How to Improve My Fat Loss and Muscle Loss Rates
In a prior post was a discussion of issues about my too low fat loss rate and my too high non-fat loss rate. In English, I need to lose more body fat while retaining or growing non-fat weight. If you need a backgrounder on food metabolism, please see here.
Using three common levers - exercise, way of eating, and macro selection- here's what I have in mind.
I can exercise only so much. A delicate left shoulder and occasionally unamused left knee put limits on full body work. One on my Iron Rules of exercise is to avoid injury. The resistance band Tabata sets can only be done differently with increasing volume (from 3 sets to 4, ...). I'm going to try to crank down the time on the water row Tabata sets from 4 minutes/2 minutes to 60 seconds/30 seconds. That sounds like fun.
Weight work is a bit more complicated. It'll take a few more passes to settle on a stable session of sets and reps, with many of the sets ending in failure. After that, a few things come to mind. Reducing the 5 set exercises down to 4, then 3, then 2. ... with a corresponding increase in weights. Roughly, if I go from 5 to 4 sets, I should be able to add 20% to the weight. 4 to 3, and 3 to 2, sound scary. That'll be interesting.
It would be useful if I could find an 'easier to get to' exercise state. Perhaps a plank challenge. There's a lot of them.
Way of eating (WoE) usually refers to a pattern of feeding and fasting, or exclusion diets, like "ZC" (zero carb) which is shorthand for carnivore. My WoE uses fasting 4 to 6 days per week, and includes one long fast (40+ hours), many 16 to 20 hour fast days, and at least 1 'refeeding' day, usually the day after the 40+ hour fast. My intent is to maintain that pattern, mostly.
One of the pattern breaks that I've done before, and will do again, is the potato hack.
Another pattern break will be to bracket weight and water row sessions with protein. That is, to eat before and after, about 30 grams of protein each. I'm curious to see how my stomach responds.
Finally, the big one: macros. I've used the ketogains calculator to get approximate values. I use MyFitnessPal to record calorie intake. I've learned just how maddening it is to estimate and count calories, so I'm careful but not pedantic about it. Close enough is close enough. The details:
Carbs: Goal is at or under 22 grams per day. Which isn't much, at all. 12 ounces of black tea, black, is worth 2 carbs. I do this primarily to avoid raising my insulin levels, because that stuff inhibits lipolysis. It's tough to "burn fat" if it will not come out of it's cell ...
Fats: The number I use is 107 grams per day, but really, I don't much care if I get that much. I try to use fat to keep from feeling hungry. Alcohol is in this bucket as well. If my body's willing to use fat for energy, I'd rather it came from inside me, rather from outside. Alas, the human body doesn't store alcohol.
Protein: The target here is 175 grams per day. Which is a non-trivial task, and one more reason I need to bracket exercise with protein. I'd also prefer to spread this out over the day, rather than eat a 25 ounce steak at night. Again, that insulin thing. Not to mention, that's a big steak.
Doing all this leads to protein on salads (grateful for the air fryer, and cheap vinegar), cottage cheese and yogurt, with almonds and pumpkin seeds, for morning foods, eggs, all the veggies we usually buy. Not much different. Just more attention to protein and when it arrives.
We shall see, in the fullness of time ...
Using three common levers - exercise, way of eating, and macro selection- here's what I have in mind.
I can exercise only so much. A delicate left shoulder and occasionally unamused left knee put limits on full body work. One on my Iron Rules of exercise is to avoid injury. The resistance band Tabata sets can only be done differently with increasing volume (from 3 sets to 4, ...). I'm going to try to crank down the time on the water row Tabata sets from 4 minutes/2 minutes to 60 seconds/30 seconds. That sounds like fun.
Weight work is a bit more complicated. It'll take a few more passes to settle on a stable session of sets and reps, with many of the sets ending in failure. After that, a few things come to mind. Reducing the 5 set exercises down to 4, then 3, then 2. ... with a corresponding increase in weights. Roughly, if I go from 5 to 4 sets, I should be able to add 20% to the weight. 4 to 3, and 3 to 2, sound scary. That'll be interesting.
It would be useful if I could find an 'easier to get to' exercise state. Perhaps a plank challenge. There's a lot of them.
Way of eating (WoE) usually refers to a pattern of feeding and fasting, or exclusion diets, like "ZC" (zero carb) which is shorthand for carnivore. My WoE uses fasting 4 to 6 days per week, and includes one long fast (40+ hours), many 16 to 20 hour fast days, and at least 1 'refeeding' day, usually the day after the 40+ hour fast. My intent is to maintain that pattern, mostly.
One of the pattern breaks that I've done before, and will do again, is the potato hack.
Another pattern break will be to bracket weight and water row sessions with protein. That is, to eat before and after, about 30 grams of protein each. I'm curious to see how my stomach responds.
Finally, the big one: macros. I've used the ketogains calculator to get approximate values. I use MyFitnessPal to record calorie intake. I've learned just how maddening it is to estimate and count calories, so I'm careful but not pedantic about it. Close enough is close enough. The details:
Carbs: Goal is at or under 22 grams per day. Which isn't much, at all. 12 ounces of black tea, black, is worth 2 carbs. I do this primarily to avoid raising my insulin levels, because that stuff inhibits lipolysis. It's tough to "burn fat" if it will not come out of it's cell ...
Fats: The number I use is 107 grams per day, but really, I don't much care if I get that much. I try to use fat to keep from feeling hungry. Alcohol is in this bucket as well. If my body's willing to use fat for energy, I'd rather it came from inside me, rather from outside. Alas, the human body doesn't store alcohol.
Protein: The target here is 175 grams per day. Which is a non-trivial task, and one more reason I need to bracket exercise with protein. I'd also prefer to spread this out over the day, rather than eat a 25 ounce steak at night. Again, that insulin thing. Not to mention, that's a big steak.
Doing all this leads to protein on salads (grateful for the air fryer, and cheap vinegar), cottage cheese and yogurt, with almonds and pumpkin seeds, for morning foods, eggs, all the veggies we usually buy. Not much different. Just more attention to protein and when it arrives.
We shall see, in the fullness of time ...
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