A lot of people ask should an overweight person lift weights, or should they wait until they’re smaller. A common misconception is that the bigger you are, the more extreme measures you need to take (bigger calorie deficit, higher amounts of cardio, etc). The thinking is that you should wait until you look like the people that are lifting, before you join in.
Extremes are overrated. Don’t believe the hype.
Should an overweight person lift weights?
Cardio will help you lose weight, to an extent. But it will only create a smaller version of the body you have now, with all the same lumps and bumps in all the same areas. You will shrink, but your body shape won’t change. If you lift heavy; however, you will manipulate your body in such a way that it will not only shrink, but also change shape.
Now remember, the definition of heavy varies person to person. My heavy is going to be different from your heavy. The key is to challenge yourself, within your limits. You should be able to lift increasingly heavier as you progress through the different lifting stages. This is an excellent time to challenge yourself, lifting as heavy as possible — the bigger we are, the more power we actually have to push more weight. Challenging yourself by increasing weight will push your metabolism through the roof.
With lifting, you can actually get more done in less time because your body doesn’t have the same opportunity to adapt as it does when doing cardio. When your body begins to adapt, the only solution is to keep pushing it to the limit. A limit that keeps moving further and further away means longer and longer workouts. But when you lift, all you have to do is to increase the poundage. You don’t have to add more time to your workout. More productive in less time. Isn’t that something we all want?
So don’t be intimidated by the thought of lifting “heavy.” Heavy is relative, but you definitely want to start lifting as soon as possible. Start with what you’re able to lift and work your way up. Heavy two weeks from now should be different than heavy today. There was a time when 7 or 8 pounds was heavy for me! But I kept increasing, and in turn, I gained strength. If you don’t increase, your body will adapt, and stop changing. The initial toned look from your first few weeks of a new workout will become softer.
Your body needs the challenge in order to keep morphing into the body you want and deserve.
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Diet and workout fads come and go. When a workout or diet plan becomes popular, it’s natural to feel like it’s the thing to do.
Popular marketing has taught for years, that if you introduce a product enough times (usually around seven), you move to the top of a persons’ mind, and they’ll actually begin to consider something that they may have once dismissed. Savvy parents often use this same tactic with their little ones — casually introducing veggies at every meal, but not forcing them, in hopes that the child will eventually try them on their own. Diet and exercise is no different.
While you may easily look past a certain style of eating/exercising at first glance, after another dozen or so “introductions” (via mags/commercials/social media) you may actually find yourself wondering if you should drop your current routine to instead do this “new” one. Although the most successful diets tend to hold to no-nonsense approach (adhering to best practices in nutrition, exercise, and a heavy dose of patience), every once in a while something comes along that promises faster results, and all-out war on those “stubborn-fat” areas.
Whether it’s slashing your calories, taking special supplements, doing excessive cardio, intermittent fasting, working out twice a day or cutting a food completely out of your diet, certain approaches tend to gain traction as a surefire way to give you the edge. Understanding the meaning of “edge” is key to understanding if/when you need to employ such an approach. Even though many of the strategies have roots based in science, the media (and admittedly, the fitness industry) does a great job of over-emphasizing marginal gains. The average Jane is often misled by the hype, not understanding, that marginal gain tactics are only beneficial in certain circumstances — such as when you’re looking at reaching the finish line and are fast approaching a date/vacation/competition or are an elite exerciser/professional athlete (and only when all other bases are covered).
It’s important to understand the timing to employ certain tactics at the right time (for you). Let’s take a look at four critical things you MUST understand before diving into the next great diet/exercise hope:
The Tactic Will Fail if Applied too Soon
Certain tricks of the trade are meant to help really attack stubborn-fat areas. But the problem lies in the fact that many of us have a fuzzy vision of what stubborn fat means in the industry.
Isn’t all fat stubborn? LOL. Not quite.
Plateau busting, stubborn-fat-loss strategies are typically aimed toward those who are at the vanity weight stage – not someone who is still in the middle of their journey. Vanity weight loss applies to those that are looking to loose the last five pounds, step on a competition stage, do a fitness DVD/photoshoot, etc.. In other words, you have a four pack…but are looking to uncover the last two.
