Most
Endurance athletes are concerned about their weight and periodically diet.
Since each pound contains about 3,500 calories, if we reduce caloric intake by
1,000 calories each day we lose about two pounds each week. Logically, the
higher the daily caloric deficit, the faster the weight loss. Unfortunately,
the faster that you drop the weight, the more muscle you lose.
This observation was
made by researchers at Rockefeller University. The researchers looked at the
effect of daily caloric deficit on weight loss. As might be expected, the
less calories consumed the more weight was lost. What wasn’t expected was where
the weight loss was coming from. For individuals who moderately reduced their
daily caloric intake, 91% of the loss was fat and 9% was muscle. For subjects
who severely reduce their daily caloric intake, fat represented 48% of the loss
and muscle 42%. In other words, the greater the daily calorie restriction, the
greater the loss of muscle mass. For endurance athletes, the implications are
pretty obvious.
This research also
explained why the longer one is on a diet that severely restricts calories, the
harder it is to keep losing weight. As the body loses more muscle mass, it has
a dramatic effect on overall energy metabolism since a resting muscle cell
burns almost eight times more energy per day than a fat cell.
Ironically, severe
calorie restrictions are unnecessary. A recent study showed that a group who
had a 200 calorie per day deficit has the same weight loss at six months as a
group that had a 750 calorie per day deficit. The bottom line – if you want to
lose fat, not muscle, a moderate diet plan is the only way to go.
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