Fat loss is by far the most common goal in fitness today. Optimal fat loss goes beyond crash diets or cleanses. I’m talking about keeping your muscle while shedding fat long-term, and not relying on some new supplement to do it. Optimizing fat loss is no easy task. It requires eating the right amount of nutrients at the right times and a training regimen that is tailored to you and your fat loss goal.
Diet really is about 80% of your success. You’ll never lose fat unless you consistently eat less than you burn off. Calories in versus calories out is the base of the fat loss pyramid. This can be tricky: if you drop your calories too low too soon it won’t be sustainable. This is where most diets fail. Assuming you already track your calories and have your baseline, start by reducing your overall calories by 10%. You can ramp that up later but 10% is easy on the body, you won’t have to completely alter your diet and most people probably won’t even notice the difference.
Once your overall calories are dialed in the next step is getting the optimal amount of protein, carbohydrates and fat. Start with your protein and aim for at least 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. Don’t be afraid to go a little over, up to 1.2 grams per pound. Getting enough protein is important when dieting as it will help reduce muscle loss. If you just reduce your calories, the weight will come off, but you will definitely lose muscle and no one wants to be weak and bony.
Carbohydrates are used for fueling your performance so the best times to eat them are before and after your workouts. Half or more of your daily carbs should be consumed around your workouts. This will power your performance and help you recover. The exception to this is if you train first thing in the morning. If you work out early in the morning then don’t have any carbs before. If you performance is suffering from a lack of carbs then drink some easily digesting carbs like a sports drink or juice during your workout. The overall amount of carbohydrates depends on how active you are. A good range is 50-80% of your protein intake.
The remainder of your calories should be fats. Some folks operate better on lower carbs, in which case you’ll want to increase the fat count. This is important, as most new dieters cut out the carbs, don’t address the fat, and then crash out within 3-8 weeks. Remember that this is about optimal long term fat loss.
Once you have your proteins, carbs and fats dialed in it’s time to address your training. Strength training is paramount. When you are in a caloric deficit it’s easy to lose muscle so don’t neglect resistance training. Strength training not only reduces muscle loss, it raises your metabolism and you are thus burning off more calories at rest. So don’t skip the weights. Compound basic lifts burn the most calories so stick with the basics and stay strong.
Conditioning should be a part of your routine but not the only part. When you are losing versus building, the overall intensities need to be brought down a little. This means less sprint work or high intensity intervals and more volume at lower heart rates. One of the best things you can do to burn fat, without taxing your system, is cardiac output, also known as zone 2 cardio. Maintain a heart rate of 60-75% of your maximum for 20-90 minutes. You can do this every day.
Fat loss is all about consistency. Every single day you either eat the right things in the right amounts at the right times and train appropriately or you don’t. Rack up enough good days in a row and build momentum. One good or bad day won’t really matter, but 8 weeks in a row is enough time to see remarkable changes, so get to work.
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