If you employ a workout or diet tactic too soon (before it’s the right time for you), it will ultimately fail. The end result won’t be what “everyone else’s” end result is/was. The tactic may work temporarily, but you will eventually hit a plateau — with no room for making more tweaks. When that happens, the small dent that you may have quickly made in your progress, likely won’t be worth how much harder you’ll have made your journey.
Because many of these are meant to be temporary, finish line tactics…being no where near the finish line when you apply them simply means you have no other tricks up your sleeve.
The Tactic Is Meant to Give You the Edge After All Avenues are Exhausted
Once all avenues are exhausted, certain tactics can be beneficial, but only after you’ve put in work. People often lean on stubborn-fat-loss workout/diet plans because they want to go from A-Z without doing all the steps in between. The steps are where the magic happens. Skipping (or rushing) steps because you want results faster, almost always hurts you more than it helps. We often seek the stubborn fat loss tactics in frustration of having “tried everything,” but we must make sure that we are not just tossing those words around lightly. If you’ve tried everything – for a couple of weeks at a time – then you haven’t really tried anything.
True transformation takes time. Attempts to speed through that typically involves lots of wheel spinning and/or speeding up only to land back at square one (or worse!). Make sure that you are giving proven, long-term, sustainable tactics enough time to work before launching into marginal gains territory.
If you haven’t conquered the basics, it’s not the right time. And don’t just try the basics before moving on…nail them.
The Tactic May Be Viewed as a Quick Fix
When considering switching things up, always ask yourself “why?” Sounds simple, but sometimes we must check our mentality to know if we’re on the right track. If you find yourself looking for an out or wanting a quick fix, then you’re taking the wrong approach. If this isn’t your first rodeo, then you already know that it’s never been about losing the weight. Keeping the weight off has always been the hardest part. So if you’re looking for a way around building the habits that will actually aid in keeping the weight off, check yourself ;)
Disordered eating, the new normal? Check out our interview with fitness competitor and author Dani Shugart.
There are certain habits, and several mental transformations that must occur in order to have sustainable success on this journey. If you’re evading them by going after a quick fix instead, reevaluate your why. Are you avoiding dealing with who you are, thinking that losing weight will solve all your problems? (Spoiler alert: it won’t)
Try as we might, we’ll never be able to separate physiology (or biology) from psychology. Your mind will (and must) make the transition with you – especially if you plan on not only surviving this journey, but actually thriving in LIFE. Ditch the quick fix mentality, and be all in.
The Tactics Avoid The Basics
Eating enough veggies/food/protein/fiber, drinking enough water, lifting weights etc. are all diet and workout basics. When starting a routine, people often want to avoid the beginning, most important parts/steps because they’re boring, not fun, or just plain hard. We often associate fat loss with torture, and because of that want to spend the least amount of time to achieve results.
The ability to say no to certain foods or the feeling of hunger makes many people feel like they have control. Unfortunately, this can lead to eating disorders or disordered eating– we categorize foods into things we can and can’t have. But when you practice a cutthroat or hardcore tactic for too long, you can eventually create health problems, such as adrenal fatigue. There’s always a better way to get where you want to go and get the results and progress you are hoping for.
Consistency in the basics (fundamentals) must come first. If a program/diet/teaching that you’re hearing is “new and improved” and promotes a particular pill, shot, or type of workout, with complete disregard to the fundamentals – you’re looking at a quick fix. Diet with the end and mind, and leave all the quick fixes, and stubborn fat loss tactics for those that actually need (and get paid for doing) them.
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Last week we discussed the biggest lies that you’ll tell yourself before starting a new diet plan, and the reality check required to begin your journey on the right (and successful!) foot. But the mental struggle doesn’t stop there. Many of us start out on our journey fully prepared for the fact that we have some major changes to do, one habit at a time, and that we need to give ourselves enough time for these changes to take affect. But as we head deeper into that journey, a whole new set of lies erupt. We began to question everything that we stood so firm on in the beginning — often start searching for shortcuts and detours — leading to shiny diet syndrome.
Whether you’re a vet, or just getting started down this scary, awesome, life-changing, fulfilling, and totally nerve-wrecking path, the mental journey is the same. At some point in your walk, you’ll find that inevitably, certain thoughts creep in. Resist the urge to give in to the lies, which ultimately leads to giving up, by arming yourself with truth.
LIE:It shouldn’t be this hard.
TRUTH: This is a setup for failure.
