By Diarmuid Cavanagh
Introduction
Welcome back to our fat loss series! If you missed part 1 on the physiology of fat loss, be sure to check it out here.
In this instalment, we’ll explore key dietary components and practical strategies to enhance your fat loss journey. We’ll discuss the roles of dietary protein, fat, and carbohydrates, highlighting their nutrient profiles and the importance of mindful consumption. You’ll also learn about muscle maintenance, intermittent fasting, alongside how exercise and hydration affect our progress.
Dietary Protein
There often seems to be an overemphasis on how satiating protein is. However, what truly matters is not just the protein itself, but the overall nutrient profile of the food, including calorie density, texture and other macronutrients; the “protein package” is what matters most. The graph below illustrates that a food’s high protein content does not necessarily correlate with weight loss or body weight maintenance.
Here are my go to protein recommendations.
0% Greek Yoghurt, Cottage Cheese, Low fat paneer, chicken/ turkey breast, white fish, egg whites, protein powders, soy, seitan, mycoprotein, textured vegetable protein.
Figue from: Smith JD, Hou T, Ludwig DS, Rimm EB, Willett W, Hu FB, Mozaffarian D. Changes in intake of protein foods, carbohydrate amount and quality, and long-term weight change: results from 3 prospective cohorts. Am J Clin Nutr. 2015 Jun;101(6):1216-24. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.114.100867. Epub 2015 Apr 8. PMID: 25854882; PMCID: PMC4441808.
Dietary Fat
I don’t recommend a low-fat diet, but being more mindful about excessive consumption of dietary fat is a good idea. Fat is calorie-dense, providing about nine calories per gram compared to four calories per gram for carbohydrates and protein. This means it’s easy to overconsume calories if you’re not mindful with high-fat foods. While dietary fat is essential for overall health, it’s important to pay attention to the amount you consume.
Simple changes can make a big difference, such as using a tablespoon when pouring olive oil to control portions. You can also opt for lower-fat versions of foods you regularly consume, use a 2-calorie cooking spray instead of regular oil, and reducing your intake of fried foods and baked goods will help make fat loss easier
Keeping dietary fat between 0.8-1g per kg of bodyfat is a safe shout for fat loss without compromising your health.
Carbohydrates
Although not physiologically essential, carbohydrates should make up a large portion of your fat loss diet, consuming plenty of beans, grains and legumes, fruit and veggies whilst being mindful of Free sugars and refined carbohydrates is another big lever to pull for fat loss. Fibre is a pretty good proxy for the carbohydrate quality and if your fibre is above 25 grams a day your carbohydrate choices are more than likely in a great spot for fat loss.
If you could strive to eat above these recommendations on most days whilst keeping calories in check you will have nailed your carbohydrates
40g of Oats (Dry weight)
40g of Legumes (Dry weight)
>150g Potatoes (ideally air fried, baked or boiled)
200g Fruit Daily
400g Veggies Daily
The Satiety Index is a measure of how full and satisfied a particular food makes you feel after eating it, relative to the same calorie content of other foods. Developed by researchers, it ranks foods based on their ability to curb hunger helping to guide healthier food choices for weight management. Adapted from Holt, S.H.A. & Brand-Miller, Jennie & Petocz, Peter & Farmakalidis, E. (1995). A Satiety Index of common foods. European journal of clinical nutrition. 49. 675-90.
Rates of Weight Loss
A 15% calorie deficit is a very safe approach, for the vast majority of people aiming to lose 1% of bodyweight per week is the sweet spot. This is fast enough for you to notice changes and build positive reinforcement while being slow enough that you have enough energy available to drive the positive adaptations from training and still have a social life. As you get leaner it is a good idea to slow the rate of loss so that you can maintain muscle mass and performance in the gym. Use the calorie calculator below to determine your calorie and protein targets.
LINK to the KMAK Protein Calculator
Maintaining/Building Muscle Mass
For the vast majority of people the goal is an athletic/toned look and this is not achieved through weight loss alone, building muscle whilst burning fat is most likely what you need to to achieve your goal physique. Consuming 1.6g/kg of bodyweight of protein alongside not losing weight too fast will be sufficient to build muscle for newer gym goers and maintain muscle mass for individuals with 5+ years of resistance training under their belt.
Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting can be a useful tool, It’s not doing anything magical from a physiological perspective but it can be a valuable tool to use for some people if reducing the eating window, makes it easier to maintain a caloric deficit. However, like any diet, the calories consumed within the eating window dictate if an individual will lose fat or not
Refeeds and Diet Breaks
Refeeds and diet breaks involve temporarily increasing caloric intake, often through higher carbohydrates, to help prevent metabolic slow-down and mental fatigue. The data on refeeds and diet breaks is pretty underwhelming, but I think they can be useful for reducing the psychological fatigue of dieting. In reality, most people don’t need a re-feed unless they’re getting very lean and pushing toward a photoshoot. Social events and holidays often serve as natural refeeds or diet breaks.
The Role of Exercise:
Exercise & physical activity seem to have a relationship that looks like this.
Low physical activity can dysregulate appetite, leading to overeating and weight gain. Higher levels of activity improve appetite control to a certain extent. Being high in body fat and inactive may further disrupt appetite and satiety signals, complicating weight loss efforts. At very high levels, additional activity may cause over-compensatory eating that outweighs the calories burned. There seems to be large inter individual variation when it comes to the relationship between exercises and appetite, but if you can increase your physical activity lets say to above 8000 steps a day whilst simultaneously reducing the energy density of your diet this is the best approach we have for creating your calorie deficit.
Water Intake
Although the idea of “drinking 8 cups of water a day” isn’t actually evidence based and the literature around water intake as an intervention for fat loss is pretty limited, its still going to be a good idea to get your water intake above 85 Ounces a day. There is preliminary evidence that 500ml water before meals does seem to lead to increased weight loss. It may also lead to a slight increase in resting metabolic rate but this increase in RMR it not something that is will really help with fat loss to any large extent.
Underrated Considerations
Fat loss is more of an organization thing than a discipline thing. Organize yourself so that the behaviors you want to do are easy and the ones you don’t want to do are difficult. Prep meals ahead of time, schedule training sessions, and plan activities that generate positive emotion that are unrelated to weight loss, like a nature walk, yoga, reading, swimming, or hiking. When it comes to fat loss, it’s essential to focus on doing things that boost positive emotion. The better your headspace, the more likely you are to do the difficult things, like sticking to behaviours that get you to your goal. Also, prioritise getting enough sleep as insufficient sleep will negatively effect your decision making and hunger signals
Something I’ve noticed across all clients who find it relatively easy to lose body fat is that they are busy working on completely unrelated things that drive positive emotion, such as career progress, studying, training, or learning new skills. Let fat loss come as a result of becoming preoccupied with other more important goals.
If you can handle social situations well, you can manage anything. When planning for social events, KMAK clients are likely familiar with our approach. If not, here are some general tips: check the menu in advance and avoid the most boring option; otherwise, you might feel resentful looking at what others are eating and end up ordering a big dessert. Choose something enjoyable that also includes a good amount of protein and vegetables. Make small reductions to your calorie intake earlier in the day and get plenty of protein, fruit and veggies in to help you feel full. Have a protein shake/Greek yoghourt, and some fruit about 90 minutes before the meal to avoid arriving too hungry. When dining out, request sauces on the side and ask for less oil to cut down on extra calories. For drinks, choose spirits with diet mixers instead of cocktails or beer to minimize liquid calories.