“Losing Weight” and “Losing Fat” : Two Very Different Things (AKA “cutting”)

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Yes…there is a difference. If you’ve read my post on The Basics of Nutrition then you should have a good base understanding of how this is going to work, but I’m going to get into some more specific strategies and delve deeper into the whole subject. If you haven’t purchased a food scale or calculated your TDEE like I mentioned in The Basics of Nutrition, then you may want to go back to that post unless you enjoy getting ahead of yourself (I know I do).

To give you a quick insight into my past and the mistakes I have made along the way I will tell you that when I started my fitness journey many years ago I got ripped on a fairly extreme hypocaloric diet. My body fat percentage was less than 8% and I loved the way I looked…for a time. After over a year of maintaining pretty much the same weight no matter how hard I worked out, I discovered the sad truth, which is you need to eat in order to put on muscle no matter how hard you are working out. With eating comes a little bit of body fat, can’t be avoided, but it can be minimized (I’ve done some dirty bulks before too and we will touch on that in my upcoming post on mass gaining). At this point I had wasted some of my prime muscle building opportunities as a young person that was new to weight lifting (see my Basics of Nutrition post regarding that narrow window you have to pack on muscle mass and burn fat at the same time). Now I simply go through the motions I will be providing you and add a couple of pounds of lean muscle to my frame each year and strip off the fat that came with it in order to enjoy it for a time (usually in the summer).

If you are simply trying to lose weight then all you have to do is put yourself in a caloric deficit and you will notice the pounds dropping (as my self example from above). The more significant the caloric deficit, the faster the pounds will come off. However, the more significant the deficit, the more “symptoms/side effects” of a hypocaloric diet tend to pop up and you will also lose muscle mass in the process. If you are one of those people that doesn’t care about muscle mass and can tolerate some of these side effects of an extreme hypocaloric diet, then aim low and you will get results…for awhile. Our bodies have a genetic predisposition to hang on to body fat and bodyweight as an evolutionary mechanism to prevent starvation. This goes all the way back to prehistoric times when food was scarce. I will explain how to get past this plateau in a bit.

If you are like most people and want to minimize the amount of muscle mass lost while trying to lose fat, listen up. First off, notice I said MINIMIZE. I did not say lose fat and GAIN muscle or KEEP muscle. There are very few circumstances when this is possible and this was discussed in my Basics of Nutrition post. Our bodies have a limited ability to differentiate between burning muscle mass vs fat for fuel in a hypocaloric state. There are plenty of studies that show even seasoned bodybuilders lose a significant amount of muscle mass during their “cuts” when they are getting ready for a show. However, they strategically pack on as much muscle as possible during their “bulk” in order to end up in a net gain. The more severe the caloric deficit, the more severe the muscle mass wasting. The best bodybuilders carefully plan their cut and understand their body so they can give themselves ample time to slowly cut down to a pre-show weight body fat percentage/weight. You will notice throughout this post I tend to use bodybuilders as examples a lot and there is a darn good reason for this. These people know how to manage their diets, cardio, weightlifting to a T and do it multiple times throughout the year. If you’ve ever spoken to a good natural bodybuilder about their plan or process you will surely have noticed how much time and careful planning goes into the whole process.

OK, back to the average person. If you’ve read the Basics of Nutrition post you know you should have figured out your maintenance calories by now using a TDEE calculator (and hopefully some sort of device like a Fitbit as well to help get the rough average number of calories). Now for the hard to hear advice…TAKE YOUR TIME! If you want to do this right, you need to understand that you aren’t going to drop 30 pounds in a month. Track your calories every day and weigh yourself every day. You can take the lowest number each week or take an average for the week. If you are losing about a pound or two a week you are right on track. If you remain the exact same for a few weeks then you should decrease your total caloric intake by about 200-500 calories and give it a few more weeks. If you’re gaining weight then keep dropping your calories by 200-500 until you are losing weight every week or two.

You will notice that you will drop weight pretty fast at first sometimes. This is usually a diuresis effect (losing water weight). As most people, when tracking their dietary intake, tend to lower their carbohydrate and salt intake by natural accident and the net impact here is losing water weight to a point. So if the weight loss stalls out after a week or so you may have only been at maintenance and losing water weight during those few days/weeks.

