NY Times on losing weight while gaining muscle

Do-able, but hard. A short, worthwhile article.

for the new study, which was published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the McMaster researchers rounded up 40 overweight young men who were willing to commit to an intensive weight-loss program and divided them in half.

All of the young men began a diet in which their daily calories were cut by about 40 percent (compared to what they needed to maintain weight). But for half of them, this consisted of about 15 percent protein, 35 percent fat and 50 percent carbohydrates.

The other 20 volunteers began a diet that mimicked that of the first group, except that theirs swapped the protein and fat ratios …

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All of the men also began a grueling workout routine. Six days a week they reported to the exercise lab and completed a strenuous full-body weight training circuit, high-intensity intervals, or a series of explosive jumps and other exercises known as plyometric training. 

At the end of four weeks, there had been an 11-12 lb. weight loss in both groups, but the high protein group gained about three lbs in muscle.

Of course, by the end of the month, none of the men wished to continue. This type of extreme calorie cutting combined with intense exercise “is not a sustainable program in the long term,” Dr. Phillips said. “It’s more a kind of boot camp,” he said, manageable in the short term by people who are very committed and generally very healthy.

He and his colleagues plan to conduct follow-up experiments to find a more realistic and sustainable program. They plan, too, to study female volunteers and play around with the diets’ composition, to establish definitively that it is extra protein and not reduced fat that promotes muscle gains.

For me, after a two week post cataract hiatus from lifting weights  (I was able to do cardio on the elliptical), I'll be back on the weights today.