Key Takeaways:
- Your primary goal as a natural when trying to get lean is muscle retention.
- Muscle is retained when one is able to maintain the same weights, sets and reps from one workout to another.
- But, because glycogen is depleted in a calorie deficit and because higher reps require more glycogen, maintaining higher reps becomes very hard.
- Therefore, working out with heavier weights and lower reps is the most effective way to retain muscle and get lean.
The Muscle Loss Trap
When most women try to get lean, so that they lose the layer of fat covering their belly and legs, they do 1 or 2 of the following:
- Change their workouts so they do higher reps and less rest. This has the effect of raising their heart rates, giving them the feeling that they are burning more calories.
- Go on a fat loss diet which involves cutting calories. This is also known as going on a “cut”.
Unfortunately, doing both of these together is a recipe for failure. Most women will end up losing their toned muscle this way.
On the face of it, the two tactics above seems like a good strategy for women: Increase calories burned through more intense workouts, and eat less so that the body uses fat for fuel.
However, this strategy is all wrong for the following reason: It leads to a worsening in body composition, because muscle is being used for fuel.
This happens because when women go into a calorie deficit or cut, the body actively wants to get rid of muscle, because maintaining muscle is calorifically “expensive” when food is scarce.
This is important to know because:
How great your body looks like depends on your body composition, ie how much toned muscle you have compared to how much fat you have.
Therefore, to succeed in becoming lean, you must understand this one thing:
“Your primary goal as a natural when on a calorie deficit is to retain muscle.”
The Exact Calorie Deficit To Get You Lean
To lose fat, sculpt muscle and get healthy, you need to know how much protein, carbs and fat you personally need.
Tap below and use our Macronutrient Calculator to generate a 100% custom calorie report for you - in just 60 seconds.
How High Reps Deplete You
So how does a woman retain muscle when in a calorie deficit?
Let's start with the following fact: For women, toned muscle is maintained when one is able to do the same weights, sets and reps from one workout to another.
But in a calorie deficit, glycogen levels in the muscle (which is the energy that the body uses to lift weights) are depleted.
This means that there is less energy available to try to get the same weight, reps and rest from one workout to another.
The scarce energy must be used wisely. And here's where the stark difference between high reps and low reps happens:
Research has shown (1) that glycogen levels get depleted a lot more when doing high reps than low reps.
This effectively means that women who do high-rep training will not be able to get the same number of reps in, because they don't have enough muscle glycogen.
The result of this is that you won't be able to maintain your toned muscle if you train at high reps, and so your body composition worsens. This doesn't allow you to become leaner.
Crucially however, this issue doesn't happen with low-rep training, as there will be enough muscle glycogen to complete all the reps at the same weight and same number of sets.
You get to keep your toned muscle, and the calorie deficit takes care of the fat loss.
Conclusion
With low-rep training, toned muscle is maintained, which means you can go on a cut and improve your body composition. You end up leaner with your muscles toned and defined.
We do exactly the same with our athletes: Through our workout algorithms, they get customized low-rep workouts, which resulted in them getting leaner faster and with less hunger.
Want to get lean and build a sculpted, head-turning body? You will need a customized nutrition plan for your body type. Get yours now for free.
REFERENCES
1: NCBI - PMC4687103