Congrats man! That belt size drop is impressive.
"Women however should get a spanking at least once a week by their husbands and boyfriends - that should be mandated by law" - Zelcorpion
Weight loss basics?
"Women however should get a spanking at least once a week by their husbands and boyfriends - that should be mandated by law" - Zelcorpion
222 (lost 2 more pounds)
I'm on a pretty tight diet, can't type it on my phone right now but I'll try to post it later.
I'm on a pretty tight diet, can't type it on my phone right now but I'll try to post it later.
Lost a few more. 219 pounds now.
I've also gotten real serious (eating only what I cook) for a bit now, dropped 225 to about 215, but I should be at about 190...
I'm learning to love my predictable, simple to cook meals... separating "going out for the day" from "grabbing food" in my mind, got more metrics to track than just weight (one of those scales with grips, so I can at least see a trend down if not accurate readings).
The lesson so far (and from earlier attempts) seems to be, it has to be the New Normal that's sustainable. Not just a "goal to reach".
I'm learning to love my predictable, simple to cook meals... separating "going out for the day" from "grabbing food" in my mind, got more metrics to track than just weight (one of those scales with grips, so I can at least see a trend down if not accurate readings).
The lesson so far (and from earlier attempts) seems to be, it has to be the New Normal that's sustainable. Not just a "goal to reach".
Yeah 456, "dieting" is no good... You deprive yourself temporarily, then stop and gain the weight back. I'm trying to make permanent changes.
Since I'm stuck in the house due to bad weather/impassable roads I thought I'd share my weight loss success story. Really this thread should always be hovering near the top as weight loss is something that can provide huge benefits and which we rightly say is a crucial first step to overall self-improvement. This is especially true in the US where fat blobs motoring around Wal-Mart in order to clutch their favorite flavor of Doritos with their chubby sausage fingers is considered normal. Since GD seems to have ridden his lean self into the sunset (great work man BTW) I figured this could use a bump after two months.
There's a lot of great information in this thread, some of which I agree with and some not. I like my method because you can eat delicious food several times a day and even treat yourself to a small indulgence every day.
BACKGROUND
I was 5'7 170 which doesn't sound terrible but it was distributed very poorly and my body fat was at 19%. The relationship I had with my girlfriend at the time involved a lot of eating carb-heavy food and watching TV. I walked 7+ miles a day for work pretty briskly and carried a bunch of stuff so I figured I could eat whatever I wanted. I was wrong. I hated how I looked and then when I moved on to the next job where the terrain changed from mostly flat to steep and mountainous, I found I was woefully out of shape. After I finished up there I took advantage of a free health assessment that was available. I was pretty average in just about all of the measures except for body fat. I started reading about the benefits of being lean and the importance of body composition as opposed to weight.
STARTERS
- Before getting into the specifics, educate yourself. There's probably more written about this topic than any other on the Internet. There's good information and bad information. Learn to evaluate which is which and saturate yourself with the good information. Do so while waiting for your car to be worked on, etc. instead of reading nonsense. We know more about exercise and nutrition than we ever have, and the information is more easily accessible than it's ever been. Take advantage of this.
- As many others have pointed out, calories in vs. calories out really is the most important consideration. With that in mind you need to determine your basal metabolic rate (BMR). Find a BMR calculator online, preferably one with an activity multiplier. Here's the first indication regarding the importance of exercise. Diet is definitely more important, but exercise will give you a huge boost and it would be foolish to ignore it. You need to ingest >500 calories less than your BMR every day.
DIET
- Again, as others have said, what food you eat matters too. Despite the findings of the Twinkie Diet , where the calories are coming from matters a lot. Say goodbye to sugar (except that which comes from fruit), especially added sugar. No trans fats (showing up on labels as "hydrogenated oils.") No additives, preservatives, basically anything you can't pronounce or know what it is. Natural ingredients, the fewer the better. Always check ingredients before buying anything.
