Fat Loss for Noobs

As I normally write for a ‘physique enthusiast’ audience, this article is going to be somewhat (but not entirely) out of the norm for this online project of mine. Today I want to provide insight into the fat loss process and give recommendations that will work either for the general population, or for already committed fitness enthusiasts.

Physique enthusiasts are an interesting bunch, and you know who you are: FitDay.com is your best friend, you’re a walking encyclopedia of macronutrient information, you stay up at night dreaming of new training routines and pondering the finer points of gluconeogenesis.

I feel you. I’m one of you.

(Most) magazines and supplement companies would make you believe your training sucks, your diet sucks, and you’re a miserable failure for caring about things other than yourself. Look, we all can’t be perfect on our diets all the time, nor our training. And when those times come it’s easy to slip into a “fuck it all attitude.” So while this article may be simple, it can help re-center a trained athlete who’s prone to throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I know so many guys and girls who, if they’re not hitting the gym, let their diet go all to hell and soon find themselves nursing Wednesday morning hangovers.

Don’t let this be you.

For our second category of fitness folks, i.e. those just getting started in the gym, these tips will set you on the path toward progress. You’ll inevitably get derailed by over-stated promises, people with fancy letters after their name, and personal trainers who swear they know how to, for the girls, tone your buns, and the guys, really bring out that biceps peak. And as much as you may want to, just don’t listen them. Nod, smile, and push your way past explaining that you get enough core work from your squats and deadlifts.

These suggestions are uncomplicated, easy to implement, and most of all, effective. They’ll help you lose fat without you even realizing it. Now, on with the show.

1. Every Time You Eat, Eat a Serving of Lean Protein.

Even I fail on this point from time to time. I can almost guarantee, if you think back to your more egregious dietary derailments, they began with some innocuous refined carb and spiraled out of fucking control. Protein does so much cool stuff. It helps regulate appetite by promoting satiety, it ‘costs’ the body a lot energy (in the form of calories) to digest making it hard to overeat, and it builds (or saves) your muscle while you’re losing body fat.

Protein’s etymology comes from the Ancient Greek proteios (of first quality), originated from protos (first in a numerical sequence). Clearly the Greeks were on to something. You saw 300 didn’t you?

That’s what I thought.

All of my clients eat at least one gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. This is the absolute minimum anyone should ever consume if they want optimal body composition. There’s so much research out there on the importance protein I don’t even know where to begin. Safe to say, if there’s one thing you change about your diet today no questions asked, it’s this.

Every time you eat (that means snacks too, like half of that Twix bar), you must consume a serving of lean protein.

This habit in of itself will get you away from thinking of “snacks,” which in our culture tend to be unhealthy and sad, innutritious affairs, and instead thinking of meals. And if, after powering down four ounces or more of lean protein you still feel like eating the other half of that Twix bar, have at it you wild animal you.

Oh, and I should mention, a serving of lean protein is at minimum three ounces of your favorite type of animal flesh, a minimum one scoop of a whey or whey-casein protein powder (avoid the ones loaded with excess sugar or fat), two cups of milk, a serving of cottage cheese, or equivalent in yogurt (again, avoid the overly sugared kind.) You can also substitute eggs, say three to four. Try to vary your protein sources during the day – each type carries its own unique set of benefits that’ll ultimately benefit your health and physique in the long-term.

2. Reduce Your Meal Frequency

This may be my most contentious point. Frankly, I think people compromise on food quality, hell, compromise on life quality due to this neurotic obsession drilled into our heads about “eating six times a day to stay anabolic and keep the metabolic fires burning.” Lyle McDonald, who wrote The Protein Book, has some choice nuggets on meal frequency with particular regard to protein intake:

At this point it would appear that eating too frequently (less than every three hours) has no real benefit, and could possibly be detrimental due to the muscle becoming insensitive to the impact of amino acids. It’s interesting to note the preliminary report above which found increased LBM gains with three versus six meals per day. Perhaps by spacing the meals further apart, greater stimulation of protein synthesis occurred when protein was eaten.

Mentioned above, considering the relatively slow rate of protein and other nutrient digestion, it appears that even a moderate sized meal maintains an anabolic state for at least five to six hours (8). Individual whole food meals are still releasing nutrients into the bloodstream at the 5-hour mark (7). Very slowly digesting proteins such as casein may still be releasing AAs into the bloodstream seven to eight hours after ingestion (22).

