11 Feb Fat Loss Rules for Women
Ladies – ever think males have it easier than we do when it comes to fat loss? Well, you’re right.
Males tend to have higher BMRs which allow them to consume more than women while still losing fat. They also have the luxury of increasing fat loss for faster results. Most is due to our genetic difference, but there is a great deal we can do. Men also seem to lose fat easier due to the amount of muscle mass they have in comparison to women, which is another reason we are big proponents of weight training in women. And muscle tissue is one of the active tissues in the body, so the more you have, the higher your BMR will be. And genetically, it is unreasonable for us to ever have as much muscle mass as males have, but again, why we recommend weight training.
Males do have it easier, but that doesn’t mean you just throw in the towel!
#1: Lose Fat Slowly –
Going into any workout/diet regime with the mindset you need to lose 15 pounds by next Friday is just setting yourself up for failure. Likewise, setting goals like “I will eat below 1000 calories this week and workout 3 hours a day”, is also a good way to get yourself sick. Sure, you might drop some weight – water weight as well – but it will all come at a cost. You will also lose lean muscle mass and risk metabolic damage this way. As a guideline, a 150 lb woman can expect to lose 1-1.5lbs of fat every week. If you lose more than that, you risk muscle loss.
#2: Weight TRAIN!
We’ve been over this so many times before, but if you want to lose fat, you must be weight training. Cardio alone, you might lose weight, yes, but you will be left with “skinny fat’ without resistance training. Futhermore, when dieting, your body is at caloric deficit and it wants to be in a state of homeostasis always, so it responds by attaching lean muscle mass and lowering metabolism. To offset this, be sure to be strength training – and all your workouts shouldn’t be be light weight, higher reps – a common mistake. You need to be working towards strength and hypertrophy as well – 6-12 rep range.
But many women choose to go the “easier” route and just restrict calories – they know they need to create that negative calorie balance so they will hop on the treadmill for hours and log 800 calories burned on that stupid counter and then restrict food intake – this is horrible too and here’s why.
#3 Keep Protein Levels High
DIET is huge! Women also tend to shy away from protein for fear it will make you bulky. This is WRONG. It’s almost downright insulting. Your body NEEDS protein to build lean muscle. And we want lean muscle for all the reasons I just explained. So while dieting, when your calories are low, we typically pull these calories from carbs and fats in an inverse relationship from one another. But then why don’t we just go high protein and low carb?
Again, because your body will get used to anything if you do it long enough – it wants to be in homeostasis! This is why carb cycling is wildly recommend, especially for women because it allows you to eat low carb and then periodically bring up the carb intake to reset thryroid hormones and keep your metabolism high to continue to burn fat.