The diet which assists in losing fat and maintaining muscle mass is a "dry" diet. This expression comes from bodybuilding: it is the last nutritional and sporting step before a competition. The term "dry" is sometimes used in common parlance by the general public, but it refers to high protein and low-calorie diets.
In sports and bodybuilding, a cut's objective is clear: to draw the silhouette and ensure that muscle fibers and streaks are visible. To do this, athletes reduce their fat mass percentage through food so that it is around 6 to 8%. As a reminder, in a healthy person, the fat mass rate is, on average, around 15% in a man and 20% in a woman. The dry diet is, therefore, not without risks and must be supervised by a health professional.
How does a dry diet work?
To achieve the goal, athletes adapt to their training. They opt for light loads, long series, and multiple repetitions, which burns glycogen and body fat.
What about the food? Athletes reduce their overall caloric intake and increase their protein intake to maintain muscle mass. To achieve this, they banish simple sugars, limit lipids as well as complex carbohydrates. However essential for the body, carbohydrates' consumption is thus reduced to whole rice or foods containing whole wheat, rye flour, or buckwheat. Their advantage? They have a low impact on blood sugar and allow them to store a minimum of fat.
Ultra-processed products, which contain simple sugars and animal or partially hydrogenated fats, are also eliminated. And for a good reason: the hydrogenation process consists of adding saturated fatty acids, bad for health, and the figure, in the fat.
Salt intake is also limited, as this has a
direct impact on water retention.
What about the food? Athletes reduce their overall caloric intake and increase their protein intake to maintain muscle mass. To achieve this, they banish simple sugars, limit lipids as well as complex carbohydrates. However essential for the body, carbohydrates' consumption is thus reduced to whole rice or foods containing whole wheat, rye flour, or buckwheat. Their advantage? They have a low impact on blood sugar and allow them to store a minimum of fat.
Ultra-processed products, which contain simple sugars and animal or partially hydrogenated fats, are also eliminated. And for a good reason: the hydrogenation process consists of adding saturated fatty acids, bad for health, and the figure, in the fat.
Salt intake is also limited, as this has a direct impact on water retention. However, athletes' objective is to eliminate as much water as possible to have the thinnest possible skin and make the muscle fibers visible.
Dry diet: what are the typical menus?
With the dry diet integrating few food families, it is sometimes difficult to compose varied and balanced menus. Here are some examples of typical meals to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Breakfast :
a white omelet, for example containing three egg whites and a single yolk;
three slices of wholemeal or grain bread;
a handful of oleaginous fruits, such as almonds, a Granny Smith apple, or a grapefruit, contain little sugar.
Lunch and dinner:
- Vegetable greens steamed like asparagus, green beans or broccoli meat, or lean fish;
- Some starchy foods, preferably whole.
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