pH Mythology: Separating pHacts from pHiction

BY HARRIET HALL, M.D.

The internet is a cornucopia of facts, some true and some “alternative” (in other words, lies). One topic that is particularly plagued by misinformation is pH. People are restricting their diet, buying alkaline water, testing their urine with pH test strips, and buying into bogus cancer cures, all on the basis of false pseudoscientific claims. Going back to basics will help us distinguish pHacts from fiction.

A Quick Primer: pH 101

pH stands for potential of hydrogen. It is a logarithmic scale from 0 to 14 that measures the concentration of hydrogen ions. Water is neutral at pH 7; solutions with a pH less than 7 are acidic; solutions with a pH greater than 7 are basic, or alkaline. Logarithmic means the units represent 10-fold differences: pH 4 indicates 10 times as many hydrogen ions as pH 5. The pH of blood is maintained within a narrow range of 7.34–7.45 by a process known as acid-base homeostasis. Deviations are quickly corrected by compensatory mechanisms in the lungs and kidneys. The pH of stomach acid is 1.5–3.5, human skin 4.7, cerebrospinal fluid 7.5, and pancreas secretions 8.1. None of these are affected by the composition of the diet. The pH of urine can range from 4.6 to 8.0; it changes as the kidneys re-establish homeostasis after an acid or alkaline load. The pH of urine does not reflect the pH in blood or anywhere else in the body.

The Acid/Alkaline: Theory of Disease

This theory claims that too much acidity in the body causes disease, and that eating alkaline foods and drinking alkaline water will improve health. People are encouraged to test the pH of their urine to monitor their acid/alkaline balance. On Quackwatch, Dr. Gabe Mirkin explained that the acid/alkaline theory of disease is nonsense because dietary modification cannot change the acidity of any part of the body except the urine. He says, “If you hear someone say that your body is too acidic and you should use their product to make it more alkaline, you would be wise not to believe anything else the person tells you.”¹

An herbalist offered a rebuttal, explaining that while the urine pH is not the same as blood pH, health is affected by small changes in blood pH within the normal range, and the urine pH is a good indicator of how hard your body is having to work to maintain homeostasis and how much stress that is putting on the body’s reserves.² He claims that being on the low side of the normal blood pH range is unhealthy. There isn’t a shred of evidence to support those claims.

The Alkaline Diet

The alkaline diet leaps wildly to false conclusions from a simple fact: certain foods produce acid ash. In order to buffer the additional acid load, they say the body pulls out alkaline-rich minerals like calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium from the bones, teeth and organs. They say this leads to osteoporosis and fatigue, and compromises our immune system, making us vulnerable to viruses and disease. Avoiding acid foods will make the urine more alkaline, and people with alkaline urine are said to have a reduced risk of osteoporosis, cancer, and heart disease. The alkaline diet is said to facilitate weight loss and increase energy. It is even used to treat cancer. Proponents offer testimonials and cite cherry-picked studies that seem to support their beliefs. However, systematic analyses of all the published scientific studies have determined that the evidence does not support the acid/alkaline theory of disease, so it should be dismissed as pseudoscience. […]

Read the full article.

Hormonal Balance & Metabolism: How Exercise Can Positively Affect Hormones

There are four hormones that are critical to the success of your weight loss program. Cortisol, insulin, thyroid, and the reproductive hormones (testosterone in men, and progesterone in women). When kept in balance, these hormones have the largest effect on metabolism. When out of balance, they can prevent you from achieving the optimal fitness results you desire.

Hormones could probably be one of the contributing reasons why you often times don’t see continued results. Increasing caloric expenditure while decreasing caloric intake is a tried and true method for achieving weight loss, but there are times when that system isn’t fool proof.

Cortisol: Cortisol is a glucocorticoid produced in the adrenal glands in response to stress. Mental stress (work), emotional stress (divorce), physical stress (exercise), or environmental stress (toxins) are all forms of stress that cause your body to increase the production of cortisol.

When cortisol levels increase, it stimulates the sympathetic nervous system, aka the “fight or flight” system. This activation tells your body you are in some form of imminent danger and it immediately increases your blood pressure, elevates your heart rate, and releases glucose into the blood stream from your liver. If this happens for an extended period, it will start to affect other hormones and wreak havoc on your metabolism.

