NAFC NewsBlast - October 2017 | Ed 2.1

How can I lose weight and add muscle?

Written by: Dr. Max MacCloud, DO, ND, PhD, The Health, Fitness & Nutrition Ninja

Source: My Body Symphony

Copyright: michaeldb / 123RF Stock Photo

People Always Ask Me …

The question that probably comes up more than any other is “How can I lose weight and add muscle?” Let’s examine this in a bit more detail.

First off,

it’s great that people are finally starting to understand that maintaining muscle and lean body mass is vital for overall health AND to help keep excess fat off. That’s huge!

The basic recipe for weight loss

is to consume fewer calories than you burn, pretty simple right? Well, no, it’s not that simple. Think about it, if it were that simply losing weight and keeping it off wouldn’t be THE hardest thing in all of healthcare (there’s like a 90+% failure rate).

Why?

There are LOTS of reasons, some simple, some very complicated but the bottom line is that it is difficult to lose fat and maintain muscle. Fat is MUCH more complicated than we once thought. For hundreds of years, the scientific and medical communities looked at fat as little more than a relatively inert storage site for energy. Of course, it is, but now we know that it’s much more than that. Fat is extremely biologically active. It produces over 20 different proteins and hormone-like substances that help to maintain, grow, and regulate it. Fat is vital to our health and performance. The key is to begin to understand fat’s many roles and to start working with it than continuing the incessant fight to banish it which is clearly a ‘losing’ battle.

So, back to the question,

how to lose fat and maintain muscle. Losing fat requires a calorie deficit which can be created by either increasing activity, decreasing intake or a combination of the two. Maintaining muscle requires adequate calories, protein, and stimulation to keep it from being broken down. There are a dizzying array of hormones, proteins, and other chemical messengers that all come into play that is WAY beyond the scope of what we can cover here.

Many books have been written

about this topic but the goal here is to give you concise, usable info, so here goes. My top recommendation to lose fat (fairly quickly) while maintaining muscle and lean body mass is to utilize intermittent modified fasting. This isn’t your parent’s or grandparent’s cleansing kind of fasting, this is more in line with what the true “Paleo” or Caveman Diet was like. By the way, I’m a big fan of the concept of following an Ancient or Paleo approach… it’s just that I think that 90+% of today’s Paleo zealots have it completely wrong. More on that in a future post.

To be effective

the intermittent fast should be done at least a few days a week with each fast lasting 15-20 hours. It is permissible to consume some nourishment during the “modified” fast period as long as it is extremely low in carbohydrates. There’s plenty of info out there on various approaches, so take a look, play around, and send in any questions you might have.

For those who would like more details

on a fairly comprehensive 21 Day Shred It Program that incorporates Intermittent Modified Fasting using some amazing plant-based protein products that I developed. Go to the following link to have it sent to your email address.

Click here for your: 21 Day Shred Program

Written by: Dr. Max MacCloud, DO, ND, PhD, The Health, Fitness & Nutrition Ninja Website: My Body Symphony