Why Being in a Caloric Deficit Is Not Enough to Lose Fat?
Research tells us how to lose fat without gaining it back immediately and sustain a healthy body in the long run
First, let’s differentiate the terms weight loss and fat loss before discussing the science behind achieving a healthy and aesthetic physique. Our body weight consists of many individual components: muscle mass, body water, body fat, and bone mass.
The term weight loss equates to losing all the above components, whereas the term fat loss means losing fat only.
When most of us talk about losing weight, we mean losing fat. We want to lose unwanted and unnecessary fat to become healthy, but we don’t want to lose precious muscle in the process.
There is a big difference between the two things. Simply measuring weight is not the correct metric for progress as it depends on many variables. There can be days when your body weight increases despite losing some body fat. The reasons can be:
- An increase in muscle mass from all the exercise you have been doing.
- The food you consumed made your body retain a little extra water.
- You did not have a proper bowel movement.
- You did not measure your body weight at the same time under the same circumstances.
Now that we have understood the two terms let’s address the elephant in the room, which compelled you to click on this article.
What Is Caloric Deficit?
A caloric deficit is a state in which we put our body by consuming fewer calories than our basal metabolic rate (BMR). The basal metabolic rate tells us how many calories we approximately burn throughout a day while going about our usual business.
Caloric deficit is only one side of the coin.
To lose body fat without surgery, being in a caloric deficit is crucial, but there is another side of the coin that people often tend to neglect.
The hormone Insulin lies on the other side. Insulin is responsible for converting incoming energy in the body from food to fat storage. The insulin level depends on what we eat and how frequently we eat.
High insulin levels instruct our body to store the incoming energy to be stored as fat rather than to be converted to glycogen to be used as energy within our cells. Also, higher levels of insulin promote hunger.
Hence, this is of paramount importance to have lower insulin levels for the body to not store the incoming energy as fat but rather as glycogen.
How do we know what our insulin levels are?
The primary factor driving our insulin levels is the food we consume (for people unrelated to insulin-related diseases like diabetes). We bifurcate the food we eat into three main categories:
- Carbohydrates — They cause the most spike in our insulin levels.
- Proteins — They also cause a spike, but the effect is lesser than carbohydrates, and the spike is not as abrupt.
- Fats — They do not cause any spike in insulin levels.
Does this mean that we stop consuming carbohydrates altogether? No, absolutely not!
We need to be smart about how we consume food. Anytime we eat food consisting of carbohydrates or proteins, our insulin will rise. There is no changing it. Our bodies are hardwired for this.
The simplest way to naturally lower insulin levels is fasting.
You will be wondering, here comes one more person preaching the tale of fasting. I urge you to read the rest and let me try to make my case.
A Sustainable Regime for Long-Term Success
There are many ways that a fast can be performed. You can go for a day or two or maybe longer without eating. You can alternate between eating days and fasting days. Or you can try the most sustainable long-term solution called intermittent fasting.
Intermittent Fasting — On a 24 hour day, you define an eating window of a few hours and the rest of the time is your fasting window.
There are variants of intermittent fasting based on fasting—eating splits: 16–8, 18–6, 20–4. You can choose whatever window works best for you, the one which you can follow long-term.
In my personal opinion, the 16–8 split works the best. This split indirectly means to omit one meal from the day (either breakfast or dinner). If you are someone who tends to eat late, then you can skip breakfast. If you are someone who wakes up early, then you can skip dinner.
Also, have your eating window during a fixed time, don’t let it fluctuate.
In hindsight, by skipping a meal, you will generally be in a caloric deficit, provided you don’t overeat in the other two or more meals in the eating window.
When we fast, the insulin levels drop, promoting ketosis in our body to allow conversion of fat storage into usable energy called ketones. The energy generated by ketones is a cleaner energy source for our body to consume compared to glycogen energy.
In the eating window of your choice, you can eat all the healthy foods you were consuming already for a healthy body. But now, with intermittent fasting leading to lower insulin levels, you are speeding up the process in a healthier way.
But what if I told you there is one more hack (for the lack of a better word) you can use to lengthen your fast a bit without shrinking your eating window?
It is rather simple. When you break your fast, try and ensure to have as little grainy or starchy carbohydrates as possible. Try to ensure that your first meal of the day is packed with proteins, have a decent amount of healthy fats, and consists of a lot of vegetables (preferably non-starchy).
My Regime and Results
I am blessed with a gene pool that allows me to put on weight in the blink of an eye, and on top of that, the profession I am in involves a lot of desk work. I frequently find myself with a beer belly without drinking any beer.
I tried intermittent fasting for the first time five years ago. I lost quite a substantial amount of fat in eight months, but I couldn’t sustain it. Things were fine until Covid-19 hit us. Being confined in the four walls of my house for most of the time brought me back to the same physical state of five years ago.
Four months ago, I decided enough was enough and made a change in a way where I could sustain intermittent fasting in the long term.
I rarely eat breakfast, so I decided to skip breakfast. I have my eating window between 1 PM and 9 PM. I don’t consume anything except black coffee between 9 PM and 1 PM. The first meal — lunch for me comprises a lean source of protein with many vegetables like broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, spinach, etc.
I do eat carbohydrates as I can’t stay away from them. Being an Indian, my staple diet consisted of carbohydrates while growing up. But I eat carbohydrates like grains or starchy vegetables during dinner now.
Ever since I started following this regime, I have lost more than 9 Kgs, of which most have been fat (according to my smart scale). I have lost some muscle as well, which will happen because I am in a caloric deficit, but I have gained some muscle as well from consistent exercising and a protein-rich diet.
There have been days when I had to either travel or an event came up where I had to deviate from my routine, which is totally fine. Any diet should not kill your social life, but I try not to deviate from it for too long. When it happens, I either extend my fasting window from 16 hours to 20 hours or don’t eat any carbohydrates the next day.
Since I started with this routine, I feel more energized and satiated thanks to lower insulin levels.
I wish you the best to kick out all the unwanted fat from your body.
References:
[1] Role of Insulin in Weight Loss
[2] The Obesity Code
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