Dr. Ashley LucasPhD Nutritionist & Dietitian | Owner & Founder PHD Weight Loss & Dr. Ashley Wellness

Gaining muscle is more important than losing weight (especially if you're 40+)

10 Dec 2025 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:31

Dr. Ashley Lucas explains why muscle matters more than the number on the scale, especially after 40. Losing muscle and regaining fat leaves you with a higher body fat percentage than before. Long-term medications can strip lean muscle mass without you noticing.

Chapters

When you rely on medications long term, this can result in a lot of scary and unwanted side effects. You are going to lose lean muscle mass, which is a huge red flag. Some people say that maintaining muscle is more important than dropping excess fat weight. If you are over the age of 40, maintaining or growing your muscle mass is your main focus. Now, because we have lost muscle and we regain the fat, we actually end up fatter. In the end, we are worse off than we were to begin with.