“How do I know If Im losing bodyfat?”
One of the most asked QUESTIONS of personal training.
One day I’ll put them all together, the ones that people ask over and over and over.
Bodyfat loss on paper is an easy equation=You UNDEREAT, your body EATS itself to keep you going.
Fat loss gives people the wrong idea I think.
You are not “losing” fat, you are using it as an energy source because by definition you are under eating.
Your body has to get the energy from somewhere.
Luckily humans have PLENTY of stored energy on their body.
We carry body fat for a reason, it enables us to survive without food.
If you were “ripped”, you’d be starving within days if you were in a food less situation.
I had to get lean recently for my Iron Man photoshoot.
I was COLD when I outside and the temperature was below 70 degrees, I was hungry constantly, and my energy was ZERO.
Why did I feel so lousy?
I had single digit bodyfat. I “looked” good, but by way of health and performance, I was at a literal low.
Back to the question though, how can you KNOW if you are really losing fat?
Simple answer-ARE YOU HUNGRY?
Hunger is a biofeedback signal from your brain and stomach that there is a lack of food.
And not just a mental desire to eat, but the physical “stomach in knots” feeling of wanting food.
If you feel that, guaranteed you are losing fat.
The hunger signal is in fact how Bodybuilders dieted for over 50 years.
The standard Nutrition Label that we have today was not a requirement on food until the early 1990s.
Think about that.
In 1970, you had no way of really knowing the calories in anything you ate. There was no federal/legal requirement to put this on food.
Despite this, from the early 1920-1980s, bodybuilders still managed to get ripped up and shredded.
How did they do it?
HUNGER
They’d drop their food intake, weigh themselves every day, and so long as they were hungry and the scale weight was dropping, they knew they were losing fat.
Simple concept, and its not one thats changed at all in 100 years of studying bodyweight and fat loss.
Lower calorie intake, collect data, adjust accordingly.
This is why “Diets” that promise you’ll never by hungry, never have cravings, always be satsified, etc,
They are all bullshit.
You MIGHT have recomposition happen when you change the macronutrient intake of your diet (eating more protein for example), but for significant weight loss-HUNGER.
It has to happen.
