I like to listen and learn about diet, nutrition, hypertrophy, strength training, etc, so I’m going to post videos I find particularly helpful/informative here.
And YES, I wish I knew all of this when I started.
How Fat Loss Works - Dr. Layne Norton
High protein consumption in a hypocaloric diet.
Consuming 5.5 times the recommended daily allowance of protein has no effect on body composition in resistance-trained individuals who otherwise maintain the same training regimen. This is the first interventional study to demonstrate that consuming a hypercaloric high protein diet does not result in an increase in body fat.
Subjects in the NP and HP groups consumed 2.3 and 3.4 g/kg/day of dietary protein during the treatment period. The NP group consumed significantly (p < 0.05) more protein during the treatment period compared to their baseline intake. The HP group consumed more (p < 0.05) total energy and protein during the treatment period compared to their baseline intake. Furthermore, the HP group consumed significantly more (p < 0.05) total calories and protein compared to the NP group. There were significant time by group (p ≤ 0.05) changes in body weight (change: +1.3 ± 1.3 kg NP, −0.1 ± 2.5 HP), fat mass (change: −0.3 ± 2.2 kg NP, −1.7 ± 2.3 HP), and % body fat (change: −0.7 ± 2.8 NP, −2.4 ± 2.9 HP). The NP group gained significantly more body weight than the HP group; however, the HP group experienced a greater decrease in fat mass and % body fat. There was a significant time effect for FFM; however, there was a non-significant time by group effect for FFM (change: +1.5 ± 1.8 NP, +1.5 ± 2.2 HP). Furthermore, a significant time effect (p ≤ 0.05) was seen in both groups vis a vis improvements in maximal strength (i.e., 1-RM squat and bench) vertical jump and pull-ups; however, there were no significant time by group effects (p ≥ 0.05) for all exercise performance measures. Additionally, there were no changes in any of the blood parameters (i.e., basic metabolic panel).
Consuming a high protein diet (3.4 g/kg/d) in conjunction with a heavy resistance-training program may confer benefits with regards to body composition. Furthermore, there is no evidence that consuming a high protein diet has any deleterious effects.
Compared with energy intake during the weight stabilization period, the protein diets provided approximately 40% more energy intake, which corresponds to 954 kcal/d (95% CI, 884-1022 kcal/d).
Among persons living in a controlled setting, calories alone account for the increase in fat; protein affected energy expenditure and storage of lean body mass, but not body fat storage.
*In addition to the LITANY of articles T Nation has put out over the years. Moral of the story: EAT YOUR PROTEIN
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Awesome post. The fat loss video especially was interesting. I’ve always been in the Dan John esque camp of “attack fat loss brutally hard for a few weeks”, especially during fight camps etc and inevitably I found myself gaining weight back out of camp, often more than I started at (its just how everyone did it, so the knly approach we ever knew). Im in the middle of cutting with an agressive deficit right now and hoping to keep it off this time now Im focused on lifting. Should it fail to work I’ll definitely be switching the approach to a slower, sustained peroid of months rather than 8 - 10 weeks
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All the evidence of sustaining a leaner physique points to lifestyle changes. Which is one of the reasons why Intermittent Fasting has so many folks cheering for it.
In theory, you could drop weight fast and keep it off - but if you haven’t done anything to alter your lifestyle to accomodate fat lost, it’s unlikely to stay off.
Daily weigh ins, some form of cognitive restriction (timed meals, IIFYM, etc), and active training.
Great information about this stuff in THIS video too. I was on the fence about posting it tbh.
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Definitely glad you posted it mate. Useful and helps with highlighting “crash diet” habbits I’d picked up without even knowing they were probably causing the rebounding. My target date for the end of the cut isnt until early August anyway and while I’ve gone from 95kg in December to 86.5kg now its been accompanied by periods of extreme deficits and a day or sometimes up to three of wild binge eating. Successfully convinced that theres actually a better way (yes, some of us ARE stupid enough to actually need it pointing out). Gonna be giving both videos a re-watch and re-planning my approach this evening I think.
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I literally watch this stuff while doing cardio to reinforce why the fuck I’m walking on a treadmill with the normies 
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I’m a big believer in fast fat loss. For anyone higher than 15% bodyfat that’s dedicated to their training and nutrition, as fast as possible but only for 3-6weeks I think is an excellent way of doing things. The problem lies in it being more nuanced than this though. If the person cutting this fast doesn’t reach their bodyfat/aesthetic goals in this time they are screwed. If they keep going then muscle loss, metabolic stress etc will go all over the place… and they can’t then decide “I’ll now switch to doing it a bit slower” because their body has already got used to the lower calories and created a ton of stress. It’s psychologically harder in many ways but you’re not gonna lose muscle.
