Whether you are trying to drop some fat and get into shape, get your six pack for the beach, or prepping for a bodybuilding contest or photo shoot, they all have one thing very much in common. You will need to diet to make this happen and be successful. Many people will have unrealistic expectations with their results, and expect to drop significantly more fat in a shorter amount of time than is safe or even possible to do. The result a lot of times is people taking extreme measures to make these things happen.
Extreme Dieting and fat loss tactics are pretty common, especially for those competing on stage and getting into extreme conditioning. Many will start their diet too late in too poor of a condition. To compensate for this, they will then start off by dipping their caloric intake far too low and generally couple that with too much cardio. For the first few weeks, this will work and the fat will come off fairly quickly. However, as the weeks go on fat loss will stall, and they will be left with nowhere to go but to decrease calories even further and increases their cardio even more. Once again, fat loss may continue but will be less than before, and will stall out quicker. At this point, they really have no more margin to play with. Their calories are ridiculously low, they are doing extreme amounts of cardio, and the scale isn't moving while they are starving and getting weaker by the day. They have slowed and damaged their metabolism to a crawl, and now they don't know what to do.
You can get extreme results without taking extreme measures if you know how to properly execute and make your diet plan accordingly.
Here are the steps to take, to properly diet down without making your metabolism and end results suffer:
1) Allow yourself enough time! If you have 30 lbs to lose, don't expect to do it in 8 weeks. The recommended rate of fat loss should be about 1-2 lbs per week for optimal results. Allow yourself a little bit of error room as well, so you can be in the shape you need to be ahead of time. Giving yourself an extra few weeks is even more beneficial to you. Slow and steady always wins the race.
2) Dont dip your calories too low! You really need to have a very good idea of how many calories it takes to maintain your current state (maintenance calories) and then you can figure out exactly where you should be at per day for fat loss. A defecit of 500 to a maximum of 1000 calories per day is all you need to keep you in the right caloric range for safe, effective, and steady fat loss. Its a good idea to start around a 500 defecit. As time goes on, the fat falls off, and your maintenance calories get lower (by weighing less) you can decrease calories by another 100 or so per day to continue losing at the same rate.
3) Avoid excessive cardio! Your diet should be 80%+ of how your fat loss is obtained. With that said, coupling it with the adequate amount of cardio can really make the fat melt off. the key is to not overdo it by doing too much too early. Start off with just a couple 20-30 minute low intensity sessions per week, and increase it over time. Eventually getting up to 3-4 times per week at 45-60 minutes maximum per session. Just make small increases every week or two. Adding an extra 5-10 minutes of cardio per week is more than sufficient to keeping you on track.
4) Employ refeeds as necessary! Even with using the tactics above, your body will still slow its metabolism over time. When you are in a caloric defecit, your body is still trying to achieve homeostasis and fight you every step of the way. To avoid this you have to give your metabolism a little boost from time to time to keep the fat loss continuing and the fire burning. For a proper refeed, calories need to be increased to around maintenance. The extra calories should be in the form of carbohydrates. Try to keep fat intake to a minimum, and reduce protein to around 1g per pound of bodyweight. How often you refeed is dependent mostly on how lean you are. The leaner you are, the more you will need to refeed. Someone with a higher bodyfat of 15-20% should only refeed about once every 10-14 days. Those at 10-15% may need a refeed every 7-10 days, and those in single digit bodyfat will need to refeed as often as once, twice, or even 3 times per week.
5) Stay focused and on target! In order to achieve your goal and make this work, you need to stick to the plan day in and day out. Its easy to get sidetracked, and say screw it and have a cheat that can turn into a cheat day or all out binge. There's nothing more frustrating than making a remarkable amount of progress to throw it all away by taking a few steps back by straying off course.
6) Use a good macronutrient breakdown! It's not just about the calories you consume that will get you to your goals, but where they come from is also very important. Anytime dieting down into a defecit, your protein should be kept very high. Don't be afraid of carbohydrates, they are muscle sparing macronutrients and are essential even when dieting down. They will have to be reduced while dieting, but its good to have enough carbs for energy or your body will start burning protein or even MUSCLE for energy! Keep fat intake sensible. Your fat intake should only come from healthy fat sources, and otherwise kept to a minimum while dieting. Its important to keep your meats lean and avoid any more fat than you need.
These tools I have outlined will work, and work very well to help you achieve your fat loss goal safely and efficiently without starving and killing yourself along the way. If you follow the steps above, you will see that it doesn't take extreme tactics to achieve an extreme result!
