Can my body eat up its own muscle for energy!?

Question

Thats just freaky man, I lift weights every now and then, I hardly eat meat anymore, I think my muscles are getting weaker and softer, is this gonna happen???

Answer 1

It's common in anorexic/bulimic people, and only normally happens when your body has no other form of energy.

Answer 2

When you starve yourself your body eats your muscle.  When your body is starving for a certain nutrient and vitamin it can attack the parts of your body that have this too.  Sounds like you need more protein in your diet.  You hardly eat meat, what about fish?  Peanut Butter?  I suggest you look up food high in protein and make sure you get the serving you need so your body can continue to build muscle.  

Answer 3

Yes, without regular hypertrophy, your will loose muscle. You don't need to eat meat. You can supplement your protein intake with whey, or egg protein powder, mixed with fat free milk, or water.

Answer 4

Yes it can happen!! Your body will break down it's muscle to save energy... that's why dieting without exercise never works. You're body knows that running muscle costs more energy than fat, so to save energy it will destroy muscle tissue. Of course it's gradual.

The fact that you said you don't eat meat is an alarm. If you are not careful about regularly eating balanced meals and producing complete proteins, then your body may not have enough of the amino acids necessary to produce/repair muscle. I noticed that during my 3 years of being a veg... it wasn't until I started eating meat that I noticed my arms and legs were looking more toned. I'm a college student, so I was not good about making sure I was getting complete proteins daily.

If you want to stay a veg, I heard rice and beans is a complete protein. Also, quinoa is the only grain that is a complete protein. Add beans and nuts to things too. Eggs and milk. But you may have to research what combination of food will provide you with a complete protein.

Answer 5

if you take other sources of protein like dairy foods and beans,who needs meat??

Answer 6

I'm a vegetarian too, and I found that it made me lose muscle. I never was a body-builder girl though.

Don't add more meat though.  Vegetarian is better.  Might need more protein.  Watch how much you eat and add egg whites or nuts/beans or protein shakes.

You may need to up the weight. It may seem like you're losing it, but you may have plateaued.  

Look here:

How not to lose muscle:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article...

http://www.shawnlebrunfitness.com/build-...

http://weighttraining.about.com/od/succe...

No meat is hot. No meat and muscles is hotter. :)

Answer 7

your body would only eat muscle if you didn't have enough body fat and weren't eating enough.

Answer 8

......

Answer 9

this happens to people who stop eating or hardly eat. that is pretty much the wrong way to loose weight.  you will need to balance it out between diet and exercise.  if you stop eating your body gets scared and starts to store the fat and it will also eventually start to eat away at the fat for energy.

Answer 10

if you have diabetes this can happen

Answer 11

It can happen if you don't take in the necessary amount of protein to rebuild the muscle tissue.

Your body will only use muscles for energy if you are not taking in enough calories.

Answer 12

yes when you are starving to death your body does this and it usually leads to organ failure and death

Answer 13

eat mannn

Answer 14

Yeah.  If your body isn't getting the proper nutrition, it can turn to your muscles for energy.