And this only has to do with protein. If you’re worried about losing that metabolic edge and, dare I say, entering starvation mode, here’s what Lyle has to say about that literature:

Let me sum up the results of this review: Meal frequency per se has essentially no impact on the magnitude of weight or fat loss except for its effects on food intake. If a high meal frequency makes people eat more, they will gain weight. Because they are eating more. And if a high meal frequency makes people eat less, they will lose weight. Because they are eating less. But it’s got nothing to do with stoking the metabolic fire or affecting metabolic rate on a day to day basis.

In my experience, people who struggle with their weight tend to be emotional eaters. They eat because they’re tired, depressed, bored, distracted, stressed etc. By setting up regular meal times each day (which means no ‘snacking’ in the traditional sense), it cuts down on a lot of the excess caloric intake. Another major factor overlooked in these high frequency eating plans is food quality. Show me someone, anyone with the time available to get out and cook five to six healthy meals a day.

*cricket*

However, if you tell someone to cook three healthy meals a day (with maybe a snack or two thrown in), this seems far more doable, doesn’t it?

Frankly, I think high meal frequency is a waste of time, and unless you’re an athlete who needs six meals a day to fit in your 5,000 kcal of carbs – and even in this case, I think you just gotta learn how to eat more at one sitting – you’re wasting time that could be spent on training, sex, video games…. You get the idea.

3. Set A Compelling Athletic Goal

Most bros and bras in the fitness world have a narrow view of what a goal looks like. I notice it’s a major shortcoming in recreational populations. Guys, girls, it doesn’t always have to be aesthetics.

For example, the goals that are usually batted around on fitness forums are accompanied by a picture of some model, celebrity or physique athlete, limited to “I want to look like that.” Or, it’s achieving a set body fat percentage, waist girth, weight or what have you. And when talking about the general population, they usually want to fit back into that high school prom dress, wear their skinny jeans, or feel a smidgen more confident poolside in Vegas.

And none of these goals are bad. In fact, they’re admirable, quantifiable, and readily measureable.

But goals can be something creative, something outside the margins. The key is to take whatever goal you come up with and then do your best to measure it. What about mastering a new skill? Or learning a new sport? Humans thrive outside of routine. We love the spontaneity and rush of excitement of experiencing something novel. In this case, your physique will turn into byproduct of your fitness. Everyone has a competitive streak. If you’re suddenly training not just for pure aesthetics you’ll by nature put more into your workouts. Let’s take my present goal as an example.

If you’ve read my previous posts I was a fat, fat, fat kid growing up, so the sports I played were dominantly anaerobic in nature (i.e. baseball, taekwondo etc). After too much FIFA 07 on my PlayStation a few years ago, I grew interested in soccer. Now I want to actually play soccer. This works well since I can set up a training schedule and nutrition program around a fairly basic goal – acquire the conditioning and skill-set necessary to be competitive on an upper division team come autumn. Now when I’m doing my HIIT on the treadmill, I’m thinking of beating some defensive back one on one.

Sometimes you can train for aesthetics, other times performance, and heck, I suggest training at times intuitively, just for the fun of it. Take a look at your local gym at peak hours and then tell me which members have training goals and which ones don’t. You’ll spot the ones who have them in just a matter of seconds. I know I can. There’s a look of drive, determination, focus, and generally a body and – I know this sounds weird – attire to match. People who are serious about their fitness, serious about their goals undertake their training sessions with a purpose and passion that simply can’t be matched by your average recreational trainee.

And if you’re totally lost for goals you should set, let me give you a few ideas

• Learn to rock climb and set a ‘course’ goal on an indoor or outdoor wall
• Run a 6 minute mile
• Deadlift 2x your bodyweight
• Fit into a size X jeans comfortably (possibly THE best fat loss measurement method)
• Set a goal  date for ‘physique shots.’ Hire a good photographer and put down some money to keep you accountable.

Anyway, you get the idea.

If you have any ‘quick & easy’ fat loss tips, send them to me. I’d love to put together the best ideas I get in a second installment since the ‘we’ trumps the ‘me’ in just about everything. Take care, and until next time.

Tagged as: fat loss, Nutrition, sports, tips, weight loss