Hey hey!
Hope your weekend is going great. My new quarter is off and running. I had a great time at the StrongFirst barbell certification last weekend, and am excited to apply my learnings over the next few weeks (and years). I am also making one big change to my work - coaching much lesser than I normally do. More on that over the next few weeks.
On to the 3 things for this week.
How do you find out what the right thing for you is? I was recently asked this on a radio show and thought I’d expand on my answer and share it with you.
3 quotes, as always.
On a calorie deficit. If you are the analytical kind, this is a useful post for you to plan your fat loss or muscle gain. Yes, I know it says deficit but I cover both.
Here we go.
Find YOUR thing.
With experimentation. By trying it out.
By doing it. With the right mindset. And giving it enough time.
There are a gazillion options for fitness out there. There are umpteen diet protocols. And there are more and more people on the coaching side of things, as the fitness landscape opens up.
Inevitably, everyone starts to sound the same. The promises. The bravado. The 6-pack. The allure of transformations.
There are success stories in EVERYTHING. Including the most non-scientific bro-science methods out there. And there are failures - including in the best training protocols out there.
Because it all comes down to you.
As Coach Dan John says, there are many 8 weeks in 10 years. So, don't be in a rush. Pick one that resonates, talk to a couple of people in the community, talk to the coach - and jump in. Do it for 6-8 weeks and see how you like it. If you are okay with commitment, commit to a challenge - a race in 6 months, or a 6-month membership or whatever.
Before results, focus on effort. Just show up. Even if it is boring. Coz it will get tough and it will get boring, sooner or later. But keep showing up.
And after that, you will be a few steps ahead of where you are. And if what you are doing currently is not your cup of tea, don't force it. There are a lot of options out there, and you know a bit more about yourself now. Find something closer to your wavelength.
In a few attempts, in a few "8 weeks", you will get there.
Stay patient.
Experiment.
Find YOUR thing.
Is there a friend of yours who is confused about what to do? Do you think they could use some encouragement to find their own thing? If so, please share this post.
3 quotes
When pure feeling is corrupted by the intellect, there is mediocrity. That is what most of us are doing. Our lives are mediocre because we are always calculating, asking ourselves whether it is worthwhile, what profit we will get, not only in the world of money, but also in the so-called spiritual world – "If I do this, will I get that?"
– Jiddu Krishnamurti
Patterns and habits repeat across realms. I've found myself asking this question multiple times. In fact, when I attempted meditation seriously for the first time last year, that was one of the first questions I put across to someone who had been doing it for years. My second question was on the timeline for enlightenment. Thankfully, he just laughed and let me off on both counts.
To make knowledge practical we must convert it into rules of operation. We must pass from knowing what is the case to knowing what to do about it if we wish to get somewhere.
– Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren from "How to read a book"
Almost every book I read is practical in nature. But what I've gotten out of these practical books is rather limited simply because I have not converted them into rules of operation.
Simply ensuring that a practical book needs to be applied has limited the amount of reading and multiplied the amount of learning and outcomes in my reading process.
You were taught that reading is extraction.
– Verlyn Klinkenborg
Reading out loud, reading for pleasure, reading and finding the not-meaning in books, going with the rhythm, imagining the world being built - there are so many pleasures to reading as one gets more skilled at it.
As a kid, fiction was something I devoured. But theoretical books and well, any non-fiction book was data and information to be extracted. But wow. Reading can be so much more than that. How much more is something I feel I've just started to scrape the surface of.
Calorie deficit and why that is important to know
The First Law
Energy can neither be created nor destroyed. It can only be transformed.
To lose weight, you need to expend more energy than you consume. To gain weight, you need to consume more energy than you expend.
The unit of measurement used is a calorie. It doesn't matter what that means or how it is calculated or whether it is actually a kilocalorie. You can call it whatever you like.
From the First Law of Thermodynamics, we realise the constraint.
You have a lot of stored energy
Let us use an example. 70 kg male at 20% body fat. The goal is to get to 15% body fat.
The goal is thus 3.5 kilos (5% of 70 kilos) of fat loss. One kilo of fat is 7700 calories [see reference]. Multiplying that by 3.5 gives us ~27,000 calories.
For simplicity's sake, we will assume that all loss in weight that we see will be fat. This is practically impossible and the most one can generally aim for is a generous skewing of the ratio towards fat vs muscle.
So, to lose weight, our imaginary guy has to, over the course of an agreed-upon timeframe, eat 27000 calories lesser. If the stars align, these 27000 calories come directly from the stored energy source in the body aka fat.
What is maintenance?
Your body has an energy requirement.
To do its bodily functions. For you to sit and stand and walk around. To breathe. To digest food. To play football. To work at your computer. To watch TV.
The energy required by the body to neither lose weight nor gain weight is its maintenance number.
A 6-month timeframe for 3.5 kilos
Yes, you can lose weight a lot faster than this. But this is my example, my world.
Dividing 27000 calories by 180 days gives us 150 calories/day. Thus, we arrive at the calorie deficit needed to lose 3.5 kilos over a 6-month timeframe for our 70kg male friend.
A calorie deficit is essentially the difference between what the body's expenditure vs consumption is. Since the body still requires the extra energy to subsist and survive, that deficit has to come from somewhere. Which is all the excess fat you have in your body.
Energy can only be transformed. The energy that we consumed in the days, weeks, months, years before this moment - that's what we are trying to lose when we say weight loss.
In essence, our calorie deficit today is simply balancing our calorie excess from earlier days.
How do you put on muscle?
Using the same example, if you want to add more weight to your body, you need to have a calorie surplus.
If you want to put on 3.5 kilos over 6 months, you need to eat 150 calories/day more than what is needed for maintenance.
Just like it is impossible to lose ONLY fat during a fat-loss programme, it is impossible to gain ONLY muscle during a muscle-gain programme. An important fact to know but irrelevant for now.
Where does this leave you?
There are accurate methods to calculate body fat percentage. A DEXA scan or a skinfold test, or a quicker (less accurate) method. With this and your weighing scale, you can make an estimate of how many kilos you want to lose. And from there, the calorie deficit you need to have over a day, across how many days.
Before we proceed further, you should know that ~5% body fat is essential for men and ~13% is essential for women.
Start by knowing some of the following.
your weight.
your body fat percentage.
your goal - lose weight (fat) or gain weight (muscle).
your maintenance energy requirement. Based on your age, your activity levels, using Google or by strapping on an HRM for an entire day - whatever you'd like.
And you can arrive at your calorie delta i.e. the deficit or surplus that you need to maintain, along with the timeframe.
And finally, a caveat
There are insensible methods to do both - losing and gaining weight. Don't do them. Or at least, I do not subscribe or prescribe them. But then, I am not the guy to talk to for single-digit body fat percentages as well.
Starvation is not the answer (for fat loss). Feeling queasy and constantly full is not fun either (for mass gain).
Nutrient density should be high. This will ensure that you do not starve or even come close. Try eating 5 cups of vegetables and 3 cups of protein, and let me know if you are still hungry.
Your sanity levels need to be high. If you are snapping at your friends and family, what is the point of your dream body?
Calorie counting is NOT a method I prescribe. It is a useful tool to use occasionally. Given that there are a lot of errors in calculation, differences in absorption and the tediousness of the actual counting and consumption of foods, it fails my sanity check.
I’d love it if you shared this post with ONE friend.
Thanks for spending a portion of your day here. I truly appreciate it.
