What is muscle toning?

Dry weight training refers to the loss of body fat, but to achieve a muscular, harmonious body, a few principles need to be respected. While the aim is partly aesthetic, sporting performance is also a reason to practice it. 

Beware: drying out too quickly, without respecting the body's needs, can be counter-productive or even deleterious for the organism. So there's no point in burning calories at any rate without a real plan of attack. The idea is not to go on a diet to lose weight, but to shed some of your adipose tissue and keep only the muscle. 

How do you dry out effectively for optimum results? Between caloric intake and muscular training, the right balance of energy expenditure is at the heart of the method for successful drying. 

What is dry? 

Definition of body fat loss

In a weight-loss diet, the aim is to lose as much fat as possible while retaining as much muscle as possible. 

As with the principle of weight loss, the aim is to create an energy expenditure greater than the intake, but with a few subtleties. The aim is to adopt a low-calorie diet to reduce body fat and preserve lean body mass (muscles, bones, viscera, skin, blood, secretions). 

Objectives of a muscle toning program

Dryland is often reduced to a bodybuilding contest, but there's more to it than that:

So, why do a dry run, and how do you know when to do one?

Foraesthetic reasons, it's true, but not necessarily in the extreme. For athletes, it's a way of achieving a sculpted silhouette. 

Secondly, the role of dry weight in training plays an important role for top-level sportsmen and women. For example, in athletes subject to weight categories, it leads to a loss of body fat for the purposes of sporting performance. It is used to optimize overall body mass and retain maximum muscle mass. 

Dryness and weight gain

In practice, this can happen in certain cases, such as when sedentary people resume physical activity. By combining sport with a balanced diet, the body draws on its reserves of adipose tissue (fat) while increasing muscle volume. This is not a case of leaning, but of rebalancing the diet.  

The principle of a dryer: 2 complementary bases

The body's caloric requirements are calculated by adding the level of physical activity (NAP) to the basal metabolic rate. 

To lose weight, the idea is to unbalance the energy balance in favor of a caloric deficit thanks to two elements:

1.  diet, to reduce calorie intake;
2.  physical activity, to increase energy expenditure. 

Simply calculate your macronutrient requirements with our simulator:

Nutrition: how much food do you need to dry out? 

It's essential to adopt a balanced and varied diet during a dry period. So the list of foods to avoid includes sugary drinks, alcoholic beverages and sweetened and/or processed industrial products. 

Then, the aim is to reduce your nutritional intake by 200 to 500 calories a day below your daily calorie requirement (the formula cited above). 

The watchword is: PROGRESSIVITY.

How much protein should I eat?

You need between 1.5 and 2 g/kg/day. 

Protein helps regulate appetite and is a component of muscle fiber, essential for building muscle. But protein alone is not enough. Their transformation requires other trace elements and water¹, which is why it's so important to stay well hydrated during a dry run. 

If protein requirements can be covered by dietary intake, it is possible to supplement specifically for the dry season. There are a number of reasons for this, such as low meat consumption or the timing of training sessions. 

If these take place at times different from mealtimes, post-exercise supplementation with whey can be considered. The latter promises rapid absorption by the body and a naturally rich BCAA content. Caution: we must be vigilant about the traceability of whey, its origin and the presence of additives. 

How much fat and carbohydrate should I eat?

In general, carbohydrate and fat intake should be gradually reduced, but not stopped. Fatty acids and carbohydrates are essential, but the latter are best consumed immediately after exercise, especially if the effort is substantial and/or endurance-based. 

On the other hand, it's tricky to give precise dosages, as the quantities to allow for depend on the individual and the physical activities practised. 

Physical training: what program should you follow?

When people ask what sports they should do during a dry period, they quickly associate it with muscle strengthening. 

A muscle-building program to maintain volume

The aim of lean training is to maintain your performance level or enhance the value of your muscles, so strength training is essential.

Polyarticular exercises are energy-intensive. They burn a lot of calories, yet have the added benefit of strengthening several muscle groups in a single exercise. They are therefore an ideal part of a training program for lean periods.

