banerjek

For the final 2 weeks of April, I have been on vacation as I've just left my old job and waiting for the new one to start up.

I've ridden a few times on my break and while my relaxing mode would be considered "active" by many, my vacation activities are nothing compared to my normal routine. In addition, I've been eating all kinds of garbage. I normally have a health nut diet, but I've been eating all kinds of rich food that's high in fat.

After a week of this abuse, I looked on the scale on different days to see what I need to work off. It appears that I somehow lost about a pound and body fat reading from Tanita has actually dropped slightly, but is within my normal range.

I feel like I'm losing fitness and am looking forward to getting back to my routine, but I'm wondering what the heck is going on. The only explanation I could think of is that I must be losing muscle mass, but can it really disappear so quickly?

Dubbayoo

To make a long story short - no...unless you were on the Survivor show for the last week.

banerjek

Sounds like the most likely explanation is hydration then. I try to drink plenty of water at all times, but I've been guzzling plenty of decent wine during my vacation. I must be slightly dehydrated. It's been a rough time ....

rha600

well first of all I doubt you'd lose a pound of muscle in a day unless it was under some extreme conditions. however, you can weigh yourself every day and watch the scale go up and down 3-5 pounds easily just from water weight so just because you "lost" a pound and stayed the same BF doesn't mean a whole lot.

El Diablo Rojo

From illness you can...3.5 weeks ago I was 144.5#'s 7.5% body fat 4.38w/kg. Now I'm 145.5#'s 11.5% bf and 3.5w/kg. So yeah you can lose it fast.

Squint

It's probably lost plasma volume which is the first thing to go when it comes to detraining.

ridethecliche

The cross country runners I know have a rule 66% over 2 weeks.

You lose 66% of your training gains by taking off two weeks and doing nothing during that time.

timmyquest

You know a hell of a lot more about muscles then me i would suspect, but i figured i'd throw these numbers around just for the hell of it...

Last June i weighed 195lbs @ 25% body fat...that's 146lbs of lean weight
Three months of riding and i weighed 165lbs @ 20%bf which is 121lbs of lean weight

I looked and felt like a wimp...at least i wasn't such a fat ass though...still, very girly indeed..and in my opinion, pretty short time.

Zinn-X

losing ten pounds a month is pretty impressive!

i'm pretty sure you can lose lean muscle mass rather quickly, as i've done it a couple of times over the last few years. used to be into bodybuilding, but then i got into cycling and i have pencil arms now. very quick transition for me.

the thing is, a lot of it comes back really quickly if you had it to begin with. in a matter of days instead of weeks once you start pushing yourself again.

if i were the OP, i wouldn't worry so much.

timmyquest

A change in diet, a summer job that was night only, and riding 20-30 miles just about every day...it was good

ridethecliche

I lost about 30 lbs in a month right before jr year of high school. I weighed around or a little over 170 and I was 138 by the end of it. I think I weigh about 145-150 now, but I've been lifting and working out a lot more than before and I can see the muscle on myself for the first time in my life. How do you find out what your bf% is?
I'm curious :-)

banerjek

Actually, the loss was over a week, not a day. But conditions were definitely not extreme.

I measured myself on consecutive days at the same time of the day to see if the initial reading was a fluke -- I have seen my weight swing more than 3 lbs in one day due to water many times.

I was expecting to gain a couple pounds (all of it fat) due to reduced activity and poor diet so finding that I'd lost any weight was a surprise. I have not been eating snacks throughout the day during my vacation as I normally do, but I assumed my intake must be higher. However, I'll ride a century on Sunday to help get me back in the groove. On Monday, my normal routine resumes.....

aham23

this seems to be the standard rule of thumb i have heared too. it takes about two weeks on inactivity for your fitness level to drop.

later.

HarvesterUT

I don't buy this mantra...I mean...after 2 weeks you magically lose 66% of your gains? Not even sure what "gains" are. So I lose 66/14= 4.71% of my gains each day I don't exercise? I think everyone is diiferent. I don't think there is a magical rule...it's basically the more you don't exercise the more you lose. I know from personal experience with lifting weights that after an extended break, my body quickly recovers what I lost and I am back to top form within a very short time.

Dubbayoo

I think Lemon wrote somewhere that for every week you took off training it took 2 weeks to get back. I think that might hold true if you're nearing a peak but for Joe Schmoe's probably not that severe.

aprilia4life

Pfft, at ONLY 145 pounds 4% of body fat is jack ****... That's like a burger...

dmitrivich

I was out with a massive cold for 11 days. I did my first ride back today. I think it was my fastest speed on that particular route ever, and it definitely wasn't full effort. Strange.

timmyquest

Sometimes resting the 'ol muscles is a good thing