WHY YOU SHOULDN’T AIM FOR WEIGHT LOSS
Most of the time we hear in the media about everyone wanting to “lose weight”.
I hate that term. What exactly does it mean? The human body is made up of plenty of components that all weigh something. It’s estimated blood makes up approximately 7% of total body weight but we don’t want to lose that, nor do we want to lose organs, bones or muscle. So let’s call it what it should be called, it should be “lose fat”. Body fat is what people are wanting to lose when we hear the term “lose weight”.
But then again, not everyone wants to lose, some people want to gain. Similar thing on the gain side, people want to gain weight, but nobody wants to gain body fat! People want to gain muscle! Most of the time people want to gain muscle and lose body fat at the same time, something that is pretty much impossible….naturally.
When people speak of gaining muscle, this can only be done when the body is eating a surplus of calories, more energy going in that what’s going out. This is so the body can use that excess energy towards building and adding extra muscle. Of course, you need to be breaking down your muscle fibres through training for the muscles to then rebuild with extra fibres (more mass, stronger muscles). Eating to gain and training to gain go hand in hand. If the body is only just surviving on the energy you give it (not eating enough or only just eating enough), it’s going to worry about making sure your brain and organs are functioning correctly before it worries about the size of your biceps!
With that being said, the common principle between loss and gain remains the same – PATIENCE.
If you are trying to strip body fat, you don’t want to suddenly drop your food intake by half. It needs to be a gradual process of dropping back on the calories, giving your body time to adjust and allowing it to hold onto as much muscle as possible whilst slowly burning through the fat. It’s entirely possible that if you are not losing the body fat you want but you are “dieting” you could actually be eating too little. The body is an amazing machine and if it feels like you are starving it, it will do its best to hold on to dear life (fat=energy/warmth/survival)
If you are trying to gain, the same rule applies, Patience! It needs to be a gradual increase in calories or you will pile on unwanted body fat. It shouldn’t be a huge increase of double your normal intake overnight but a slow, planned process where you gradually allow your body to adjust to the fact it has a calorie surplus to play with. I’m not a nutritionist, but I have found both these processes work for me and many people I have offered my advice too. For me to gain muscle, I have found the magic number to be an increase of around 400-500 daily calories, above my maintenance levels. This has allowed me to gain muscle and keep body fat at bay. Some increase in body fat is pretty much inevitable, however, it doesn’t have to be a noticeable amount.
In saying that, if you are sticking to your numbers as close as possible and have the correct training program in place you are giving yourself the best possible chance of achieving your goal! For me and the people I have advised, we have found this to be the most successful and realistic way of achieving your body goals. Now I could give you my thoughts on the different macro nutrient groups but I’ll save that for another post ; )
Matt