Have you ever had this feeling that your weight fits into the ideal BMI, which means you are neither overweight nor too skinny, and you still have some fat mass that you want to lose?
Well, guess what, it was my case some time ago.
So what should you do to lose your extra layers of fat without losing any weight and having a skinny look?
I bet you tried some HIIT Cardio, maybe walking, running and other activities… But guess what, this is not the solution. The good news is that what is to be done is much easier. It is all about what you feed your body with and your total macros. I am not saying that doing some cardio sessions will do you harm. It is very beneficial, especially since it will help you burn more calories.
So let’s dig deeper into the solution to figure things out!
The magic number over here relies on a decrease of 5 to 10 % of the number of calories that you burn in a day. So let’s say, I work out 5 days a week, and I burn around 2,200 calories a day, I should make sure to couple my workouts with a nutrition plan that sits somewhere between 1,980 Calories (10% Deficit) and 2,090 (5%).
This small deficit will help your body recompose itself in terms of body composition, without you having to lose any weight. This would mean that your body will have a higher percentage of muscles and the fat percentage will decrease accordingly.
This is a long process, you have to be patient, track progress and adjust accordingly.
You should lose the fat percentage slowly especially if you are looking to lose the last layers of fats, it is not fast at all. For instance, losing 1 kilogram of fats equates to a deficit of 7,700 Calories.
Therefore, if you are on a deficit of 150 calories a day, you should expect to recompose 1 kilo of fat into 1 kilo of muscle within 51 days. I know this is a long time to recompose this much. Check the picture and see the difference between 1 kilo of fat and 1 kilo of muscles in terms of density. Imagine that you could weigh 75 kilos with a 20% Body Fat (15 kilos), whereas someone with the same height and weight with 12% Body Fat% will look extremely different and more in shape (9 kilos).
Therefore, if you find yourself stuck with a good and fair weight with some extra layers of fat, do not aim for weight loss, instead aim for a recomposing approach that will help you stick into a longer-term vision.
Pierre, the Healthy Foodie