The common theme here is that losing weight is not easy. If it was then everyone would have awesome bodies. It also takes a LOT of PLANNING. If you don’t have a plan for at least the week then you’re likely going to end up messing up because you won’t know exactly what you’re putting in your body. Now, I am not suggesting this is the only way to lose weight, but if you can tolerate it, eat the same thing every day. This is what I do. I literally have the same 5 meals every day and I food prep once a week for a couple hours. I know that most people can’t tolerate that sort of monotony, but I find it makes my life a lot easier when I don’t have to think about what I am going to eat, then TRY to calculate what’s in it and keep track of it. I find it to be a highly efficient and tolerable way to get the job done. It also keeps me from caving into temptation when someone brings donuts into the office or buys sub sandwiches for everyone. It’s hard for me to turn these things down when I don’t already have my meal with me and ready to eat (especially when I took the time to prepare it). Plus, I don’t have to use an app to track my food every time I eat because I know EXACTLY how many calories (and all my macros) for each day before the day even begins.

OK, so you’re a few weeks or months into your weight loss journey and things seemed to have stalled. This tends to happen (re: the genetic predisposition for our bodies to hang onto body weight during a caloric deficit mentioned above). So how do we get over the hump? Cheat. Music to your ears right? Seriously though, cheat meals or days every now and then (maybe once a month for me) are good for you. As you maintain a hypocaloric state your Leptin levels tank and this causes some of the symptoms you may experience on a hypocaloric diet and this is also why we tend to plateau. Leptin is a hormone that regulates hunger and body fat. I would suggest to keep your cheat meal/day realistic as the larger or more absurd you get with this, the harder it is to recover from. You will most likely gain a little bit of water weight as well. This cheat meal/day is also for your sanity. As humans, if we can see a light at the end of the tunnel it tends to keep us focused. That light at the end of my tunnel is my upcoming cheat day (my birthday celebration). I literally have the whole day planned out and I am going balls to the wall knowing full well that I will pay for it for the next week most likely.

If the cheat meal/day doesn’t seem to break you through that plateau, you likely have reached a new turning point in the diet where you will need to lower your total calories by another 200-500, this will happen as the pounds start to come off because you are no longer requiring as much energy to perform day to day activities. Your body is like a furnace and your furnace has just been upgraded to a more efficient furnace that requires less fuel. You’re not pushing around as much weight and your body is not doing as much work as a result of it (being punished for your success is fun isn’t it?).

What about macros? Macros (macronutrients) are carbohydrates, fats and proteins. These nutrients make up the majority of our diet and are also very important when it comes to your body composition. I would normally suggest that most people increase their protein intake when on a hypocaloric diet as this will keep you in a positive nitrogen balance and further aid your ability to hold on to that hard earned muscle mass. I would suggest that someone has at least 20-40g of protein per meal (x5 meals per day = 100-200g a day) when on a hypocaloric diet. I personally don’t change my protein intake because I stay on a relatively high protein intake (50g per meal x 5 meals) no matter what phase of my diet I am in. Barring any medical issues, there is no harm in having your protein intake this high. Some people will argue that “our body can only digest 30g of protein in one sitting”, which multiple studies have proven false. Our bodies have an almost unlimited capacity to DIGEST protein. Protein is also a very thermogenic macro which will further aid in your weight loss journey. Some studies show no difference in the spike in nitrogen (NO) with 30g vs larger amounts of protein, but some other studies suggest there is a larger spike. My theory is “if it doesn’t hurt to have more protein per meal and it COULD help my muscle gains and help limit my muscle loss while helping with fat loss, why wouldn’t I eat a high protein diet?” When it comes to the other two macronutrients (carbs and fats) it, in my opinion, is highly dependent on the person. I personally seem to digest and do better with an equal amount of fats and carbohydrates. Some people will digest and metabolize carbohydrates better than fats and these people should add more carbs than fats in their diet. Vice versa if you do better with fats. You won’t know which you are until you fiddle around with it a little, but you can always just start with whatever ratio suits your taste buds.

