A Case for Strength: Losing Fat vs. Losing Weight

Have you ever wondered why some people are capable of losing weight and keeping the weight off, but other people rebound after losing weight?  After losing a significant amount of weight, some people may regain a portion of what they lost.  A few people may even rebound beyond their initial weight.  Perhaps, this has happened to you.

A common scenario that we all hear too often is that someone has an event coming up.  Perhaps a beach trip is around the corner, a wedding is coming up in a few months, or summer is approaching.  Regardless, we often want to look our best for these events, so we hunker down.  We give up eating out for a month; we cut out junk food; we lift at the gym every day after work; we eat a salad for lunch; we start intermittent fasting (aka skip breakfast) and do fasted cardio in the morning.  And we burn out and crash.

Frankly all of those techniques *CAN* be great ideas to lose weight, but if they contrast our lives too much, they may not be the right choice for us (yet).

Let’s use myself as an example now.  I am a graduate student that often spends a lot of time sitting at a desk in front of my laptop or textbooks.  I stand in my lab doing chemical research for hours on occasion.  I eat out for lunch at least twice a week when work gets busy.  I like to eat out for dinner about twice a week.  Sure, it may not be ideal, but it is my situation.

On the other hand, I am training for a marathon (only about two runs a week, as time permits), I like to powerlift (again I only train about twice a week, as time permits), I walk or bike to campus, and I cook about 17 of my 21 meals a week.  Doing so puts me at about 16% bodyfat, 142lbs, a BMI of 24.4, and about a daily intake of about 2100 calories.  Obviously, I am not the pinnacle of health, but I have found a decent middle ground.

If I wanted to lose weight:

There is only one way to do so: a calorie deficit.  This can be achieved through restricting calories and/or increasing energy expenditure. 

I can restrict my calorie intake to 1800 calories per day, by:

• Eating more vegetables and/or more lean meat with each meal
• Cutting out added oils and sugars (baking instead of frying, black coffee, less junk food)
• Cooking my own meals 18 or 19 times a week

Eventually my body will reduce my metabolism (energy expenditure) and reach an equilibrium.

I can increase my energy expenditure by:

• Running more often
• Lifting more often
• Walking more often (taking stairs, parking further away, taking walks, go hiking)

But again, eventually my energy expenditure will become more efficient, my metabolism will slow to reach an energy equilibrium, and my fitness progress will plateau.

Once again I’ll reach an equilibrium and plateau.  To prevent this, I have to further increase my energy expenditure or increase my calorie restriction.  If I cannot continue the calorie deficit, then I hit the familiar dead end.

An alternative is to lose bodyfat (percentage).  This can be achieved by maintaining a caloric intake, maintaining (or slightly increasing) energy expenditure, and, more importantly, increasing strength. 

Examples of this include:

• Restricting calories to 2000 to 2200 calories (about my maintenance intake)
  • Eating more vegetables (for nutrients and filling)
  • Eat more meat (protein and healthy fats)
  • Cut out junk food
  • (note the only difference is that I am maintaining my weight)

• Increase strength by progressively increase my workout load/intensity
  • Use a triple progression system
    1. First, increase the reps performed on the exercise
    2. Then, increase the sets performed on the exercise
    3. Finally, increase the weight used for the exercise
    4. Lastly, repeat steps 1 through 3
  • Eat enough protein to fuel the growth and development
    • Eat about 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body mass
    • If weight starts to increase, increase the amount of protein as well
    • Don’t worry about fats and carbs as they both mainly provide energy
  • Sleep enough to recover from the day’s work

• Maintain energy expenditure
  • Continue running about twice a week
  • Continue walking to work/class

If I focus on strength training, my muscles will consume some of my daily calories (primarily from protein) to facilitate muscle growth.  This will increase my caloric consumption (in the short term).  Also, the increased muscle mass will increase my metabolic rate (in the long term).  In addition to sustaining my maintenance caloric intake, this induces a caloric deficit, leading to a small amount of fat loss.  If my fat mass is being reduced and my muscle mass is increasing, my total body weight may slightly change, but my body fat percentage will significantly decrease.

This method is more sustainable, as strength training is a scale-able method that does not require a dramatic increase in dedicated time.  Strength training only requires consistency and the application of effort.  The increasing metabolic rate allows for a scaling caloric intake.  This scaling intake provides for additional wiggle room to live life (aka eating out with friends and family, or celebrations).

What I am arguing here is that we do not need to make drastic changes to our lives to achieve our goals.  We just need to make small and sustainable changes. 

In my opinion, the addition of strength training is the essential step to a sustainable fitness journey, as it provides a method of scaling that is not limited to food restriction (like dieting) nor time (like cardio).