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True to my word, I recently acquired oral semaglutide. I've been aware of the drug since initial weight loss trials, and the moment it was available, I got my diabetic and overweight mom to begin it. She had a rough start, the nausea and GI upset was unpleasant to say the least, but it settled down and she's fine now, probably lost 5kg. My current goal is to convince her to increase her dose from 7mg to the next step up, which is long overdue.
I gained about 5-6 kilos over about 4 months, both because of starting an antidepressant that increases appetite, and because a change in workplace made me far more sedentary.
This, alongside a recent breakup, jogged me into gear. I've begun working out, aiming for muscular hypertrophy rather than strength. No point being able to lift a boulder if you don't look it. However, the semaglutide works, and has drastically slashed my appetite. My body only wants about half what I'd normally eat, and I have to force myself to eat more despite feeling full.
My question is, to what extent can I achieve both significant weight loss as well as some muscle gain? Due to recent weight gain, I believe I could manage a mild to moderate caloric deficit (~10%) without overly compromising my gains, as long as I consume enough protein. To the more experienced gym goers here, does that sound correct? Any tips or tricks?
(I'll buy some creatine soon enough, stuff works)
Based on a vague recollection of your training history, you should be able to at least temporarily recomp effectively.
One of the nice things about strength vs muscular mass is it's much easier to measure benchmarks , especially with respect to proficiency. For someone with no training history they should be able to go from untrained to somewhere in the novice/intermediate range while maintaining or even losing weight. My recollection is you had taken training "some what seriously" before, which probably brought you to mid-intermediate. In that case it should take 50-75% of the time it took the first time to reach the same place. All doable while in a 0.25-0.5% BW per week lost deficit. So if you went from a 65kg to a 100 kg bench in 9 months before, myonuclei retention might get you there in in 4-6 months. There is a bit of a compounding effect where if you stop and restart repeatedly strength and size seem to come back even faster. Longer if it's been more than 4 years. Beyond the proficient level and outside of a retraining effect recomping is a slow and painful process.
Protein recommendations I would still shoot for the tried and true 1 g/lb body weight. 2 g/kg bw for round metric numbers is probably fine. There had been some (pretty sus) analysis that got cemented as lore for lower recommendations. The newer stuff seems to have rediscovered the tried and true. Why would you expect a hard threshold in the first palce? If you are not that lean 1 g/cm height works surprisingly well as a benchmark. The easiest way to drastically increase protein uptake is to have a pre and post workout whey shake. Whey is very fast digesting so should not decrease appetite much for your "normal" meals. If you don't want to do dairy for some reason brown rice/pea combo, or soy protein is probably fine. If you are worried about phytoestrogens from soy, corner an endocrinologist in a dark corner of the hospital and wring the truth out of them. Report back what exactly the deal is with phytoestrogens is, I'm interested in knowing.
You over-estimate my previous progress. I was working out in a highly suboptimal manner, and several years back. That being said, I can tell that some muscle memory is still there, as I remember that my initial forays into working out were far more painful.
Thanks for the detailed advice! I'm concerned about how I can pay you back with a review of phytoestrogens. I'm no expert on that topic, but I, with low confidence, remember that my previous reviews of it put it into the "low concern" category. This shouldn't substitute a more informed opinion.
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