By Dayne Hudson
You've probably heard all about the crazy fat loss stories....and some of them are just that: stories.
Most of these stories never really happened; of course they're just a marketing tactic aimed at grabbing your dollar.
However, there is one study (that I'm about to tell you about) done very recently that's no lie!
It belongs amongst the pages of scientific literature, documented and genuine.
And it involved subjects losing nearly 3 kgs in 4 days.
Wait...what?!
How did they do it?
HOW TO LOSE FAT FAST - THE STUDY
This research examined 15 subjects aimed between 18-55 who all had body fat percentages between 20-40%.
The study was divided into 4 phases:
PHASE 1: One week living their normal lives.
PHASE 2: 4 days of intense exercise and a calorie deficit. This involved 45 minutes of a one-arm cranking exercise at 15% of their maximal effort (those machines where you peddle with your hands instead of your feet) backed up by 8 hours of walking at 4.5 km/h for 35 km. Yeah I know....that's a lot of exercise!
PHASE 3: 3 days of normal dieting and no exercise.
PHASE 4: 4 weeks where they ate and exercised as they pleased.
PHASE 5: Following up with them after 1 year.
PROTEIN v CARBS
The other interesting approach by the researchers was the groups they were split into.
Given that protein is known to spare the loss of lean mass (2), the subjects found themselves in either a sucrose group or a protein group.
The subjects either got whey protein only or sucrose (table sugar) along with some sort of sports drink.
THEIR CALORIE DEFICIT
They were given a 3.2cal/kg of either protein or sucrose, which works out to be a very large deficit!
For example, I currently weigh about 84 kilograms, which means in this study I'd be on about 270 calories a day.
This is roughly a 90% deficit! That is HUGE!
Generally a 20% deficit is given to weight loss patients, but not these guys!
These researchers were really pushing it as far as possible!
And the fat loss results were:
PHASE 2: 2.1kg
PHASE 3: 2.8kg
PHASE 4: 3.8kg
PHASE 5: 1.9kg
And the difference in fat loss and lean body mass loss between the sucrose and protein group?
Nothing!
As I told you, protein has been found to have a lean mass sparing effect but in this study it didn't.
But that's simply because there was not ENOUGH protein.
For those in an extreme calorie deficit like these subjects - research tells us that from 2g/kg per day of protein and upwards is required to spare lean mass (3).
But back to the study; insulin sensitivity and lowering of glucose and insulin, plasma triglycerides and cholesterol - was all the same between both groups.
The other good thing was the subjects continued to lose fat after the hardcore 4 exercising days too.
So what do you take away from this?
Well, rapid fat loss is possible....but a protocol like this is damn hard to stick to and not recommended for everyone.
Training for about 9 hours a day isn't something that's easy if you're employed!
But the fact is it can be done although I still wouldn't recommend it to everyone.
But nevertheless - for those who can pull it off - it certainly is possible.
But remember, this is for those with a body fat percentage between 20-40% - someone below this really doesn't need to take such a drastic approach to fat loss!
I'd still recommend the approach I give clients in my tailor made diet plans, that allow them to eat the foods they love and still lose this weight, without going through what these poor subjects did!
But the point of this article is to let you know it happened - and science was there to capture it all!
"Stay Fit, Stay Flexed!"
REFERENCES
(1) Calbet JA, Ponce-Gonzalez JG, Perez-Suarez l, de la Calle Herrero J, Holmberg HC. A time-efficient reduction of fat mass in 4 days with exercise and caloric restriction. Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2014 Mar 6. doi: 10.1111/sms.12194.
(2) Piatti PM et al. Hypocaloric high-protein diet improves glucose oxidation and spares lean body mass: comparison to hypocaloric high-carbohydrate diet. Metabolism. 1994 Dec;43(12):1481-7.
(3) Helms ER, Zinn C, Rowlands DS, Brown SR. "A Systematic Review of Dietary Protein During Caloric Restriction in Resistance Trained Lean Athletes: A Case for Higher Intakes." Int J Sport Nutr Exer Metab. 2013 Oct 2.