- Macros. Carbs are the enemy here. Your body will burn carbs before burning fat so if there are carbs available you will have to go through all of that first before losing fat. You don't actually need carbs to live whereas you do need fat and protein. I love bread and pasta but I told myself I'd had so much of them in my life that I could go without them for a few months. You don't need to go full keto but you should keep carbs down to ~50g a day or less. Carbs should mostly be coming from fruit. If you must eat grains, eat whole and not refined grains. Some sources recommend grains to help keep you feeling full like having a bit of oatmeal in the morning. I did not find it to make much of a difference.
>1g protein/lb of bodyweight per day to help maintain muscle. Remember you're really trying to lose fat, not "lose weight." Lean meat like turkey and chicken is high and protein and low in calories. A pound of turkey has 400 calories and >100 g protein and no carbs.
Unsaturated fats will actually help you burn fat. Avocados, nuts, seeds, etc. However they are very calorically dense so you should use sparingly. I would put 1/3 of an avocado on my daily salad.
Speaking of which - "eat the rainbow." You want to eat vegetables spanning a variety of colors. A typical salad for me would be based on spinach and include carrots, red bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, and beets (careful for carbs). I would also include mushrooms, radishes, and broccoli, because I like them and they have basically no calories. Don't use store bought dressings, especially not "lite" dressings. Use a little bit of olive oil and as much vinegar as you like (it has 0 calories). I used apple cider vinegar but balsamic is fine.
In general, as I mentioned above, know what's in your food and the calorie and macro breakdown for serving sizes. Learn how to estimate them and/or get a scale as Fortis suggested. It's nice to know for example that mustard and vinegar have no calories so these are nice tasty things to add. Think about the protein/calorie ratio of foods - the higher the better. A cup of plain Greek yogurt has 15-20g of protein and 80 calories. An egg has 7g of protein and 60 calories. That's good.
Fried=bad. Baked/boiled=good.
CHEAT MEALS
I feel this deserves its own heading because you'll see a lot of sources encouraging you to have varying amounts of cheat meals, sometimes one a week. I don't like this advice. If you have 21 meals a week (3/day) then 1 a week is 5% of your meals. The only time to have cheat meals is during social events so keep them in the bank and never have one out of laziness or lack of discipline. Do it only when circumstances make it difficult to avoid. When people want to order a pizza just have a slice and forget about it.
A TYPICAL DAY OF EATING
Breakfast: 3 eggs fried in butter. Yeah the butter's not great and hard-boiled is better, but I was able to make it work. At first I'd have a bit of chicken sausage but as I read more about the problems with processed meat I eventually cut that out.
Lunch: Cup of Greek yogurt with a tiny bit of granola
Dinner: 8-12 oz of lean meat, <1/2 cup of whole grain or sweet potato, dinner vegetable like asparagus, brussels sprouts, or portobello mushroom, and a BIG colorful salad.
Shake: A cup of milk + scoop of protein powder.
Snacks: I will grant that I have an advantage here compared to many people because I love raw vegetables. Good snacks are baby carrots, a handful of spinach, a couple of mushrooms or radishes, a little bit of cashew/pumpkin seeds/sunflower seeds/etc. Dried fruit - not too much because it's calorically dense and high in sugar. If I was hungry before bed I'd have a brown rice cake - Whole Foods sells a brand that has 13g carbs and 60 calories so I was OK with that. There's conflicting information about eating carbs after certain times of the day - I never put much stake into it so maybe I could have done better but it seems to me that the jury is out on that one. Due to the importance of sleep, you should not go to bed hungry.
Note: if you think vegetables are gross it's because you've been a victim of cultural brainwashing. That shit comes from cartoons and movies. It is natural to love fresh and colorful fruits and vegetables so try to change your mindset when it comes to this.
Indulgence: I managed to lose weight consistently eating 2 spoonfuls (no more!) of ice cream every day. Breyer's Vanilla has good ingredients. Other ice creams (Blue Bunny for example) have an ingredients list a mile long with a host of chemicals not to mention vile HFCS. Sometimes I would put it in my shake, or just have it separately. I would earn my indulgence by being disciplined for the rest of the day and exercising.
