Muscle Loss, how much is acceptable?

Ok,
 
So here is the deal, I have been consistantly losing for several months.. about 4+ months or so.. And last night was looking at my some stats and came to the startling realization that I had lost a great deal of muscle...This entire time when looking at BF% I was only focused on the amount of Fat I had, and not watching the lean muscle...
 
Overall in the past 2 months or about 11 weeks I have lost about 31 pounds of bodyweight, normal loss should be around 22 pounds so I realized early this week I was about 10 pounds over my safe weightloss threshhold...
 
Looking at my bodyfat% I was at 27.5%, and now I am around 23.3%, sounds great... until you look at the numbers
 
Before                   After             Difference
266LBS                  235LBS          31 Pounds Lost
 
Fat 73.15LBS          54.75LBS        18.4 pounds of fat lost... yay....
 
Lean Mass 192.85    180.25           12.6 pounds of muscle lost... for some this could be many months, if not years of work down the drain...
 
 
 
So I guess I am not quite sure what to do now.... this entire journey I have not been really discouraged until this morning... I thought I had my diet squared away, I eat every 2 hours, I have upped my carbs quite a bit, I religiously take BCAA's, and don't do massive amounts of cardio...
 
I guess the only thing I can do is go back to square one with my diet and up my intake several hundred calories... kind of back to the topic what would people consider acceptable muscle loss during a cutting diet.. Keep in mind I have so far lost 67 LBS since the very begining of this whole thing..     

Eat...Lift....Sleep......Repeat

Enjoy the process.. but crave the goal.

Dan I could use some feedback on this.
 
SO my caloretic intake was much lower than I thought it was...
 
On a good day it is about 2100... most of the time are good days, but a few days I may be 200 less than that, so I broke all of my meals out on a spreadsheet and found I needed around 362 Calories 8 times a day, and made a current calorie intake per meal and a difference between current and Ideal... Well.. I can say that all meals except lunch and dinner were fairly low... whereas lunch and dinner were 38 calories over... which is cool..
 
#1 So Meal 1 is 5 servings of eggwhites, and sometimes veggies, well, this comes to about 150-180 calories, I need about 180 more, would oatmeal first thing after waking up be ok here as well, or is it detrimental to fat loss having carbs that early?
 
#2 I eat 1 cups of oatmeal with raisens, not much more I can think to eat here, I know its unbalanced especially in the protein side, I was thinging of a 1/2 serving (1/4 cup of soybeans) would do the trick and get the calories dead on...
 
#3 Same as #2, same thing I am thinking will fix it...
 
#4 Looks perfect, usually eating chicken, brown rice, and string beans, only 38 calories over
 
#5 Ok thils one needs alot of work, I have 2 scoops of protein shakes, I know I need to eat some real food, but real food this time of day at my job is very difficult.. not to mention this meal is allready 92 calories down... I could 1/2 a cup of oatmeal here and that should get me just about where I need to be, and keep the shake...
 
#6 This is where things got bad, I was supposed to be drinking a shake here... but through time I stoped doing it and didnt even realize it... Part of the reason is that this is right before I go to the gym so eating alot here was causing some discomfort... basically this is 362 calories I am skipping right now, what easy quick suggestions would you think of here
 
#7 Post workout muscle milk... love the stuff. probably not going to give it up, but it is only a scoop of the stuff so I am a bit under here, but I am eating dinner a short time after which is a little over
 
#8 This can vary, but I usually make sure I get a protein, starchy carb, and a fiberous carb.., or at least 2 starchys... most of the time I eat a chicken breast, a cup of brown rice, string beans, and a 1/2 cup or so of cottage cheese...
 
So basically my diet is really unbalanced calorie wise meal 1, 6, and 7..... what would you suggest, I have been thinking about making 7 meals instead of 8 and increasing calories in each meal to around 400-450 calories a meal..and sadly soon I have to start bulking soon as well... Basically I think my problem is I just need to slow the weight loss down a bit to stop muscle loss... but again, I could use some help, I am a person of habbit so I really dont mind eating the same thing day in and day out... too much change makes things difficult for me... Thanks for the long read...
 
