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I am wondering that if someone does a cutting phase but does everything wrong, how much muscle will they lose? By "everything wrong" I mean nutritionally and workout-wise. So if someone stays in calorie deficit long enough to lose say 20 pounds, what is the most pounds from muscle they could lose? Please cite sources if you have any. Thank you.
Don't know and you probably won't find data on this (because ethics) except maybe the Minnesota starvation experiment from back in the day.
Since you know even in broad terms what not to do, why is this even a question? You can avoid the worst by simply:
- get enough protein
- don't attempt to lose more than 1%
- do some kind of weight training
Not going to try it, but I do wonder what would happen if a trained individual already due for a deload did PSMF with virtually no activity, for like 2 weeks. Would they atrophy be especially significant since the tissue wasn't being deliberately torn down via training?
Again, better to rely on the tried and true and adhere to every known basic principle and just train on a deficit, but hypothetically it is an interesting question.