Drinking: There's one thing you should drink and drink lots of it. You don't need me to tell you what it is.
EXERCISE
Sources vary about how important exercise is relative to diet. Some say diet is 70% of the equation, others say 100%. I disagree with 100. Why? Exercise boosts your metabolism, burns calories during (and even after) the workout, and preserves strength and muscle.
The key is strength training based on circuits. If you're used to lifting for putting on mass you will have to get used to a new style. No resting for 5 minutes between sets. You should be resting as little as possible. You want to focus on major muscle groups - compound pushing and pulling, squats, lunges, and some abs. When you're done you should be drenched in sweat and feeling like you're about to pass out.
You don't need to go to a gym but gyms have more options. A typical circuit might be: a set of pushups (including different variations), a set of goblet squats, a set of horizontal/inverted rows, a set of lunges (forward, reverse, side, walking, pendulum), a mini ab-circuit (bicycles, plank, scissor kicks, holding feet 6" above the ground). Rest 30-60 between each set and do 3 rounds, resting 1-2 minutes between each one. Progress by adding weight and decreasing rest. You can incorporate thing like burpees, jump rope, jumping jacks, speed skaters, high knees, and so on. Don't bother with accessory exercises like bicep curls unless you're doing something like bicep curl -> overhead press. You can do everything you need to do with a set of adjustable dumbells, a pull-up bar, and a bench. You could also use weighted vests to increase difficulty.
3 days of that a week. Alternate with 3 days of high intensity interval training (HIIT). You can do it on a cardio machine - 30 seconds of all out running followed by 1:30 of slow walking on a stairmilll is killer. No rest - go slowly but still move as active recovery before the bursts. As many as you can knock out. You can do this on an elliptical or bike by changing the resistance. You can find resources for building your own HIIT workout. HIIT is superior to low intensity steady state cardio because of the effects of EPOC - excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. The long and short of it is operating at maximum intensity will cause calories to burn for up to 24 hours after your workout. You don't get that effect from jogging or the like.
I would do at least the 3 days of strength circuits and 3 days of HIIT and if I wanted to jog a few miles that would be just for fun on the 7th day. You can also rest or do some stretching, some professionals recommend yoga.
Disclaimer: I spent $90 on a system which comes with meal plans and workout plans. I really only used it for the workout plans because I felt I could keep track of my caloric and macro intake easily enough but I didn't know much about the exercise component. PM me if you want more information about it.
LIFESTYLE
≥7 hours of sleep every night. Not negotiable
Limit or completely eliminate alcohol. It's high in calories and cuts testosterone. If you must drink, drink straight liquor. Beer is high in carbs (except for some gross light beers), and wine is VERY high in sugar. Avoid mixers like tonic water, soda, and so on. You should be avoiding soda anyway. Keep it to 2-3 drinks per week.
Weed is an appetite stimulant so what you need to do here is pretty self-explanatory.
Manual labor is a hell of a good idea too, as Steelex mentioned. It's no coincidence that when I was burning fat the fastest I was also doing manual labor full time: lifting, carrying, pulling, squatting, kneeling all day. Instead of sitting around the house you can clean which is a great way to burn calories, working on a car, home improvement projects, even gardening.
You should never be inside of an elevator unless you're a fireman rescuing someone.
Eating out - don't do it. If you don't know how to cook or prepare basic food now is the time to learn.
Can you walk to the grocery store? Great. Do it and carry your groceries - farmers carries are a great exercise targeting a lot of muscles. In general walk when you can.
OTHER
Motivation and discipline. Do whatever it takes to keep these because without both of them you're destined to fail from the beginning. Whether it's pictures of the kinds of girls you want to fuck, men performing a physical activity you're too out of shape to do, whatever, find some way to remind yourself of why you're doing this.
