The Importance of Context
So why is it in the field of nutrition and training that the majority seem to think in absolutes where the context of the situation is never taken into consideration? Because as often as not, it isn’t. Rather, individuals will state in absolute terms, regardless of context that such and such is good, or bad, or best, or worst. Squats are good, squats are bed,carbs are good, carbs are bad. Saturated fats are good, saturated fats are bad.
The Fundamentals of Fat Loss Diets Part 2
In Part 1, I also provided a rough starting point for caloric intake of 10-12 calories per pound of total body weight. As noted in that article, this is only a starting point and, depending on the specific, relatively higher or lower caloric intakes may be more appropriate. While much of this variability is due to differences in daily activity level and/or individual physiology, there are also various pros and cons to using larger or smaller deficits, a topic I discuss in Setting the Deficit – Small, Moderate or Large.
The Fundamentals of Fat Loss Diets Part 1
I did an online interview of some sort a while back and one of the questions I was asked was this “What are the basic components of fat loss diet that you would recommend? That is, if you had to give the most general fat loss diet approach, what would it be?” Another way of phrasing the question might be thus: What’s the simplest fat loss diet you can draw up, with the fewest details for people to get obsessive over?
The Energy Balance Equation
Today, I’m going to do my best to clear things up about what the energy balance equation does and doesn’t mean and why people, who don’t really have a clue what they’re talking about, don’t understand. Hopefully by the time you’ve gotten to the end of this, you’ll understand it.
Setting the Deficit – Small, Moderate or Large
What I want to look at is the various pros and cons of using small, moderate and large caloric deficits when setting up a fat loss deficit. As is usually the case you can find people arguing adamantly that only one or the other is appropriate; as usual I take a little bit different view: each approach can be relatively more or less appropriate for a given situation.
Why Do People Change Body Composition?
However, something I haven’t looked at may be a much more fundamental question which is this: why do people want to change their body composition? That is, what reasons (good or bad) might people have for wanting to change their body composition in the first place. That’s the topic of this piece.
Problems with Measuring Body Composition
Today, I want to back up a bit and get a little more technical and look at some of the problems inherent to tracking body composition accurately. This will lead me to finally round out this series by giving some specific recommendations on how to use the various methods to get the best measure of what’s going on.
Measuring Body Composition: Part 2
Today, I want to look at methods, some of which will be repeated from Wednesday, that allow actual tracking of changes in true body composition. That is, they can be used (to some degree anyhow) to estimate actual body fat composition which can then be used, using the method in Body Composition Calculations, to determine actual fat and lean body mass and track changes.
Measuring Body Composition: Part 1
Over the next two articles, I want to look at various methods of determining ‘body composition’ (you’ll understand why I’m putting that in quotations in a second) that are available. These range from low- to high-tech and from extremely useful to useless (or at least impractical).
Body Composition Numbers
In previous articles, I’ve explained What Body Composition Means as well as showing folks how to do a variety of Body Composition Calculations. Continuing on in that theme, I want to talk a little bit about specific body composition numbers and what a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ body fat percentage might actually be.
For the record, in a future article, I’ll look at various methods of measuring body composition and their pros and cons, along with giving some guidelines for how to apply them. So please be patient in the comments, all will be discussed.
