There are probably over 1,000,000 articles on the internet on how to lose fat so I guess one more on the pile will not make much difference. I'm going to stick to generalities as not to get bogged down in the detail of what needs to happen here and what needs to happen there when it comes to getting leaner the number one cause of not making much progress or stalling out all together is stressing out over small percentage factors and making an ass of the 99% factors.
Some quick math to show a point.
Let us use the calories in v calorie out model of fat loss as it provides us with an easy example of what we are up against. To lose one 1 lb (454 g) of body fat we need to expend or not consume 3500 kcal.
That means over the week under eating by either
- 875g of carbohydrate.
- 875g of carbohydrate
- 388g of fat
Or perform either of the following activity and eat the same amount of food for maintence
- 7.5 hours of weight training
- 9 hours of walking @ 3.5 mph (31.5 miles of walking)
- 6.5 hours of swimming.
We have the following amount of time to do either of these tasks
- 7 days
- 168 hours
- 10, 080 mins
Given this time frame and this task there is a huge scope for errors we can over eat easily what if you have 1 slice of pizza too many 3 days? That could be 1500 kcal and stall your progress by 50%. Tell me honestly are you going to spend 6% of your week doing an exercise or activity you hate to just mind numbingly burn calories? Of course your not so assuming you were going to just exercise and not under eat then your not going to progress or you might even put weight on! :O
Stage one - In the beginning consistency was the goal, dough man listened and he lost weight and it was good
Duration - 3 to 4 months
The important part in the beginning is to set yourself tasks that are so general and easy even the laziest of people can make the targets (that's maybe part of the reason you need to lose weight CONTROVERSIAL!) to this end you need to find your feet.
The fitness industry is a big old steaming pile of poo and misinformation until you can decipher for yourself through trial and error what's good mojo and bad mojo you would be better just achieving small goals and improving that way. Forget about supplements, diets and the best programmes these are not of your concern. Your concern is to break your habits and to stop being such a lard ass.
Goal 1 - Find an exercise or work out you like and perform it 3x a week.
It can be anything squash, weightlifting, powerlifting, football, walking your dog. Pick and choose a bunch of activities when you find one you like join a club, join a gym, join what ever you need and do it 3x a WEEK no if's no but's no ice cream fucks. Come rain hail or snow your doing it 3x a week that's the goal!
Goal 2 - understand the nutritional content of your food
Do you know what this is and what the things on it mean? If not your going to need to some homework! This is the nutritional content of your food it has all the information of how many carbs, fat and protein are in what your eating as well as the content as far as vitamins and minerals.
You don't have to limit anything all I want you to do is to learn how many carbs, fats and proteins are in the food you eat on a day to day basis so you get an understanding for what you are consuming. After all we are what we eat or some nonsense.
Goal 3 - Read one book every 2 weeks
We are a combination of the people we meet and the books we read, if you don't read your not going to be a very interesting person. I don't care what you read fiction or non fiction just read 1 book every 2 weeks after all there is no point in being lean and sexy if your going to be dull and stupid. :D
Again no excuses you MUST READ 1 BOOK EVERY 2 WEEKS.
Stage 2 - After the man discovered consistency he realised action without structure was chaos and chaos could only achieve so much without structure. He applied structure and he seen that it hastened his progress to the top.
Duration - 1 to 2 years+
Now that you are exercising your body and mind (cheese vomit everywhere) and you understand what is in your food now is the time to start making some real progress. This is where we are going to set goals and start to be awesome, we are going to start getting lean and exercising discipline and we are going to make something of ourselves.
Goal 1 - Get competitive or progressive with your exercise
Now we have found an activity or exercise regime we are good at or we enjoy it's time to engage in competition. Here are some options.
- If it is a team sport then join the team for games no more being the person who trains for the lols
- Enter a competition ask your coach or training partner. Enter the competition and do it don't think do!
- If your just going to the gym time to start doing programmes and beating personal bests cardio / weights your going to be better every work out! More kilometres more KGs, More reps MORE MORE MORE!
Goal 2 - Time to do a diet.
This one might take some trial and error to find the general goals and guidelines that work for you but at this stage it is important to keep your diet choices easy to achieve so I am going to advise against calorie counting as it is too prone to error and it is for the more advanced stage 3 version of your self. Here are some to try -
- A low carb diet (Atkins etc)
- Intermittent fasting.
- The zone diet (stupid names)
- Carb cycling.
Choose one and give it a trial for 2-3 months if you find it isn't working then try another one but just concentrate on doing it to the best of your ability 80-90% of the time keep it focused and easy.
Goal 3 - Set yourself a career or life based goal and achieve it.
Want to complete a course at university and get more qualified? Got a qualification related to your field of work that will pull in more money? Fancy learning a musical instrument? Now is the time to get it done.
Budget 5-10% of your time and get it done this is your goal you will achieve it if you have a really ambitious goal like you want to do a degree achieve one or two smaller ones first then go at it whole hog.
Oh and keep reading books this is extra awesome.
Stage 3 - He seen the fruits of his labour and he was happy, his happiness bred complacency and his complacency bred contempt. His contempt bred hate, his hate bred unhappiness and he was back to square one.
Duration - The Rest of your life
Now that you have accomplished quite a lot with yourself it easy to be self satisfied and let the standards slip this is fine if you are truly happy. However to stop yourself stagnating and becoming unhappy it is important to keep up the momentum which gets harder the better you get.
Goal 1 - set yourself ridiculously high goals in your field of exercise and try your damnedest to achieve them.
Look at the highest point you can achieve in your sport is it to represent you country at some level? Is it to be world champion? Is it to achieve some elite mile stones? What ever you decide it is set your sights on it and try and achieve it. Some ideas -
- Seek out mentors to help with your path to higher levels of achievement these should be people who have achieved success through themselves or others.
- Emulate those who have achieved what you want.
- Success comes through practice and consistency. Talent is a word used by the envious to describe the dedicated.
Goal 2 - Time to get shredded
You now know what calories, carbohydrates, proteins and fats are you have the discipline needed to see a diet through it's time to get shreddy wheat. Everyone should have seen there abs at least once in their life. There are no two ways about it to get in excellent physical condition (low body fat) your going to need to control what goes into your body here are some ideas -
- Get a calorie tracking app and keep a food diary, aim to be in a calorie deficit of 300-500 kcal 6 days out of 7
- Do some extra low intensity cardio 4-5 hours of walking or steady state a week nothing too crazy, walk to work or go for a swim in the AM.
- Try some fat burners or stimulants to help and aid with the mental part of the diet.
Goal 3 - Achieve a dream
Now all of the things we have discussed can coalesce in the biggest one of them all. Want to become a doctor but ended up working in a call centre? Over this journey you have changed your self physically and mentally you will be a different person and will have all the tools you will need to succeed in anything in life.
- Choose what your truly want to do. Don't put limits on yourself just go after it.
- Realise it will be a journey of years or decades not an easy fix.
- Stay positive
- Stay Active
- Stay Motivated
- KEEP READING!
Marc.
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