Planning for Success 5: Monitoring Your Fat Loss & Muscle Gain Progress
- Jonny Potter
- Dec 19, 2015
- 4 min read
So you’ve set your macros for your goals and also understood the 5 steps to setting up a healthy flexible diet… which is great!
Assuming that you have a sound strength training plan in place, the next move is to understand how to monitor your own progress. You also need to know when to, and when NOT to manipulate your calories and macros in order to carry on progressing.
Initial Changes
The equations on the how to count macros article are pretty darn good but they’re only a calculated guess which may need to be tweaked in order to initially get you moving in the right direction.
However before changes are made I always suggest running the target macros, which you came up with from the equations for at least 2 weeks. Variables such as water retention and glycogen storage (which is affected by carb intake) can give a skewed picture of true muscle gain and fat loss. In order to accurately tell if your initial targets are currently correct you need to let it briefly run its course before an assessment is made
After a couple of weeks if you aren’t dropping fat or gaining weight at the predicted rates then your calories and macros need to be adjusted.
Monitoring Muscle Gain
If over the course of your first month your weight hasn’t increased at the pre-determined amount (0.25-1% of total bodyweight gain per month) then changes should be made. Depending on how close you were to your target weight gain you should increase your daily calorie intake by between 100-200 calories in the form of mainly carbs and fat which would result in an extra ~3000-6000 calories per month.
At the end of the following month reassess weight gain and add in or subtract calories when needed in order to keep hitting the predicted range of increased weight.
As well as weight I suggest taking monthly progress photographs and take circumferences using a tape measure. During a muscle gain phase I would measure the following body parts:
- Neck
- Biceps
- Chest
- Waist (At belly button)
- Waist (At smallest point)
- Hips (Females only)
- Thighs
- Calves
From the measurements you should see slight increases in all of the above areas, but keep an eye on hips (for females) and bellybutton waist and smallest waist (for both sexes). Seeing an increase in hips and waist measurements generally correlates to increased body-fat. Fat gain during a muscle gain phase cannot be avoided but taking these particular circumferences can help you keep a watchful eye on fat gain and let you access if/when you should implement a fat loss phase.
Monitoring Fat Loss
Fat loss is a much quicker process than muscle gain and can be monitored more regularly.
You can monitor fat loss by bodyweight lost on the scale (to a certain extent which I’ll go over shortly) as well as taking circumferences using a tape measure. The main circumferences to take should be:
- Waist (At belly button)
- Waist (At smallest point)
- Hips (Females only)
Seeing reductions in the above areas correlates with a lowering bodyfat percentage. If these are lowering and weight is decreasing by between 0.5 and 1% of your total bodyweight then this is a good sign that you are on the right fat loss track.
If Fat Loss Stalls
At the end of a week if measurements haven’t changed and weight is the same whilst following a 20% deficit from your estimated maintenance point then look to decrease your calories in the form of fat and/or carbs a further 5% and reassess the following week.
What to Watch for When Monitoring Fat Loss
Even though I said to reduce calories further weight and measurements can and DO fluctuate daily (especially in females during their menstrual cycle).
I’ve seen clients’ bodyweights shoot up by as much as 2-8lbs from one day to the next from fluctuations, and if you’ve been sticking to your target calorie intake this probably isn’t fat gain. Instead it can be due to:
The amount of food/water in your stomach
Lack of sleep
Contents of your bowls
Stress - which causes water retention
Glycogen storage
Muscle swelling from workouts
This is why I suggest doing multiple weigh-ins and measurements per week in order to show a weekly average and letting you assess your progress more accurately.
If you are only weighing in once a week and on this particular week you have been stressed and sleeping very little this may cause you to retain water. Water retention will give a false representation of the actual fat that you may have lost and if you then think you haven’t lost weight this may cause you to unnecessarily reduce calories further. Reducing more calories can cause even more stress on your body resulting in further water retention weight and a potential vicious dieting cycle.
Make sure you take the above points into account before deciding to make changes to your target calories and macros.
Fat Loss Adaption
Now you may be at the sweet spot for your fat loss and losing the exact target amount per week – however this may plateau due to the following:
Having less overall bodyweight due to previous fat loss therefore burning fewer calories during activity and exercise.
Not being as active day-day as during calorie restriction your body tries to conserve energy by moving less and less.
Slight muscle wastage (muscle is metabolically active), which can happen during a diet resulting in less calories burnet at rest
Based on the above points even if you were losing fat at the right rate you may need to reduce calories a further 5% or increase energy expenditure through exercise when the adaptions start to take place.
Wrapping It Up
This is the final part in the ‘how to count macros’ series and should be the icing on the cake towards helping you effectively plan your macros, set up a healthy diet, and knowing how to access your progress.
If you have any further questions please drop me a question below and I hope you found this helpful!
Comments