2d ago in General discussion 💬
How Many Calories Can You Cut Before You Start To Lose Muscle?
You’re better off losing nothing than you are losing muscle.
Muscle is metabolically active tissue.
There’s no point losing weight if your metabolism drops because you’re going to gain all the weight back (and probably more) by losing muscle.
We want to lose as much fat as possible whilst holding onto as much lean mass as possible.
You want to be aggressive but not too aggressive because it starts to create more harm than good.
The entire theory is based around this study:
A Limit On The Energy Transfer Rate From The Human Fat Store In Hypophagia.
Basically, how much energy can your body fat provide from its fat reserves when you’re eating below maintenance calories (hypophagia).
This is possibly one of the most important studies for those who are interested in losing body fat because it tells you exactly the maximum amount of food you can eat each day in order to maximise fat loss without losing muscle mass.
In other words, your fat reserves provide you with only a limited amount of calories per day and you have to provide the rest, otherwise you will lose lean tissue.
The study actually came from the Minnesota Starvation Experiment Data which was titled The Biology of Human Starvation.
They had 36 volunteers who were given 1570 cal per day to eat for six months and they lost 25% of their body weight.
Using this data, they created the following mathematical model:
“A limit on the maximum energy transfer rate from the human fat store in hypophagia deduced from experimental data of underfed subjects maintaining moderate activity levels and is found to have a value of (290+/-25) kj/kgd.
A dietary restriction which exceeds the limited capability of the fat store to compensate for the energy deficiency results in an immediate decrease in the fat-free mass (FFM).
In cases of a less severe dietary deficiency, the FFM will not be depleted.”
What this is saying is that you will lose body fat if you eat enough calories to help your body fat feed you.
Furthermore , you will lose fat AND MUSCLE if you do not eat enough total calories.
If you know exactly how much body fat you have, then you can know how much energy it can provide for you each day.
If you make up the difference, you will lose fat without losing muscle. If you do not make up the difference from the calories you eat in a day, you will immediately start to lose muscle tissue.
Based on this study, every pound of fat can provide between 29-34 cal of energy per day.
We will just round it off to 30 cal per pound of fat to make up our own calculations moving forward.
It’s always best to make it less aggressive in order to hold onto as much lean mass as possible.
The good thing about these calculations is we don’t have to guess our total calorie target any more—we can know it.
We can set aggressive weight loss goals without worrying about losing muscle tissue.
You do however need to know how many pounds of body fat you currently have in your body, as well as your maintenance calories or total daily energy expenditure (TDEE).
You can find both by following these two links:
Let’s look at some real world examples:
- 300lb man with 40% body fat
- 150lb woman with 30% body fat
- 200lb man with 12% body fat
A 300lb man with 40% body fat would have 120lb of fat on their body. (300lb x 40% = 120lb)
120lb x 30 = 3600 calories
This means that this man’s fat can provide him with 3600 cal of fuel per day.
If you were to do a calculation on his maintenance calories, being sedentary, you would find that his maintenance calories would be at 2560 cal per day.
This means that this individual could pretty much not eat anything the entire day and his fat reserves (3600) would be more than capable to fuel his maintenance calories (2560) for the day.
They can be much more aggressive on their diet if their body fat can provide more calories than they need in one day.
In other words, if they choose to skip a day of eating by incorporating alternate day fasting, they would be great candidate for this.
If you have a lot of weight to lose, you can skip a day without worrying about losing muscle tissue.
Now let’s have a look at a 150lb woman with 30% body fat. She has 45lb of fat on her body. (150lb x 30 = 45lb)
45lb x 30 = 1350 calories
This means that this woman’s fat can provide her with 1350 cal of fuel per day.
If you were to do a calculation on her maintenance calories, being sedentary, you would find that her maintenance calories would be at 1678 cal per day.
1678 maintenance cal - 1350 cal from fat
= 328 calories minimum from food.
If her maintenance calories are 1678 and her body fat can provide 1350, then all she would need to eat per day would be 328 cal.
This person needs to be making sure that they’re eating at least this many calories per day.
This is not to say I am advising them to eat that little food, but that’s how many calories they would need to make sure they’re not tapping into muscle tissue.
Which means, this individual can also be a candidate for ADF, providing the fasting day they consume at least 328 minimum.
A 5:2 diet would be ideal for this person, where they can maybe consume 500 calories on the two fasting days and eat normally on the other five days.
Finally, what about a 200lb man who only has 12% body fat on their frame?
A 200lb man with 12% body fat would have 24lb of fat on their body. (200lb x 12 = 24lb)
24lb x 30 = 720 calories
His fat can provide 720 cal of fuel per day.
If you were to do a calculation on his maintenance calories, being sedentary, you would find that his maintenance calories would be at 2513 cal per day.
2513 maintenance cal - 720 cal from fat
= 1793 calories minimum from food.
This means that whatever diet this person is on, they should be consuming at least 1800 cal per day in order to maximise their fat loss whilst minimising muscle tissue.
If they go on a diet that’s much more strict than that, they will start losing muscle along with the fat.
As long as they’re consuming a minimum of 1793 cal from food per day, the rest can come from their belly.
I wouldn’t recommend alternate day fasting for this individual simply because their maintenance calories per day (2513) far exceeds the maximum amount of calories their fat reserves can provide in one day (720).
What I would recommend for this individual would be a time restricted feeding protocol, where they are consuming all of their calories within an allotted feeding window each day.
So what about you?
1.Determine your weight and body fat percentage by following this calculator using the Navy Method.
2.Find your maintenance calories (TDEE) by following this calculator.
3.Take your total weight and multiply it by your percentage in body fat to figure out how many pounds of fat are on your body.
4.Fat pounds x 30 = Fat Calories
5.TDEE - Fat Calories = Total calories you should eat every day to maximise fat loss without losing muscle.
Alternate day fasting would be a great tool for you to utilise if this number is zero or a negative number.
The above numbers are only estimates and you should always be open to making adjustments where necessary.
Remember, the goal is to lose no more than 0.5%-1% of your total bodyweight per week, unless you’ve got a lot to lose initially.
✌️
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How Many Calories Can You Cut Before You Start To Lose Muscle?
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