Telling yourself this lie means that the second it does get hard – you stop trying, and look for something easier (read: quick fix). Since quick-fixes probably lead you to where you were when you started down this path (read: spinning wheels), you already know that easy isn’t worth it. When you’re trying to hit any goal, there is going to be work involved. While you want to make sure that your diet has you written all over it, and that it’s easiER than the unrealistic thing that you quit doing – don’t fall for the lure of thinking that achieving your goals should in some way be effortless. Take the steps to make it as effortless as possible, but give yourself realistic time frames and expectations for achieving your goals.
To combat the lure of fads, Jenny reminded herself that she was “hungry, worn out, and irritable all the time” on low cal diets.
LIE: It’s easier for others
TRUTH: It’s not.
At some point in the journey, you’re going to look around and play the woe is me card (see below). Along with this comes the belief of all martyrs…that “everyone else” is seeing progress faster than — or accomplishing what you want — with much less effort than you.
Wrong.
This plays right into the “it shouldn’t be this hard” mentality, and trust that believing either lie will get you nowhere. Social (and traditional forms of ) media can make ANYthing appear to have happened overnight, or with little effort. Most of us aren’t sitting around capturing our “bad” days on film for all the world to see. But when we have success, we want to share it with the world. Don’t get so caught up in the pics that you tell yourself that you’re the ONLY one that success takes time for. And remember that one day, YOUR picture will be the one that is tempting someone else to think the very same thing.
LIE: No one has my circumstances (aka “woe is me”)
TRUTH: Somewhere, someone with your EXACT circumstances is killing it.
“Woe is me,” is not helping you. In fact, once you even start entertaining this thought, you take your eyes off of your own goal. Telling yourself that everyone one other than you has perfect circumstances, will have you spinning your wheels in jealousy, rather than progressively taking steps forward. Let’s be honest, there’s nothing like good ol’ discouragement and hopelessness to cause you to give up on your journey (or never start in the first place).
Even if you have unique circumstances, few of us are that special that NO one in the whole earth deals with the same set of circumstances. Somewhere, someone is dealing with the exact same circumstance as you, and winning (even if its a version of winning that you haven’t imagined). I have dealt with health problems my entire life. As easy as it would be to throw my hands up in the air because some random person that I “know” on Instagram is seeing progress faster than I am, I double tap (or unfollow, if it bugs me that much), and keep it moving.
Keeping it real…it sucks. And yes, I may have to make more adjustments, or push harder/rest more, etc., than “everyone else” – but it’s not an excuse to quit. And I am NOT a special snowflake.
Work with what ya got. Find peeps that motivate you because they fought for what they have. Kill it in a way that only you can.
LIE: It wasn’t this hard before
TRUTH: Avoid over-romanticizing your old ways, and see them for what they really were
Before…what? Were the circumstances different then? Was it hard under the circumstances? If not…could the lack of effort required/lessons learned be the reason why you weren’t able to sustain the “success?” Or could the fact that before is referring to several diets ago be the reason that it’s so hard now? Excessive dieting primes your body for fat gain, a lowered metabolism, adrenal fatigue, and thyroid issues (to name a few!). So if this is your 10th diet, expect it to be harder than the first. It may not seem fair…but then again, neither is the unnecessary damage that most of us got away with for years before our bodies finally said “enough!” So if your body is finally calling your bluff, it’s time to pay the piper and put in the work that should have been put in all those not-so-hard times around the block.
The struggle is real. After over a year of EM2WL, Becca was tempted to speed things up by dropping cals. Check out how she bounced back, changed her focus, and conquered above and beyond her fat loss goals.
Also ask yourself if you’re looking back through rose-colored lenses, and not remembering certain things that happened before. Many of us decide to tackle this new lifestyle starved, with no energy, foggy brain, brittle hair/nails, constantly freezing, and gaining weight like it’s going out of style (WHILE. ON. A. DIET.), among other things. But oh how quickly we lay that version of “before” aside the second that we hear about our cousins-sisters-baby mama who’s just lost 100 pounds on the latest “eat-all-the-celery you-want” diet.
Ummmm…no thanks.
Whenever tempted to think about how easy things used to be, remind yourself that the easier road didn’t fix the problem (hence the current predicament) — and don’t over-romanticize. LIE: It’s taking too long
TRUTH: Paying our debts is individual. Progress is a result of physical AND mental health.
