You are always going to look your worst when you first start a diet. Skinny fat.
And you’re always going to look your best at the end of a diet when your glycogen is restored. This is when you’ve finished your diet and you’ve actually gained back a little bit of weight.
The reason for this is when you start a diet, you’ll often lose glycogen in your muscle cells. Glycogen shuttles water to your muscle cells. This is known as sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. This makes your muscles look bigger.
So when you start a diet, you’re going to look skinny fat. When you finish a diet, you’re going to be your absolute leanest because you have less body fat.
Once the carbs are restored as glycogen in your muscle cells, your muscles will look big again.
I actually gained 13 pounds in 4 days re-carbing up at the end of my diet. I was 226 on a Wednesday, and by Monday I was 239 pounds because I had restored glycogen levels. The bigger your muscles are, the more experience you have training, the more capacity your muscles have to store glycogen. I looked lean, I looked swole, and I got super favorable numbers on my DEXA scan.
Remember, your body fat percentile is a fraction. The top is the amount of fat you have, and the bottom is your total weight. If you increase your total weight without increasing your body fat, i.e. muscle, your total body fat percentile will go down.
If you want to learn more about how to get into the best shape of your life, go to JacobZemer.com to get started with my coaching program that has helped thousands of people lose fat and build muscle.