No fucking excuses. "I can have dessert because I'm on vacation!" That's idiotic loser talk. However, don't beat up on yourself if you do mess up. Learn to recognize that you made a mistake and tell yourself you'll do better the next day. Don't dwell on it and move on.
I only looked at my body in the mirror once a week. Since I'm not a girl this was easy enough to follow. I would just remember to look away when I stepped out of the shower. You'll see things change in a week's time, but not every day so looking every day is a good way to discourage yourself. Similarly I would only weigh myself once a week, at the same time on the same day (Monday morning after waking up and taking a shit).
As I mentioned earlier, I reminded myself that it was only temporary. Once you get to where you want to be you can go back to eating to homeostasis which is what feels natural, and you can go ahead and enjoy some tasty bread. How many pounds of bread have you eaten in your life? It's OK to go without it for a fraction of a year.
Now we're venturing into the realm of the unscientific, but I used visualization. When I would lie down to sleep I would go through my next day's workout in my mind. I would also visualize the fat burning. When fat burns it's basically turned into carbon dioxide so I would imagine yellow globby fat in my cells going <poof> and turning into gas and wafting away.
THE RESULTS
I lost 45 pounds in about 6 months and went from 19% body fat to 10%, six-pack showing without flexing. It took me a little bit to get into my groove so I didn't lose the weight evenly over that time and could have achieved the same results in 5 or even 4 months. I was hungry sometimes, but I never starved myself or fasted. I ate delicious, healthy food every day.
Reasonable results are losing 8-10 lbs a month so unless you're grossly overweight it won't take very long to get to where you want to be. If you'e grossly overweight your problem is primarily psychological so you need to address that first. Ignore TV commercials that talk about how Marsha lost 60 lbs in 2 months with Jenny Craig! In fact ignore anything that claims to offer anything else - the fine print on all those commercials says 1-2 lbs per week is typical which is true.
I was simply in the best shape I've ever been in. Strenuous activity was easy. Carrying a 35lb. pack up and down steep mountains wasn't challenging at all. I basically ran up a mountain and an Olympic athlete couldn't catch me. Yes it was a woman but she wasn't carrying anything so that levels the playing field a little bit. I felt very confident in myself and like I had really accomplished something. It gave me confidence that I could change my body for the better and that the body reacts to proper diet and exercise in predictable ways. I was very productive at work and my sexual performance was extraordinary.
Not to get too deeply into it, but you can judge the quality of what's going into your body by what comes out of it. My digestive health was the best it's ever been.
The problem for me was that I didn't have enough muscle to begin with so while I liked the way I looked, most people thought I looked too thin including the girls I was banging at the time. I've read other accounts of people who have said that they looked gaunt when they were the most athletic and functional they've been. I knew nothing about fitness before starting so if I had to do it again I would have bulked up considerably first. Start when the time is right.
THE BOTTOM LINE
I'm not special in any way. Anybody can succeed by following the system I've outlined except for a miniscule percentage of people who may have some sort of endocrine problem. There are no magic tricks. You just have to fucking do it. Don't fuck around, don't skimp, don't pick and choose certain parts to follow while ignoring others, and don't make excuses. It WILL work.
TLDR
- Calories in vs. calories out
- Natural food; eat the rainbow
- High protein, low carbs, no sugar, no alcohol
- Strength circuits and HIIT
- Good sleep
- Educate yourself until your brain can't handle any more information
- Motivation and discipline. No bullshit.
There's a lot of great information in this thread, some of which I agree with and some not. I like my method because you can eat delicious food several times a day and even treat yourself to a small indulgence every day.
BACKGROUND
I was 5'7 170 which doesn't sound terrible but it was distributed very poorly and my body fat was at 19%. The relationship I had with my girlfriend at the time involved a lot of eating carb-heavy food and watching TV. I walked 7+ miles a day for work pretty briskly and carried a bunch of stuff so I figured I could eat whatever I wanted. I was wrong. I hated how I looked and then when I moved on to the next job where the terrain changed from mostly flat to steep and mountainous, I found I was woefully out of shape. After I finished up there I took advantage of a free health assessment that was available. I was pretty average in just about all of the measures except for body fat. I started reading about the benefits of being lean and the importance of body composition as opposed to weight.
