Week 4 Measurement
InBody comparison between Week 3 and Week 4 my overall weight came down from 157.9lb to 155.5lb (-2.4lb). Body fat percentage came down from 14.8% to 13.7% (-1.0%). Body fat mass came down from 23.4lb to 21.2lb (-1.2lb). Skeletal muscle mass increased from 78.7lb to 78.9lb (+0.2lb). Looking at ECW/TBW, which is a hydration balance was lower than previous so part of the overall weight loss may be coming from dehydration. Waist and hip measurements stayed at 29.5 in and 37 in.
Compared with the first measurements body weight came down from 162.5lb to 155.5lb (-7.0lb). Body fat percentage came down from 18.2% to 13.7% (-4.5%) and body fat mass came down from 29.6lb to 21.2lb (-8.4lb). Skeletal muscle mass increased from 77.4lb to 78.9lb (+1.5lb). Waist measurement came down from 32in to 29.5in (-2.5in) and hip measurement came down from 38.5in to 37in (-1.5in).
Learning from 30 Day Fat Loss Challenge
From the results, this challenge was successful. Able to increase muscle mass, although it is minimal, while losing body fat is the ideal outcome. Biggest contribution is on not cutting calories too much (-500 calories) so I can train myself and being physically active and maintaining protein intake amount (about 160g/day) throughout the diet.
Often times people who work on fat loss has tendency to cut down too many things in a belief that reducing food amount will equal to fat loss. Although it is not entirely wrong, however, large caloric deficit can lead to malnutrition that would lead to problems such as muscle loss, decrease in metabolism, muscle cramp, under recovery from physical activities, and accumulation of body fat because of body being malnourished.
What is more important in diet is understanding how the body works, rather than following diet you see on YouTube or Instagram. They may have a proper understanding of the diet but they don't know about your current conditions.
If you are having digestive issues, you will need to solve that problem first. If you have belly fat, constipation, bloating, chance of you are having digestive issue is high. If this condition has been there for a while, it is good idea to check with your physician first.
Things that helped me the most was increasing dietary fiber (>30g), use of probiotic supplements, and staying away from processed food and beverages. I didn't include increase in water intake since I have been drinking about a gallon of water a day. Water intake should be parallel to your body size. Not everybody needs a gallon. What this will do is clearing out the intestine and cultivate new gut bacteria. When successful, stool frequency may increase for few days depending on how much the body been accumulated. I found this process to be important because if the digestive health is under, consuming high quality food may not be absorbed properly and may not see the outcome from the diet that you are looking for.
Another thing that is important is to understand how insulin works. Production of insulin does increase as we consume calories. Depending on type of food we eat, how much we produce insulin will be different. Even within carbohydrate, there are food that promote the insulin to be secreted more than the other. For example, broccolis and mangos. They are both healthy carbohydrate from nutrients stand point, however, mangos does promote insulin production more than broccolis. So even with low-fat diet, you can manipulate your insulin production by choosing the right food source.
Frequency of food consumption will also can be an issue. More frequently you eat, the pancreas will frequently producing insulin. When insulin level is up, the fat burning process will go down. You may have heard the term anabolism and catabolism. Anabolism is building or storing process and catabolism is utilization or breaking down process. Presence of insulin will dictate if the body will be in anabolic or catabolic state. When insulin level is high, then the body will be in anabolic state. When insulin level is low, then the body will be in catabolic state. Therefore, you will need to plan your meal frequency so that you have both phases working for you while your are in your fat loss journey. Insulin production is important for muscles growth, so it is important to balance out so you can appreciate both muscle growth and fat loss.
Lastly, being hungry for few hours are ok. It is not necessary to be eating food when the hunger signal kicks in. It is uncomfortable, however, using hunger signal as a cue to eat is not a very good habit. One of the rules that I've created for myself is to consume all the required amount within 3 meals. This helped kept me full for at least 3 hours. From there, I let myself to feel hungry for 1-2 hours. This seemed to help manipulate my insulin level and allow my digestive process to complete what they are needing to do.
Nutrition Plan After the Diet
Now that the planned diet has ended, I will need to plan how my nutrition will be like starting next week. I still feel like I can drop few more pounds in fat, but focus is on increasing muscle mass, improving performance in my training and soccer. If I can gradually work on fat loss in that process, then I’m satisfied.
Keeping that in perspective, I am planning on increasing my carbohydrate, mostly in fruits and vegetables, intake on training days (5 days) and keep low-carb diet during none-training days (2 days). Every 4 weeks I will have week of recovery so I may do low-carb diet there depending on my body composition.
Consumption of alcoholic beverages does impact my recovery, which made clear during this fat loss challenge. I still want to enjoy it so I will reduce the frequency and drink on none-training days (2 days).
To Those Who Are Planning on Fat Loss
If you are planning on losing fat, plan out for 1-3 months, depending on how much you are planning to lose. Keep the duration short. If you need more duration, give a week or two off after 3 month of planned diet. During that 1-3 month, you should be committed to your plan. This may mean, no eating out, no cheat meal, rewarding yourself with food, or cake at the birthday party.
Instead of decreasing caloric intake, work more on eliminating sugar, alcohol, overly processed food and beverages. Never mess with your protein intake. Protein intake should not be a percentage. It is absolute number according to your ideal body weight. If your goal is 150lb then your protein intake should be 150g per day.
Dietary fiber is critical for maintaining the digestive health. Protein source is consuming vegetables for you does not work. 30g per day is minimum.
Coffee is fine as long as it is black. No sweeteners. Careful with timing of coffee intake. It does take 12 hours for caffeine to completely lose its effect, which may have impact on your sleep.
Stick with 3 meals per day. There's nothing wrong with feeling hungry. In fact it is a good indicator that your digestion is working. Feeling hungry for few hours won't kill you so try not to snack in between meals. This will also give the body down time from the insulin production.
I will repeat. Fat loss does require commitment. If you want the results bad enough, commitment and process will be easy.
Kota Shimada
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