(PM me for a price list for Biotech Labs and 10% discount)
Extreme Dieting and fat loss tactics are pretty common, especially for those competing on stage and getting into extreme conditioning. Many will start their diet too late in too poor of a condition. To compensate for this, they will then start off by dipping their caloric intake far too low and generally couple that with too much cardio. For the first few weeks, this will work and the fat will come off fairly quickly. However, as the weeks go on fat loss will stall, and they will be left with nowhere to go but to decrease calories even further and increases their cardio even more. Once again, fat loss may continue but will be less than before, and will stall out quicker. At this point, they really have no more margin to play with. Their calories are ridiculously low, they are doing extreme amounts of cardio, and the scale isn't moving while they are starving and getting weaker by the day. They have slowed and damaged their metabolism to a crawl, and now they don't know what to do.
You can get extreme results without taking extreme measures if you know how to properly execute and make your diet plan accordingly.
Here are the steps to take, to properly diet down without making your metabolism and end results suffer:
1) Allow yourself enough time! If you have 30 lbs to lose, don't expect to do it in 8 weeks. The recommended rate of fat loss should be about 1-2 lbs per week for optimal results. Allow yourself a little bit of error room as well, so you can be in the shape you need to be ahead of time. Giving yourself an extra few weeks is even more beneficial to you. Slow and steady always wins the race.
2) Dont dip your calories too low! You really need to have a very good idea of how many calories it takes to maintain your current state (maintenance calories) and then you can figure out exactly where you should be at per day for fat loss. A defecit of 500 to a maximum of 1000 calories per day is all you need to keep you in the right caloric range for safe, effective, and steady fat loss. Its a good idea to start around a 500 defecit. As time goes on, the fat falls off, and your maintenance calories get lower (by weighing less) you can decrease calories by another 100 or so per day to continue losing at the same rate.
3) Avoid excessive cardio! Your diet should be 80%+ of how your fat loss is obtained. With that said, coupling it with the adequate amount of cardio can really make the fat melt off. the key is to not overdo it by doing too much too early. Start off with just a couple 20-30 minute low intensity sessions per week, and increase it over time. Eventually getting up to 3-4 times per week at 45-60 minutes maximum per session. Just make small increases every week or two. Adding an extra 5-10 minutes of cardio per week is more than sufficient to keeping you on track.
4) Employ refeeds as necessary! Even with using the tactics above, your body will still slow its metabolism over time. When you are in a caloric defecit, your body is still trying to achieve homeostasis and fight you every step of the way. To avoid this you have to give your metabolism a little boost from time to time to keep the fat loss continuing and the fire burning. For a proper refeed, calories need to be increased to around maintenance. The extra calories should be in the form of carbohydrates. Try to keep fat intake to a minimum, and reduce protein to around 1g per pound of bodyweight. How often you refeed is dependent mostly on how lean you are. The leaner you are, the more you will need to refeed. Someone with a higher bodyfat of 15-20% should only refeed about once every 10-14 days. Those at 10-15% may need a refeed every 7-10 days, and those in single digit bodyfat will need to refeed as often as once, twice, or even 3 times per week.
5) Stay focused and on target! In order to achieve your goal and make this work, you need to stick to the plan day in and day out. Its easy to get sidetracked, and say screw it and have a cheat that can turn into a cheat day or all out binge. There's nothing more frustrating than making a remarkable amount of progress to throw it all away by taking a few steps back by straying off course.
6) Use a good macronutrient breakdown! It's not just about the calories you consume that will get you to your goals, but where they come from is also very important. Anytime dieting down into a defecit, your protein should be kept very high. Don't be afraid of carbohydrates, they are muscle sparing macronutrients and are essential even when dieting down. They will have to be reduced while dieting, but its good to have enough carbs for energy or your body will start burning protein or even MUSCLE for energy! Keep fat intake sensible. Your fat intake should only come from healthy fat sources, and otherwise kept to a minimum while dieting. Its important to keep your meats lean and avoid any more fat than you need.
These tools I have outlined will work, and work very well to help you achieve your fat loss goal safely and efficiently without starving and killing yourself along the way. If you follow the steps above, you will see that it doesn't take extreme tactics to achieve an extreme result!
(PM me for a price list for Biotech Labs and 10% discount)
.![[9oNe6]BillyD@kid](/forums/data/avatars/m/2/2076.jpg?1477587594){kind=avatar}