STARTERS
- Before getting into the specifics, educate yourself. There's probably more written about this topic than any other on the Internet. There's good information and bad information. Learn to evaluate which is which and saturate yourself with the good information. Do so while waiting for your car to be worked on, etc. instead of reading nonsense. We know more about exercise and nutrition than we ever have, and the information is more easily accessible than it's ever been. Take advantage of this.
- As many others have pointed out, calories in vs. calories out really is the most important consideration. With that in mind you need to determine your basal metabolic rate (BMR). Find a BMR calculator online, preferably one with an activity multiplier. Here's the first indication regarding the importance of exercise. Diet is definitely more important, but exercise will give you a huge boost and it would be foolish to ignore it. You need to ingest >500 calories less than your BMR every day.
DIET
- Again, as others have said, what food you eat matters too. Despite the findings of the Twinkie Diet , where the calories are coming from matters a lot. Say goodbye to sugar (except that which comes from fruit), especially added sugar. No trans fats (showing up on labels as "hydrogenated oils.") No additives, preservatives, basically anything you can't pronounce or know what it is. Natural ingredients, the fewer the better. Always check ingredients before buying anything.
- Macros. Carbs are the enemy here. Your body will burn carbs before burning fat so if there are carbs available you will have to go through all of that first before losing fat. You don't actually need carbs to live whereas you do need fat and protein. I love bread and pasta but I told myself I'd had so much of them in my life that I could go without them for a few months. You don't need to go full keto but you should keep carbs down to ~50g a day or less. Carbs should mostly be coming from fruit. If you must eat grains, eat whole and not refined grains. Some sources recommend grains to help keep you feeling full like having a bit of oatmeal in the morning. I did not find it to make much of a difference.
>1g protein/lb of bodyweight per day to help maintain muscle. Remember you're really trying to lose fat, not "lose weight." Lean meat like turkey and chicken is high and protein and low in calories. A pound of turkey has 400 calories and >100 g protein and no carbs.
Unsaturated fats will actually help you burn fat. Avocados, nuts, seeds, etc. However they are very calorically dense so you should use sparingly. I would put 1/3 of an avocado on my daily salad.
Speaking of which - "eat the rainbow." You want to eat vegetables spanning a variety of colors. A typical salad for me would be based on spinach and include carrots, red bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, and beets (careful for carbs). I would also include mushrooms, radishes, and broccoli, because I like them and they have basically no calories. Don't use store bought dressings, especially not "lite" dressings. Use a little bit of olive oil and as much vinegar as you like (it has 0 calories). I used apple cider vinegar but balsamic is fine.
In general, as I mentioned above, know what's in your food and the calorie and macro breakdown for serving sizes. Learn how to estimate them and/or get a scale as Fortis suggested. It's nice to know for example that mustard and vinegar have no calories so these are nice tasty things to add. Think about the protein/calorie ratio of foods - the higher the better. A cup of plain Greek yogurt has 15-20g of protein and 80 calories. An egg has 7g of protein and 60 calories. That's good.
Fried=bad. Baked/boiled=good.
CHEAT MEALS
I feel this deserves its own heading because you'll see a lot of sources encouraging you to have varying amounts of cheat meals, sometimes one a week. I don't like this advice. If you have 21 meals a week (3/day) then 1 a week is 5% of your meals. The only time to have cheat meals is during social events so keep them in the bank and never have one out of laziness or lack of discipline. Do it only when circumstances make it difficult to avoid. When people want to order a pizza just have a slice and forget about it.
A TYPICAL DAY OF EATING
Breakfast: 3 eggs fried in butter. Yeah the butter's not great and hard-boiled is better, but I was able to make it work. At first I'd have a bit of chicken sausage but as I read more about the problems with processed meat I eventually cut that out.
