To wonder how long it takes to lose muscle…

[ManchesterBeatrice]

For various reasons, I'm going to have to take a 10 day break from my exercise regime, it sounds like a fairly small deal! But I've worked really hard on toning up, and I feel genuinely worried that everything will undo in those 10 days.

I feel very much like I'm probably being completely unreasonable! But I can't find any definitive answer to tell me how long it takes to lose the toning up that you've managed to do.

I'll still be eating healthily, that's not the problem, and I'll account for the lack of exercising terms of calories, I'm not worried about gaining weight, but I'm specifically worried about losing all my hard work. 😰

Has anyone any experience of this? It's probably worth saying that this is fairly new to me, but I've achieved quite significant results in the last 10 weeks. So I'm fairly new to feeling more confident in my body.

Short answer: assuming you are not bedridden, you won't lose all your gains such that you start from scratch, because you will
still be using your muscles moving around etc., so it is not as if they are doing no work at all.

You'll fare better if you find ways to do a bit of maintenance sneaked in - can you do more walking in the 10 weeks, or put in some squats and lunges before bushing your teeth or whatever, just to add a bit of something? Or wall press ups? You don't need to do very much, just sneaking it in.

If you will be bedridden for 10 weeks it would be more normal to get some muscle wastage.

I stopped lifting weights 3 days before i gave birth and restarted 7 weeks pp. I lost quite a lot of strength but I was also 15kg lighter. 10 days you probably won't notice much at all.

Sorry, just realised it was 10 days not 10 weeks!!! You'll barely miss anything!

Thanks so much everyone, I was genuinely really worried, and yes, it's 10 days, not 10 weeks!

Yes, during the 10 days, I will still be walking around the house, and doing some walking with the dog, I won't be completely sedentary !

It's often good to break up your training with a bit of a gap - you will lose minimal strength and your body can recover fully. I think about a fortnight is the point where you start losing muscle.

I don’t know specifically about muscle, but I’ve read that you lose approximately 5% of your fitness if you take a week off your normal exercise regime. But you need to balance that- you should take a week off occasionally for recovery, and you should expect your progress to be in waves rather than a uniform upwards curve.

As have been told by a PT even if you do lose some you'll regain quite quickly. It's not like starting from scratch. Start a little lower in weights - don't go mad rushing back and injuring yourself. You are allowed a break.