Research

Mixed

In sarcopenic obesity, interventions combining resistance training with high-protein diets or amino acid supplementation, or utilizing whole-body electromyostimulation (WB-EMS) with protein, are effective at preserving or increasing muscle mass while reducing fat, whereas standard caloric restriction alone fails to preserve muscle.

For individuals with sarcopenic obesity, simply dieting to lose weight often results in losing muscle along with fat. To preserve muscle while losing fat, you must combine a caloric deficit with resistance training and ensure adequate protein intake. Some studies suggest that adding specific stimuli like whole-body electromyostimulation or amino acid supplementation alongside these interventions may yield the best body composition changes.

ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Interventions that increase muscle mass while reducing whole-body fat at the same time include resistance training (including using elastic bands) and whole-body electromyostimulation(WB-EMS) in exercise intervention and Hypocaloric high-protein diet in nutritional intervention... Among them, the most positive method of changing the body composition in sarcopenic obesity was the electric acupuncture and amino acid supplements.
Min-jeong Park et al. · Journal of Korean Medicine · 2024

Why this rating

Based on a review of 14 RCTs, but the authors note heterogeneity in diagnostic criteria and interventions, limiting strong conclusions.

Source

Review on Weight Loss Interventions that Can Prevent Muscle Mass Loss in Sarcopenic Obesity

Min-jeong Park et al. · Journal of Korean Medicine · 2024

DOI 10.13048/jkm.24005

systematic_reviewCited 2×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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