Loosing Muscle

[emoxon]

I have been trying to loose weight over the last few months in preperation for SRS, and I'm glad I've done it (I've lost 1 1/2 stone in the last 5 months).

However my BMI still has me as overweight despite the fact that I have very little fat and lots of muscle. This is made worse I fear by the fact that I have stopped my Estrogen prior to surgery (obviously this is very temporary). The problem is that although I like being fit and able to outdoorsy things, I don't want all this muscle and would really like to loose some of it. At the same time I like the little weight that I have, which is mainly on my hips, my bum, my tummy and my breasts.

So is there any way that I can encourage muscle loss on my body? Are there exercises I can do to help this (especially in getting rid of my arm muscle)?

[jesse]

concentrate on aerobic exercise to continue weight loss limit all types of heavey lifting for the upper body and i would watch protein intake as well since its needed to build the very muscle your trying to get rid of

[rainyjun]

BMI is not a good indicator of health if you have low body fat. It is an adequate guide of estimating whether an average person is over/underweight, but it has its drawbacks. You can have a "healthy" BMI but still be clinically obese at 30%+ body fat, but be "obese" on the BMI scale at 10% body fat but a lot of muscle weight, for example. I would recommend measuring body fat with calipers to see where you're at if you are concerned. If you don't have calipers, you can use a measuring tape and plug in the numbers here, though it may not be as accurate: http://www.linear-software.com/online.html

Like Jesse said above, if you want to actively lose muscle mass, do moderate intensity cardio/aerobic exercise for long periods of time and avoid heavy lifting. Long distance running, jogging, biking, dancing, hiking, etc. Think of marathon runners versus sprinters: marathoners tend to look more wirey, while sprinters train for explosive movements and often incorportate weightlifting as part of their training.