Mastering Your Macros: Part 8
*This is Part 8 of a Series on Macro Targeting (aka Flexible Dieting). Please see the first 7 Installments at the following links: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, and Part 7
In our last Installment, we talked about Mr. Kombat and his continuing journey to lose weight but maintain the energy needed to continue training at his normal rate. We touched on the importance of fiber, and what to do when dreaded cravings for sweets occur. Now on to our Final Week…
Finally Mr. Kombat has reached week 3. He has adjusted his daily macros to accommodate for training and non-training times. He has reached his targets for Carbs, Fat, and Protein each day. He even had a bit of cake at the office for a co-worker’s birthday. He is the Poster Child for consistency and adherence to his diet. His reward? He gets to weigh in at the end of this week.
So let’s not put it off any longer. At the beginning of this diet, Mr. Kombat weighed 200lbs. His goal was to lose around 30lbs. So his daily caloric intake was adjusted to 2210 calories per day. Go back to
Part 3 if you would like to see how we came to this daily calorie target. Our goal was for him to lose approximately 6lbs in this 3 week trial period. So at the end of Week 3, Mr. Kombat gets on the scale and….
He has lost 11lbs!
But wait, didn’t we say that losing more than 2 lbs a week was unhealthy? Just like I said in Part 1, it depends. Before 3 weeks ago, Mr. Kombat liked to make bad choices when it came to foods. A lot of salty and sugary snacks, beers on the weekends, and he definitely didn’t drink as much water as he should have.
So after 3 weeks of keeping track on his Food Diary on My Fitness Pal, and choosing better sources of food for his nutrition, and drinking lots of water instead of sodas and other sugary drinks; Mr. Kombat’s body no longer needed to hold on to extra water weight and he lost that too. The body always strives for balance. If you are not getting an adequate amount of water, and eating an abundance of salt and sugary carbs, your body will retain water. If you increase your water intake, and reduce the amount of salt and excess carbs, your body will shed this water weight as it no longer needs to retain it.
So out of the 11lbs that Mr. Kombat lost, there is a strong possibility that almost half of it was water weight. Another important reason to maintain an adequate level of water intake right?
During the course of these 3 weeks, Mr. Kombat noticed that his clothes fit differently even as his body weight didn’t drastically change. This is known as body recomposition. The type of exercises and training that he is doing, along with an adequate intake of the right macros, caused him to increase his lean body mass while reducing his body fat mass. Over a longer period of time, this will happen on a more noticeable scale. That is until he reaches the dreaded “plateau”.
The plateau is the point where your current intake and output, fails to produce the desired results. A change up in diet or exercise or both is then required. When you reach a plateau, your body has adapted itself to the conditions that you have been consistently subjecting it to, and progress grinds to a halt. Without getting too in depth in the process, it is best to just make some minor changes in routine to “reset” your body’s response.
So where do we go from here? Mr. Kombat has found great success in using this method of diet and training and should continue to modify his daily macro targets as he gets closer and closer to his goals. Then once he reaches his optimal range, he can then stay at maintenance to continue his body recomposition. Then he will have to determine new goals. If he wants to gain more lean body mass, he will require a surplus of calories and thus will need to eat above maintenance while increasing his resistance training. All things can be adjusted in order to reach the goals we set for ourselves. For more on goals, check out
THIS ARTICLE on goal planning and being SMART about the goals you set.
If you enjoyed this Series and would like to obtain a PDF or hard copy of the entire Series, please contact the Front Desk Staff or email:
info@kombatarts.com . Also, if you have any requests for an in-depth look at a particular diet or exercise program, or an idea/request for a blog article email
kombatartsblog@gmail.com .
For a
FREE 14 Day Trial , please fill out
this form.
Sign up for the
Kombat Newsletter. There's a form on the right hand side of this page.
Like, follow, and subscribe to all of Kombat's social media on
Facebook ,
Twitter,
YouTube, and
Instagram.
