LabKate said:The concept of "metabolic set point" and its relevance to maintenance dosing: the body actively defends a weight set point through hormonal feedback…
This is exactly what I could not find anywhere else. Adding it to my notes with a link back to this thread.
From the other side of the consultation, briefly. It helps to ask what evidence would change your mind before you look at any. If nothing would, the discussion is not about evidence, and it is better to say so early than to spend nine posts discovering it.
ingrid_STO said:It helps to ask what evidence would change your mind before you look at any.
Adding a me-too, because a thread of one person's experience is not much use.
Sigma-Aldrich — Research-Grade Standards
Certified reference materials, analytical reagents, and research-grade standards for peptide verification. Trusted by laboratories worldwide.
Shop Reference Standardsingrid_STO said:It helps to ask what evidence would change your mind before you look at any.
Adding the part of the answer the thread has not reached. The honest range is roughly 20 to 40% of total loss as lean mass without deliberate resistance training, and roughly 10 to 20% with it plus adequate protein. Both numbers need a caveat that matters: "lean mass" on a DEXA is not muscle. It includes water, glycogen and the lean fraction of organs, and glycogen alone carries about three grams of water per gram. A large early lean drop is mostly the glycogen and water going, which is why the first scan flatters and the second is the honest one.
Closing the loop on my own question.
Second scan under matched conditions, six months apart, same time of day: the lean number came back nearly a kilo higher than the panic scan. Strength was up throughout.