Caloric deficit? Is it good or bad?..and do we need it to lose fat?

First Of All, Let’s Clarify That Your Goal Is To Lose Body Fat And Not Weight.

Anyone can move the needle on the scale by peeing, going #2 or starving themselves for a few days. 

If you are losing weight this way, that means you are losing water, muscle and bone density.

Your goal should be to lose body fat and gain muscle mass. (PERIOD.)

Getting bulky and big? I promise you (women!), you will not be able to gain more than a couple of pounds of lean muscle mass. (It is actually really hard with our female hormones!) - But this will be a whole separate post on another day.

When it comes to training styles, there are 3 big buckets. 1. Strength Training  (making your muscles stronger) 2. Hypertrophy (making your muscles bigger /increasing lean muscle mass) 3. Endurance (making your muscles work for a long period of time (lots of repetition) with small resistance- like running)

In the next post I will be comparing these training styles and emphasizing the difference between them, but for here, I want to talk more about hypertrophy training - aka. body recomposition!

Hypertrophy:

Gaining muscle mass is about volume (reps) and effort (weight).

This means that you don’t need to push a whole lot of weight until your veins pop, but rather pick an intensity (weight) that you can push 8-12 times and the last reps come close to failure.

For example, if you pick a weight that you can only repeat a movement with less than 8 times, you are gaining strength. This will not help you build larger muscles, only stronger ones.

However, if you pick a weight that you can do more than 15 repetitions with, you are building endurance rather than muscle mass!

So, it is very important to pick the correct weight (effort) that gives you enough resistance to work your 8-12 reps with.

RIR (Rest In Reserve) is an important part of Hypertrophy training. You want to put in effort (proximity to failure) but have a few reps left in the tank. This way you are exhausting the targeted muscle group providing what it needs to increase in size.

You are also going to need to be in caloric surplus or at least slightly above maintenance. This is the only way you increase tissue size. If you don’t eat, muscles won’t grow from thin air. (Increase protein to at least 0.8g/ lbs of lean body mass).

To recap: (screenshot this)

• Training frequency (same muscle groups trained in every 3-4 days)

• Training close to failure (literal failure, not just until it feels ‘hard’)

• Caloric surplus (slight surplus with the focus on protein)

• 3-5 sets 8-15 repetitions (volume). (Work the same muscle groups with different exercises - more to come on this topic!)

If you made it this long and not here for bigger biceps, you are probably asking, “How the hell am I losing body fat here?”

BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is the number of calories you burn as your body performs basic (basal) life sustaining functions. Just as breathing, growing hair or blinking (your organs do much more). This BMR is highly impacted by how much muscle mass you have. The more muscle your body has, the more energy it takes to keep it alive. (= burning more calories for you!)

Fun fact! - you only burn about 10% of your daily caloric expenditure during your workout!

Furthermore, being on a high protein diet, helps you burn even more calories because it takes more energy to digest protein!

So the easiest way for you to achieve that ‘toned’ look and lose body fat, is to fuel your body with nutritious food, challenge it with lifting weights to failure, gain muscle mass and let your body burn all the fat because it will need to energy to build some muscles.

Stop being a cardio bunny and starve yourself. It won’t work.