Some of the more important symptoms of elevated cortisol include increased insulin resistance, reduced production of thyroid stimulating hormone, blockage of T4 to T3 (thyroid), and depression of testosterone production in men and progesterone production in women². Left unchecked, chronically elevated cortisol creates an internal environment that becomes very difficult to allow for weight loss.

How exercise can improve cortisol balance: High intensity exercise done when cortisol levels are elevated above healthy ranges can add more stress to an already stressed system. If you think you may be in a state of chronically, or acutely, elevate cortisol, reducing the intensity of the training will not further increase cortisol. Reducing intensity helps the body to recover sooner, lowering cortisol.

Insulin: Insulin is produced in the beta cells of the pancreas in response to elevated glucose levels in the blood. In small doses, insulin is very anabolic, but when insulin is secreted over long periods of time, such as when someone is in a state of insulin resistance, then the metabolism does some interesting things.

First, since the muscles are not getting fed, they signal the brain telling it you are hungry, especially for sugar since it is the fastest thing to bring energy levels up. Next it increases inflammation systemically which then increases cortisol. Lastly, when glucose levels rise, your body tries really hard to do anything it can to lower it so it shifts fuel utilization away from fat-burning to carb-burning. Bye-bye fat loss.

How exercise can positively affect insulin: Since insulin balance and blood glucose regulation go hand-in-hand, and elevated blood glucose has been shown to slow down fat utilization⁴, maintaining a healthy insulin balance is important for the metabolism. High intensity interval training has been shown to improve insulin sensitivity. However, if cortisol is also suspected as being elevated, HIIT can also increase cortisol, worsening insulin resistance. A proper balance of 1-2 HIIT sessions per week, mixed with lower intensity, and recovery-based activities is a good way to start to positively affect insulin sensitivity, while allowing for long periods of recovery between bouts.

Thyroid: Thyroid hormone is the main metabolic hormone in the body. It is produced by the thyroid gland, located in the throat, in response to thyroid stimulating hormone that comes from the pituitary gland. However, the initial hormone produced by the thyroid, thyroxine4 (T4), is metabolically inactive. It must be converted into T3 in order to affect your metabolism. As previously stated, elevated cortisol can inhibit this conversion.

Many people that have been “diagnosed” with hypothyroid have a functioning thyroid, but their T3 level are low due to other factors³. While many doctors will quickly prescribe synthetic thyroid drugs, it is important to identify what could be causing these decreased levels.

How exercise can improve thyroid balance: Exercise intensity, especially in terms of cardiovascular exercise, has a profound effect on the thyroid hormones⁵. A study on exercise intensity and thyroid hormone levels found that at anaerobic threshold (~70% of MHR-maximum heart rate) all thyroid hormones were improved from baseline. As intensity continued to increase, TSH also continued to rise.
Reproductive Hormones: Testosterone and progesterone are the two main hormones in males and females, respectively. In males, if testosterone levels fall, it causes a loss of energy, limited ability to build and maintain muscle mass, and a loss in libido. In women, lowered progesterone production causes an imbalance in the estrogen to progesterone ratio resulting in irregular menstrual cycles, an increased risk for PCOS, pre-menopausal symptoms, and an increase of fat storage around the hips and triceps.

Ironically, elevated cortisol (i.e., chronic stress) can lower both testosterone and progesterone production through a phenomenon known as pregnenolone steal. In addition, there are several other causes to lowered reproductive hormones, including pesticides, xeno-estrogens, and nutrient deficiencies.

How exercise affects sex hormones: High intensity resistance training has been shown to have the most beneficial effect on testosterone in men⁶, and cardio training and resistance training at a moderate intensity has shown similar results on the reproductive hormones in women⁷.
 References
1.        LaValle, James B. “Cracking the Metabolic Code.” 2004
2.        Sapolsky, Robert M. “Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers.”1994
3.        Ismail, Adel AA. “On the Diagnosis of Subclinical Hypothyroidism.”The British Journal of General Practice57.545 (2007): 1000–1001.
4.        Gillen JB, Percival ME, Skelly LE, Martin BJ, Tan RB, Tarnopolsky MA, Gibala MJ. Three minutes of all-out intermittent exercise per week increases skeletal muscle oxidative capacity and improves markers of health in overweight adults. PLOS ONE. Nov 3;9(11):e111489, 2014.
5.        Ciloglu, Figen, et al. “Exercise intensity and its effects on thyroid ormones.” Neuroendocrinology letters26.6 (2005): 830-834.
6.        Raastad, Truls, Trine Bjøro, and Jostein Hallen. “Hormonal responses to high-and moderate-intensity strength exercise.” European journal of applied physiology82.1 (2000): 121-128.
7.        Copeland, Jennifer L., Leslie A. Consitt, and Mark S. Tremblay. “Hormonal responses to endurance and resistance exercise in females aged 19–69 years.” The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences57.4 (2002): B158-B165.