How long did it take you to get where you are now? Are you (unrealistically) expecting it to take only a fraction of the time to get out of it? If you dig a hole of debt, it’s not easily undone. Many of us are so indebted to our bodies for all that they’ve brought us through, and under the most harsh circumstances at that. Why do we jump into a journey of healing, or decision of better self-care, and then get upset at our bodies for not “snapping out of it” quick enough?
Imagine a person treating you with the same disrespect, followed by impatience/annoyance at your inability to just go back to the way things were. In their mind, enough time has passed, that you should be “over it” and trust them again. Some nerve! You know, that even if you choose to forgive them, trust is earned…not given. And the more times they’ve walked all over you, the longer you’ll have your guard up.
Why do we fail to see that our body is the party that has been wronged in this trial? We must give our body the respect that it needs, and the individual timeline that it requires to trust us again. The time will pass anyway, so don’t lose focus (or kill the trust factor…again) by chasing down quick-fixes.
What you learn about yourself in the process, is usually more important than the actual final result. Are you impatient? Waiting on perfection? Fostering feelings of self-hatred? Looking for outward things to solve an internal problem? Use the time that you’re waiting, to deal with things that focusing on weight loss may be over-shadowing (perhaps purposely). Face who you really are, under the skin, muscle, fat, and bones…and make sure she’s someone you actually like when it’s all said and done.
Because who you are, follows you wherever you go.
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The latest word on the street is that now a whopping 92% of people do NOT accomplish the goals (read: resolutions) that they set in Jan. I’ve been quoting 85% (the last touted statistic) for years, but now it’s really time to stand up and take notice. Let me restate that in case there’s any misunderstanding: New Year’s resolutions (and almost any goal set nowadays) are nearly guaranteed to fail! What the?!?
I pray that this upsets you as much as it does me. Especially if you’re one of many that finds yourself setting the same goals – over. and. over.
It’s time to stop believing the myth of just setting intentions out into the atmosphere, and wishing on a star that they’ll come true. We are missing the mark in goal setting. If we ever hope to change that path, we must first shut the door on the lies we tell ourselves about the process of success and achieving. Beware of jumping into goals -especially weight loss – without being mentally prepared.
Taking a moment to mentally make sure that you have what it takes before you start, is critical to when and where you end.
Ready for a reality check?
The lie: Things are going to be different this time.
Reality check: How? Are you putting steps into place to make sure of this?
It’s very easy for us to spout off, in a moment of determination, “This time…is going to be different!” – yet approach it in the exact same way as before. #fail
While the origin of this thought is dead on (we MUST do things differently, in order to achieve a different result), the action required is left hanging in the balance. In order for this time to be different than last, you need an action plan – not just a random diet plan. Brainstorm in advance ideas for how to make this time different (ditching fads, working out consistently, lifting weights, hitting macros, etc). Then break those ideas into baby steps that you can actually do one.at.a.time until they are second nature (daily walk, more protein at breakfast, higher fiber at lunch, etc). This is especially important to understand if you typically dive in headfirst to new changes, but fizzle out quickly.
Have a plan of attack to make this your best year yet, and rock out the results of this change permanently.
The lie: I got this… just gotta stick it out this time.
Reality check: If it requires too much willpower, it won’t work long term.
Thinking that you can just white knuckle your way into change is a recipe for disaster. Willpower is not an unlimited resource that you just have to “try harder” with. You only have ONE willpower reserve, so use it wisely, and have a plan for when it runs out. This means that if you have a fairly stressful life, you should NOT attempt to change your entire diet, quit smoking, start exercising, and organize your life — all at the same time. Something’s gotta give, and trust that it will.
So you may find yourself eating “perfectly” all day/week, then binging on nights/weekends. Willpower will eventually run out, so a diet setup with willpower as the primary success component will fail. Period. Adherence is the number one predictor of success. So an imperfect diet that you can consistently stick to, will always trump the perfect diet that you don’t.
Reality check: Think long term. Don’t change things that you can’t/don’t plan on sticking to for the long haul.
