People try to lose fat, but it usually happens that they lose their lean muscle mass instead of losing the stored fats. The major reason behind losing lean muscle is that our system, sometimes, do not use stored fats for getting energy for physical activities.
Fat loss requires a different approach. First of all, let’s talk about calories. Calories are the basic foundation on which our diet is designed. A calorie can be called as the basic foundation around which our diet is designed as the basic purpose of our food is to provide much-required energy for growth of body parts as well as provide energy for different functions. The relation between calories and fat loss is that we need to consume fewer calories than you burn each day. The body requires a certain amount of calories to operate or full fill the energy requirement for different daily activities like breathing, blood circulation, digestion, and other additional activities or physical work you perform throughout the day. By consuming fewer calories than what your body actually needs to perform all the functions, you just force your body to tap into the fat source to obtain the required energy. This is called a calorie deficit. As long as you keep your body in this state over time, it will continue to extract energy from the fat source which can vary. So, our system will continue to burn fats at 1 – 2 pounds/ week.
Find the right calorie deficit to Lose Fat
This part is very important and you should not start cutting any amount of calories from your diet. Too much of the deficit value will lead to waste away a lot of lean muscle tissue. A muscle is metabolically active and it usually burns energy on its own even when not performing any activity at all. The more muscle mass you lose, the slower your metabolism actually becomes.
Also, too large of deficit can trigger your system starvation mechanism. Since your consumption is a lot less than the required value, your system will go into a self-survival mode and it does everything to hold on the stored fats rather than burn fat for getting energy. What happening here is that your system is burning lean muscle protein for energy in spite of Fat loss for energy. The purpose here is to set a deficit value that is large enough to trigger Fat Loss but small enough to maintain lean muscles to keep your entire system out of ‘hold fat’ mode.
The point here is to set a calorie deficient that is large enough to encourage the body to burn body fats energy but small enough so that your lean muscles stay intact unharmed and the body stays out of the auto survival mode.
What must be calorie deficit to Lose Fat
This value varies for each individual but most widely used calorie deficit is for people to consume 15-20% fewer calories than your system maintenance level. A person doing hard labor job burns more energy than a person doing a sitting job. So, the maintenance level is different for every individual.
So, in order to lose fat, you need to find out the maintenance level of your system. To figure out your maintenance level, you need to find out your muscle metabolic rate …… average. Once you find your maintenance level, reduce to 15-20% fewer calories. This will help to in fat loss without losing lean muscle mass.
15 – 20% less calories. This will help you reduce body fat without losing lean muscle mass.
Formula to calculate your body metabolism rate
FORMULA 1
For male :- BMR(basal metabolic rate) = 66 + (13.7 x weight in kg) + (5 x height in cm) – (6.8 x age in years)
For female :- BMR = 655 + (9.6 x weight in kg) + (1.8 x height in cm) – (4.7 x age in years).
FORMULA 2
Sedentary = BMR x 1.2 (Little or no exercise)
Lightly active = BMR x 1.375 (Light exercise 1 – 3 days/week)
Moderately Active = BMR x 1.55 (Moderate exercise 3 – 5 days/week)
Very active = BMR x 1.725 (Hard exercise 6 – 7 days/week)
Extra active = BMR x 1.9 (Hard daily exercise 2x day)
Once you find your body BMR, you will be able to calculate your calories maintenance level. Now just reduce that number by 15 – 20% and you will get your daily caloric range for fat loss.
Remember, if done seriously, it may be the quickest way to lose your extra fats in the body.
At last, all the important information we share above can only help you if followed in a disciplined manner. Make a plan and then dedicate your self to execute it seriously, if you really want to lose fat.