Lose body fat and keep lean muscle

When I was younger, I thought it was normal to gain body fat as I grew older.  I thought as I became an adult, I'd have the typical male gut, and my face would have an extra chin.  Unless I ran 50 miles a week, I was destined to get the average adult body.

One of the reasons I joined the Air Force to become a combat controller, was my need to workout all the time.  One of the reasons I worked out all the time, especially run, was it made me look better.    I ran a lot.  Not a lot by professional runner's standards, but a lot compared to the normal population.

The Air Force has a running preparation plan for future combat controllers and pararescuemen. It is like the BUD/S warning order,  which builds  your running up quickly from a non runner, to running 30 miles per week.  It is designed to take a person who is not a runner, and prepare them for the insane amount of running in special warfare training.

Back then, I thought 30 miles a week was a ton of running, but now in my late 30's I've done as much as 50 miles per week training for a marathon.  Even that, is not a lot compared to a professional runner.

Back then, I thought once I reached 30 miles per week, I would become shredded, seeing all my definition, and be able to eat as much as I want.

Of course, I was wrong.  I had a good physique. mostly because of genetics and being young, but I was not near as lean as I could have been.  I looked better than I looked when I did not run, but something was missing.

Before that, I tried another route to get lean and have a body like a Greek god.  I tried eating 5 or 6 small meals a day consisting of low fat " clean" food, doing short cardio sessions, and lifting weights 6 days a week.  I got about the same results as running massive amounts of miles every week.

What was I missing?

How did guys get so lean and complain that cardio was their least favorite thing to do?

Was it their diet?  Did they take the special protein powder they sell on line?  Did they walk on the special stair master they sell on TV?

The answer was simple, but it took me years of self research on line to figure out.  I had to wade through the tons of garbage, advertisements, and scams to find out what was going on.

There was always something missing.  If I wanted to have a shredded physique, I found special workouts and what foods to eat from different articles.

Muscle and fitness articles gave you workouts and meal plans that promised a lean muscular physique.

The one piece of information left out of almost every information source, was how many calories I needed per day to stay alive.  

How much food per day for my current weight needed to consume to maintain, lose or gain weight was left out of the equation.

This piece of information is THE most important clue needed to begin your fat loss goals.

I am pretty sure this gets left out for a reason.  All the meal and workout plans, ab rollers, protein powders, and supplements need to sell.  If you figure out how to get your abs to show, these won't do so well.

You can get lean and muscular eating foods you like, and doing NO cardio.

Cardio is a tool you can use, which I will explain further down.

I want to explain how to lose a pound or even two pounds per week while retaining muscle mass.  If you just want to lose weight and look like  smaller skinnier version of yourself, you can lose a ton of muscle and fat by starving yourself eating a piece of lettuce everyday.  You can become " skinny fat"

If you have ever seen an older person drop a ton of weight, looking like a smaller fat version of them self on the Adkins diet,  that is skinny fat.

Most people want to look lean and muscular.  I want to explain how.

The first thing you need to do look at this calculator online, where you can put in your height, age, and current weight into it.  This will give you an estimate on how many calories per day your body needs to maintain your current body weight.  If you ate this amount everyday, you would stay this weight indefinitely.

You can also select lose or gain.  It will tell you how many calories you need to either create a healthy deficit or gain muscle mass without getting fat.

If you know your body fat percentage, you can even input it for even more accuracy.  This really only matters if you are already pretty lean, but you want to get even leaner.  The leaner you are, the harder it gets to lose body fat.  Your body will fight you because it wants to survive.  You can select lose 10% if you are already lean.  This will make life easier into your journey becoming lean.

These sites also explain macro, and micro nutrients, but I personally feel you don't need to get too in depth with that, especially starting out.  I want to stay as simple as possible, so hang with with me.