Lunch: Cup of Greek yogurt with a tiny bit of granola
Dinner: 8-12 oz of lean meat, <1/2 cup of whole grain or sweet potato, dinner vegetable like asparagus, brussels sprouts, or portobello mushroom, and a BIG colorful salad.
Shake: A cup of milk + scoop of protein powder.
Snacks: I will grant that I have an advantage here compared to many people because I love raw vegetables. Good snacks are baby carrots, a handful of spinach, a couple of mushrooms or radishes, a little bit of cashew/pumpkin seeds/sunflower seeds/etc. Dried fruit - not too much because it's calorically dense and high in sugar. If I was hungry before bed I'd have a brown rice cake - Whole Foods sells a brand that has 13g carbs and 60 calories so I was OK with that. There's conflicting information about eating carbs after certain times of the day - I never put much stake into it so maybe I could have done better but it seems to me that the jury is out on that one. Due to the importance of sleep, you should not go to bed hungry.
Note: if you think vegetables are gross it's because you've been a victim of cultural brainwashing. That shit comes from cartoons and movies. It is natural to love fresh and colorful fruits and vegetables so try to change your mindset when it comes to this.
Indulgence: I managed to lose weight consistently eating 2 spoonfuls (no more!) of ice cream every day. Breyer's Vanilla has good ingredients. Other ice creams (Blue Bunny for example) have an ingredients list a mile long with a host of chemicals not to mention vile HFCS. Sometimes I would put it in my shake, or just have it separately. I would earn my indulgence by being disciplined for the rest of the day and exercising.
Drinking: There's one thing you should drink and drink lots of it. You don't need me to tell you what it is.
EXERCISE
Sources vary about how important exercise is relative to diet. Some say diet is 70% of the equation, others say 100%. I disagree with 100. Why? Exercise boosts your metabolism, burns calories during (and even after) the workout, and preserves strength and muscle.
The key is strength training based on circuits. If you're used to lifting for putting on mass you will have to get used to a new style. No resting for 5 minutes between sets. You should be resting as little as possible. You want to focus on major muscle groups - compound pushing and pulling, squats, lunges, and some abs. When you're done you should be drenched in sweat and feeling like you're about to pass out.
You don't need to go to a gym but gyms have more options. A typical circuit might be: a set of pushups (including different variations), a set of goblet squats, a set of horizontal/inverted rows, a set of lunges (forward, reverse, side, walking, pendulum), a mini ab-circuit (bicycles, plank, scissor kicks, holding feet 6" above the ground). Rest 30-60 between each set and do 3 rounds, resting 1-2 minutes between each one. Progress by adding weight and decreasing rest. You can incorporate thing like burpees, jump rope, jumping jacks, speed skaters, high knees, and so on. Don't bother with accessory exercises like bicep curls unless you're doing something like bicep curl -> overhead press. You can do everything you need to do with a set of adjustable dumbells, a pull-up bar, and a bench. You could also use weighted vests to increase difficulty.
3 days of that a week. Alternate with 3 days of high intensity interval training (HIIT). You can do it on a cardio machine - 30 seconds of all out running followed by 1:30 of slow walking on a stairmilll is killer. No rest - go slowly but still move as active recovery before the bursts. As many as you can knock out. You can do this on an elliptical or bike by changing the resistance. You can find resources for building your own HIIT workout. HIIT is superior to low intensity steady state cardio because of the effects of EPOC - excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. The long and short of it is operating at maximum intensity will cause calories to burn for up to 24 hours after your workout. You don't get that effect from jogging or the like.
I would do at least the 3 days of strength circuits and 3 days of HIIT and if I wanted to jog a few miles that would be just for fun on the 7th day. You can also rest or do some stretching, some professionals recommend yoga.
Disclaimer: I spent $90 on a system which comes with meal plans and workout plans. I really only used it for the workout plans because I felt I could keep track of my caloric and macro intake easily enough but I didn't know much about the exercise component. PM me if you want more information about it.
