The important elements to weight loss you’re probably not considering.

What should I focus on first?

Weight loss can be complicated, because we’re all individuals with different needs, genes, and preferences. So when it comes to following a successful diet plan, there are so many things to consider.

In this blog we will be discussing the important elements to a successful weight loss plan, and things you’ll have to consider to keep the weight off.

What is more important; calories or macronutrients?

To answer that question, we’d have to know what your current body composition is, what your goals are, and what the time line is for when you want to achieve your goal.

Strictly speaking if we are talking about general weight loss, then it has to be the total amount of energy that you consume that matters most, in other words your calorie intake. If you were only interested in losing weight, the most important aspect of your diet has to be how much food you are intaking.

However, weight loss doesn’t get too picky about what it loses, so in that process of losing weight, you’ll likely lose a combination of fat and muscle so if body composition (meaning fat to muscle ratio) matters to you, then macros matter too.

So let’s just say your maintenance calories were 2,000 per day, and you aim to lose about 0.5lb to 1lb per week so you’d eat at roughly 1,700 calories a day (since 1 pound body mass is apx 3,500 calories). Now let’s say you filled that up with cereals, chocolates and donuts, you’d still lose weight because you are technically taking in less energy that you are expending, but the weight loss wouldn’t be quality weight loss.

However, if you you ate 1,700 calories but chose a healthy balance of carbs, fats and protein, you’d likely lose fat and retain some of your muscle, so your body composition would therefore improve.

But really, when it comes to weight loss, there is way more to it than just calories and macronutrients….

A look at the different elements.

#1 Calories

If you look at this pyramid, it highlights the importance of elements to weight loss. At the bottom of the pyramid is the total amount of calories.

Now admittedly nutrition advice can be confusing since there are influencers out there claiming that as long as you follow a “clean diet” you don’t need to count calories.

First of all, there is no such thing as a “clean diet” because foods aren’t good or bad and second, yes, while calories shouldn’t be at the fore front of you trying to live out a healthy lifestyle, ultimately when we are talking about weight loss, the total amount of energy intake matters.

Whether you want to call it calories, food, energy, it all matters.

Now, it is possible of course that you have an individual who has never counted calories in their life has seen phenomenal weight loss as a result of eating whole foods. It should be noted here that whole foods generally contain less energy than processed foods.

Meaning that processed foods usually contain more calories than unprocessed foods, not to mention have been manufactured to be hyper palatable so instead of a few chips, you end up annihilating the whole bag and still wanting more.

So this indivual who has gone from following a highly processed diet to a whole foods diet but never counted calories will of course lose weight.

Saying calories are the end all and be all of weight loss isn’t painting the whole picture, but arguing that calories don’t matter for weight loss isn’t accurate either.

If you’re interested in learning how to count calories for your goals read this blog here.

#2 Macronutrients

Above the calories in the pyramid is macronutrients. As mentioned above, macros are important for when body composition matters. So while calories determined whether you lose, maintain or gain weight, macros determine what that weight loss or gain is made up of.

Having the right macro split for your body can determine whether you lose muscle, maintain muscle or gain muscle.

How to design your macro split

If you’re reading this, I’m assuming you understand the basic science behind macros and how much energy each macronutrient contains. In case you don’t, here’s a basic breakdown:

• 1g of protein = apx 4kcal

• 1g of carbs = apx 4kcal

• 1g of fats = 9kcal

Now let’s look at how to configure your split.

So as a general rule you’d look at what type of activity you do each day. This of course means that you have to factor in whether you are off season or training for a comp or whether you are recovering from an injury, but as a rough guideline here’s what your maintenance could look like for each training style.

Endurance Athletes

This is suitable for those that train for triathlons, marathons or are continuously moving for a minimum of 90 minutes at a time.

Strength & Explosive Athletes

This is a very balanced macro and a great jumping off point for most sports like Crossfit, body building and even team sports.

Absolute Strength Athletes

You’ll probably notice that the fats are relatively high in this one compared to the other two, and that’s because it’s more suitable for slower but more strength movements like powerlifting or Strong man type sports.

These are just jumping off points…

Meaning that when it come to periodising your diet plan, that ratio is going to change as you begin to drop into deficits. Eating for off season or managing an injury will look a little different to eating for pre-comp, so remember to factor all of these in.

#3 Nutrient timing

For an average person, nutrient timing doesn’t really matter, but when you are an athlete, not to mention a masters athlete, the little details can make or break your performance. Nutrient timing can help your body recover and repair faster so that you can be ready to push harder the next day.

When we don’t recover properly our bodies don’t follow the conventional recovery pattern, this can be a problem if your goal is to get stronger. For example, not eating or resting enough after an intense session can cause micro damage leading to more stress to the body.

However, when you eat carbs at the right time, you’ll refuel the glycogen tank and initiate anabolic signaling which encourages nutrient storage, growth, and repair.

If you’d like more details on how and when to eat which macro, that’s relative to your training times, click on this link below.

#4 Sleep and recovery

If you’ve followed my story you’ll know that I used to train everyday, sometimes twice a day. I even completely gave up processed sugar but we’re not gonna talk about that embarrassing time in my life when I was a shortsighted “clean eater” *awkward*, not to mention carrying way more body fat than I am now.

These days I only train 4 times a week, sleep more, eat way more food and have a much better body composition… and *ahem* better relationship with food.

If you’re interested in learning about the body’s recovery process visit this blog here where I discuss how sleep and recovery can affect your weight loss progress.

In short, our body’s sleep wake cycles are governed by various systems in the body for example the endocrine system. What this means is that when you go through prolonged periods of poor sleep you could be affecting your hormone levels which can affect your mood and appetite and various other things.

#5 Hydration

Did you know that if you go into a competition just a little dehydrated you could risk falling behind your peers?

Just losing 0.5% of your body’s water could place your heart under strain, so imagine training under those conditions.

Now if you’re more focused on your physique and think that hydration doesn’t matter, please remember that any kind of stress on your body will ultimately affect how you carry body fat.

Just 0.5% loss of body water could put a strain on your heart.

#6 Micronutrients: Vitamins and minerals

Now this is where your food composition really matters. You may have heard of the IIFYM (if it fits your macros), where people follow a macro plan but “fit” their macros in with whatever fills the space. Meaning as long as their macro targets are reached, they don’t care that it’s filled with donuts.

Now you don’t need to be a scientist to know that that isn’t going to be great for you. While I will always encourage people to eat whatever they want within reason, I also advise that you increase your whole food options where you can.

So if an athlete were to follow a 30/40/30 macro split but filled it with burgers, chips and coke, chances are his performace and body compositon won’t be as good as an athlete that fills his macro split with more whole foods.

The research behind nutrition is constantly changing but what we do know for sure is that the more varied your diet is, the more likely it is that you’ll receive all the essential nutrients to thrive.

To conclude…

So if you’ve ever wondered whether you should focus more on calories or macros, hopefully this blog has answered some of those questions.

Remember to consider your goals and your training intensity before you decide, and most importantly, stay consistent. Don’t hop from one plan to the next. Stick it out for a few weeks before you decide whehter it’s working or not.

And that wraps it up for this week’s blog! Leave a comment below and let me know what you thought about it, or better yet, share this with someone who might also be interested in learning about the elements to a weight loss programme.

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