When it comes to losing fat and weight, fitness has seen it all and I don’t mean in a good way. To meet this goal, many times people are willing to do anything, even if it means losing health along the way.
The media, magazines or even the user with a great gym body have usually been responsible for spreading tips or methods that are not always the most appropriate to lose fat, either because they give importance to things that do not have it and vice versa or because they are drastic when it comes to feeding or training.
In this article We want to explain the three most important keys when it comes to losing fat and how not to lose muscle or bone mass along the way.
Don’t stop doing strength training
Although the rest of the advice that we are going to give today must be applied and valued equally, Strength training will be especially relevant when it comes to maintaining our muscle and bone mass during a fat loss process.
It is logical since strength training itself already provides these benefits in itself, so there is no other way to continue doing it. If you think that the health benefits are not so important, at least understand that aesthetically you are interested. In principle, nobody likes a flaccid body and this is what you end up achieving if you lose weight without having a good muscular base.
In this way, you reserve an important gap when training for weight training. Do cardiovascular exercise, of course, but don’t give more importance to the latter than to the former.
Don’t drastically cut your calories
Stick with this: if you can lose fat by eating 2,500 calories, why do you eat 2,000?
Here is the difference between being effective and being efficient. Eating as little as possible may be effective, since if you are able to endure the process you will lose fat. Now, being efficient also implies not only meeting the goal of losing fat but also not doing it at all costs. Being efficient implies achieving the objective by involving and investing as few resources as possible or doing it in the best way. That means eating as much as possible and restricting food as strictly necessary.
When it comes to losing fat we can apply a cut in our maintenance calories of between 10 and 20%. 20% may be reasonable for a person who is overweight or obese since at this upper end of the range they are probably not very hungry or extremely tired. In contrast, a person at a normal weight who simply wants to define a little will do better to get closer to a 10% deficit.
Cut out what is necessary and always prioritize increasing activity over reducing calories.
Rest and take care
What to say has that in a state of caloric deficit our body is more vulnerable to external agents. This does not only include viruses or bacteria that can cause a cold, for example, but also the management that our body performs in the face of stress.
When we say stress we not only refer to work, but also to the environment or to the training itself. Even being extremely cold or hot is a stressor. In strategic doses, stressors can strengthen our immune system or our body in general, but in overdose and together with a caloric deficit, they can make us lose muscle or bone mass or make weight loss more difficult.
Because It is important that we find time for ourselves, to disconnect, to meditate, to take care of ourselves in general. Active life in general is just as important as moments of contemplation in which we don’t do much.
Surround yourself with your loved ones or seek solitude, walk through the city or better yet, through nature and let the sun shine early in the morning.
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