The 4 Phases of Weight Loss
We've all had that experience of waking up in the morning weighing a certain amount, then stepping on the scale that night only to learn that we've "gained 4 pounds." Yes, your body weights 4 pounds more, but NO, you did NOT gain 4 pounds of mass on your body! You probably ate food, drank water, and haven't cleared that out of your body yet. In order to gain a pound of actual body tissue, you'd need to eat a surplus of 3500 calories above what your body burns. Most people I know would really have to make an effort to eat a 1000 calorie surplus in a day. At that rate, it would take 2 weeks to ACTUALLY gain 4 pounds. That's what it takes to GAIN mass. So let's look at what it takes to ACTUALLY LOSE body mass. Fat loss or body mass loss in general is a 4 phase process: Phase -1 - GLYCOGEN DEPLETION Glycogen Depletion: You body has sugar (called glycogen when it's in a stored state) stored ready to fuel whatever work your body does - thinking, staying warm, moving, etc. The average sized human stores up to 300-400 calories of glycogen in the liver and 2,000-10,000 calories in muscles. The liver is like a cup - it's a fixed sized and can be filled and emptied. The muscles cells are like balloons - they visibly grown and shrink; and the more you exercise, the more the muscles can hold. As you enter a calorie deficit, your body will initially burn off whatever stores are in the liver, and a small percentage of stores in the muscles. Think about this like spending what is in your savings account. Just like you don't like writing big checks out of your savings account, your body won't fully deplete muscles store. After burning a small percentage, then it will look to body fat for additional energy. Weight loss from glycogen depletion is NOT to be confused with weight loss from dehydration: Dehydration: There are things you can do to manipulate your body to decrease the amount of water it is storing (dehydrate). Although bloating (storing extra water…Read More