Why Do We Need Fat Loss
There is no denying that we are facing a global obesity crisis. In 2017 it was estimated that 2.1 billion people (30%) of the world’s population were overweight, this is expected to rise above 50% by 2030, with 5% of worldwide deaths caused by obesity, this rise in obesity numbers is sure to see an increase in obesity related deaths (Tremmel, Gerdtham, Nilsson & Saha, 2017). The World Health Organisation calculated that in 2016, 1.9 billion people were overweight and 650 million were obese. A staggering 39 million children under 5 years old were overweight or obese in 2020. The WHO ranks obesity or being overweight as 5th in thelist of worldwide causes of death.
There are many factors which cause obesity such as poor diet choices, portion size, comfort eating, inactivity, yoyo dieting, food rewarding, cheap meals etc. Emotional, socio-economicand physical factors all contribute to the situation each individual may find themselves in, these problems are now no longer confined to countries in the developed world. There has been a sharp rise in obesity in countries in Africa and Asia where diets have traditionally consisted of meat, fish and fresh vegetables.
Firstly, let us look at what is considered overweight or obese.
Body mass index (BMI = Kgs/m2) and body composition (body fat percentage) are the mostcommon forms of calculating health and fitness. Body fat percentage tends to be a more accurate measure, as 2 individuals with similar BMI could differ in relation to lean body mass (LBM) and body fat percentage while both being classed as obese. This can paint an inaccurate picture of the health for more muscular athletes (Cook, Kirk, Lawrenson & Sandford, 2005).
Healthy BMI values differ across country of origin and gender, with overweight values typically classed as >25.0 kg/m2 and obese >30.0kg/m2, while body fat percentages >25% for males and >35% for females signal obesity
Classing obesity using bodyfat appears to be the most accurate method of screening(Provencher et al., 2018). A Korean study of 12,386 people showed it is possible to have acceptable BMI but have a high body fat percentage. This is known as “metabolically obese normal weight” (MONW) (Kim, Han & Yang, 2012). I have heard this being referred to in slang terms as “skinny fat”. This condition can be problematic, as people believe they are within the healthy range, but may be so low in muscle mass that their immune function is lower, while also being at higher risk of heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. The study also showed that people below average height along with those who store fat around the torso are also at a greater risk of cardiovascular disease.
Obesity Induced Sickness
Higher body fat is linked to diseases such as
• type 2 diabetes
• hypertension
• gal bladder disease
• coronary heart disease
• stroke
• cancer
• osteoarthritis
• sleep apnea and breathing difficulty
• reduced sports performance
• reduced running economy
The risk of disease is increased because the body becomes resistant to insulin, leading to a state of proinflammatory, where disease thrives . An anecdotal reference from myself: I remember getting my blood work done by Phil Richards, a fitness industry expert, who told me that cancer thrives in a dehydrated acidic body, and my blood looked like that of an old sick man. Pretty terrifying right?
A previous study compared 2 groups of men, an obese group (28-32% bodyfat) and a lean group (9-11% bodyfat) all matched for age, height and weight (Segal, K. R., Gutin, B., Nyman, A. M.,1985). The study showed lower levels of metabolism before, during and after food intake and training for the obese group. This study indicates that the lower your fat free mass or LBM, the lower your metabolic ability to burn calories that you consume, implying, the more muscle you have, the better you can deal with calories in.
What is fat loss?
Fat loss is when we reduce body fat percentage by altering our diet and/or training methods? The most straightforward way to achieve fat loss is to expend more calories than you consume (energy balance).
Energy balance suggests that the number of calories you eat, regardless of where those calories come from, determines how much body weight you gain or lose. To lose body fat we must have a calorie deficit. This means that, we must take in less calories than we use in our daily lives.
Calculate Calorie Deficit MEGA IMPORTANT
What needs to be known before you embark on your fat loss journey is your daily maintenance calories which is your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). TDEE consists of your basal metabolic rate (BMR), I like to use the Müller equation to quantify this, your non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT), the thermic effect of food (TEF) and your daily exercise activity.