Your article "How To Keep Your Muscle While Leaning Out"

I received a letter today from a lady who actually reads this rag of mine and was thoughtful enough to send a reply. If you’re in the market for, or are even considering some type of elliptical, give this article from Reviews.com a look. Their team creates reviews about various products using sponsorship-free processes in an effort to provide unbiased information. This article covers a lot of ground and may provide you with helpful data to consider. There's a pile of other reviews on Reviews.com, so there's plenty more to see. Their elliptical review covers the many options at hand when choosing a machine for your home gym:

Drive System Location - this determines how bulky the machine is and its ergonomic design

• Front drive ellipticals are small and inexpensive, but tend to be less natural in terms of range of motion. They also typically require more extensive long-term maintenance costs.
• Rear drive ellipticals are bigger and more expensive, but allow for a wider range of motion that feels natural like jogging. These machines also usually have lower maintenance costs.
• Center drive ellipticals are large, expensive, and come with luxurious bells and whistles. They offer the most natural range of motion possible and feature on-board entertainment.

Drive Mechanism - how does the machine increase resistance?

• Magnetic resistance uses flywheel magnets to control the intensity of the workout, offering a customizable and fine-tuned ride
• Air resistance is far less precise, essentially adding resistance the faster you pedal.

Pedal Design - where are your feet and how do they move?

• Wheel-track ellipticals use tracks on the base of the machine to anchor your feet into pedals. This allows for a less ergonomic range of motion, although you can usually adjust them to a certain extent. These are the lowest-priced options.
• Suspension ellipticals doesn’t use tracks, rather they suspend the body over the base of the machine for a natural feel. These machines offer great ergonomics, but do tend to be more expensive.

They also dive deeper into the design of the machines, programmable consoles, and incline adjustments later in the article, which you can look at here: Elliptical Machines

I, Too, Am Thinking About Me, Too

By Carol Tavris

Sarah Silverman recently made a video in which she described the painful conflict she was feeling about her good friend of 25 years, Louis CK. Watch it and you will see cognitive dissonance in action: on the one hand, she loves and admires the man, and values their long friendship. On the other hand, she detests and condemns the exhibitionist sexual behavior that he acknowledged. Many of the people watching this video wanted her to reduce that dissonance by jumping one way or the other: disavow their friendship, or trivialize his behavior. In this brave embrace of her emotional conflict and their friendship, she did neither.

Our whole country is living in a constant state of hyper-dissonance: “my political candidate/my most admired actor/a brilliant artist/my dear friend has been accused of sexual abuses and misconduct; how do I cope with this information? Do I support him/see his movies/enjoy his art/keep the friendship or must I repudiate him entirely?” Living with dissonance and complexity is not easy, but surely skeptics, of all people, must try. We hear a story that outrages us and, just like true believers and justice warriors of any kind, we’re off and running, and once we are off and running we don’t want to hear quibbles, caveats, doubts, complexities. Thus, when the Guardian (Dec. 17, 2017) reported Matt Damon’s remarks that there was “a difference between patting someone on the butt and rape or child molestation. Both of those behaviours need to be confronted and eradicated without question, but they shouldn’t be conflated,” Minnie Driver blasted him: it’s not for men to make distinctions; “there is no hierarchy of abuse”; men should just shut up for once. “If good men like Matt Damon are thinking like that then we’re in a lot of fucking trouble,” she said. “We need good intelligent men to say this is all bad across the board, condemn it all and start again.”