Allow me to state the obvious: If you only plan on applying something short term, then short term results are inevitable. If you’re going into a style of eating, imagining the day that you’ll go back to your old way of eating once it’s “over”…then you’re not making a lifestyle change. If you are dreaming of the day that you can eat donuts/chocolate/chips, etc. again, you’re doing it wrong. Find ways to incorporate those dreams items along the way. (Trust me, it’s possible!). Your way of eating should be set up so that you don’t have brief streaks of perfection, followed by the all-too-predictable nosedive.
If you don’t have enough room in your diet for a planned daily indulgence (or two), then it’s extremely likely that you’re being too strict, or are not eating enough for sustainable fat loss.
In order to finish strong, we must start with the right mindset. In part two of this series, we’ll address the lies that we tell ourselves along the way, and how approach (and survive!) the speed bumps, potholes, and detours of this journey.
No more lies, fam – lets do this!
~Kiki
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There are 3 ways to tell if a diet will work for you. During this time of year we are being bombarded with diet ads, and “New Year, New You” promises blare at us from every angle in the grocery checkout line. As you’re scouring the diet book aisle, or looking to hit “purchase” on that new online program, make sure that you are checking to see if the plan suits your lifestyle, priorities, and sustainability needs. Here’s three ways to tell, right off the bat, if a diet will work for YOU.
Does it Exclude Foods You Adore?
If it doesn’t allow you to eat foods that you love, why waste your time? How could that possibly be sustainable in the long run?
If you find the “perfect” weight loss plan, and it removes every food that you’ve ever loved, don’t expect to be able to keep it up for long. This should be your first red flag that the diet is not going to be sustainable. Any eating plan that helps you to lose weight (preferably from fat), needs to be something that you are going to be able to stick to. So make sure that it allows you to eat foods that you love, in moderation. You may be convinced that such a thing is not possible — and that you must be punished for your sins of weight gain — but this is a MUST. If fave foods aren’t included, you will not be able to be consistent. Even if you do lose the weight, the second you begin to eat “normal” again (adding back all the things you cut out during your “diet”), it all piles back on (and then some).
Does it allow you to be flexible?
Let’s say it does cut back on certain types foods, and you don’t mind. Maybe you do truly want to reduce your intake of it, or start eating less of certain things overall, is there still a flexibility aspect to it? Or are the rules very strict? If you go “off track,” will you ruin your diet and feel hopeless?
It shouldn’t be all or nothing. If the diet doesn’t allow you to eat cake at your sons birthday, have the occasional dessert, drink that glass of wine when you’re out with your husband, how will you feel during those moments? Can you decide to eat something (that maybe you’re not eating all of the time) during a special occasion, without feeling like “ugh!…I blew my diet!”?
If that’s the case, then whatever you’re doing is probably not sustainable. One of my favorite quotes from Leslie Schilling, says that “if what you’re doing requires you to cheat…it is not sustainable or healthy.” If you have to have cheat days (including unplanned binges), where you’re allowing yourself to go off-the-rails, eating any and everything…then maybe you need to be rethinking it. If you don’t have flexibility, and permission to eat the foods you love built in to your diet, you’re eventually going off-the-rails anyway. The best example of this is the “I’ll start my diet Monday” mentality.
If Monday through Friday your diet is perfection, but Saturday and Sunday you’re binging so much that it completely outweighs what you did the rest of the week — then it was pointless. You’d have been better off having some type of treat everyday, in small amounts, rather than going crazy on the final day. Often we spend so much time during the week avoiding the craving, only to give in at a later time (aka the weekend). The problem is that we could have simply had a small amount and been fulfilled when the craving was small, rather than “needing” to insanely overeat the same food when we eventually run out of willpower.
Sawanda, a long time Crusher showing that weight loss does not equal fat loss
Dieting plays an enormous role in Binge Eating Disorder (BED). We spend so much of our lives dieting, and trying to claim victory over our willpower, that we don’t realize what’s happening. Restriction is the most common precursor to binging. Refusing to acknowledge this, triggers a nasty cycle: you horrible that you binged, but since you’ve “already ruined it” you keep going, vowing to start your diet Monday (again). Come Monday, you’re super strict (again), yet you can only hold out for so long…then you binge. Rinse. Repeat.
Does it Promise Specific Amounts of Weight Loss?
Weight loss is individual to you. Anything that touts “10 pounds in 10 days” or otherwise promises you’re going to lose a certain amount of weight in a specific amount of time is bull…crap. (yep…I went there :P). Those types of claims are not promoting individual results, meaning: it’s not realistic.