LIFESTYLE
≥7 hours of sleep every night. Not negotiable
Limit or completely eliminate alcohol. It's high in calories and cuts testosterone. If you must drink, drink straight liquor. Beer is high in carbs (except for some gross light beers), and wine is VERY high in sugar. Avoid mixers like tonic water, soda, and so on. You should be avoiding soda anyway. Keep it to 2-3 drinks per week.
Weed is an appetite stimulant so what you need to do here is pretty self-explanatory.
Manual labor is a hell of a good idea too, as Steelex mentioned. It's no coincidence that when I was burning fat the fastest I was also doing manual labor full time: lifting, carrying, pulling, squatting, kneeling all day. Instead of sitting around the house you can clean which is a great way to burn calories, working on a car, home improvement projects, even gardening.
You should never be inside of an elevator unless you're a fireman rescuing someone.
Eating out - don't do it. If you don't know how to cook or prepare basic food now is the time to learn.
Can you walk to the grocery store? Great. Do it and carry your groceries - farmers carries are a great exercise targeting a lot of muscles. In general walk when you can.
OTHER
Motivation and discipline. Do whatever it takes to keep these because without both of them you're destined to fail from the beginning. Whether it's pictures of the kinds of girls you want to fuck, men performing a physical activity you're too out of shape to do, whatever, find some way to remind yourself of why you're doing this.
No fucking excuses. "I can have dessert because I'm on vacation!" That's idiotic loser talk. However, don't beat up on yourself if you do mess up. Learn to recognize that you made a mistake and tell yourself you'll do better the next day. Don't dwell on it and move on.
I only looked at my body in the mirror once a week. Since I'm not a girl this was easy enough to follow. I would just remember to look away when I stepped out of the shower. You'll see things change in a week's time, but not every day so looking every day is a good way to discourage yourself. Similarly I would only weigh myself once a week, at the same time on the same day (Monday morning after waking up and taking a shit).
As I mentioned earlier, I reminded myself that it was only temporary. Once you get to where you want to be you can go back to eating to homeostasis which is what feels natural, and you can go ahead and enjoy some tasty bread. How many pounds of bread have you eaten in your life? It's OK to go without it for a fraction of a year.
Now we're venturing into the realm of the unscientific, but I used visualization. When I would lie down to sleep I would go through my next day's workout in my mind. I would also visualize the fat burning. When fat burns it's basically turned into carbon dioxide so I would imagine yellow globby fat in my cells going <poof> and turning into gas and wafting away.
THE RESULTS
I lost 45 pounds in about 6 months and went from 19% body fat to 10%, six-pack showing without flexing. It took me a little bit to get into my groove so I didn't lose the weight evenly over that time and could have achieved the same results in 5 or even 4 months. I was hungry sometimes, but I never starved myself or fasted. I ate delicious, healthy food every day.
Reasonable results are losing 8-10 lbs a month so unless you're grossly overweight it won't take very long to get to where you want to be. If you'e grossly overweight your problem is primarily psychological so you need to address that first. Ignore TV commercials that talk about how Marsha lost 60 lbs in 2 months with Jenny Craig! In fact ignore anything that claims to offer anything else - the fine print on all those commercials says 1-2 lbs per week is typical which is true.
I was simply in the best shape I've ever been in. Strenuous activity was easy. Carrying a 35lb. pack up and down steep mountains wasn't challenging at all. I basically ran up a mountain and an Olympic athlete couldn't catch me. Yes it was a woman but she wasn't carrying anything so that levels the playing field a little bit. I felt very confident in myself and like I had really accomplished something. It gave me confidence that I could change my body for the better and that the body reacts to proper diet and exercise in predictable ways. I was very productive at work and my sexual performance was extraordinary.
Not to get too deeply into it, but you can judge the quality of what's going into your body by what comes out of it. My digestive health was the best it's ever been.
The problem for me was that I didn't have enough muscle to begin with so while I liked the way I looked, most people thought I looked too thin including the girls I was banging at the time. I've read other accounts of people who have said that they looked gaunt when they were the most athletic and functional they've been. I knew nothing about fitness before starting so if I had to do it again I would have bulked up considerably first. Start when the time is right.