No hierarchy of abuse? Really? That is one of the universal symptoms of revolutionary zealotry: go for broke, ignore gradations of villainy, who cares if some innocents are thrown over the side, we are furious and we want everything at once. No wonder those of us in the boring older generation, who have lived through cycles of anger and protest, are so annoying. “Wait!” we keep saying. “Be careful! Remember the stupidity of ‘zero tolerance’ programs in schools, where a kid who brings a pocket knife for show-and- tell, or a 6-year-old boy who kisses a 6-year-old girl, got expelled?” We have also learned that while there is a time and place for revolutionary zealotry, the hardest challenge comes next, because change will not be accomplished without allies. […]

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5 Questions for a Better New Year

from the PsychAlive e-zine, by Dr. Lisa Firestone

New Year’s tends to be a time of looking forward. Yet, in our effort to set goals for the future, it’s meaningful to reflect on the past year and make sense of what our experiences have meant to us. What can they teach us? How can the lessons of 2017 help us to achieve a more fulfilling 2018? The following are five essential questions that I have found can be of immeasurable value when setting forth on a new and better year.

1) What were the most memorable moments of this past year for you? From a mountain climbed to a child born, most of us can name our most meaningful moments since our last NYE countdown. However, when reflecting on this question, I recommend not just looking for those stand-out, life-changing incidents but those subtle moments when you felt the most “yourself.” What went into making those times so memorable? In other words, what lights you up? Perhaps, it was the meal you cooked that brought your friends together for an evening, the ordinary afternoon when you did something thoughtful for your partner, the calm you felt after spending a weekend away. It’s important to know what activities make you feel the most centered and yourself as well as the traits that are the most uniquely you. What environments bring out the best in you?

2) On the flip side, it is necessary to consider what takes away from your being your best self, the person you want to be all the time? What situations cause you to put up your guard or become irritable? Noticing what events trigger you to start acting in ways of which you disapprove is a vital step to making real change possible. For example, one of my relatives noticed that any time she felt extra pressure from her boss, husband, or even her 4-year-old son, she’d feel like shutting down. Turning into a “rebellious teenager,” she’d often forget an important task or errand that would leave others let down and her feeling like a failure. Recognizing patterns like these allows you to interrupt them and to get a better understanding of why we act the ways we do, instead of just blindly falling victim to our reactions. My relative was relieved when she made the connection between her current behavior and her childhood, which she spent resisting the rule of two very strict and disapproving parents, who told her directly that she was irresponsible and couldn’t be relied on.

3) Do you find yourself getting caught up in things that you think you should be doing? For instance, do you make yourself work too much at the expense of your personal relationship or friendships? Many of us end up saying “no” to the things we love, using the ever-available excuse of being too busy or exhausted. When we ignore or devalue our distinct interests and desires, we give up a part of ourselves that keeps us feeling passionate and alive. How many times have you heard people say, “Oh, I had to give that up when I had the baby/ got that job/ moved to the city?” Forgoing romantic time with your partner or filling our schedules with practical items can leave us with a feeling of emptiness and cause us to stray from our own individuality.

4) Do you turn things that you enjoy doing into “shoulds”? Many of us not only limit the time we take for ourselves, but we can even start to distort the things we love to do, turning them into things we have to do. Many couples I’ve worked with have resented their partner for activities they once shared, because they now feel like obligations. A romantic getaway can become a logistical nightmare. A job they once loved can become a constant source of stress. A friend of mine loves to host events, yet by the time the party rolls around, she spends the majority of her time tidying up and running around refilling platters. She rarely allows herself to actually sit still and enjoy the fruits of her labors, the people she’s brought together or the fun they’re sharing. Think about how you may be distorting or distracting yourself from experiences that mean something to you. To what degree might you be limiting your ability to sit back and enjoy the moments that are truly precious to you?

5) Have you started thinking negatively about yourself and the world around you? In the fast-paced society we are part of, it is too easy to get cynical. In addition, we are all susceptible to a destructive thought process known as the “critical inner voice” that detracts from our happiest times. This self-critical thought process critiques us and those close to us, while limiting us in achieving our goals. Surprisingly, these thoughts often arise in our most precious moments. After memorable time spent with a loved one, your partner or your child, for example, what do you take away from that moment? Do you feel happy and fulfilled? Does this feeling stay with you or do you notice certain negative thoughts starting to seep in? A man I know has described how every time he and his wife share an especially close period, he starts having thoughts like, “What’s so great about this anyway? Don’t get used to this; it will never last.” It’s not uncommon for our critical inner voice to enter into our lives at times when we are actually getting what we want. While punishing and unpleasant, these self-critical points of identity have become familiar and can cause us anxiety when we attempt to challenge them.