Your mental energy (and precious muscle mass) will likely be wasted, trying to force something (that may be unnatural!) to happen within a certain amount of time. You may see temporary (mostly water) weight loss on the scale, but you will likely land right back at square one (or worse) when it’s all said and done. And for what? A few days of feeling like you’ve accomplished something because a few magical (and fleeting) numbers flashed on a scale?
No one can guarantee you any amount of weight loss in a certain amount of time. So when you come across a new plan, that appears to be making such promises, read the fine print. You’ll typically find that it says “results not typical” or “lose up to X amounts.” Your dieting results must always include your individual spin; in execution AND results. One person may start losing weight right away, (newbie dieters tend to lose all the weight quickly) but another (ie. someone who has dieted over-and-over) may take a much longer time.
The Bottom Line
You have your three red flags (there are more – but let’s roll with these top three), so USE them when you feel motivated to take (diet) action. Set aside all impulsive thoughts, or lures of the before/afters, and get real with yourself. If it’s not allowing you to eat the foods that you love, inflexible (you feel like it has to be all-or-nothing), or it’s guaranteeing you a certain amount of weight loss (there’s no individuality variables)…RUN (don’t walk) away.
The diet that allows you to be consistent is always the diet that wins, period. The perfect diet that you do in spurts, is never going to outweigh the imperfect diet that you do consistently. So find something that you can do consistently, even if it just means that you’re taking baby steps (start with ONE habit, and run that sucker into the ground until it’s second nature).
Between your skin and bones, there’s muscle and fat. If you’re over the age of 20 (yes…20!), and have been consistently inactive, your body will naturally gain fat and lose muscle when not on a lifting and/or healthy (higher protein) eating regimen. This happens as a result of being sedentary, and not engaging muscles. Many of us set the same goal year after year to lose weight. But as the years go by, we’re noticing that every time weight loss occurs, the end result is a physique that looks different attempt to attempt. You may even think “I’m looking fatter than I did last time I was this weight.” But why?
(Watch the full replay for answers to this and other questions. Broadcast recap below video…)
WEIGHT Loss Doesn’t Equal FAT Loss
It’s often assumed (*cough* ladies) that there’s no reason to have muscle — if we don’t want to be ripped, or look “manly.” (Really, ladies?…1990 called and wants it theories back). We think that as long as we’re getting smaller, there’s no point in lifting (read: gaining or preserving muscle mass). While we may have been able to fool ourselves into believing this at 22, eventually we’re faced with reality: muscle equals metabolism. Having less of one, means lowering the other. The more times we diet, the more muscle is lost, and fat is gained. If the weight loss stints are really quick, we’ve just increased our odds.
The faster weight comes off, the more likely it is that we’re experiencing muscle loss and not just fat loss. The more yo-yoing our body does, the more weight we gain each time. This means we need to lose more weight each time, with more of the loss likely being from muscle mass. We start to notice that we look softer, and all that cardio we used to do, doesn’t “work” anymore.
Time to face the facts: Quick-fix diets will never “work.” The *temporary* WEIGHT LOSS primes you for FAT GAIN
Gaining fat isn’t a difficult job. Our bodies are good at doing so without us even trying. (I doubt I just blew your mind, there, LOL.) To gain muscle, however, we must put forth a conscious effort. While we may tend to think we have too much fat on our frames, the problem instead may be we just don’t have enough muscle. Having too little muscle is like drilling for water in the desert, it’s gonna take a heck of a lot more effort – which much less rewarding payoff. Without a sufficient amount of muscle, our “weight loss” goals will never be sustainable for long. This means that many of us ladies have to get over the fear of weightlifting, and thoughts about how gaining muscle will make us look like a bodybuilder (myth).
Do It Right, or Do It Over
When it comes to fat loss, programs and approaches that may have worked for you in the beginning aren’t necessarily going to work for you in the long run. This is why it’s so important to remember to start small if you’re just getting into the swing of fat loss, healthy eating and resistance training. There are many levels involved to getting to that peak level. Trying to go straight to the highest level leaves you with little room for plateau adjustments (no trump card to pull!), and typically doesn’t provide enough time to develop habits that stick. So take the time to do it right, instead of constantly doing it over. Always have another trick up your sleeve. Pick one thing and nail it before you move onto something else. For example: incorporate more protein (from 90 grams to 120 grams, then 120 grams to 150 grams, etc) in your diet until you master it.
