I want to lose 20 pounds, but I look the same!
I started this new diet and I'm already down 4 pounds in a day!
I've been on a diet and haven't lost weight in 2 weeks!
How many times have you heard said person make such a claim? See with calories in and calories out, when entering a deficit you are achieving weight loss, not fat loss. Weight can be anything on your frame: body fat, organ tissue, skeletal tissue, water (from glycogen stores), etc. Most of the time people want to achieve fat loss, not weight loss, but they confuse the two for each other. Weight loss is simply a decrease in overall weight but most aim to achieve a reduction in body fat, so how do we ensure when losing weight we just lose fat and not muscle? We will go in-depth with that in this vlog.
Step 1: Establishing an appropriate caloric deficit
An appropriate caloric deficit is situation-dependent. See an an individual who is high in body fat (20%+ in men for example), can benefit from a more aggressively sized deficit compared to one who is already lean. The reason for this? Stored Body fat. Stored body fat acts is essentially energy stored in the body, when entering a deficit you are using this fat as fuel. More fuel? the safer you are burning it without risking any muscle loss (Make sense?).
On the other hand, an individual who is already leaner (sub 15% body fat in men for example) will benefit from a moderate/less aggressive deficit, as they don't have much fuel (fat) to work with. See muscle tissue is demanding, it requires sufficient energy (food intake), and stimulus to sustain (We will get into this later). So simply aggressively reducing food and expecting to burn fat for many individuals will do more
Based on this simple analogy we can understand that a caloric deficit is situation-dependent and the following guidelines can be used (from personal experience):
For men above 20% body fat roughly a 25% decrease in total caloric maintenance
Men between 10-20% body fat roughly 15-20% decrease from total caloric maintenance
For women above 35% roughly a 25% decrease in total caloric maintenance
Women between 23-30% roughly 15-20% decrease in total caloric intake
Step 2: Protein intake
You see even in a deficit you can ensure the mechanism of muscle protein synthesis is still at play (ensure you recover and build lean tissue). Essentially if you ensure that your body is in an anabolic (Muscle building) state, in a deficit you can only really lose fat. How to achieve this state? Protein.
In the previous article we mentioned how when proteins are digested amino acids get released into the bloodstream, these are used in the muscle protein synthesis mechanism by your body. These amino acids, help repair muscle.
Here is the issue, when in a caloric deficit, your body is not in the ideal environment for building muscle. Cortisol (stress) is high, glycogen stores are depleted, fatigue is high, and your performance in the gym suffers, so it is favorable for your body to burn muscle tissue. The solution? Aside from sleeping well, and managing stress (blog coming soon), eat even more protein than usual. It is typical for bodybuilders to eat even more protein in a fat loss phase, now I am not saying to eat like a bodybuilder but take the following example:
Typically data concludes that you only need .5g of protein per pound of body weight to stay in an anabolic state (I will write an article debating this and voicing my own opinion soon, stick to this number for now).
Using this number let's take John, who weighs 200 pounds which means roughly 100g of protein. Let's say John enters a caloric deficit and wants to keep muscle mass, it is a good idea to increase this protein intake anywhere from .8-1.2g (less muscle closer to .8, more muscle 1.2). So this shoots up from 100g to 160g total grams of protein per day.
John is now in a safer position to sustain muscle mass and ensure fat loss, as he now has an excess amount of protein, meaning more amino acids in the bloodstream, ensuring muscle protein synthesis continues to occur.
Further benefits of protein:
Protein, aside from facilitating muscle growth, actually aids fat loss in many other ways. Not only is protein more satiating than other macronutrients, it takes more calories to burn. The thermic effect of food is simply how much energy your body takes to burn food, and your body takes the most amount of energy to burn protein. So by increasing your protein intake, you are burning more calories, and increasing the calories out portion of the CICO(cals in, cals out) formula.
Step 3: Resistance Training
Training, anything that causes mechanical tension (hypertrophy training is the most effective at this), is a must when aiming to achieve fat loss. When you enter the gym and begin lifting weights you are providing your body (your muscles) a stimulus, which your body must adapt, and respond to. In the context of hypertrophy training the stimulus is mechanical tension (tension on your muscles when they contract to perform a movement, for example, bicep curls: biceps have tension and contract), and the response is muscle growth. How to ensure you don't lose muscle in a weight-loss phase? make sure they grow! (or try). See as previously mentioned your body isn't in an ideal place to grow when losing fat, but it can occur if precautions (such as those in this blog) are taken.
So if you are weight training at least 3x a week, ensuring progress (article coming soon), you're giving your body a reason to at least sustain the muscle mass it has if not add more.
Two subjects comparison (mechanisms played out):
Individual 1, Michael a 200-pound man aiming to lose fat.
Protocol taken:
Reduction of calories from maintenance by 35% (extremely aggressive deficit)
Protein roughly 40-50g a day, typically eats whatever with his calories
Goes to the gym but only does cardio
Individual 2, John a 200-pound man aiming to lose fat.
Protocol taken:
Reduction of calories from maintenance by 25% (aggressive but not too bad)
eating 160+g of protein a day
training 3x a week with resistance training minimum
After 2-3 months, Michael may have lost more scale weight, but with the mechanisms provided, who facilitated more fat loss?
John! He ensured that he didn't reduce calories too low, he ensured sufficient protein intake to remain anabolic, and he trains 3 times a week to ensure his body sustains muscle tissue.
References:
Antonio, Jose, et al. "A High Protein Diet Has No Harmful Effects: A One-Year Crossover Study in Resistance-Trained Males." Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, vol. 13, no. 1, 2016, p. 3. doi:10.1186/s12970-015-0100-0.
Gibala, Martin J., et al. "Caffeine Ingestion and Muscle Metabolism During Prolonged Exercise in Humans." Journal of Applied Physiology, vol. 73, no. 2, 1992, pp. 767-774. doi:10.1152/jappl.1992.73.2.767.
Wolfe, Robert R., and Sheila E. C. B. Miller. "Dietary Protein Recommendations and the Prevention of Sarcopenia." Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care, vol. 12, no. 1, 2009, pp. 86-90. doi:10.1097/MCO.0b013e32831cef8b.
Longland, Thomas M., et al. "Higher Compared with Lower Dietary Protein During an Energy Deficit Combined with Intense Exercise Promotes Greater Lean Mass Gain and Fat Mass Loss: A Randomized Trial." European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, vol. 70, 2016, pp. 258-263. doi:10.1038/ejcn.2014.216.
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