Muscle and Body Composition: A Reality Check

Reality check #1:

There’s no such thing as maintenance when it comes to muscle and body composition.

Unless your incredibly detail-oriented, and live and train like a pro athlete or bodybuilder…

The reality is that you’re either net gaining or net losing muscle.

— P. D. Mangan Health & Freedom Maximalist 🇺🇸 (@Mangan150) June 12, 2023

This is true for both men and women from age about age 30 onwards.

The sooner you accept this, the sooner you can thrive.

Resistance training is for everyone, and there is no substitute.

Not walking, running, swimming, playing sports or working a physical job.

— P. D. Mangan Health & Freedom Maximalist 🇺🇸 (@Mangan150) June 12, 2023

Reality check #2:

The way most people think training works is wrong.

You don’t need tons of sets and reps.

You don’t need more than 2 workouts per week.

And you don’t need to send more than 20-30 minutes per session.

— P. D. Mangan Health & Freedom Maximalist 🇺🇸 (@Mangan150) June 12, 2023

Your muscle groups don’t “know” you are benching 100 pounds or 200 pounds or whatnot.

It’s about applying deliberate stimuli and providing sufficient recovery for muscle tissue to grow.

I’m not going to tell you it’s easy.

But it’s not time consuming and can be done from…

— P. D. Mangan Health & Freedom Maximalist 🇺🇸 (@Mangan150) June 12, 2023

I’m not anti-cardio or against step goals, by the way.

My point is that a busy person should prioritize a well formulated resistance training strategy first.

Anything else you want to add in order not to be sedentary is a good thing.

And if it’s outdoors with sun and fresh…

— P. D. Mangan Health & Freedom Maximalist 🇺🇸 (@Mangan150) June 12, 2023

Reality check #3:

Without a minimum “dose” of resistance training, a large chunk of the weight loss will be muscle.

The problem with a cardio-only approach to weight loss is that it’s not optimized for fat loss.

— P. D. Mangan Health & Freedom Maximalist 🇺🇸 (@Mangan150) June 12, 2023

And if you pair a cardio-only exercise program with an unsustainable nutrition approach, you have a recipe for disaster.

Here’s why.

Say you’re 220 pounds and 30% body fat.

And say you lose 40 pounds.

— P. D. Mangan Health & Freedom Maximalist 🇺🇸 (@Mangan150) June 12, 2023

Now you’re 180, but your relative body composition may not have improved that much because you lost a fair bit of muscle.

Let’s say 12 pounds of muscle and 28 pounds of fat lost.

Since the nutrition was unsustainable…

You regain the 40 pounds.

Except now…

— P. D. Mangan Health & Freedom Maximalist 🇺🇸 (@Mangan150) June 12, 2023

You’re 220 pounds at a higher body fat %, because you’re down 12 pounds of muscle, gained back the 28 pounds of fat…

And gained another 12 pounds of fat.

The scale is back in the same place.

But body composition is worse than when you started, because your bf % is up.

— P. D. Mangan Health & Freedom Maximalist 🇺🇸 (@Mangan150) June 12, 2023

When I think about Ozempic and Wegovy, where up to 40% of the weight loss is muscle…

It’s easy to imagine a future where a segment of the population on those drugs loses mobility earlier than they otherwise would have.

And of course if you’re dialed in, you are likely to…

— P. D. Mangan Health & Freedom Maximalist 🇺🇸 (@Mangan150) June 12, 2023

So if you’re not interested in getting “jacked”, or to have any muscle definition, that’s totally fine.

What I’m hoping to convey is that working out is not a vanity pursuit.

— P. D. Mangan Health & Freedom Maximalist 🇺🇸 (@Mangan150) June 12, 2023

Reality check #4:

Many (most?) people see health and fitness as a false choice between

•Their current life

And

•Waking up at 5:30am, never watching TV, eating nothing but steak and eggs, going sober, quitting caffeine and saying no to all social outings.

— P. D. Mangan Health & Freedom Maximalist 🇺🇸 (@Mangan150) June 12, 2023

A better perspective is:

The choice of your current life (do you like the way you look and feel?).

Versus a reasonable, time efficient, energy enhancing, digestion improving and stress/anxiety reducing way that doesn’t require much, if any, willpower, discipline and sacrifice.

— P. D. Mangan Health & Freedom Maximalist 🇺🇸 (@Mangan150) June 12, 2023