AFF Weight Gain/Loss Program

[MWTB]

Going that low on calories is a bad idea man. Sure you'll lose weight, but you'll do yourself some serious metabolic damage.

Work out your BMR (basic metabolic rate) which is what your body needs if you were comatose doing nothing, and then work out your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) which is what your body actually needs including the daily physical work you do. My BMR is 2300 calories, but my TDEE is 4200.

How do I know this metabolic damage (starvation mode for the layman or adaptive thermogenesis for those who like to get technical) thing is for real and not just an internet phenomenon like people think it is? Because it happened to me.

I was on 1500 calories (I weigh my food, I am precise) for 2 months. I lost a few kg and then stopped. I was doing heavy weight training every day and cardio afterwards for 30 minutes or more. I also work an extremely physical job. It is not possible that I was not losing weight if my metabolism was working as it should. After a lot of research I read about this adaptive thermogenesis and read that to remedy this, you eat at, or slightly above your maintenance (BMR) for a few weeks to see if it helps. It also states that you might put on a kg or two, but that is normal.

So I did. And I did put that kg on. But now, as I am eating 2500-2600 calories a day, I am losing weight again where I was not on 1500.

Please don't fall into the trap like I did. Less calories is BAD. They say you shouldn't lose more than a kg per week for a good reason.

Pleeeease, don't do to yourself what I did to myself. I lost 34kg in 6 months, which is a great achievement even if I say so myself, but I'd rather have only lost 25 and had steady loss rather than deal with the demotivation of stepping on the scale after a month of eating 1500 calories and doing 10 or more hours of exercise a week to find I hadn't dropped even half a kg.

I should also add, on a brighter note, that I start a Master Personal Trainer course at the Australian Institute of Fitness in 2 weeks

[b0son]

Originally Posted by MWTB

I was on 1500 calories (I weigh my food, I am precise) for 2 months. I lost a few kg and then stopped. I was doing heavy weight training every day and cardio afterwards for 30 minutes or more. I also work an extremely physical job. It is not possible that I was not losing weight if my metabolism was working as it should.

A 1000cal deficit, and NO weight loss?

Lets do the math.

1000Cal = the energy required to heat 1000kg water by 1 deg, or 50kg of water by 20deg.

Your body is 50-60% water, so say 50kg water (wont worry about the non-water parts of the body in this example).

To maintain weight (in this context, I mean not burn glycogen/fat/protein)while doing all that you were, AND get a 1000Cal deficit, your body temperature would have to have dropped by close to 20deg. Did it? If it did, you wouldn't be here to post about it.

What actually happened was:

1. your BMR was lower than you thought. it drops as your weight drops. your TDEE drops as your weight drops too.

2. you were retaining water. significant calorie deficits increase cortisol. intense exercise increases cortisol. cortisol increases water retention (this should make sense as water is the most critical nutrient you need in the short-term).

At the end of the day, a calorie deficit causes your body to burn stored fuel. Yes, there are studies that show significant calorie deficits lead to *some* sparing of fat, but this is more related to sparing of brown fat (which your body burns for heat) not so much white fat (which is by far the most abundant in the body).

Metabolic damage is just the latest term being thrown around by the bodybuilding/fitness industry, and its quite frankly a load of rubbish. There is no damage, its simply an adaptive response that can easily be accounted for, and reversed (and very quickly).