Not all carbs are created equal. I personally believe that sugar (a carb) is a large reason for the obesity epidemic (obviously not the sole reason by a long shot) and you tend to find it hidden almost everywhere in the modern diet. The lower the glycemic index (GI) of a carbohydrate, the better it is for your body. Now a few grams of sugar isn’t going to ruin your diet plans and its very hard to avoid getting a few grams mixed in each day. Aim for the whole grains and lower GI carbs (you can Google where a food is on the GI and get a better understanding that way) and you will create smaller and longer lasting insulin spikes. In short, insulin is a love/hate hormone that regulates blood sugar and fat storage. It is beneficial in building muscle, but can be detrimental to your fat loss journey during large spikes.

What about fad or specialty diets like the ketogenic diet, Atkins diet, Intermittent fasting, OMAD (one meal a day) or IIFYM (if it fits your macros)? I believe that each one of these diets work for weight loss (and have seen great results in people), but not because they offer some unique metabolic advantage to the body (i.e. being in a state of ketosis). I believe that people are finding success in these diets because these diets take some of the work out of dieting and by the very nature of the diet you are cutting down on the amount of calories you are consuming each day. I do think that each of these diets have a place at the table when it comes to weight loss, but without offering a metabolic advantage, the key question is, “is it sustainable?” For some of you the answer may be yes, for most of you the answer will be no. If you can’t see yourself keeping up with it for a year or more than I would argue it’s not worth starting. You are after a LIFESTYLE change here, not a quick fix and right back to old habits. I will discuss these diets on separate posts in depth because I do think that some of them have very promising niches in the diet world. There are pros and cons to each of these diets and I look forward to discussing them.

I personally don’t think you need to change the way you work out much while you’re cutting, but most professionals recommend you lower the volume or weight a little bit when it comes to weightlifting. I keep aiming for progressive overload (progressively increasing either the weight or volume of my workout) during every phase of my fitness journey. If you crank up your cardio you have more room for more food in your diet (assuming you’ve calculated everything correctly that is) and thus will be hungry less often (but also keep in mind that aggressive cardio increases hunger as well). Once you get to where you want to be you can either find the maintenance calories for that sweet spot and keep it there or you can go on a mass gaining (bulk) cycle to add some muscle on to your frame. I will explain in a different post how to optimize gaining lean muscle mass and trying to minimize fat gains while on these mass gaining cycles. I personally use body fat percentage to tell me when to switch my cycles. Once I get down to 10-12% body fat I tend to go on a mass gaining cycle (I feel like muscle wasting is accentuated at body fat percentages below this). Once I get up to 17-18% body fat I tend to go on a month long maintenance cycle (to try and get my body used to this new muscle I’ve added so it doesn’t want to get rid of it in the upcoming cut) and then go on a cut. Rinse and repeat.

In summation:

• Calculate your TDEE (take an average of multiple numbers)
• Buy a food scale and weigh your food out
• Put yourself in a minimal caloric deficit to lose weight while minimizing muscle loss (200-500 calories off your TDEE to start)
• Keep your protein intake sufficient to minimize the muscle wasting impact of a hypocaloric diet
• Give it time, you need to adjust to the diet and see how your body responds before making changes.
• Use cheat meals/days to your advantage when you reach a plateau or need a sanity break, but try to keep it in check
• Keep tweaking your caloric intake every couple of months if needed until you get where you want.
• Once you are where you want to be (aka at the body fat percentage you would like to be at) find your maintenance calories for that sweet spot and stay there, or go on a mass gaining phase (bulk) in order to add some more muscle to that frame.

On a final note I would like to ask that you not let your fitness journey rule or ruin your life since we are aiming for the exact opposite of that. You still need to go out there and live life. Go out to eat with friends/family every now and then. Eat that huge piece of cake at your nieces birthday party. Go on vacation and don’t spend your whole trip in the gym or eating carrots. Stick with your your diet and nutrition goals for a vast majority of the time and let loose every now and then or you will go crazy and forget to live life. As usual, please comment if you have questions or ideas for future posts. Keep the comments civil even if you don’t agree with everything I am saying (you are entitled to your own opinion).

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