Macro nutrients are a term created by the fitness community.  Macro is protein, fat and carbs.  There are different ideas on how much protein and fats you need per day to gain muscle and feel optimal.  There is a big push for tons of protein all around, because the fitness community pushes this so hard.   It is to sell protein supplements.   It is a myth that won't go away anytime soon.

These ideas come from people who use steroids and are not natural.  You can easily stress yourself out by trying to eat 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight.  You can easily blow your calorie requirements trying to follow this.

Micro nutrients are the nutrients your body needs from nutrient rich food, like vegetables.

You do need a good amount of protein for retaining muscle, but you can go by how you feel.  Protein based sources will keep you more full, and eating enough healthy fats will help your body run well.  Do not be afraid of fats.  They have more calories per gram than proteins or carbs, bu they are vital to your well being.  Don't fall trap to the out dated food pyramid or any other nonsense.

This brings me to another important point:

After you put your information into the calorie calculator, you will see that it does not take very many calories to maintain your body weight.  I am 5'9'' and 170 pounds.  I only require about 2000 calories per day to maintain this weight.

Think of your calories like a tight budget.  Try to make most calories good quality like meat sources for protein, and almonds, and avocados for fat sources, but save room for things you like.  I like cereal and ice cream, so I save some room for that.  But be aware, it can add up quick and make you crave more.

How it all comes together

I have thrown out a lot of information so far.  I like simplicity, so I will give you an example of how to put the calorie practice into effect.  

You need to know that protein is essential to your diet.  Just as important, is healthy fat, but not the bad types. Your body needs these to survive,  Carbohydrates are good energy sources and are in most of the foods people really enjoy, but they are not are not essential for your survival. I still enjoy and eat them.

Make sure you eat plenty of protein and good fats everyday,

Fill the rest of your diet in with carbohydrates.  As always, eat plenty of vegetables, they have lots of micro nutrients your body needs.  

Most people, especially adults as we age, want to reduce body fat and build or retain any muscle we can.  

Once you figure out an estimate of what your calorie intake per day is, you can make a plan to reduce your calories to start losing fat.  

You DO NOT want to drastically reduce your calorie intake.  You will feel sluggish and lose more muscle than you should.

A good steady fat loss rate is one pound per week, two pounds if you are are really over weight.

It's not an exact science, but a 3,500 calorie deficit per week equals one pound of body weight loss.  It is close enough for normal people, just like the estimation on calorie requirements.  As you become more familiar, you can adjust to your exact body by the scale. taking weekly weigh ins.

 Do not do more than once per week, your body weight fluctuates to much day to day.

If you want to cut 3,500 calories in one week, seven days, a 500 calorie per day deficit is needed.  You need to start tracking your calorie intake and look up how many calories are in the food that you eat.  All food has the calorie content listed on a package and you can look up the foods you eat on my fitness pal to get an idea.  A food scale will be a great investment.

It sounds like a pain at first, but after a few months, you will know what is in the foods you like.  You can develop a good routine for yourself.

For example, I know an average avocado is 234 calories, chicken breast has 45 calories per ounce, an app[e, banana, pear of average size is 100 calories.  All I need to do it weigh the meat, if necessary, and eat foods I enjoy daily.  After a while, you can eat dinners served to you without looking them up.

Eating out can be detrimental to your fat loss.

Unless the calories are listed, you do not know how much extra fat or other calorie dense items are in food served out at a restaurant are.  Be careful with this.

There are various formulas out there that estimate what your total energy expenditure or TDEE is.  I feel these equations make it far to easy to over estimate how many calories you burn per day.

On the calculator, it asks how active you are.  Sedentary,light, moderate, and extreme activity, are added into your daily calorie expenditure. It uses one of the formulas to adjust your TDEE. So, if you think you are moderate, it moves you from 2000 to 2500 calories per day.  For me, it is hard to estimate where I fall into these broad categories, and most people over estimate how active they really are.  If you think you are moderate, and you fall into light, it can stall fat loss goals.

