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Fat loss is usually the goal of the vast majority of people trying to lose weight. Losing weight is relatively simple, but losing fat and keeping our muscle mass intact, or as intact as possible, is not so simple. Our friends at Flow High Performance have summarized everything in an excellent video that we develop below in the form of an article for those of you who prefer this medium.
There are many factors that will help you lose fat, but not all of them are equally important. Let’s look at them one by one in decreasing order of importance.
Of course, any fat loss strategy must start from a calorie deficit . It is impossible for you to lose fat if you are not in a calorie deficit. In this article we explain how to calculate and measure your daily calorie needs. Check it out if you missed it.
Very high calorie restriction diets have traditionally been discouraged, due to the difficulty of maintaining them over time and the rebound effect when abandoning them. Normally, rapid weight loss comes with much greater muscle loss and less fat loss. However, there are studies that show that these diets can be effective when accompanied by behavior modification programs. We generally do not recommend these diets unless the loss sought is small and, therefore, can be achieved in a relatively short time. In this article we explained how a diet with very few calories and very high in protein can help you achieve this goal.
After the caloric deficit, we would have protein intake. Once a caloric deficit is created, your body has only two options to cover that energy deficit: it can cover it with your fat reserves or it can cover it by burning muscle tissue. This study analyzed different strategies to achieve a caloric deficit, and their results in terms of fat and muscle loss:
As we see in the graph, except for the high protein diet (which we will talk about later), all strategies (very high calorie restriction, low carbohydrate diet, low fat diet and high fiber diet) resulted in a 75 %/25% fat loss Vs lean mass loss. For all those who think that to lose weight they must restrict carbohydrates, this study provides quite clear results.
The next most important factor is strength training . As we explained at the beginning of the article, being in a caloric deficit, our body only has two options to cover it: either it burns muscle or it burns fat. Muscle has a metabolic cost to the body. This means that the body needs to expend calories to maintain it, while fat does not have that cost. Therefore, unless we show our body that we need to maintain muscle, its priority will be to burn it before burning fat. We will tell our body that our muscle is needed through strength training.
The following study was done on 100 overweight or obese adult individuals. They were all put on a 600 Cal calorie deficit diet and divided into four groups.
- The first group took 0.8 g of protein per kg of weight
- The second group took 1.3 g of protein per kg of weight
- The third group took 0.8 g of protein per kg of weight and strength trained 3 times a week
- The fourth group took 1.3 g of protein per kg of weight and strength trained 3 times a week
These were the results after 10 weeks:
All groups lost weight, but the two groups that trained strength (the two on the right) not only lost the most weight, but also managed to increase their lean mass, so the percentage of fat over net weight lost is even greater. So, as we always say, when it comes to losing fat, aerobic training is optional, while strength training is mandatory .
The fourth factor would be the total physical activity we do during the day. This would include training and what is called NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis), the physical activity we do without training (walking, climbing stairs, etc.). Physical activity, in addition to helping us burn more calories and, therefore, achieve the caloric deficit we are looking for, is not as important as the adjustments we must make to our diet to achieve that deficit. Walking the famous 10,000 steps a day (in this article we talk about that), together with the training you should do, not only increases your caloric expenditure and helps you preserve your muscle mass, but also plays an important role in regulating your appetite, as explained in this study .
If we take a look at total daily caloric expenditure, we can see how there are only two sources of caloric expenditure that we can influence: exercise (EAT) and non-exercise movement (NEAT). However, it is the second one that can help us the most, since it is a caloric expenditure that produces little stress and that we can distribute better throughout the day. For example, in addition to walking, climbing stairs, etc. We can include small movement “snacks”: 15 squats every time we finish a work meeting, a few push-ups before each meal…
How does your body burn Calories? (*)
TDEE: Total Daily Energy Expenditure
BMR: Basal Metabolic Rate, what your body needs just to keep you alive
NEAT: Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis, what your body burns in your daily activities
TEF: Thermogenic Effect of Food, what your body burns digesting what you eat
EAT: Exercise Activity Thermogenesis, what your body burns training
(*) Source: researchgate.net
The fifth factor would be sleep quantity and quality. 10 overweight adults were subjected to an intervention consisting of a 10% calorie restriction. During a period of 14 days, they were allowed to be in bed a total of 8.5 hours a day, and in a second period of 14 days they were only allowed to be in bed for 5.5 hours. These were the results:
As you can see, the weight loss was almost identical in both cases, but during the normal sleep period (blue bars) more fat and less lean mass were lost.
Not only this; Sleep restriction also has an undesirable effect. This study shows how by restricting sleep, we tend to consume more calories and accumulate more abdominal fat.
In this article we explain what things you can do to improve the quality and quantity of your sleep. If you missed it, check it out 😉
The last factors are the ones that have proven to be most irrelevant, but we want to talk about them because in the minds of many people they have a totally unjustified importance:
The ratio of carbohydrates Vs fat is hardly important, as long as the rest of the factors mentioned are controlled. If you are a physically active person, it may be better for you to eat more carbohydrates than fats, since otherwise your sports performance will suffer, but when it comes to losing fat, you will not notice any difference
On the other hand, the frequency and distribution of meals is not relevant to losing fat either. Strategies such as intermittent fasting or avoiding eating carbohydrates at night will not help you lose fat unless you comply with the really important factors. This does not mean that we are against intermittent fasting. It has many benefits and for some people it can help achieve a caloric deficit, but reducing the window of food intake will not make you lose fat per se .
As a summary, these would be all the factors in order of importance:
We hope that this article summarizes in an understandable way everything you need to know to lose fat, but if you still have questions, you know where to find us 😉