Cardio sessions to burn fat

At first glance, a cardio session has one drawback: it's not efficient. Firstly, because low-intensity physical effort burns few calories. Secondly, muscular fatigue increases with the duration of the workout. 

However, the benefits of low-intensity cardio are twofold. Firstly, this type of exercise mobilizes a lipid-consuming energy pathway as an energy source. Secondly, people who do low-intensity cardio can follow it up with muscle-strengthening exercises, without it being counter-productive.

In other words, the benefits of cardio-training vary according to theintensity and duration of the session.

For those who like short, intense cardio workouts, High Intensity Interval Training (HIITS) is an interesting option. This cardio training technique optimizes the amount of fat burned in a short space of time, but is more tiring.

As an added bonus, the afterburn effect is significant on this type of program. The body continues to burn a significant number of calories to replenish its energy stores and recreate muscle fibre. 

How can I avoid losing muscle when I'm drying out?

To avoid losing muscle, you need to lose weight gradually and over time. Time is your ally. 

The most important thing is not to fall into big weight differences. The so-calledyo-yo effect is counter-productive. So, when you're on a dry period, avoid excess and above all :

• no combo of mass gain and brutal calorie restriction;
• no dry weather all year round;
• no excesses outside dry periods. 

It's a bit like going on a diet all week, only to splurge on anything and everything at the weekend: it's pointless. 

How to do a dry run properly? Optimization strategies

The ideal dry period 

When to start? 

There are no good or bad seasons. It's the length of the dry spell that counts. 

Its effectiveness depends on time. There's no need to aim for a loss of more than 2kg per month. It should be planned over 2 to 3 months, depending on the percentage of body fat to be lost. This is the maximum recommended to achieve real results without taking risks. Beyond that, there is a real risk of losing muscle mass or even upsetting your hormonal system. 

And don't be fooled by the content of social networks: while images may suggest that you can be dry all year round, the truth is that temptation is dangerous for your health. 

The influence of hormones on successful weight loss

Testosterone is an anabolic hormone, meaning it contributes to muscle mass gain through muscle hypertrophy. Testosterone also slows down fat mass gain during a lean period. 

Overall, it has a physical and mental impact, acting on the increase :

• muscle volume and strength; 
• resistance to stress ;
• fitness level;
• recovery.

Testosterone is produced via cholesterol ², hence the importance of lipid (fatty acid) intake. Without an appropriate intake, the drop in testosterone levels will have an impact on the effectiveness of the lean process. 

The difference in levels between men and women, or in subjects with a testosterone deficiency, also needs to be factored into the equation. Deficiencies can result in harmful consequences for the body, such as loss of muscle, energy and libido, as well as increased stress and cortisol levels. 

As for women, they naturally have a higher body fat content than men, linked to their production ofestrogen³. If the reduction in body fat is too abrupt, menstruation may stop. This type of amenorrhea is common among top-level sportswomen, with deleterious effects on their health. 

The influence of sleep on protein synthesis

It's a scientifically proven fact that physical activity has a positive influence on sleep quality. 

Beyond quality, sleep duration also comes into play. A study⁴ shows that sleep deprivation, whether or not combined with high-intensity fractional exercise, influences muscle mass reduction. This is because sleep restriction slows down the synthesis of myofibrillar proteins involved in building muscle mass. 

Successful drying: indicators to monitor

If goals are important, it is crucial to track them using objective data such as :

• body weight,
• body fat percentage, 
• measurements.

While weighing can be done weekly, monthly measurements are recommended.

When it comes to measuring body fat, it's important to remember that impedance scales are sometimes not very accurate. If they are used, however, it is preferable to use the same scale throughout the follow-up. Otherwise, skinfold calipers are more suitable, but require a specialist. 

Conclusion

It's important to remember that drying out in bodybuilding is a very personal process that requires you to know yourself well, but it's also a good opportunity to get there. Adaptations are specific to each individual and no single result can be expected. It also depends on each person's objectives and the number of dry phases experienced. With experience, the individual can adapt his or her exercise program and diet. The key is to avoid the yo-yo effect of gaining 15 kilos between two diets. Drying is a period when you want to lose fat without losing muscle, but it should not be seen as a solution to overeating. 

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