There are 1001 methods to lose weight. But which one is the best?
The simple answer: the best diet is the one you can live with. So you choose the diet that feels easiest for you. As a bodybuilder though you do have to deal with a number of restrictions.
LOSE WEIGHT AND FAT LOSS
The essence of a fat loss diet is that you create a calorie deficit. There is a long list of scientific studies that show that a calorie deficit leads to fat loss. And as far as we know, there are zero studies showing the opposite.
The primary way to create a calorie deficit is to eat less. You can possibly supplement this with some more exercise (cardio).
Mind you, a calorie deficit does not always lead to weight loss: there’s body recomposition and there are medical conditions in which this happens. Not losing fat? Then you obviously don’t have a calorie deficit. You may have overestimated your maintenance level.
RESEARCH
What does science say about the Best diet for fat loss? A new three-month study with more than 300 participants compared five popular dietary approaches to see which is most effective for fat loss. It concerned the following diets:
- The Mediterranean diet with constant daily energy restriction;
- A diet break group with more aggressive Mediterranean diet for one week, followed by one week of maintenance, alternating week to week and off;
- An 18-hour intermittent fasting diet;
- A 16-hour intermittent fasting diet;
- A 5:2 fasting diet every other day with two very low calorie days and five maintenance days.
Macronutrient intake did not differ significantly between groups.
The result? After three months, there were no significant differences between the groups in their weight, waist or BMI changes. So neither fasting nor diet breaks will help you lose fat unless they help you lower your energy intake. Coach Menno Henselmans says about this:
In general, the evidence at this point is quite compelling that the most effective diet for fat loss is the one that allows you to create a sustainable energy deficit. It doesn’t matter if you achieve that through ketosis, fasting, food restriction or IIFYM (If It Fits Your Macros).
Mind you, this is purely about the effect of diets on fat loss. To the best of our knowledge, no studies have examined the effect of diet types specifically on muscle growth/maintenance. We do know a number of conditions, as we discuss below.
LOSE WEIGHT AND MUSCLE RETENTION
As a natural bodybuilder you have more on your mind than just losing fat: you have to maintain your hard-earned muscle mass at the same time. That usually means that we have to cut: lose fat while retaining muscle mass, which gives you more muscle definition. This as a counterpart to bulking, where you use a (small) calorie surplus to build muscle mass. Some may practice body recomposition, usually depending on training status and/or body fat percentage.
When cutting, you have to deal with some extra restrictions in your diet compared to ‘normal’ losing weight. Below are the guidelines that a diet and exercise program for muscle maintenance should meet.
TRAINING
During the cut, you must continue to do strength training, with about two-thirds of the training volume that you handled in bulk and with the same intensity.
Prioritize your strength training; don’t do too much cardio.
SIZE OF THE ENERGY DEFICIT
Relatively slow weight loss is good for muscle retention. Therefore, ensure a medium energy deficit: 20-25% of your maintenance level, as we discuss in another article.
PROTEIN INTAKE
You should also keep your protein intake high, i.e. 1.8-2.7 grams per kilogram of body weight per day. This way you keep muscle protein synthesis high in order to prevent muscle breakdown as a result of a calorie deficit.
CARBOHYDRATES VS FATS
And what about carbohydrates versus fats? As a bodybuilder, should you go high-carb or low-fat? It probably doesn’t matter much, neither for fat loss nor for muscle maintenance.
Our preference is nevertheless for high-carb and especially eating a lot of carbohydrates around the training. We use 0.5 to 1 gram of fat per kilogram per day as a guideline (sufficient for most people); subtract the proteins (~2 g/kg/d) and what remains are the carbohydrates.
MEAL FREQUENCY AND TIMING
Research shows that it is best to spread your protein over four to six meals, with 20-40 grams of protein in each meal. You ideally place your training between two meals, so that you are assured of sufficient protein in the first hours of the anabolic window.
Intermittent fasting doesn’t do anything amazing for your health or muscle growth/maintenance (see our article), but if it fits into your lifestyle it can be a useful way to create a calorie deficit. That goes for fat loss, however, looking purely at muscle growth or maintenance, it does not seem ideal.
QUALITY OF THE FOOD
In principle, losing weight is all about the numbers, in particular the level of the calorie deficit and the amount of protein. In principle, what you eat doesn’t matter, as long as you stick to those numbers with a calorie app.
However, it’s not just about quantity. There are plenty of arguments to opt for healthy, unprocessed food during the cut. But we also have to put this in the right perspective. Many diet gurus insist on eating specific foods, such as chicken, rice, and broccoli. Keep in mind, however, that there are many alternatives that have more or less the same calorie content, the same macronutrients and micronutrients, and the same degree of satiety. Do you prefer beef, pasta and spinach? Also fine. Do you like avocado or do you prefer peanut butter? Both are excellent sources of healthy fats. For body composition, it makes almost no difference which foods you eat, as long as you choose mostly healthy, especially unprocessed foods with a high degree of satiety.
You should avoid snacking as much as possible during the cut, because that only makes dieting unnecessarily difficult.
IN CONCLUSION
Dieting can be done in many ways and it is best to choose a diet that is easy for you to maintain in the long term. And what is easy for you may not be for someone else.
Creating an energy deficit is an absolute precondition for this. Do this mainly by eating less, possibly supplemented with a little more exercise.
There are also some guidelines specifically for the bodybuilder, who, in addition to losing fat, tries to maintain (cut) his muscle mass. To do this you must:
- do enough strength training (~2/3 of your bulk volume);
- create a moderate calorie deficit (20-25%), especially through a calorie-restricted diet and not too much cardio;
- eat enough protein (1.8-2.7 grams per kilogram of body weight per day);
- spread proteins over 4-6 meals.
How you further organize your diet is up to personal preference, although it is recommended to mainly consume unprocessed, satiating food. In addition, we prefer to retain as many carbohydrates as possible, which is why you should not eat more fat than is strictly necessary (0.5-1 kg/g/d).
Last updated December 30, 2022.