How to approach: Weight loss vs weight gain

Whether you're trying to lose weight or gain it, all your body really cares about is calories in vs calories out; fairly simple formula. However, the real challenge arises when it comes to adherence to either a calorie deficit or surplus.

Let's break down some of the methods that can make the process actually manageable, so you can stick to it and see the results you want over time.

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Navigating your Calorie Deficit

When you want to lose weight, typically fat mass, you will need to be in a calorie deficit. You can technically attain this by eating all the junk food you want to, provided you stay under your maintenance calories. However, it is unlikely you will last longer than a week or 2 with this method, within a few days you will feel much more hungry than you need to be and the overall diet will be deficient in many nutrients.

Equally, if you do the opposite and ONLY eat salads or just fruits & vegetables for every meal, your calories will likely be too far below maintenance calories. This, alongside insufficient protein intake, will result in excess muscular atrophy (muscle loss) and leave you too hungry to sustain progress.

So what can you do to help optimise for fat loss? Well there are a few things that can be done, here are just a few, and what I have found to be the best:

• Try to stay in a 300 kcal-500 kcal deficit - do your best to avoid regularly having a greater deficit. Progress will be slower than a 1000 kcal daily deficit, but you will preserve more muscle mass and will have more manageable hunger levels

• Maintain a higher protein intake - You will inevitably lose some muscle mass while in a deficit, so this will help to preserve muscle mass by helping build up the excess breakdown. Typical recommendations for calorie deficit: (General population: 1.4-1.8g/kg/day | Athletes and frequent trainers: 1.8-2.2g/kg/day). Also, build a list of protein sources (ideally low fat and unprocessed)

• Significantly reduce consumption of oils and oil based dressings - Although some oils have many health benefits, they are very high calorie and take up a lot of your calorie budget while yielding little return on satiety

• Portion reduction/replacement - If your diet already has a fairly good balance of carbs, fat and protein, you can include your regular meals, just reduce portion size by 1/4 or 1/3. Equally, keep the same size portion, but replace half the starchy carbs on your plate with fibrous and/or water rich vegetables

• Track calories - This doesn't have to be a forever task, but I highly recommend this for at least the first few weeks, it allows you to see what is in the food you currently eat and it stops you from going too high AND too low on calories

• Lastly, HANG IN THERE!! - You will feel hungry, particularly in the first 10 to 14 days, but that feeling will usually dampen and it becomes much more tolerable, trust me just get through that hill

Navigating your Calorie Surplus

When you want to gain weight, typically muscle mass, you'll need to be in a calorie surplus; thankfully this allows much more dietary freedom and variety, literally 'overeating', but if you do it healthily (which you should for health and overall results) then maintaining a surplus can feel like a bit of a slog.

A surplus can technically be achieved by only eating junk food or salads, but they also have their own drawbacks. Having mostly junk food may get your protein goal and definitely your calorie goal, however, you will likely gain an excessive amount of body fat in the process, as well as hinder performance with the poor nutritional content which can hinder progress and recovery overall.

Eating ONLY fruits and vegetables will have the opposite effect, making it very difficult to hit your protein goal and overall calories for the day; you would struggle attempting to stomach all of that food

Now, what can you do to help optimise for muscle gain? Here are a few things that you can do to help maximise progress:

• Track your calories - Track your calories to keep you above maintenance calories (ideally +300 kcal-+500 kcal above maintenance) to keep you in an effective surplus without going high enough to gain unnecessary excess fat

• Track your protein - Track your protein to help optimise growth and recovery, let you know when you're running short near the end of the day, and help build your knowledge of average protein content in your commonly eaten foods (General population: 1.2-1.6g/kg/day | Athletes and frequent trainers: 1.6-2g/kg/day)

• Consume higher calorie foods - Include plenty of foods that are higher calorie per gram/per 100g

• Snack - Between your main meals, add in some snacks to help up your calorie and protein intake, higher calorie snacks like nuts, seeds, protein bars, fruit (dried and fresh), cereal bars etc. Combining fruit and nuts is particularly high calorie and palatable

• Healthy fats - If you find that you really struggle with reaching your calorie goal and you constantly fall short, you can add a little extra healthy fats throughout the day (olive oil, canola oil, avocado oil, avocado, nuts, seeds etc), this can add a lot of calories without making you feel as painfully full

• VEGAN? Mix your proteins - If you are vegan it can be more difficult to not only hit your overall protein goal, but also get enough of all of your amino acids. This can be easily managed by mixing protein sources in the same meal like legumes, grains, pulses, even meat alternatives. For example rice and lentils together make a more complete amino acid profile, each making up for where the other lacks, same goes for a peanut butter and bread (the best sandwich). So be sure to have at least 2 considerable sources of protein per meal

Things to Consider

Here are some things for you to take into account, regardless of whether you're in a calorie deficit or surplus:

• Protein supplementation - The majority, if not all of your protein should ideally come from whole foods; however, due to a variety of reasons including culture, religion, dietary preference and allergies, it can be difficult to hit your protein target for the day. Sometimes a protein shake or 2 is needed. Just remember they are fine to use, but they are to supplement your diet only

• Protein/Nutrient timing - You won't waste away and stunt all progress if you fail to consume protein within 30 minutes of a workout, but some foresight can be useful. If you have eaten a fair amount of protein (say 20g-40g) within 2 hours prior to exercise then there is no need to rush post exercise, but if prior consumption was longer then it's better grab some protein up to 2 hours after exercise. If you are in a surplus, couple that protein with some carbohydrate.

• Always remember the 'why' for your goal - It sounds a bit pithy, but changing your diet and routine can be hard, some days more than others, and when something is hard we can easily reason our way out of it. So when the hard times come, remember that you have your 'why', your motivation behind the goal, and use that to push past that temptation to give in

Useful Formulas

Here are some formulas for you to work out calories and protein based on your goal:

Basal metabolic rate

• For Men | 10x weight (kg) + (6.25 x height (cm)) - (5 x age) + 5

• For Women | 10x weight (kg) + (6.25 x height (cm)) - (5 x age) - 161

Mifflin-St. Jeor formula

Estimated maintenance calories

Following on from this formula you can now calculate your estimated daily caloric requirements based on your Physical Activity Level (PAL):

1. Sedentary (little or no exercise) = BMR x 1.2

2. Lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) = BMR x 1.375

3. Moderately active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) = BMR x 1.55

4. Very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) = BMR x 1.725

5. Extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) = BMR x 1.9

Harris-Benedict formula

Protein intake

Deficit

General population: 1.4-1.8g/kg/day

Athletes and frequent trainers: 1.8-2.2g/kg/day

Surplus

General population: 1.2-1.6g/kg/day

Athletes and frequent trainers: 1.6-2g/kg/day

Note:

1. Keep in mind that both formulas are estimates only, however, they are very close for most people and offer a good starting point from which to experiment with calorie intake.

2. It is a good idea to recalculate your BMR (and therefore caloric requirements) after an increase or decrease of around 5 kilos (particularly lean mass), because intake/BMR is greatly affected by weight.

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Hopefully that's cleared things up and you now have a better understanding of calorie fundamentals, know what they are and work out your individual requirements.

Keep an eye out for further posts on health and fitness

If you feel you need an extra helping hand with your journey, definitely reach out.

Thanks for reading :)