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I’m probably at 20% body fat and am trying to lose fat. Simultaneously I am training 4-5x/week in Judo. I’m a beginner. It’s great, but I do get quite fatigued and my muscles are often sore.

I’m trying to figure out how I can construct my diet to:

  • lose fat

  • support muscle recovery and training for Judo

  • support energy for Judo

Do I go into a caloric deficit but with extra high protein or what?

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  • In general, yes, but it depends. Do you do strength training? For how long? How often? For just aerobic conditioning you don't really need extra protein. The amount of protein you need is roughly proportional to the amount of muscle mass you already have. – Wood Sep 14 '19 at 19:37
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Caloric deficit is the only way to lose fat and you can achieve it by eating less calories or burn them more.

To prevent muscle loss during weight loss, a high protein diets have been recommended:

There exists a large body of scientific evidence to support protein intakes in excess of the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) (0.8 g protein/kg/day) to promote the retention of skeletal muscle and loss of adipose tissue during dietary energy restriction...Current recommendations for protein intakes during weight loss in athletes are set at 1.6-2.4 g protein/kg/day (International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, 2018).

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  • Just to clarify, a caloric deficit is the only way to lose weight. Fat can actually be lost at maintenance calories or theoretically even in a tiny calorie surplus. Muscle gain has the potential to offset the overall weight loss. – JustSnilloc Mar 19 '20 at 12:12

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