Hello friends, and welcome to our fourth issue of The Athlete Spot™ Weekly.
This issue is sponsored by SmartCARE Education. Take your practice to the next level with our courses in performance management, rehabilitation, and injury care.
Victory Loves Preparation
What did you miss?
In our last issue, I shared my point of view on why we need to think about building muscle, not losing weight.
Here are the takeaways:
“Losing weight,” leads to more fat gain.
When we dramatically cut calories and focus on losing, our metabolism adapts to slow down.
Your metabolism adapts to your eating habits, and your activity levels
When we lose muscle, we directly lower our metabolism.
Muscle is where the calories go to be burned
As muscle decreases with weight loss, the likelihood of injury goes up as we age.
Managing Weight Loss While Retaining Muscle
Today I want to share with you the formula I provide my athletes when the goal is to lose weight and maximize muscle retention.
Working with High School, College, and Hybrid athletes, one of our most discussed conversations is "bulking" or "cutting" for their sport.
While this is seen as "normal" in some High School and College athletics, such as wrestling, cheerleading, and football. Most athletes go about it the wrong way.
From extreme dieting to excessive training and conditioning. Students end up sabotaging their recovery, losing muscle, reducing their metabolism, and becoming more prone to injury.
Guidelines for managing a cut (losing weight) the smart way:
First of all, every athlete should be well aware of what demands their sport will require from them. A football player may want to cut 10-15 pounds of body weight to be a faster running back, while a cheerleader may want to lose 5-10 pounds to be at the top of the pyramid.
While I don’t recommend athletes undergo extreme weight cuts prior to a specific event. A short-term caloric deficit (1 month) can be beneficial in inducing weight loss and maximizing muscle retention.
Let’s take a look at the guidelines:
1) Prioritizing protein will help you maintain muscle mass. Eating adequate amounts of protein, about 0.8g/lb of body weight, will help slow down the loss of muscle during the cutting phase.
2) Moderating your fats helps keep healthy hormonal levels. These are extremely important as they aid in weight loss and muscle maintenance. Keep your fats around 60-70g grams per day.
3) Manipulate your carbs to improve your training and maximize your performance. This is your energy source. if losing weight, aim for 0.5 - 1 grams of carbs per pound. Consume most of your carbohydrates around the time you are most active (training/practice).
Eat 0.8 grams of carbs per pound on training days, and 0.5 -0.7g of carbs on non-training days. If you are really hungry (HANGRY) on training days, consume up to 1 gram of carbs per pound on those days.
Yes, this requires you to do a little bit of math. Here’s how I’ve calculated my numbers, and have had a successful 10 lb weight cut in the last month.
Protein: 220 lbs x 0.8 = 176 grams of protein
Fats: 65 grams of fat
Carbs: Training days 220 lbs x 0.6 = 132 grams of carbs; Non-training days 220 lbs x 0.5 = 110 grams of carbs.
Athletes looking to cut weight should aim for a max of 2% of their body weight each week. Any more than that, you run the risk of slowing down your recovery between training sessions and therefore increasing the risk of injury.
If you need some help with your numbers, send me a message and I will help you get started!
For now, that is all.
Thank you for taking the time to read this week’s The Athlete Spot™ Weekly.
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I hope you have a great Saturday and I wish you a great week!
In health and strength,