Excess body fat is dead weight, it is not self-supporting like muscle tissue, it requires additional resources for blood flow and it is easily traumatised from impacts. These reasons alone should be enough justification for an athlete to stay lean and that’s without mentioning the negative hormonal and metabolic influences excess body fat has on the body.
When I first began strength training, after coming to the realisation that I needed to do more than just ride my bike and practice if I was to continue my career, my coach told me I was fat. He was right, I was fat, I weighed 96 kg and was at 23% body fat, I’m 189cm tall so I held it fairly well. However, my weight at 23% is about 10 or more kilograms of addition weight I was carrying, considering that optimal body fat for male athletes is sub 12%.
The excess fat did nothing for me, that is other than put extra pressure on my joints and hinder my performance. Now body fat, or adipose tissue, does another thing. It is involved in a metabolic process called aromatisation, which is the conversion of testosterone into oestrogen. This is a normal process our bodies require to maintain hormonal balance but with excess body fat comes increased aromatisation. This throws that balance out, lowering testosterone levels increasing oestrogen levels and making it harder for you to build muscle and stay lean.
So, what now? Well the best thing is don’t get fat to begin with like I did. If you are already fat, and don’t have access to a DeLorean or some other form of time machine, then we need you to get on top of your nutrition and training. This will optimize your health and trigger a metabolic shift in your body to enable your body to utilise stored fat for fuel as I did all those years ago.
So what’s the answer coach Cam? Eat less and go for a run?
Hmmm fail! Get out! No just joking, you can stay because how else will you learn?
*Please note this is a generalised guide, in practice I use Biosignature assessments along with assessment questionnaires and blood tests to determine the specific nutritional and supplementary requirements of the individual athlete.
First step is re-establishing your metabolic function and giving those poor insulin receptors a rest. This is so that they can start to work properly again and do their job.
Combined with your new resistance-training program focusing on stability and fat loss you will need to be on a low carbohydrate diet and no dairy for the first two weeks. This will help to reset your metabolic function. However, with dropping carbs you will also need to make sure your energy requirements are met. You will do this by ensuring that you are consuming enough high quality proteins and fats to meet those requirements. Remember carbs are not the enemy, but as coach Poliquin says you do have to earn them!
As a rule of thumb, energy intake should be around 30 – 35 kilocalories per kg of lean body mass. Just remember this is a guideline not an exact science.
Eg.
Currently at 87kg I’m 11% body fat, so to work out my lean mass I’d use the following calculation:(body weight in KG/100)x(100-body fat %) = lean mass in KG
So
(87/100)x(100-11) = 77.4kg lean mass
To work out my maintenance energy needs range: (lean mass)x30 and (lean mass)x35
So
77.4×30=2332 kcal and 77.4×35=2709 kcal
So based off that I should be eating somewhere around 2332 – 2709 kcal from high quality, whole, nutrient dense foods like meats, nuts, fruits, and vegetables.
When picking meat try to stick with wild game meats or grass fed only, this will ensure the omega 3-6 ratio is in balance for your body’s requirements. When eating seafood keep it wild caught, try to avoid farmed fish also because of the poor omega 3-6 ratio and try to avoid the apex predators, they can have a higher levels of heavy metal toxicity. For example I love swordfish but I probably only eat it twice a year.
Go nuts with herbs and spices and eat a figurative tonne of veggies and leafy greens, for example a typical lunch for me I eat a 200g bag of salad leaves, this is supposedly enough to serve six but I care to disagree. The other good thing about veggies like rocket, spinach, cabbage, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, broccoli etc is that they contain a great little compound called DIM (Diindolylmethane). Of the many things DIM does, one of them is reduce the before mentioned aromatisation that occurs in fat cells. YAY!
Now you have been training for a few weeks and the body has began to sort itself out its time to start eating more carbs and I’m not talking candy bars and soft drinks either, I mean whole food sources like potato and other starchy vegetables, keep it clean kids, no junk. Remember though, use your carbs wisely, more on training and practice days and less on rest days.
Now that you have started your body on a path to success, you need to stay within the guidelines, keep your food whole! No processed crap or high GI foods, these days even on the road when touring it is pretty easy to eat well. A good rule of thumb is, if you could not easily make it yourself from the raw ingredients then probably don’t eat it. Eat protein in every meal and an equivalent weight in vegetables, so a 200 gram steak means a minimum of 200 grams of veggies. Nuts (provided you do not have any allergies) are a great snack between meals, just don’t over consume them, a small handful is plenty.
Once you form this kind of routine it becomes very easy to maintain, don’t worry too much if you fall off the wagon here and there, just don’t make a habit of it. Eating well is simple and it is a very important part of the equation for optimal health, body composition and performance. The media and fitness publications often preach the 80:20 rule for getting lean, saying it’s all about diet, which is partly true, you cannot out train a bad diet but a good diet will only get you so far and training will get you all the way.
So train hard and eat well, to find out more about how you can achieve your potential and get the most from your body and performance head over to my contact page and book a consult.
Train hard and be safe.
Your strength coach,
Cam