If you're reading this hoping to find some top secret weight loss strategy that involves no discipline or work you are mistaken. Some members of the fitness community promise amazing results because they claim to hold the secrets to weight loss. We need to remember, that these people are simply trying to make a profit off of your weight loss goals and unfortunately many will do whatever it takes even if it means filling your head with lies.
Listen, there is no big secret to losing weight! It is an easy concept that is not difficult to understand. This post will not be about getting lean enough to step on a bodybuilding stage or anything like that, it is geared towards the average person who wants to lose a certain amount of weight. I will not mention any supplements because: 1) Most supplements suck (I would say 95% do, and that's being generous. I may write an article about this sometime soon) and 2) I feel stimulants or other weight loss pills are not necessary to drop weight.
Most people are looking for the quick fix, and to be honest with you, there is not one! Luckily for you, there are some very useful practices you can begin immediately that will get you on your way to losing weight. If you read my weight gain article, Simple Weight Gain, I told you at the end that to lose weight I will simply advocate the opposite recommendations I offered in that post. So here they are:
But first, you need to head to a handy diet log like NATS 2.0
Keep track of how many calories you are eating. It is crucial that you write down EVERYTHING you eat or drink during that day. This includes gum and half and half or whatever you put in your morning coffee as well.
Cut Out Liquid Calories
Now that you have your caloric intake, I am going to give you the magic number... 3500 calories in 1 lb of fat. So you need to subtract 3500 calories from your weekly total to lose 1 lb in a week. It may seem difficult at first, but you would be amazed how easily you can make those calories disappear. There are two ways to lose weight, increase caloric expenditure (exercise) or decrease caloric intake (eat less). As you might imagine, the combination of the two works wonders!
In my opinion, you can make good progress initially without even going on any type of diet or sacrificing too many calories. My first piece of advice is to cut out all liquid calories, including anything you put into your coffee... everything needs to go! This will add up quickly... Let's say you drink two 12 oz Pepsi's per day at 150 calories a piece, 8 oz of orange juice at 120 calories, and and a tbsp of half and half at 20 calories in 2 cups of coffee... right there you have 460 calories per day... that didn't take too much work.
Add Exercise
If you exercise currently and want to lose weight, you need to exercise more... if you do not exercise at all, you need to start! Now, on to a few misconceptions about exercise. If you ever watched the Biggest Loser, this show is the work of a marketing genius. These trainers have all of their contestants doing elaborate (and stupid) workout routines so that they can then pimp out their "Biggest Loser" exercise equipment and protein drinks. This frustrates me beyond belief! A personal trainer in a regular commercial gym could NEVER get away with this. The stress on the heart and joints that type of routine puts on a sedentary obese individual is ridiculous. (Certain plyometric exercise can load the joints 10 times your body weight and beyond and these fools have 400 lb people doing this?) There are a lot of doctors standing by and liability forms signed for that one folks. In fact most of the stuff they do is not even effective at losing weight, it is pure stupidity. You do not need to do all that nonsense, in fact, walking is your greatest ally when it comes to losing weight (even though it doesn't look cool and won't make many people money for advocating it). The truth is on flat surface you are looking at burning around 100 calories per mile; the more weight you carry the more calories you will burn. Running burns the same amount of calories per mile as walking... it is simple physics (Work (which is caloric expenditure in this example) = force (weight) * displacement (how far)) Looking at this equation you can burn extra calories by wearing a backpack while walking or walking on an incline (makes hiking seem like a good idea). You do not have to just walk, any type of exercise will do. Remember you simply need to expend more calories... you can jump rope, dance, skip, hula hoop, or whatever mood you're in that day, the key is doing something.
Let's say you really get after it and are walking 10 miles a week... we have 1000 calories burned in combination with giving up calories in beverages (in our example this was: 460 * 7= 3220) so by just giving up those calories and walking we are up to 4220 calories in one week... well over a pound.