By challenging the ways we limit ourselves and expanding what we allow ourselves to have, we build a richer, more rewarding life. Taking this all-in approach can be scary, as it can leave us with so much more to lose. Yet, by accepting the challenge to know and become our real selves, we are better able to make each moment into memories we’re thrilled to reflect on come another new year.

Is It Ever Safe to Cut Calories More Aggressively To Burn Fat Faster?

By Tom Venuto

You’re losing fat too slow. You want to burn fat faster. However, you’ve heard that cutting calories too much will kill your metabolism, tank your hormones and wreak all kinds of havoc in your body, not to mention you’re so hungry on low calories, you’re miserable. But still, you see people doing it all the time – they cut calories lower than they’re supposed to, they get ripped abs, and they don’t seem any worse off for it. That begs an important question…Is it ever safe to cut calories aggressively to try to burn fat faster?
 
It turns out, the answer isn’t as cut and dried as some people believe. In today’s post I answer a reader question about aggressive calorie deficits and in the process, I’ve created a new set of guidelines – the 10 calorie cutting rules for safely losing fat faster.
 
Q: Tom, I decided to drop my calories to 35% below maintenance to see if I can lose fat faster, but part of me feels like I’m going against my own advice. I only have 8 pounds I want to drop, but I’m going on vacation in 5 weeks and would love to achieve my goal in that time and look ripped enough to see my abs. I’m currently 151 pounds and 21% body fat. I’m moderately active, including lifting weights. I calculated my maintenance at 2280 calories per day, so 35% deficit would be 1480 calories per day.
 
I know about the negative effects of cutting calories too much and I read in your book that 30% is considered an aggressive deficit and that’s usually the most you would cut, but 1480 calories doesn’t seem too low. Am I doing something terribly wrong to use a 35% deficit for only 5 weeks? Do you have any other advice on the calorie deficit or cutting fat faster, but without harming your metabolism or your health?
 
A: You’re not necessarily doing anything wrong by using a very aggressive deficit, especially only 35%, as long as you understand the potential risks that come along with the benefit of losing fat faster. If you weigh the pros and cons and you take all the possible precautions to limit the risk, it makes sense in some circumstances to reduce calories a little more than 30% below maintenance.
 
I know there has been a lot written about the risks of cutting calories too low, including on this site and in my book. But dropping calories more than 30% below maintenance is not something you should never do, it’s simply a judgement call you need to make, based on your situation.
 
Here is a quick recap on calorie deficit levels:
15-20% = conservative deficit (slow fat loss, no risk)
20-25% = moderate deficit (moderate fat loss, very low to no risk)
25-30% = aggressive deficit (moderately fast weight loss, low to moderate risk)
31-40% = very aggressive deficit (fast weight loss, risky)
50%+ = semi starvation/starvation (very fast weight loss, high risk; potentially unhealthy)

It’s worth highlighting two points about these numbers: The first is that most people don’t go over a 30% deficit because that keeps risks low. The second is that obesity scientists consider a 50% deficit to be “semi-starvation,” and recommend not attempting this much (prolonged) calorie restriction without medical supervision. I think “semi-starvation” is best avoided completely. This however, leaves some gray area around 35%, give or take a little, for discussion.
 
If you’re considering larger calorie cuts, keep in mind that the “risks” of low calories include: Hunger, Cravings, Feelings of deprivation, Low energy, Weakness (strength loss), Loss of endurance, Muscle loss, Nutrient deficiencies (essential vitamins, minerals, fats and amino acids). Metabolic adaptation, Bingeing, Rebound weight gain.
 
However, there are circumstances where it might make sense to cut calories more aggressively.
 
10 Calorie Cutting Rules For Safely Burning Fat Faster
 
Run down my list of aggressive calorie cutting conditions rules below and see how many fit your situation. If most or all of these 10 conditions apply to you, then going with a more aggressive deficit can be done with minimal risk and you’ll gain the benefit of faster fat loss.
 
