Summer is here and the inevitable is going to happen. You are going to have to get into a swimsuit. I think its fair to say the vast majority of people work out and diet because they want to look good in a swimsuit or dare I say it, naked. Although I'm getting up in age and my priorities have shifted to more of a longevity approach to fitness, I definitely still have a strong desire to look good without a shirt on. From a fitness side I think resistance training is by far the most effective approach not only to build muscle but also from a fat loss perspective, but that will be a topic for another post. Here I'm going to discuss how to shed fat by using a caloric deficit but still maintain muscle mass and not tank your metabolism.
So you want to lose fat? What do most people do? They restrict calories and do a bunch of cardio because that's the message "eat less move more". In the short term this works and honestly if you have one week until you hit the beach this is the best approach but in the long run it inevitably fails. There is a reason why there is no reunion show for "The Biggest Loser", they nearly all gain the weight back. Why? The body is incredibly adaptable and when you consistently restrict calories and do excessive cardio to burn even more calories the body will adapt to this new normal. Then when you inevitably start to eat more calories again, because well you are staving yourself, you will gain the weight back extremely quickly because your metabolism is in the toilet. If you restrict calories long enough you can also do lasting damage and effect your hormones as your body will think it is not a good time to reproduce. For women it can go as far as losing your period (Amenorrhea). Undoing this damage can take months, even years, and you can forget about fat loss while you're fixing yourself.
So how do we intelligently restrict calories and not let the body adapt while also targeting fat loss and not muscle loss. We can do that by what I call Calorie Cycling. I got this from the Mind pump guys so full credit to them first. If you're into fitness and not listening to these guys you are doing yourself a disservice. They call it undulating calories and they have a great video explaining the concept.
The idea is that instead of simply restricting calories every day you change your calorie intake each day so you have a mixture of calorie deficits, maintenance and even surplus calories. But the total caloric intake for the week is below your maintenance. Also you only stay in a deficit for a few weeks or so then you go back to maintenance or perhaps even a surplus (if you want to build muscle). They refer to this as a "mini cut" and it helps stop the body from adapting and also not allow the body to prioritize muscle loss.
The first step is to figure out what your daily requirement is for calories to maintain your current weight. This is something I had never truly gotten a handle on and now that I've done all the numbers it was clear I was consistently over eating. Which is not surprising as I always tended to default to eating more as I was more afraid of under eating with the amount of exercise I was doing.
Here are some resources to get a baseline staring point of your caloric need for a day
If you want a really quick calculation do 12-15 times your body weight.
I settled on 2050 Daily calories for me. I'm a male 143 lbs, lift weights 3 times a week and get over 10K steps a day. This is just a starting point. I might tweek this number depending on how I feel, if I still gain or lose weight in maintenance. I also will adjust based on my activity level.
Here is a direct link to my spreadsheet that has my daily calorie goals depending what phase I'm in.
So my maintenance goal is 14,350 calories a week. I'm targeting a 15% deficit in calories for my mini cuts. Again this is a starting point, if I lose weight too fast or too slow I'll adjust up or down. Incidentally 1 lb of fat = 3,500 cals. So in theory I should lose about 0.6 lbs of fat in a cut week assuming I don't lose any muscle. Do not think more is better, there is a point of diminishing returns and you don't want to over do it. Just become some is good does not mean more is better, American logic.
Here is what each potential day looks like depending on the phase. I keep my meals at work very consistent and then allow 800 cals for dinner to keep it simple. Doing this for a while I have a pretty good sense of how many calories are in different items. No snacks unless my activity level is really high.
Here is a sample meal broken down by calories, this is a typical lunch for me at work.
Now the easiest way to change the calorie counts for me is with fasting. In my cutting week I have 3 days where I intermittent fast (skip breakfast) and one 24 hour fast (skip breakfast and lunch). I do schedule these on non workout days. Now I know what you're thinking, surely you're starving, I could never do this! Well I admit if your eating the standard american diet full of processed carbs that are nutrient deficient like soda, potato chips and pizza, yes you're going to struggle. You probably already experience huge energy dips and hangry! However if you have your diet in better shape and are eating whole high nutrient foods with plenty of fat and protein you will find it is not nearly as difficult as you might think. You will become more metabolically flexible and be able to switch easily between burning fat or glucose for fuel. We are evolved as hunter gathers to be able to go long periods without eating, its in our nature. You also get the benefits of fasting and I find it much simpler than just eating different sized meals. I also do time my carb intake a bit as I eat more potatoes on workout days. In particular post workout when my muscles are in the best state to replenish gylocgen stores that has been depleted from the workout.
Now I readily admit that all this looks a bit daunting but simply tracking your calories for a week can give you some great insight into where you really are. Plus you might notice that cashew nut snack habit you have is adding 1000 calories a week. Without doing that first you really are just guessing. I would start with that first, and then to make a cut week simple maybe just skip breakfast 2 days a week. And then go back to putting the breakfast back in. For a bulk week maybe add a snack in. The full calorie cycling is really like the black belt of food tracking especially once you can do it intuitively. There are a couple of food tracking sites in the links for this post below, I personally use Paleo Track to get a break down of some of my most common meals.
The results: I couldn't quite bring myself to post a shirtless before and after pic but I definitely leaned out some and I've had multiple people comment on my body. My wife also noticed (I didn't tell her I was doing anything). Here is how weight progressed along with each phase.
M=Maintenance, C=Cut, B=Bulk
The results: I couldn't quite bring myself to post a shirtless before and after pic but I definitely leaned out some and I've had multiple people comment on my body. My wife also noticed (I didn't tell her I was doing anything). Here is how weight progressed along with each phase.
M=Maintenance, C=Cut, B=Bulk
Weight is not the greatest measurable as I could quite easily fluctuate a few pounds just depending on the day. However as I said before I can tell the difference and so can other people. Going forward I'm basically in maintenance at the moment and will stay there and probably a slight calorie surplus for quite a while. I want to put on some more muscle and I'll need calories to do that. Also I don't want to dip too far into the cutting well because my body will adapt and that would be a disaster.
Links/Resources
Ketogains.com - ketogains calorie calculator
legionathletics.com - How Many Calories Should I Eat
Mind Pump Youtube - How to Undulate Your Calories for Faster Weight Loss & an Improved Metabolism
Mindpump Podcast - Episode 631: Caloric Undulation for Weight Loss & Gain
scientificamerican.com - 6 years after the biggest loser metabolism is slower and weight is back up
marksdailyapple.com - Why Fast?
Mind Pump - Is Fasting Effective?
Food Trackers
Paleo Track
My Fitness Pal
Cron O Meter