Once these are measured, we calculate how much weight we want to lose and over how long. So, if I want to lose 1kg over a month, that will consist of 70% fat + 30% muscle. Muscle is then 70% protein and 30% water, the calculation will look like this:
Þ 1kg = 700g of fat (700g x 9 calories) + 300g of muscle ((300g x 0.7) x 4 calories)
Þ 6300 fat calories + 840 protein calories
Þ 7140 calories
Þ 7140/30 days
Þ 238 daily deficit calories for 30 days to lose 1kg
You simply deduct your desired calories from your daily maintenance calories over the desired period you want to lose the volume of weight in.
Remember, as you lose weight, your BMR also drops, so you constantly need to reassess BMR and so reduce calorie intake if you want to maintain fat loss.
You should never reduce your calorie intake below your BMR in an effort to speed up fat loss. This will only reduce your BMR to match your calorie intake, making it more difficult to build muscle. Should you increase your calories again, you will then increase fat gain at a considerable rate. This is the mechanism by which yoyo dieting causes so much weight gain.
Maintaining Muscle Mass
By creating a calorie deficit, we do not only lose fat as we have seen, we also lose a certain amount of muscle. Providing adequate daily protein is consumed, we can limit the amount of muscle we lose. During a calorie deficit, obese people can lose roughly 70% fat and 30% muscle per kilo of weight lost, but for leaner people the ratio can reach 50:50. It is therefore vital that we consume enough protein to preserve muscle and prevent atrophy, the quantity of protein per day can range between 1.6g – 2.2g of protein per kilo of bodyweight (Schoenfeld & Aragon, 2018).
When Is Enough?
To achieve a typically lean body, men should aim to be 10-15% bodyfat, while females under 25% could be considered lean. At the end of the day, there is no perfect fat percentage, only the optimum fat percentage range that for you is sustainable, healthy and allows you to lead a fulfilling life.
There is no denying that we are facing a global obesity crisis. In 2017 it was estimated that 2.1 billion people (30%) of the world’s population were overweight, this is expected to rise above 50% by 2030, with 5% of worldwide deaths caused by obesity, this rise in obesity numbers is sure to see an increase in obesity related deaths (Tremmel, Gerdtham, Nilsson & Saha, 2017). The World Health Organisation calculated that in 2016, 1.9 billion people were overweight and 650 million were obese. A staggering 39 million children under 5 years old were overweight or obese in 2020. The WHO ranks obesity or being overweight as 5th in thelist of worldwide causes of death.
There are many factors which cause obesity such as poor diet choices, portion size, comfort eating, inactivity, yoyo dieting, food rewarding, cheap meals etc. Emotional, socio-economicand physical factors all contribute to the situation each individual may find themselves in, these problems are now no longer confined to countries in the developed world. There has been a sharp rise in obesity in countries in Africa and Asia where diets have traditionally consisted of meat, fish and fresh vegetables.
Firstly, let us look at what is considered overweight or obese.
Body mass index (BMI = Kgs/m2) and body composition (body fat percentage) are the mostcommon forms of calculating health and fitness. Body fat percentage tends to be a more accurate measure, as 2 individuals with similar BMI could differ in relation to lean body mass (LBM) and body fat percentage while both being classed as obese. This can paint an inaccurate picture of the health for more muscular athletes (Cook, Kirk, Lawrenson & Sandford, 2005).
Healthy BMI values differ across country of origin and gender, with overweight values typically classed as >25.0 kg/m2 and obese >30.0kg/m2, while body fat percentages >25% for males and >35% for females signal obesity
Classing obesity using bodyfat appears to be the most accurate method of screening(Provencher et al., 2018). A Korean study of 12,386 people showed it is possible to have acceptable BMI but have a high body fat percentage. This is known as “metabolically obese normal weight” (MONW) (Kim, Han & Yang, 2012). I have heard this being referred to in slang terms as “skinny fat”. This condition can be problematic, as people believe they are within the healthy range, but may be so low in muscle mass that their immune function is lower, while also being at higher risk of heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. The study also showed that people below average height along with those who store fat around the torso are also at a greater risk of cardiovascular disease.
