back.
Reporting back — setting the target on reference weight rather than current weight turned an impossible number into a boring one.
PharmD_Rodriguez said:The intervention that works is boring and well evidenced: resistance training two to three times a week at a genuine effort, protein at 1.4 to 2.0…
True, and anyone with reduced kidney function needs that target set by a clinician rather than a forum. High protein is safe in normal kidneys and is not automatically safe in impaired ones.