*Side note: Metabolism resets are key if you’re a yo-yo dieter or have been on a low-calorie diet for an extended period of time. It’s easy to get caught up in the scale weight, but the key is to think about the long term. Too much cardio and too little food will absolutely lead to muscle loss. Real progress takes time and requires a realistic perspective. If you/your clients want to get results, they’ve got to start weight lifting. Being skinny doesn’t equal results. Being strong and healthy does.
Cross section of thigh muscle, notice what happens to muscle/fat ratio over the years? Plan of attack must change with age. Preserving/building muscle is essential.
Arm Yourself for Sustainable Success
Ask somebody what their ideal end goal physique is and you’ll often hear “I just want to be skinny and not look like a bodybuilder.” By arming yourself with the proper information and knowledge, you can create a program that combines strength training and a proper diet (i.e. adequate protein intake). Constantly working on those areas (knowledge, lifting, diet) will change your entire perspective on the body transformation process. Gathering information, like taking your own diet history into consideration, can be a very helpful in discovering if you are actually dealing with a muscle deficit. Using this information, you can learn how to train and eat for muscle. Eating around a maintenance level of calories (also known as TDEE) can often prove to be the best approach.
If weight loss were easy, everybody would be running around looking like fitness models. The reality of it is that there’s a science and method behind the madness. In order to create healthy, sustainable weight loss, you’ve got to target the fat mass and preserve/add to the muscle mass.
A lot of people ask should an overweight person lift weights, or should they wait until they’re smaller. A common misconception is that the bigger you are, the more extreme measures you need to take (bigger calorie deficit, higher amounts of cardio, etc). The thinking is that you should wait until you look like the people that are lifting, before you join in.
With lifting, you can actually get more done in less time because your body doesn’t have the same opportunity to adapt as it does when doing cardio. When your body begins to adapt, the only solution is to keep pushing it to the limit. A limit that keeps moving further and further away means longer and longer workouts. But when you lift, all you have to do is to increase the poundage. You don’t have to add more time to your workout. More productive in less time. Isn’t that something we all want?
The Tactic Will Fail if Applied too Soon
Once all avenues are exhausted, certain tactics can be beneficial, but only after you’ve put in work. People often lean on stubborn-fat-loss workout/diet plans because they want to go from A-Z without doing all the steps in between. The steps are where the magic happens. Skipping (or 
Last week we discussed the 
Even if you have unique circumstances, few of us are that special that NO one in the whole earth deals with the same set of circumstances. Somewhere, someone is dealing with the exact same circumstance as you, and winning (even if its a version of winning that you haven’t imagined). I have dealt with health problems my entire life. As easy as it would be to throw my hands up in the air because some random person that I “know” on Instagram is seeing progress faster than I am, I double tap (or unfollow, if it bugs me that much), and keep it moving.
Imagine a person treating you with the same disrespect, followed by impatience/annoyance at your inability to just go back to the way things were. In their mind, enough time has passed, that you should be “over it” and trust them again. Some nerve! You know, that even if you choose to forgive them, trust is earned…not given. And the more times they’ve walked all over you, the longer you’ll have your guard up.
The lie: Things are going to be different this time.
The lie: I’ll just try it for a while.
There are 3 ways to tell if a diet will work for you. During this time of year we are being bombarded with diet ads, and “New Year, New You” promises blare at us from every angle in the grocery checkout line. As you’re scouring the diet book aisle, or looking to hit “purchase” on that new online program, make sure that you are checking to see if the plan suits your lifestyle, priorities, and sustainability needs. Here’s three ways to tell, right off the bat, if a diet will work for YOU.
Let’s say it does cut back on certain types foods, and you don’t mind. Maybe you do truly want to reduce your intake of it, or start eating less of certain things overall, is there still a flexibility aspect to it? Or are the rules very strict? If you go “off track,” will you ruin your diet and feel hopeless?
The Bottom Line
Between your skin and bones, there’s muscle and fat. If you’re over the age of 20 (yes…20!), and have been consistently inactive, your body will naturally gain fat and lose muscle when not on a lifting and/or healthy (
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