Obesity Induced Sickness
Higher body fat is linked to diseases such as
• type 2 diabetes
• hypertension
• gal bladder disease
• coronary heart disease
• stroke
• cancer
• osteoarthritis
• sleep apnea and breathing difficulty
• reduced sports performance
• reduced running economy
The risk of disease is increased because the body becomes resistant to insulin, leading to a state of proinflammatory, where disease thrives . An anecdotal reference from myself: I remember getting my blood work done by Phil Richards, a fitness industry expert, who told me that cancer thrives in a dehydrated acidic body, and my blood looked like that of an old sick man. Pretty terrifying right?
A previous study compared 2 groups of men, an obese group (28-32% bodyfat) and a lean group (9-11% bodyfat) all matched for age, height and weight (Segal, K. R., Gutin, B., Nyman, A. M.,1985). The study showed lower levels of metabolism before, during and after food intake and training for the obese group. This study indicates that the lower your fat free mass or LBM, the lower your metabolic ability to burn calories that you consume, implying, the more muscle you have, the better you can deal with calories in.
What is fat loss?
Fat loss is when we reduce body fat percentage by altering our diet and/or training methods? The most straightforward way to achieve fat loss is to expend more calories than you consume (energy balance).
Energy balance suggests that the number of calories you eat, regardless of where those calories come from, determines how much body weight you gain or lose. To lose body fat we must have a calorie deficit. This means that, we must take in less calories than we use in our daily lives.
Calculate Calorie Deficit MEGA IMPORTANT
What needs to be known before you embark on your fat loss journey is your daily maintenance calories which is your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). TDEE consists of your basal metabolic rate (BMR), I like to use the Müller equation to quantify this, your non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT), the thermic effect of food (TEF) and your daily exercise activity.
Once these are measured, we calculate how much weight we want to lose and over how long. So, if I want to lose 1kg over a month, that will consist of 70% fat + 30% muscle. Muscle is then 70% protein and 30% water, the calculation will look like this:
Þ 1kg = 700g of fat (700g x 9 calories) + 300g of muscle ((300g x 0.7) x 4 calories)
Þ 6300 fat calories + 840 protein calories
Þ 7140 calories
Þ 7140/30 days
Þ 238 daily deficit calories for 30 days to lose 1kg
You simply deduct your desired calories from your daily maintenance calories over the desired period you want to lose the volume of weight in.
Remember, as you lose weight, your BMR also drops, so you constantly need to reassess BMR and so reduce calorie intake if you want to maintain fat loss.
You should never reduce your calorie intake below your BMR in an effort to speed up fat loss. This will only reduce your BMR to match your calorie intake, making it more difficult to build muscle. Should you increase your calories again, you will then increase fat gain at a considerable rate. This is the mechanism by which yoyo dieting causes so much weight gain.
Maintaining Muscle Mass
By creating a calorie deficit, we do not only lose fat as we have seen, we also lose a certain amount of muscle. Providing adequate daily protein is consumed, we can limit the amount of muscle we lose. During a calorie deficit, obese people can lose roughly 70% fat and 30% muscle per kilo of weight lost, but for leaner people the ratio can reach 50:50. It is therefore vital that we consume enough protein to preserve muscle and prevent atrophy, the quantity of protein per day can range between 1.6g – 2.2g of protein per kilo of bodyweight (Schoenfeld & Aragon, 2018).
When Is Enough?
To achieve a typically lean body, men should aim to be 10-15% bodyfat, while females under 25% could be considered lean. At the end of the day, there is no perfect fat percentage, only the optimum fat percentage range that for you is sustainable, healthy and allows you to lead a fulfilling life.
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