Dieting Side Effects & How To Counter Them
The short answer
The biggest hidden side effect of dieting is that cutting calories blunts your muscles' response to training, a phenomenon called anabolic resistance. You counter it by keeping a moderate rather than extreme deficit, prioritizing protein, continuing to lift, and fueling your body around training. In short: feed the work.
Episode 140 of The Garage Gym Athlete Podcast is up!
Dieting Side Effects & How To Counter Them
This week the team dive into dieting and the side effects it can have on your body. The team talk about their takeaways and ultimately, what really helps-fueling your body! This week's topic is on 6th day workouts. The four coaches give you their favorite workouts to do to squeeze in a 6th day of training. Give some of these a try! Lastly, this week's Meet Yourself Saturday workout is the Eo3 5K. If you've done this 5 times or more you should try out the GGA 5K!
What the research says
The featured study of the week found that caloric restriction induces anabolic resistance to resistance exercise. "Anabolic resistance" means the muscle-building response your body normally mounts after training is blunted while you're in an energy deficit. That's the side effect that catches dieters off guard: you can be training hard but getting less of the muscle-preserving payoff because the fuel simply isn't there. The episode's counter is straightforward — don't under-fuel. Keep the deficit moderate, push protein intake up, and keep resistance training in your week so your body has both the signal and the raw materials to protect muscle. As the coaches put it, your body doesn't work right if you don't feed it.
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IN THIS 59-MINUTE EPISODE WE DISCUSS:
- Toddler Fartlek
- GGA 5K
- "Your Body Don't Work Right If You Don't Feeds It"
- Dieting and The Side Effects
- 6th Day Workouts
- Tips For MYS
- Updates and Announcements
- And A LOT MORE!!
Diving Deeper…
If you want to go a little bit deeper on this episode, here are some links for you:
Study of the Week
Garage Gym Athlete Workout of the Week
Want nutrition and training that work together instead of against each other? That's exactly what we program every day inside Garage Gym Athlete.
Frequently asked questions
What are the side effects of dieting?
Beyond hunger and lower energy, a calorie deficit can blunt your muscles' response to training. That is anabolic resistance, and it makes it harder to build or even hold onto muscle while you lose fat.
What is anabolic resistance?
It's a reduced muscle-building response to a normal stimulus like training or protein. Research shows caloric restriction can induce anabolic resistance to resistance exercise, so dieting athletes get less of the usual training payoff.
How do you counter the side effects of dieting?
Keep the deficit moderate, raise protein intake, keep resistance training in your routine, and fuel around your workouts. Under-eating makes the side effects worse. Feed the work.
Thanks for listening to the podcast, and if you have any questions be sure to add it to the comments below!
To becoming better!
Jerred
Train like an athlete. For life.
Programming built this way: hard when it counts, sustainable the rest of the time.
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