The control of bodyweight, especially bodyfat, is highly prized
in most sports. There is nothing to be gained and much to
be lost from having excessive amounts of fat on your body.
Even athletes who must have high bodyweights to compete, such
as football linemen and Heavyweight wrestlers, need to be
concerned with their bodyfat levels.
Bodyfat slows down the athlete by increasing the amount of
nonproductive weight he or she must carry during the performance
of a sports movement. In bodybuilding it also hides the muscularity,
placing the athlete at great competitive disadvantage. The
way to achieve a low level of bodyfat for a competition with
the smallest possible loss in lean muscle tissue is to maintain
a diet program that is reasonably controlled all year round.
You have no doubt seen bodybuilders who gain large amounts
of weight in the off-season only to go on crash diets and
lose most of it for a show. It was once felt that this bulk/cut
system permitted greater amounts of muscle growth compared
to a relatively strict year-round diet program. Bodybuilders
who took steroids were notorious for bulking and cutting.
In the off-season they would fill up on everything that passed
in front of their faces, figuring that this way they were
assuring themselves of the greatest possible benefit from
the drugs they were taking. Of course, when they dieted for
a competition, they would then take even more drugs to maintain
as much muscle as possible while they drastically reduced
their food intake to make up for the excess of their previous
overeating.
As it turns out, this bulk/cut system is not the best muscle-building
program even for an athlete on drugs. It is definitely not
recommended for the natural athlete. The best way to achieve
your sport goals is to keep to a diet that provides you with
the nutrients you need, but only in the amounts that you need
them throughout the entire year. Excess consumption of calories
in the off-season is not only pointless, but actually counterproductive.
Studies have shown that weight-loss programs always result
in a loss of some muscle tissue along with the fat, especially
when exercise is not included as part of the diet program.
As a result, any time that you try to drop those pounds or
kilograms for a competition, you will inevitably lose muscle.
The best way to minimize this loss in muscle weight and muscle
mass is to never gain excess fat in the first place. And the
way to do that, of course, is by controlling your food consumption
so you never take in more calories than your body needs.
There is no question that this requires discipline. Nobody
said athletic excellence would be easy. Yet by following a
few simple rules, you should be able to achieve your dietary
objectives without a great deal of hassle.
Here are some guidelines for controlling your bodyweight:
Count your calories all year. This may sound like
a radical concept, but it really isn’t once you think
about it. It makes a lot of sense theoretically, and since
it only takes a few minutes a day to do the arithmetic, why
not give it a try?
Counting calories is the most effective system for controlling
your bodyweight.
Counting your calories in the off-season ensures that you
make the greatest gains toward your sport goals without pointless
fat buildup. Counting them during the competition season guarantees
steady and accurate progress toward the fat-reduction goals
you have set without a needless loss in lean muscle. When
you think about it, that’s a small investment to make
to ensure that you get all you possibly can from your hardcore
training.
Treat yourself to a splurge a day. Counting
calories does not mean you have to lead a life of puritanical
virtue, eating food that only a rabbit could love. While you
should always watch your fat, salt and sugar intake, you can
still have a splurge a day without “breaking the rules”
and getting overwhelming feelings of guilt. Everyone has his
or her own idea of a splurge, and these ideas can vary over
time. The important thing to remember is that a splurge per
day is fine as long as you limit the quantity of food involved.
If you go out with friends and they order pizza, it’s
okay to have a slice or two (unless your contest is just around
the corner, of course!). Just count the calories in what you
eat and add it to your total for the day. If the pizza pushes
you over the top of your calorie count for that day, take
the excess calories off tomorrow’s total. Better yet,
if you know you are going out for pizza later, save some room
in your calorie count for the splurge. Chances are that you
will find a modest splurge to be well within your diet parameters
for the day. Let reason be your guide. It will make your diet
a lot more interesting and will ensure that you stick to it
over the long term.
Always include aerobic exercise in your program to
control bodyweight. Studies have shown that when
bodybuilders combined dieting with aerobic exercise they lost
less muscle tissue than when they tried to lose all of their
weight through dieting alone. Therefore, you should always
include aerobic exercise in your diet program. For weight
reduction purposes all you need are 30 to 45 minutes of aerobic
activity per day to get results. The increased energy expenditure
required by this activity, combined with a modest calorie
reduction of 10 percent, trims off excess bodyfat while keeping
your muscles full and ready for action.
Since aerobics enhance your cardiovascular fitness and help
raise your basal metabolic rate, it is also a good idea to
incorporate some aerobic training into your year-round program.
This may run counter to what you have heard in the gym, but
it has been shown in scientific studies that a moderate amount
of aerobics (one to 1 1/2 hours per week) has no negative
effect on your strength or muscle development. Greater amounts
of aerobics can impact strength, however, so keep track of
the quantity of aerobics you do.
When trying to lose fat, alternate periods of high-calorie
days and low-calorie days so that your metabolism does not
slow down. The body is an incredible machine. When
faced with a situation that it interprets as famine, it conserves
needed energy by lowering the basal metabolic rate and increasing
the efficiency at which food is utilized by the body. It also
tries to hold on to the fat stores, sensing that they may
be needed in the future for critical energy reserves if the
famine continues. These safeguards have no doubt gotten us
to where we are today instead of at some dead end on the tree
of evolution, yet they can play havoc with the diet plans
of bodybuilders if they are not recognized and worked into
the diet program.
Earlier it was noted that the most effective diet program
includes a modest (10 percent) reduction in calories tied
to an increase in aerobic activity. Yet in order to ensure
that the body does not interpret this calorie reduction as
the start of a famine condition, it is necessary to “fool”
your body by alternating periods of high- and low-calorie
days in your diet. That way it is hard for the body to decide
what is going on, and the metabolic rate will decline at a
slower rate.
For example, if you are currently eating 3,000 calories per
day, you would begin your fat-reducing diet by setting your
average daily calorie level at 2,700. Instead of eating 2,700
calories every day, however, you would alternate two-day periods
of 2,900 and 2,500 calories (200 calories above and below
your weekly
average). For instance, you might eat 2,900 calories on Monday
and Tuesday, 2,500 on Wednesday and Thursday, etc. This gives
your body something close to the calorie level it was used
to half the time and should put a brake on the slowing down
of your metabolism. The higher your metabolic rate, of course,
the more fat you will bum at a given caloric intake, so make
it a point to include this daily roller coaster in your diet.
It really can make a difference.
The guidelines indicated above are geared toward the average
athlete and will produce very good results for that person.
Still, everyone is different. If you lose more than two pounds
of bodyweight per week, you are dieting too severely. Increase
your caloric intake, reduce your aerobics somewhat, or both.
On the other hand, if your metabolism is on the slow side,
you may find that you need a somewhat greater caloric reduction
to reach your final weight goal. Take your time, though, and
don’t rush it. Stay with the guidelines noted above
until they no longer produce additional results. If you lose
two pounds the first week, you may very well lose an additional
two pounds the second week with the exact same calorie count.
As in many things patience is a virtue in dieting. Don’t
expect results overnight, because if you try to get them that
quickly you will knock your metabolism out of kilter and wind
up retaining fat. Look at body-weight control as a long-term
venture. Most people who lose weight rapidly put it back on
just as swiftly, and often they have proportionally more fat
and less muscle fiber than they had to begin with. Slow and
steady wins the race. Let that principle be your guide, and
you will never again have a problem with controlling your
bodyweight.
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