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How soon after you stop working out will you lose strength/muscle?

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psteng19

Diamond Member
Due to surgery, I will not be able to work out for appx a month.
Prior to surgery, I lifted on a pretty regular basis... not hardcore or anything, but enough to gain noticeable strength and mass.

It's been a couple of weeks now and it feels like my muscles are slowly wasting away.
This also puts a damper on my goal of dumb bell bench pressing 80 lbs by year end.

So how much will I lose in about a month?
Should I continue to intake the same amount of protein/calories?
 
Sorry but, you will lose all of the built up muscle and tone by the time you are fully recovered. You definitely should reduce the number of calories you're taking in or you will gain fat in addition to losing muscle.
 
I think on average, you lose your gains in half the time it took to achieve them..

So, lets say you worked out really hard and strict for 2 months; gained alot of muscle, strength.. etc.. You would lose all these gains in only one months time.
 
A lot of factors are involved. These include type of injury, fitness levels prior to injury(the higher the better), individual loss rates (everyone drops at different rates), and ability to perform some form of athletic activities during recovery.

It's tought to put a number on it. For me, I lose endurance before I lose overall strength. Meaning, I still might be able to get within 10% of my max after a break, but instead of being able to do that for 5 reps, I can only do it once.

I can see endurance loss in as short as a week off. Two weeks and there is a significant drop. A month and I'm almost at 50%.

But I've never really been a mass/major strength person. I'm relatively lean (6' 170lbs).

As for your calories, if you are cutting out all activity, you will seriously have scale back on your intake. You'll be losing a good 300-600(or more) calories worth of burning time that you'll have to compensate for.

If you don't scale back on the eating/protein you are going to put on weight quickly.
 
My friend was hardcore into lifting and he had shoulder surgery and was out for 6 weeks. He lost a lot of muscle and his max's when way down, HOWEVER, since he couldn't lift he went pretty hardcore on the cardio, and he was able to cut pretty well and is in great shape.
 
I'm not so much worried about gaining weight because that's next to impossible for me. In fact, that's the reason I started lifting, to bulk up.

I was just wondering if I took in more protein, if it would preserve the muscles any, or slow its deterioration.


So next question, will I be able to gain the strength back at a faster rate than before, or will it be like starting all over again.
I know it's different for each person, but in general...
 
When I was on a trip for 6 weeks without any working out, I didn't notice a HUGE difference in my strength..after lifting regularly for quite some time.
 
actually, its much harder to gain muscles than to lose em 🙂 I'd give 3 months of relative inactivity (not totally immobile) to lose muscle. Even if you do, you will gain your strenght/muscle much faster than your first try. At least in my experience 🙂
 
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