Revolution of Fat Loss - Reducing Body Fat

**gr8gear** · 06-15-2006, 08:05 PM

I Found an interesting and helpful article in Flex Magazine (October 2005) by Chris Aceto, titled "Evolution of Fat Loss". The information it entails is nothing new to the board and most of the bros, but hopefully it can be of some help. The article lists the important factors (other than reduced calories) involved in reducing bodyfat while maintaining muscle mass:

Factor # 1 : The Body Adapts to Reduced-Calorie intake
Let's say a bodybuilder reduces his daily caloric intake from 3500 to 3000 to cut up. Thats 3500 fewer calories per week. During weeks one and two, and possibly weeks three and four, he may drop a pound of bodyfat a week for a total of four pounds in bodyfat reduction. However, by the fifth or sixth week, he may no longer lose additional body fat. This is called Plateauing. The problem is that the body adapts to reductions in calories by burning fewer of them. When you eat less, your body eventually starts to burn fewer calories. That puts a dent in the belief that cutting 3500 calories from a diet will continue to result in the loss of a pound of bodyfat each week.

Factor # 2: Some Calories are more readily stored as bodyfat.
Among carbohydrates, protein and dietary fat, the last is the most fattening. The body actually burns calories when it digests all three of these macronutrients, but it requires fewer calories to digest fat - about two to three times less than carbs and about 10 times less than protein. So dietary fat yields a greater net caloric intake available for bodyfat storage than carbs and protein. Using the example, the bodybuilder who eats 3000 calories a day should lose more fat by following a very low fat plan rather than one higher in fat - even if the calories are the same. This is just one example of how there is more to bodyfat management than just caloric intake.

Factor # 3: Protein protects muscle mass
When you consume fewer calories, you always risk burning muscle tissue for fuel. It would be great to be able to cut calories and burn bodyfat exclusively, but that's not how the body works. Therefore, you need to eat enough protein to protect your muscles from being burned as fuel. Protein is protein sparing. When calories are reduced, protein helps protect your muscles and when you preserve your muscles, you prevent a decline in your metabolism. In general, a dieter who takes in 3000 calories a day - or 3500 less weekly than when he consumed 3500 each day - will save more muscle, and therefore maintain a higher metabolism, by eating more protein. For best results, a trainer should eat at least one gram (g) of protein per pound of bodyweight daily, up to 1.5g of protein per pound. In other words, a 200lb bodybuilder on a 3000 calorie a day diet can consume 300g of protein, or 1200 calories from protein each day. This 40% ratio of protein is excellent for helping to protect a dieting bodybuilder's muscle mass.

Factor # 4: Hormones shift during a diet.
One of the most critical - and overlooked - elements of dieting is how a reduction in calories affects the body's natural hormone levels. One study showed that men who follow a higher protein diet had higher insulinlike growth factor (IGF) levels than those on a lower protein diet - even though total calorie consumption was the same for the two groups. IGF hugely affects metabolism, increasing muscle growth. When you stimulate muscle growth-even when calories are lower than normal - the metabolic rate and fat-burning ability in the body increases. So, you could follow a lower protein plan - say 3000 calories a day (again 3500 fewer calories each week than eating 3500 calories a day) - and miss out on beneficial IGF, which means less muscle and a smaller impact on metabolism. By keeping your protein levels high (again 1-1.5g per pound of bodyweight each day) you will improve your hormone levels for assisting bodyfat burning.

Factor # 5: The Glycemic Index of foods impacts bodyfat burning
The May 2005 American Journal of Critical Nutrition affirmed the longtime deitary habits of many bodybuilders following a low-glycemic diet supports the loss of bodyfat even when calories aren't reduced. The research showed that people on a low-fat diet lost less bodyfat than those who followed a plan that emphasized low-glycemic carbs - even though the low-fat group consumed fewer calories. Low-glycemic carbs include oatmeal, buckwheat noodles, buckwheat pancakes, red potatoes, yams, cherries and oranges. They digest slowly, converting more slowly to glucose, the basic energy source of the body. Slower digesting carbs help make the body less efficient at storing bodyfat than other sources of carbohydrates
The primary reason for this is likely due to effects on insulin secretion. Insulin is a potentially fat-storing hormone that increases with carbohydrate consumption. As it turns out, the more refined the carb source- or the higher the glycemic rating - the greater the insulin secretion. Higher insulin levels, in turn, make the body extremely efficient at storing bodyfat, while lower insulin levels allow bodyfat to be burned as fuel.
If you reduce calories by 3500 a week while still consuming high-glycemic carbs, you might fail to lose weight, you might lose less than a pound of bodyfat each week or you might reach plateaus quickly. However, if you reduce your consumption by just 3000 calories a week (a more moderate cut in calories), but rely mostly on low-glycemic carbs (in addition to a high protein intake), you are much more likely to extend the time that your body continues burning bodyfat.

Factor # 6: Meal frequency is very important in bodyfat burning.
A bodybuilder who eats 3500 fewer calories a week will lose more fat by eating seven times a day rather than five. Every time you eat, your metabolism increases mildly; also, having multiple meals supresses cortisol, which, in turn, raises testosterone levels . When testosterone remains elevated - even in tiny amounts over a dieting period - the body becomes better at holding onto its mucle mass. The more mass you can retain, the higher your metabolic rate.
On the flip side, the same bodybuilder might eat four or five times a day and fail to consistently lose the expected pound of fat a week, which of course, means the math does not add up.

Factor # 7: Time of Day is important in losing fat.
FLEX magazine typically recommends eating less food as the day progresses, particularly carbs, because insulin sensitivity decreases later in the day. Insulin sensitivity refers to the hormone's ability to move nutrients into muscle. when insulin sensitivity decreases, more insulin must be released to get the job done. The problem is that insulin also increases fat storage. If you eat high carb meals late in the day, when insulin sensitivity is low, you will get much bigger insulin spike and greater fat storage. Later in the day, switch to fibrous carbs from veggies and focus on protein.