For the majority of lifters, it’s likely that at some point you’ve had to take some time away from training - whether it’s due injury, a vacation, or life just getting in the way. But what happens when you don’t workout? And how long can you stop working out for before you start to experience muscle loss? Well, the truth is, if you stop exercising altogether then you’ll experience a dramatic decrease in your muscle size pretty quickly. For example, research shows that taking a week off from lifting can cause an 11% decrease in type II muscle fiber size. And when you’re fully immobilized, you can lose around 1 kg of lean muscle mass in just 10 days! But luckily, this initial decrease in size is mainly due to glycogen and water stores that are being depleted from your muscle due to not working out. So with that being said, how long does it take to lose muscle (actual muscle mass)? Most research shows that you start losing muscle mass after 3 weeks without working out. But the good news is, this can be mitigated with 3 simple, science-based steps. The first thing you want to do is eat at maintenance calories. Research indicates that eating at a deficit causes excessive muscle loss when you’re not training. On the other hand, eating at a calorie surplus not only causes excessive fat gain but ALSO enhances the rate of muscle loss. Thus, sticking to maintenance calories is your best bet. Next, you obviously want to keep your protein intake high throughout this period in order to best maintain your muscle mass and prevent muscle loss from occurring. Lastly, you want to stay active. Activities like brisk walking or doing the chores for example will all help with muscle loss prevention better than if you were simply sedentary. And if you can workout at all, it doesn’t take much to maintain your muscle mass – 1-2 full body workouts per week is likely enough! So implement those three points and you’ll be able to mitigate any muscle loss from occurring during this period.

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Glycogen and decreased muscle size:
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3+ weeks muscle loss:
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Maintenance calories and protein intake:
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