So, you want to lose body fat? What do you do? Most might say, “Diet”. True, diet will play a role, but, truth be told, dieting really is “DIE” with a “T”. Everyone is miserable when they are dieting. No one wants to have to deprive one’s self. I know I don’t. Personally, I like food. We have a very healthy relationship.
So, if dieting will kill you (well, not really), what are the options? Well, eating healthy and working out.
After a recent adventure in the BodPod, I took a long look at my body fat goals. Running the numbers, I could a) reduce my caloric intake and hope I could maintain muscle mass while losing fat, or b) I could eat, maintain (or, hopefully lose a little) fat, and gain muscle. I am lifting weights anyhow. I could manage my calories—mainly my carbohydrate, protein, and fat (AKA, “macros”) balance—and drop fat percentage points by working on increasing the bigger number (i.e., muscle). I just had to get a bit more focused on smart training.
Say, for example, you are 220 lb and 20% fat (176 lean pounds and 44 pounds of fat). If you gain 10 lb of muscle (now 230 lb), you are now 19% fat. A small improvement, but you got to eat in the process! And with more muscle, your basal metabolism actually improves, so you are actually likely to have lost fat, too. All without “dieting”!
Now with a more modest caloric restriction, you can lose a bit more fat. Say, in the above example, you also lose 5 lb of fat. That would result in a body weight of 225 lb and a body fat of 17.3%. Alternatively, a 10 lb fat loss to complement a 10 lb muscle gain brings the body fat down to 15.5% (this is called “recomp”—for recomposition—though, scientifically, it is not a simple matter of gaining and losing simultaneously). So, to do the same losing fat alone? That would require a fat loss of 12 lb. Now, that isn’t so much better than the previous example, but… it requires significantly more caloric restriction. In addition, it is going to require prolonged caloric restriction to maintain this weight.
Using a basic calorie calculator, this would require approximately 2478 kcal to maintain 15.5% at 208 lb. On the other hand, maintaining the same relative body fat at 220 lb requires 2548 kcal (70 kcal more day). No a great deal, but it is more food. (And, this is just a rough calculation that doesn’t account for the effect of the lean muscle difference on metabolism. You will likely be able to actually eat more.)
It isn’t an exact science, but it is clear that adding muscle is the better option—if you like to eat and lift weights. But, if you want to give up food….
“Train hard and smart, eat well, and try to get a bit better every month. After a while you are a completely different person, but it takes time. It doesn’t happen overnight and there are no quick tricks.”—Dr. Mike Israetel