Diet tips

I've got a simple general guide on how to get started with the diet. It can be used by anyone who wants to reduce fat by a few percent. We will give general brief guidelines for protein, carbohydrate and fat intake and what training to choose. Many diet scenarios vary, especially in fat and carbohydrate intake, but keep in mind that you need to clearly specify who the diet is for. The following guidelines are for natural exercisers, i.e. anyone who wants to reduce body fat and be healthy. Is there a difference in a diet that is designed for a natural athlete? Definitely yes, for example in the intake of fats and the associated hormonal activity of the body.

Let's say you are not very overweight but would like to be leaner, perhaps in the 8-10% body fat range. Depending on what your fat percentage is now, you could lose excess fat over the course of 4-12 weeks. The following guidelines can help anyone who wants to get in shape.

WHAT EXERCISES TO CHOOSE?
What exercise will help us the most to achieve our goal of fat reduction? It will still be a hard workout with weights, but tailored so that we can recover from the workout. It will be a little less hard than during the muscle gain period, but still at full power. In general, the training doesn't change much, but only the diet changes. The biggest mistake is to reduce the load.

Being in a caloric deficit means your ability to recover from the workout is not as good as it was during the bulking phase, but you should still try to keep the training hard and the weights on the barbell as much as possible to keep the body in muscle. High intensity training also helps in creating a calorie deficit. Of course you can also include some form of cardio to increase the calorie deficit, but not at the expense of exercise. In general, it's always better to increase activity than to dramatically cut back on food.

WHAT NUTRITION WILL BEST SUPPORT THIS GOAL?
- Caloric deficit.
- Adequate protein intake to maintain muscle mass.
- Still sufficient fat intake. Why? Because the risk of hormone disruption (e.g., testosterone) is higher during periods of caloric deficit.
- Carbohydrates should be high enough to support training. Be sure not to omit them completely from your diet.

PROTEIN
Protein protects muscle tissue during dieting and has the highest effect on satiety (feeling full) of all macros. Two very good reasons to consume slightly higher amounts of protein during a diet. Research suggests that anything between 2-3 g/kg is effective during the cutting phase. Most people can best tolerate 2.2-2.5 g/kg and this seems to be sufficient. In any case, don't worry about the protein increase, as long as you are healthy you are not in any danger.

If you don't have a diet plan, be sure to put it on paper so you know how much protein you're eating. The key to a successful diet is the ability to stick to the plan.

FAT
The risk of hormone disruption increases during prolonged low-calorie dieting phases. To mitigate this, keep your fat intake down. This is not an excuse to go on the Atkins diet and start eating avocados wrapped in bacon and dipped in butter. Keep in mind that while you are consuming plenty of fat, you still need to be in a caloric deficit for the diet to work. Feel free to start at an intake of 1g/kg.

CACHARIDES
The rest of the calories that remain after the inclusion of protein and fat will be spent on carbohydrates. Try to keep your intake around 2g/kg for as long as possible to allow for productive training.

HOW DO I MONITOR MY PROGRESS?
- Aim to lose 0.5 to 1% of body weight per week. For a guy weighing 100kg this means you want to lose around 1kg per week.
- If you are not happy with your fat loss, reduce your calories by 250-500 kcal per day (the lower end of the scale is better and less challenging).
- Don't just watch the weight, but measure the parts and check your progress in the mirror.

Source.