Mapping Out Your Fitness Phase

So at this point you may be saying “Great, I’m going into a cut. Now what?” So you’ve picked your phase but how long will this take? What are the first steps? Without a map the progress will be slow and often many don’t make it when they see the scale ping pong back and forth. Often fitness newcomers will get discouraged when they realize their goals are often not a straight path. They may say “If I am on a cut then why did I gain a pound this week?” Well the body is infinitely complex and there are so many factors that will determine if weight is gained or lost. While we do not always need to equate weight gain or loss as fat or muscle gain or loss. Tissue is actually lost or gained at a pretty slow rate. We are more likely experiencing transient water gains or losses. While it may not be possible to intake the exact same amount of water, salt and food intake daily, this would be the only true gauge. And even then the weight numbers are susceptible to fluctuations naturally. I think it is important to realize we should look at weight gain or loss over longer periods such as weeks or months as opposed to day to day. We can use weight gain and loss as a very useful metric of if our plan is working. We would also be wise to track with photos our bodies changing when the scale doesn’t always tell the story. Some of the moving pieces may seem complex, so for simplicity's sake, while on your fitness journey, using the scale over weeks and months can be our most useful metric.

Using weight we can plan and map our cutting or bulking phase. First we should establish a goal. Being specific is important. For example, we want to lose 20 pounds. By putting a timeline on it we can make it more trackable. We could say I want to lose 20 pounds in 3 months. Of course we would likely want those 20 pounds to be fat loss. To counter any muscle loss in a calorie deficit I recommend keeping intense strength training in place. Perhaps we want to gain 5 pounds of muscle. Further we could say I want to gain 5 pounds of muscle in 6 months to make this a more viable and trackable goal. 

Before we dive into how to calculate calories to hit our goals, let’s talk more about what is a normal rate of change. Losing 1 pound of fat per week is doable, even for a beginner. 2 pounds of fat loss weekly is aggressive and may not be a sustainable approach and may cut our progress short and lead to yo-yo tendencies. The heavier an individual is, the more likely they are to lose fat at a faster rate for a number of reasons. Gaining muscle is a much longer and more arduous process. Gaining 1 pound of muscle per month is doable for a beginner but is unlikely for someone further into their fitness journey. 

For all intensive purposes we can scientifically say that 1 pound of tissue, whether muscle or fat, is made up of about 3,500 calories, which is a unit of measure for energy. With the target of building a pound of muscle over the course of a month we can use a 3,500 calories surplus spread over that month. With muscle gain we are likely to pack on at least the same weight in fat tissue. For these reasons, an individual can gain muscle on a smaller surplus. For fat loss we can use that set metric of 3,500 calories or even 7,000 calories for 2 pounds of fat loss per week. Following this concept we can say that 20 pounds of fat loss equates to 70,000 calorie net total. Now we can take our timeline, paired with those normal rates of loss or gain and divide them up by the weeks to our target goal. Let’s look at an example.

Let’s say I would like to lose 20 pounds and I want to know if 2 months is enough time to do so. With 60 days in two months and a needed net surplus of 70,000 calories I would have to eat under our caloric needs by 1,167 calories. Well let’s look at the FDA recommended caloric needs for individuals. The FDA recommends roughly 1800 calories for women and 2,200 calories of daily intake for men. Of course this is a very rough estimate and everyone is different. But, taking this general guideline, would it be likely to eat 1,167 calories less than our 2,000 calorie recommendations? That would leave us with 833 calories to eat daily. So we could burn off that on top of our baseline movement, eat that much less than our daily intake, or a combination of both. It is very unlikely and likely very unhealthy that this is a realistic target. So I wouldn’t count on that amount of fat loss (differs from weight loss) in 2 months. Rapid weight drops or gains are much more related to hydration fluctuations, being that the body is roughly 70% water. 

Now let’s take a more realistic goal. Let’s say I want to lose 25 pounds of fat in 4 months. I am naturally active and my baseline caloric needs are 2,600 calories. So let’s reverse engineer the problem to decide if this is a realistic goal. 25 pounds at 3,500 calories per pound is a net deficit of 87,500 calories. If we have 120 days to do so, that leaves us with a 729 calorie deficit. If my baseline is 2,600 I would need to increase my already higher level of activity, or create a calorie deficit, or a combination of both to equal a net calorie need of 1,871. That is a much more realistic target. From there we can create a plan to increase activity, add or sustain resistance training, and to eat less. The plan would need a very high level of execution to be successful. It is important to vary for life events and errors. Depending on your skill level you may want to extend that target date further, overshoot your deficit, overshoot your activity needs or a combination of all 3 if we are being realistic. One thing that is unnegotiable, is that losing weight, especially something like 25 pounds or more, it requires a large amount of lifestyle change. This change may not happen all at once if it is a sustainable approach. I recommend working on 1 lifestyle change at a time. To naturally create a deficit for example we can do some easy things like making sure you get a certain portion of fruits and vegetables or lean protein. We could focus on reaching for diet sodas instead of sugar filled sodas. It sounds small but these can be examples on how to naturally create a much larger deficit naturally. One thing goes without saying and that’s without the change, the results will not come.

Gaining muscle is a bit easier to calculate. Knowing we are likely to only gain 1 pound per month of muscle we can create a 3,500 calorie surplus over that month. That's about 110 calories in addition to what your body needs. That’s not much. Fat gain along with muscle gain is part of the process, but it’s important we don’t fall into the dirty bulk approach as an excuse to eat everything in sight. Maybe we could aim for equal amounts of muscle and fat gain when gaining mass. 2 pounds of tissue brings us to a 7,000 calorie monthly surplus or about 230 calories per day. When gaining muscle it is important to understand that it can only be done in the presence of tension on a muscle. This is the adaptive need to grow more tissue. So any bulking plan should be accompanied with a challenging resistance training plan with focus on gaining small amounts of strength over time.

This may be a little disappointing to those that believe changing your body is a quick process. But don’t fret, the work is worth it and you will likely gain some lifelong habits along the way to help you keep the weight on or off. I encourage you to remain positive and start now. Be patient, consistent and also diligent in your fitness goals. Consistency is the most powerful factor in the fitness game. Results tend to compound over time, just like our money compounds in the bank.