 

Eat...Lift....Sleep......Repeat

Enjoy the process.. but crave the goal.

Hmmmm, my back of the envelope calculations say you need about 3400 calories for maintenance at your current weight.  To lose about 2#/week, you need about 2400 calories, so your eight meals at 300+ calories is on target.  If you were at this calorie intake when you were heavier, you probably were taking in too few calories.

How are you measuring your bodyfat?  Is it possible when you were heavier, the measurement was grossly off because you were at an extreme? 

Have you been getting stronger as time goes on?  If you're getting stronger, it would seem less likely that you would have burned as much muscle as your math suggests.

I would adjust your calories up to 2400ish, and keep slugging until you get to an ideal weight for you.  Any muscle you lost should come back in a hurry when you bulk.

Dang our metabolisms are tricky little bastards!

"If there's nothing else that's relevant, I'll be leaving now"

"Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground"

I have been getting stronger, and my chest has actually grew an inch... Biceps are staying strong except for the fat I lost.... I was using tape on neck vrs abs, as well as a hand held electronic measurmasent... I know the hand held is a piece of junk, but it does show that I lost the same percentage of BF as the tape did.. so I would say that its accuracy showing differences is right on target...
 
To determin how many calories I need, I used the Katch-McArdle method, and came up with 26-53-2819 to lose, and that shows moderatly active... now when I go to the gym I bust my ass usually 5-6 days a week... only 30 total minutes of cardio, 15 b4 15 after, but the entire time I am lifting I am sweating up a storm, and give 110%, so I am sure I burn quite a few calories during this period.. so one could say that I am between mod and very active... and very active goes all the way up to 3,100 cals, so I figured 2500-2800 would be a safe area..  In case I havnt said it before I am 5' 10", so I dont know how much much that would affect your calcs..
 
I have often thought the same about could the test have been grosley wrong... as I was gross.. so because my neck most liekly had some fat on it, the tape measurment would have been not as accurate... but lthat handheld losing the same percentage kind of stumps me..

Eat...Lift....Sleep......Repeat

Enjoy the process.. but crave the goal.

Here's the Figures:

18.4 pounds of fat lost
12.6 pounds of muscle lost

Comments: 

You've almost lost as much muscle as fat.  In a nutshell, you are just losing weight.  It's probably because you are cutting your calories too much.

Back to the drawing board in terms of nutrition!

Measure your progress weekly so you can see if you are losing fat or muscle and at what rate.  If it's a lot more than 1 lb a week, it could very well be too much.

Don't get too discouraged.  You've lost fat!  Now you just need to adjust the diet accordingly so that you keep losing fat but retain muscle.

Most people cut too much too fast and just end up losing both.  You want to cut but by just enough to burn off fat and keep as much muscle as possible.

Basically I think my problem is I just need to slow the weight loss down a bit to stop muscle loss.

100% correct

Marc C. David
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Yeah, thanks to both of you for the reply. I think for the most part my diet is clean, now its just about adding more of the right things.. Although my BF is a bit high, talking with Dan in other threads he suggested I may want to start a smaller bulking phase, this may be a good time to do that instead of waiting a few more months of that. Given my current situation what would you gents suggest?

Eat...Lift....Sleep......Repeat

Enjoy the process.. but crave the goal.

Look at it this way:

Losing 12lbs of muscle and then trying to get it back is not the same thing as someone trying to gain 12lbs of muscle that they never had.

Once you cut your weight down adequately, the combination of muscle memory and muscle building nutrition is going to get that muscle back twice as fast as someone trying to add 12lbs to a frame they've already been working on for years.

So, you're right, you need to pace yourself better, but there's no need to be discouraged.