1. When you are under deadline pressure.
When you don’t have much time to reach your goal and a deadline is impending, which you can’t change or you don’t want to change even if you could, and if you think you are behind schedule, then this is one case where it makes sense to increase your calorie deficit. If you don’t have a competition, vacation, photo shoot or some other time-bound event you are training for and the date is closing in rapidly, then what’s the hurry? Why not lose the fat a little bit more slowly, with less risk and less suffering?
 
2. When you are only cutting calories aggressively for a short period of time.
When you have a fast-approaching deadline, then by definition, you will only be cutting calories aggressively for a short amount of time. Aside from the fact that you might be hungry and there’s risk of rebound when a strict diet is over, there aren’t many serious side effects to cutting calories low for a short time.
 
If you’re only doing this for a month, give or take a week or two, it shouldn’t be a problem. Most of the really negative effects of very low calorie diets come from trying to follow very low calorie or starvation diets for month after month, or getting trapped in the vicious cycle of chronic low calorie dieting. This can be very damaging to the metabolism and increase risk of muscle loss.
 
3. When you can tolerate a little hunger and you don’t have to endure severe hunger or cravings during the diet.
Before you embark on a very low calorie diet, you should consider how your body, mind and personality can handle larger calorie deficits (and or reduced carbs) in terms of the hunger or cravings it might produce.

Cravings can be difficult to resist, but anyone can do it with the right environment, support, and mental toughness because cravings are usually psychological. You may simply miss specific foods or larger portions of food, and it’s easy to give in when you have those thoughts. However, if you know you’re susceptible to cravings and bingeing, then tread lightly with both calorie restriction and complete restriction of specific foods or food groups.
 
Hunger, on the other hand is physical. It can be triggered not only from an empty stomach, but also by hormones. Hunger can get the best of anyone with aggressive calorie deficits, so if you cut calories too much and end up bingeing because you can’t stand the hunger, any benefits you would have gained from a bigger deficit get wiped out.

If you’re one of the lucky ones where hunger doesn’t bother you that much, then you should be okay with a more aggressive deficit.
 
4. When you are confident you won’t binge when the diet is over.
You might successfully strip off the body fat at a rate faster than average and reach your goal of getting ripped by using an aggressive calorie deficit, but you have to ask yourself, what happens after that? the statistics for weight re-gain are almost depressing: Between 80% and 95% of of all fat-loss seekers gain back the weight they lose.
 
There is some evidence that extremely restrictive diets increase the risk of weight regain, but contrary to popular belief, there is no definite proof that doing a short-term very low calorie diet will always increase the risk of relapse. What then, is the “secret” to being among that small percentage of lifetime maintainers? That’s a complex question, but it seems to depend at least partly on each person’s mindset, and their personal tolerance for hunger and food restriction.
 
It also depends on how well they prepare for what comes after the diet (many people don’t give a single thought to maintenance until after they are staring in the mirror at the aftermath of a post-diet binge). It’s a human tendency to hold out with sheer willpower until a deadline date has passed, but then when the goal is achieved, to completely let loose, undoing in days much of the work that was done in the many weeks preceding the event.
 
This is why people who are highly susceptible to hunger or who have a history of binge eating are not good candidates for any type of aggressive dieting including large calorie deficits. But if you can handle the pressure of a larger deficit for weeks (or months) without exploding in a binge at the end, that’s one more indication that it’s probably okay to go ahead with an aggressive calorie deficit.

5. When your body fat level is not already very low.   
The lower your body fat level, the higher your risk of muscle loss and metabolic adaptation when you restrict calories. The higher your body fat level, the lower the risk (overweight men and women can use a larger calorie deficit and lose weight faster without negative effects).
 
If you’re already lean and trying to get super lean (ripped, six pack abs, photo shoot ready, etc.), your body’s instinct is to protect the remaining fat reserves, even to the point of giving up muscle for energy first. It’s a starvation protection and survival mechanism. If a person is overweight or obese, there are large reserves of fat on the body, and there is really no danger of impending starvation, so if calories are cut aggressively, there’s a much lower risk of muscle loss, extreme hunger or metabolic slowdown.
 
Therefore, if you’re lean, like a bodybuilder or figure athlete starting to get ready for competition, you should be very cautious about using aggressive calorie deficits. You’d be better off keeping the deficit conservative and starting your diet earlier to allow for a slower and safer rate of fat loss, with maximum retention of muscle tissue. Ideally, you’d simply stay leaner in the off season so you don’t have much to diet off to begin with.
 