With the long-term view, cut 10lbs, gain 10lbs in a 1:4 ratio is perfect IF it suits your personality and you have little interest in becoming sub 10-12%.
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Shit you gotta do to stay sane eh? I cant say I blame you, walking on a treadmill for cardio is what I imagine puragtory to be like.
@cdep89 thats interesting. It was/is my current strategy, until just now…do you think the switch in approaches is unrealistic then? I think you’re spot on with the timing comments (inveriably i lose muscle if I miss my goal and the metabolic stress lead me to get really ill during one camp. eating 1600 a day and still seeing no change in scale weight also saw me get “skinny fat” lose a lot of strength and rebound hard af!!)
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Not too far off, but I’d give this a read before delving into an unsustainable crash diet.
PSMF is probably better suited to those who are already sub-10% though, because there’s so little left to lose, and so little left to cut out at this stage.
You have a repeating pattern of this not working for you dude. The best diet is the one that works, and you haven’t figured that out just yet… you might want to give something like IF, or an unlimited lean protein/veggie diet a trial before going back to what’s been historically fucking you over.
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If you’re likely to have binges through those 3-6weeks, then no. Like the Dan John thing, one of the best quotes I’ve read about it is something to the ilk of treat it like a bank robbery… get in and get out as fast as possible.
I’ve listened to and read lots of Lyle Macdonald. He has some really great podcasts talking about it too. From what I recall he mentions not going lower than 1200 calories, and I would never suggest that, and most people wouldn’t be able to. Reaching protein targets without doing anything drastic like having no fat or any carbs people will usually will end up at around 50% of maintenance or just under. For many people this will be 1.5% of their bodyweight which is perfectly within the range of what’s considered healthy.
There aren’t any risks involved unless you stay in it too long or can’t stay on top of your lifestyle afterwards. Most of the reasons not to do it are goal-based or personality based.
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@L_S95 have a good read of this and see what suits you best. Be honest with yourself and your goals.
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PSMF is 1g protein per pound of bodyweight and no fats except supplemental. Diet breaks every week and a half or so.
At 200lbs, you’d be at 800cals per day
Thanks both of you. Awesome to have actual advice from guys with enviable physiques and links to back up their opinions. I’m definitely gonna switch it up at this point, as Andrew pointed out, historically its kinda fucked me, even when I did hit sub 10% I gained it all back and turned into a fat fuck within a few months.
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I was talking in terms of mini-cuts within the 1:4 (cut:bulk) ratio I mentioned. PSMF can go lower of course, but yeah, you’ll need lots of diet breaks to offset bad things happening. I guess you could include those as a more extreme version to the “Fat Loss Intervals” outlined in the article I linked.
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I do it 4 days a week with a fairly good incline. I use it to warm up at the gym. It’s now an automatic thing I don’t mind much. It helps with feeling productive too. At this point I don’t see myself ever dropping it. I might adjust it up or down depending on goals, or how I am looking, but at this point it is a lifesyle change.
I can easily burn an extra 300 kcal and not impact my training (this takes about 25-30 minutes). that’s 1200 kcal a week. In 3 weeks that is a lb of fat if I keep diet consistent. I don’t have to warm up hardly at all (except ramping weight up with warm up sets on my compound lifts).
I believe this has made a positive change to my physique. I am leaner now. I can do more lifting because I recover faster between sets.
It really isn’t bad. Find some music you like, and when starting out don’t go overboard (I suggest going for around 20 minutes or 200 kcal). Even pull yourself back from going to hard initially if you tend to do that. It’s more about building the habit at first. Try to have it be enjoyable.
I am also experimenting with higher protein. Hasn’t been long enough to be able to tell much on that. In addition, I bought myself a gym timer (gym boss I think is the brand). That has helped me get a lot more done. I am pretty social, so having that beep go off lets others know I need to do a set.
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Thats solid advice, thanks man. I started ice cold showers every morning a few months ago and it sucked at first too but now I dont even think about and even enjoy it some days. I guess its a case of biting the bullet and just getting on the hamster wheel for a few minuets before/after the session and once you’ve done it enough it becomes second nature. An extra thousand calories a week of expenditure is definitely worth it, I keep forgetting we’re in the 21st century and I can do something cool like put videos/podcasts on while I do it.
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I’m very much with @mnben87 about cardio. If it’s in a “I wish I knew sooner” category, I wish I’d thought of cardio as caring for my heart (it’s right there in the name!) vs a fat reduction method. I can lose fat without cardio, but it is invaluable for heart health. One of the very, very few things I’ve come around to thinking is a nonnegotiable for just about everyone.
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