Tag: Diet

Diet: the truth about planning your calories and nutrition for maximum results (weight loss, etc.).

Starvation Mode: fact or fiction?

Christian Bale in The Machinist
Christian Bale in The Machinist

You may have heard about the danger of going into “starvation mode” if you don’t eat enough calories while trying to lose fat.  The idea is that you’ll start losing muscle and wake up one morning looking like Christian Bale’s sickly movie character.  This fear lead many of us bodybuilding types to believe that you had to eat six times a day to keep the precious lean mass gained during training.

The starvation mode terminology still gets thrown around a good bit today.  I remember hearing it from a trainer a few years ago while watching The Biggest Loser.  The before-mentioned trainer was warning a contestant (his trainee) not to go any lower on calories.

Do we really lose all our muscle when calories are set very low?  Not necessarily.  One study looked at the impact of very-low-calorie diets (VLCD) on body composition in twenty subjects (17 women and 3 men).  All twenty subjects ate only 800 calories for 12 weeks (a liquid diet). The subjects were divided into two groups: one group did cardiovascular training four times a week while the other did resistance training (lifting weights) three times a week (the weight lifting group did circuit training–their routine consisted of 10 different exercises).

There were some striking differences in how the exercise type affected the subjects’ bodies. Those who trained with weights experienced an increase in their resting metabolic rate (RMR) despite the low calories (the cardiovascular training group’s resting metabolic rate decreased).  The cardiovascular training group lost more weight, but some of this weight was muscle.   The resistance training group kept all their muscle despite the ultra-low calories.  Repeat: those who trained with weights did not lose muscle. 1

Let me make something clear: I would not recommend anyone attempt this kind of diet without medical supervision.  800 calories a day is extremely low:  the typical trainee will lose weight on around 11-12 calories per lb of body weight a day (much higher than what these subjects were taking in).  And I can’t tell what the subjects’ starting body fat levels were, which would also make a big difference (the leaner we get, the more resistant our body becomes to losing fat).

But this experiment does leave us with an important takeaway: weight training is a powerfully effective strategy for preserving your muscle mass.  Those who desire to try intermittent fasting , for example, need not worry about losing muscle as long as they continue with resistance training.

Note:  I’d recommend Lyle McDonald’s Rapid Fat Loss Handbook if you are looking for a scientific guide to “crash” dieting (losing fat as quickly as possible).

Reference:

1. J Am Coll Nutr. 1999 Apr;18(2):115-21. Effects of resistance vs. aerobic training combined with an 800 calorie liquid diet on lean body mass and resting metabolic rate.

Holiday Weight Gain

holiday-weight-gain-in-the-us

It’s the time of year when people start regretting all the ham, cakes, cookies, and other holiday treats they’ve been eating.  You may have heard that the average person gains about five pounds during the holidays.   I decided to do a little research to see if this is true.

One study followed almost two hundred adults for a year to see how holiday eating (Thanksgiving through New Year) affected their weight.  They were weighed preholiday, holiday, postholiday, and a year later.   The study showed that most adults did put on extra weight during November-January, but it only averaged about a pound (.37 kg to be precise–as shown above).  Obese individuals tended to gain more, and 14% of the subjects did indeed put on five pounds. Here’s something else the researchers discovered: most of the subjects in this study never lost the weight they gained during the holiday.  The damage done was never reversed.1,2

This research backs up what we already know from personal experience and/or observation: weight gain is accelerated in the holiday season.   Most people don’t gain five pounds, but whatever they do gain stays with them (presumably for life).  It’s one contributing factor to the problem of obesity in the US.

One solution is to use the momentum of New Year’s resolutions to undo the “damage” caused by holiday eating–make a plan to drop a few pounds (more if needed).  There are plenty of good programs available to help you get started.

References:

1. N Engl J Med. 2000 Mar 23;342(12):861-7. A prospective study of holiday weight gain.

2. Nutr Rev. 2000 Dec;58(12):378-9. Holiday weight gain: fact or fiction?