Lifting Weights
But, we are not finished are we? If you really want to lose weight, you are going to resistance train (lifting weights for the lay folk). People do not realize the benefits lifting weights have on weight loss... 1) You burn calories while working out 2) You build muscle... muscle is more metabolic then fat, so you will improve your metabolism in doing so 3) You continue to burn calories after your workout due to the metabolic cost of repairing your muscle!
You do not need to go crazy in the gym, just stick to basic exercises. Focus on getting good at a few lifts instead of subpar and a whole bunch. Do not worry about confusing your muscles (Which is the most bullshit term I have ever heard in my life.. I mean how can you confuse contractile proteins that are stimulated by the release of calcium?... but I regress) Haddock and Wilkin found that in a weight training session consisting of 9 exercise with 3 sets... previously trained females burned on average 661.9 calories... that is a lot! (Haddock and Wilkin 2006)
So let's add two weight training sessions per week that will add another 1324 calories to our caloric expenditure giving us a new grand total of negating 5544 calories per week without even changing your eating habits (remember this is over simplified for illustrative purposes not everyone will burn the exact amount of calories per weight training session, as I am sure not everyone consumer 460 calories of beverages per day... you get the point).
So the last part of the weight loss journey is, yes, unfortunately eventually changing your eating habits. I advocate lifestyle change rather than a strict diet because diets are damn hard to follow and people fail, feel bad about themselves, and go back to binge eating. So what you need to do is look over your diet log and decide which of the foods you are eating don't have any nutritional value. By this, I mean empty calories! Empty calories offer no benefits, no vitamins or minerals, no fiber, not a good protein source (so essentially junk food). Remove these little by little until you are left with three solid meals a day with a little room for a snack.
Another thing worth noting is the importance of sleep. Americans are entirely too sleep deprived. A good nights sleep is crucial to losing weight. As we sleep at night our bodies natural Growth Hormone levels spike. Growth Hormone is responsible for turning on the fat burning process in your body, so if you disrupt this you will lose this benefit. We cannot account for this from a caloric standpoint but it is important.
Two more things to hit on before I wrap this up:
1.) If you are weight training you may put on muscle so keep this in mind when you hop on the scale, although if you are brand new to weight training this will take about 4 week until you experience any real muscle gain (neurological effects occur first)
2.) I know people like alcohol and I told you to not drink calories... This sucks right? You will just need to count that back into your weekly total and make up for it elsewhere if you must drink. Limit yourself to 3 or 4 beers a week and tell yourself you can spread them out or drink them all in one night. If you want to drink socially you can also switch to clear liquor; vodka and gin have 60 calories per serving. Just don't go out and get hammered drunk on vodka and tell people I told you it is how to lose weight.
That is it. The rest is in your hands. The faster you can learn to look at what you eat during the day and understand where your calories are coming from and how to get rid of unneeded calories, the faster you can lose the weight you want.
Haddock BL, Wilkin LD. "Resistance training volume and post exercise energy expenditure." Int J Sports Med. 2006 Feb;27(2):143-8.
So, why should you care about what I have to say?
My name is John Guers. I grew up in Shenandoah, Pa., where I got into sports, which ultimately led me (like a lot of people in this field) to my love of weight training. I began reading everything I could about training, particularly powerlifting. I idolized Louie Simmons and Westside Barbell growing up.
I decided to pursue the degree of Exercise Science at East Stroudsburg University. This is where I began to love physiology just as much exercise. I completed my degree and decided to stay for my Master's in Exercise Science. After completion, I was asked to stick around and teach some courses as a temporary instructor. While at ESU, I got a chance to work with several sports teams and coordinated the United States Weightlifting Sports Performance Certification, which was never offered there before.
I was accepted into the Applied Physiology Doctoral program at the University of Delaware in the Fall of 2012 and am currently working towards that goal.
I am happily married to my wonderful wife, Katie (who will be posting on here as she has an outstanding exercise background herself) and have a beautiful daughter named Drew.
Head on over to my blog for my exercise and nutrition information
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