I always stick with sedentary and add any physical activity I did that day.  Weights don't add much, but do add a little calorie burn.  Just being more jittery and moving around, touching your face a thousand times can add a lot more expenditure.

I feel the sedentary is a safe estimate because it is just a hundred calories more than my Basal Metabolic rate, BMR.

Your basal metabolic rate, is the calories your body burns just to stay alive.  If you lay in bed all day and do not move, your body burns many calories just to stay alive.  The sedentary option on the calculator, add a few hundred more calories to this calculation.  For me, it is about 1650 calories.  That is the equivalent of me running about 15 miles.  The calculator accounts for walking around and other light tasks during the day.

As you can see, your BMR is you biggest calorie deficit.  Exercise, unless you run a half marathon, does not compare.

By using the sedentary option on the calculator, I get a pretty accurate calorie estimate for my deficit that day if I did no physical exercise.  I add any activity I do that day to my calories.

I always add running.  You can look up online your weight and average calories burned per mile or time period.  If I run four miles that day, I add 500 calories to my sedentary baseline, subtract the deficit if I am in a deficit.
As you can see running adds some freedom in your diet, but not as much as you might think.
You can find all kinds of activities here.  Again, once you get it down, you will have it memorized.

If I maintain on 2000 calories per day, but I run 4 miles, I actually burn 2,500 that day.  If I eat only 2000 calories, I am in a 500 calorie deficit.

You cannot out train a bad diet.

Don't think because you started running, it means it's a free pass to eat whatever, and how much you want!  I used to think this way, and many people I know still do.

As you lose weight, you can periodically adjust your calculations.  By that time, this will all second nature, and you can feel and sense what you need to do in order to maintain or lose.

Once you understand the concept of tracking calories and creating a deficit, you can use cardio as a boost to add a special dessert, or have a couple of beers with your friend, while still creating a deficit.   You can find the calories of your favorite beer or liquor easily on line. You can strategically use these exercises to all treats to your budget.

Keep in mind: Alcohol has 9 calories per gram, like fat, and is totally empty calories.  You are spending on a tight budget, and the only reward is a buzz with no satiation.

If I want some beer, I prepare with  pretty good run.

You must train with weights at least 2 to 3 times a week in order to maintain as much muscle mass as possible on a deficit.

When you are in a calorie deficit, your body begins to use stored fat and muscle as energy. You must also lift heavy weights will losing weight in a deficit.  Even more important in a deficit, because you are shedding body weight.  If you are using your muscles, your body will retain as much as possible during your cut.

If you have no muscle now, I recommend building some muscle first.  This does not mean to bulk like the bodybuilding industry says to.  To many guys, bulking is a free pass to eat as much as they want to for a few months.  There is not reason to get super fat and lift weights because you are bulking.  You see those guys all the time.  They are getting big in the gym, but they are also fat!

You can lean bulk the opposite way of a deficit.  You add 500 more calories per day and lift weights to stimulate growth.  In this way you add mass, but a little will be body fat, but you will not be a lard ass in 3 months.  Once you have gained some size, it's time to shed any gained fat by a deficit.

You will gain some fat in a lean bulk, and lose some muscle in a deficit.

By gaining weight slowly and lifting heavy weights, you add as much muscle and as little fat as possible.  By losing weight slowly, and lifting heavy weights, you lose a little muscle as you can during fat loss.

Don't become skinny fat, and don't be the fat guy with muscles.

When you lift weights, it does not need to be complicated.  Do compound exercises that work as many muscle groups as possible.  Bench press, dead lifts, and squats are all perfect.  Just do the basic exercises, and challenge your muscles with weight in the 5 to 10 rep range.

The most important part is the calories, and you need to lift heavy 2 to 3 times per week.  That is what it takes to build a body you want.

Focus on quality foods, know what and how much you are eating, lift heavy, and use cardio to increase your budget.  Getting a great physique can be a simple and amazing process, and it is not a mystery like it may seem.