THE BOTTOM LINE
I'm not special in any way. Anybody can succeed by following the system I've outlined except for a miniscule percentage of people who may have some sort of endocrine problem. There are no magic tricks. You just have to fucking do it. Don't fuck around, don't skimp, don't pick and choose certain parts to follow while ignoring others, and don't make excuses. It WILL work.
TLDR
- Calories in vs. calories out
- Natural food; eat the rainbow
- High protein, low carbs, no sugar, no alcohol
- Strength circuits and HIIT
- Good sleep
- Educate yourself until your brain can't handle any more information
- Motivation and discipline. No bullshit.
Pretty spot-on post Sisyphus, I would maybe only swap out the milk and protein powder lunch for Almond milk with some fiber, spinach and berries. Dairy has a fair bit of carbs (12g per cup) and several of those protein powders are also carb heavy.
Reading labels is critical.
Reading labels is critical.
"Women however should get a spanking at least once a week by their husbands and boyfriends - that should be mandated by law" - Zelcorpion
Down to 216. I've been putting on muscle so happy I'm down 3 more I wasn't really expecting that on this weigh in.
Living in Colombia for 2 months now, heading back for another 6 -12 months corporate life in a few weeks.
6'2 (189cm) Late 30s
March 24 227lbs (103kg)
May 13 : 215lbs (97.5kg)
I have lost 5 kilos (11lbs) in 2 months
Short Term Goal: 95kg (End of Month)
End of Summer Goal: 90 kg. (End of Summer)
Food
- For breakfast I eat 4 eggs with a little maple syrup. No bread, once you get used to it, its not bad.
- Nice big Clean lunch with a small dinner,
- Skip dinner 1 time/ week to get a little fast on
- I do eat a little junk with my coffee (pastry, brownie) 2-3 times / week, but always before 6pm
- Drink lots of natural juice, its abundant here
Gym
- Work out daily 6 x / week. 5-6 days of weights 2 x per week cardio, been meaning to do cardio
- My weight workouts recently have been using low weights with high reps because of a shoulder injury I am watching, but this increases cardio component
- Working out daily I went from doing legs 1x per week to every 4 days,
>> it makes a world of difference. My leg days are intense now, I can do a heavy day and a day that does functional training.
- Cold Shower post gym
Lifestyle
- I walk a lot more (still work from home, but not the long hours)
- Quit drinking
- Better sleeping hours, also take naps sometimes
Feel Great! Worried about transitioning back to Canadian life. I like my progress.
6'2 (189cm) Late 30s
March 24 227lbs (103kg)
May 13 : 215lbs (97.5kg)
I have lost 5 kilos (11lbs) in 2 months
Short Term Goal: 95kg (End of Month)
End of Summer Goal: 90 kg. (End of Summer)
Food
- For breakfast I eat 4 eggs with a little maple syrup. No bread, once you get used to it, its not bad.
- Nice big Clean lunch with a small dinner,
- Skip dinner 1 time/ week to get a little fast on
- I do eat a little junk with my coffee (pastry, brownie) 2-3 times / week, but always before 6pm
- Drink lots of natural juice, its abundant here
Gym
- Work out daily 6 x / week. 5-6 days of weights 2 x per week cardio, been meaning to do cardio
- My weight workouts recently have been using low weights with high reps because of a shoulder injury I am watching, but this increases cardio component
- Working out daily I went from doing legs 1x per week to every 4 days,
>> it makes a world of difference. My leg days are intense now, I can do a heavy day and a day that does functional training.
- Cold Shower post gym
Lifestyle
- I walk a lot more (still work from home, but not the long hours)
- Quit drinking
- Better sleeping hours, also take naps sometimes
Feel Great! Worried about transitioning back to Canadian life. I like my progress.
“Where the danger is, so grows the saving element.” ~ German poet Hoelderlin
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