FAT LOSS

A healthy rate of weight loss is .5-1% of body weight per week. The more weight you have to lose results in a faster rate of weight loss. Ideally though, the slower you lose weight the more muscle mass you will maintain in the process. So, anything more than this 1% and you’re looking at a higher rate of muscle loss.

To calculate your ideal weight loss: .005 X BW = LBS/WEEK.

01 X BW = LBS/WEEK

EXAMPLE:

.005 X 145LBS = .725 LBS/WEEK

.01 X 145LBS = 1.45 LBS/WEEK

I would be looking to lose .7-1.5lbs/ week for optimal health.

Use the chart below to best determine yours.

BODY WEIGHT Weight Loss Per Week

250 1.25 – 2.5 lbs.

225 1.1 – 2.25 lbs.

200 1 – 2 lbs.

175 0.8 – 1.75 lbs.

150 0.75 – 1.5 lbs.

125 0.6 – 1.3 lbs.

Pushing for a greater fat loss rate than these calculations can result in hormone imbalances, metabolic stress, and increased loss of muscle tissue. In my experience, it can also create an unhealthy relationship with food, less-than-ideal eating habits as well as increased overall stress due to the physical stress of being in a large caloric deficit. Our goal here is SUSTAINABILITY.

To create this deficit, we’re going to use your current caloric intake as a baseline (the one you found above). As an idea, let’s say you found your maintenance during that two weeks. As a general rule, creating a 15-20% caloric deficit from maintenance is going to put you at an ideal fat loss rate. 5-10% is fairly conservative and 25-30% is extremely aggressive (sometimes doable/necessary depending on a specific goal).

Ideally, we always start with a minimum effective dosage. We want to maintain as much muscle mass as possible, avoid as much hunger as possible, as well as avoid the downregulation of our metabolism through a large caloric deficit.

Let’s use the above maintenance findings to look at what a 15% caloric deficit would look like.

DEFICIT=15% (.15) X MAINTENANCE CALS

.15 X 1890 CALS = 283 DEFICIT CALS

MAINTENANCE CALS – DEFICIT CALS= FAT LOSS CALS

1890 CALS – 283 CALS = 1607 CALS/DAY FOR FAT LOSS

1607 X 7 DAYS/WEEK = 11,249 WEEKLY AVERAGE

These calculations should put you losing your “ideal” average amount of weight per week when done with your personal maintenance calories.

MUSCLE BUILDING

Most women come to me saying they want to just “tone” – which I’m here to tell you, means BUILD MUSCLE. Most people think it just means losing fat but I can just about guarantee that when it’s all said and done, just losing fat is not going to get you the physique most people are looking to get. After a phase of losing fat, most people need to do a building phase. Unless you are a complete beginner in the weight room, it’s really quite difficult to build muscle and it requires at least a slight caloric surplus. This can be a scary thing for someone who wants to lose weight, but I PROMISE YOU – it’s worth it and if you’re consistent and train hard, you will see the benefits of it.

“RECOMP” or body recomposition is a word that gets thrown around a lot in the fitness community. It essentially means losing fat WHILE building muscle. What science currently shows us is that while it is possible for all levels of athletes, it is more noticeable in beginner lifters and as you’ll see below, muscle gain becomes more difficult the more experience you have so the results of a true recomp become harder to achieve.

More seasoned lifters only need a 5-10% caloric surplus to provide enough fuel to build muscle. The more trained you are, the harder it’s going to be to build muscle. Also, generally, the leaner you are, to begin with, the harder it’s going to be if you don’t put yourself in a little bit bigger caloric surplus. Here’s a general reference chart.

Your caloric needs and the rate at which you build muscle are highly dependent on your genetics, gender, and your experience. Males as a rule tend to build muscle faster than females due to higher testosterone.

TRAINING EXPERIENCE CALORIC SURPLUS RATE OF MUSCLE GAIN

Beginner (0-2yr) 15-20% 1-1.5% BW / MONTH

Intermediate (2-4yrs) 10-15% .5-1% BW /MONTH

Advanced (4+yrs) 5-15% .25-.5% BW /MONTH

This is all under the assumption you are building muscle naturally, without steroids. I will most generally error on the lower side of an increase to avoid unwanted fat gain – but depending on your goals and timeline that would be an individual decision.

Let’s look at an example of how that would look using the above maintenance level for an intermediate lifter.

CALORIC SURPLUS = MAINTENANCE CALS X SURPLUS %

1890 X 10% SURPLUS = 189

1890 CALS + 189 CALS = 2079 DAILY CALS

2079 DAILY CALS X 7 DAYS/WEEK = 14553/ WEEK

With these calories and your given goal, you would track your progress just like you would with fat loss or finding maintenance. If you can get a body composition test done, that is another way to track – otherwise, you’ll use the scale.

At 145 lbs as an intermediate lifter, with these calories, I would expect to gain no more than .7-1.5 lbs/month in muscle, so while I may see a slightly higher increase in the scale due to fat gain – any more than 3-5 lbs would be excess gain. Given that we’re using a fairly conservative approach in this example – I would be surprised to see that, but if that were the case, then decreasing calories by another 5% may better serve your goals. Within a range, the more fat you’re okay with gaining, the quicker you’re able to build muscle (to an extent).