6. When you’re training consistently, with the primary focus on moderate to heavy weight training
Weight training is the number one key to maintaining your lean body mass when you’re in a calorie deficit. If you’re training consistently and progressively, continuing to increase weight or at least the number of reps you do with the same weight, your risk of losing muscle is low.
 
One of the biggest mistakes dieters make is thinking that light weights and high reps will improve fat loss. The truth is, fat loss is primarily a function of calorie deficit, so unless your weight training increases your calorie deficit, reducing the pounds lifted will only make your lifting program less effective at maintaining muscle and strength while dieting.
 
Heavy training is usually considered the 4 to 6 rep range (the strength zone), and moderately heavy training is considered the 8 to 12 rep range (the hypertrophy zone). Occasionally it’s beneficial to use higher reps in the 13 to 20 range, but for maintaining muscle and strength, the best optimal approach is doing the majority of your training in the 6 to 12 rep range.

An even bigger mistake when dieting in a large calorie deficit is to focus only on cardio. Unfortunately, many people think dichotomously about training; they believe that cardio training is for burning fat and weight training is only for building muscle. Actually, both types of training burn calories, yet only weight training will build muscle and strength and prevent you from losing lean mass when dieting. When you’re in an aggressive calorie deficit, doing too much cardio, without weight training, can increase the risk of muscle loss.
 
7. When you’re eating enough protein.
The second most important key to maintaining your lean body mass while dieting is being sure your protein intake is sufficient. Most people know that when you’re weight training, your protein needs go up above what a sedentary person would require. What most people don’t know is that when your calories go down, your protein needs don’t go down. If anything, your protein needs go up when you’re in a calorie deficit.

There is a fairly wide range of acceptable protein intakes for resistance-trained people, from 0.8 grams of protein per pound of body weight per day to about 1.0 grams per pound of lean body weight. The bigger your calorie deficit is, the more you benefit from leaning toward the higher end of the protein range. Some bodybuilders are known to consume up to 1.2g/lb or even more during pre-contest prep when calories are very low.
 
8. When you’re certain that you’re getting all the essential nutrients you need.
The lower your calories go and the less food you eat, the higher your risk of falling short on a variety of nutrients. Of first concern is protein. At the very least, enough calories have to be consumed to meet your protein needs, which provide you with essential amino acids. On top of protein, some fatty acids are also essential, so you have to eat enough calories to obtain those as well.
 
The more restrictive your diet is, and that includes the restriction of specific food groups as well as total calorie intake, the higher your chance of vitamin, mineral, phytonutrient and fiber deficiencies. Calories from starchy carbs and grains can be reduced substantially, but eating plenty of vegetables and fruits on top of the protein and healthy fats is necessary to cover your bases for micronutrients.
 
9. When you’re losing fat and not losing lean muscle.
If you’re already dieting with a very aggressive calorie deficit, and things are going well, then don’t worry or over-think too much, just pay attention to how you feel (strength, energy, hunger, etc.) and keep measuring your results every week to make sure you stay on track.
 
If you’re losing fat and maintaining all your lean body mass on a very aggressive calorie deficit then why not stay with it? (You’ll get maximum fat loss that way). On top of getting good body composition results, if you’re not suffering from extreme hunger or cravings, and you’re diligently meeting all your nutritional needs, then there’s not much to worry about.
 
In fact, if you’re on a very conservative calorie deficit of only 15% -20% and the fat loss is painfully slow, it makes sense to try increasing the deficit a bit (you’ll speed up fat loss that way). Just monitor your results and keep doing more of what’s working.
 
10. When you’ve planned ahead for maintenance for the next goal.
It’s possible you may reach a short term fat loss goal using an aggressive diet and losing fat faster than average. But what then? Most people haven’t planned ahead, so they abruptly stop the diet and go back to how they were eating before, or worse, they end it with a huge binge and immediately begin gaining back the fat they lost.
 
Most dieters are very short-sighted. The most successful people have long-term time perspective, and they are perpetual goal setters. They think about fitness, health and self-improvement as a lifelong journey, and the goals are simply stepping stones along the journey.
 
If you’re always thinking one goal in advance and you have a plan for long term maintenance for when your current fat loss goal is achieved, you’re much less likely to be one of the weight loss relapse statistics.

– Tom Venuto