When we want to lose fat, we tend to eat less, without increasing the quality or quantity of physical activity , because we think that this is how we will get results.
But the point is that eating less can even be detrimental to your health, if your caloric deficit is very high and it is not accompanied by a strengthening of your body.
In this article we will talk about why to lose fat you do not need to eat much less, but the ideal is to move more , thus increasing caloric expenditure and creating a deficit as well.
Eating less can decrease muscle mass
First of all, comment that the fact that it is not necessary to reduce food intake does not mean that we eat what we want, we must maintain a balanced and healthy diet .
As we well know, for there to be a loss of fat, it is necessary that the calories you expend are more than the ones you ingest . If we focus only on diet, weight loss becomes a reality, but there is a loss of muscle mass. With which, the result is not optimal if your goal is not to lose muscle.
The importance of moving more
A study carried out with 10 healthy older adults showed that physical activity seems to maintain a high energy flow, with which a lot of energy goes in and out, thus optimizing the fat loss process. They found that reducing the number of steps in the participants showed a small reduction in muscle mass .
What’s more, if regular physical activity is carried out, we reduce the loss of muscle mass , which is very interesting if we want to maintain optimal physical condition.
In fact, another study conducted a review of the metabolic adaptations observed in weight loss in athletes, and concluded that athletes should try to eat adequately to improve performance and recovery during weight loss. Especially at the level of improving mitochondrial efficiency and regulating the concentrations of hormones and insulin.