Weight Loss
Weight Loss Made Simple
Sick of having trouble achieving your weight loss goals? Ready to finally start shedding those pounds and unleash the body you know you have always wanted?
Today I am going to talk a little bit about some powerful techniques you can use to help with your weight loss, no matter how much or how little you want to lose.
The First Step: Learning How to Decide Your Weight Loss Target
This is something that very few people talk about, and it is a major reason that many people fail with their weight loss targets. Setting your goal or target in the correct manner is absolutely essential if you want to achieve significant weight loss. What do I mean by this?
Most people when talking about weight loss say something along the lines of:
- I want to be thinner.
- I want to shed 15 pounds.
- I want to have ripped abs.
While these goals are nice, they are not possible to achieve. They are vague, not measurable, and in the case of the second one, unrealistic.
By properly outlining our weight loss targets we significantly improve the chances of achieving them. Okay, okay, I can hear you saying. So what is the right way?
The first step lies in measuring your overall body fat percentage. This is the clearest and truest indication of how much fat you have in your body. By focusing on this metric — and this metric alone — you can continuously measure your progress, while also being able to see precisely how much fat you are shedding from week to week.
Don’t know your body fat percentage? Don’t worry, barely anyone does — and it is a shame! You can check it online by simply submitting a couple measurements at personal trainer Scott McManus’ page for Total Six Pack Abs.
At this website you can also take your body fat percentage once you find out what it is and plug it into a ‘Six Pack Calculator’ which will take you roughly how long it will take for you to achieve your six pack (or in our case, your desirable weight loss).
>> Click Here to Visit Scott’s Total Six Pack Abs
Okay, so now that we have a number for body fat, and a rough idea of how long it will take to get there, we can phrase our weight loss goal as such:
“I want to be 11% body fat by April 11.”
Having this clear target, and a way to measure it consistently, is much more accurate than getting on a scale — which is a misleading way to measure weight loss. Why is this? Because inevitably in the course of getting fit and losing weight you will also be building some muscle. Lean muscle tissue is heavier than fat tissue.
The Key to Weight Loss: Calorie Deficit
To achieve significant weight loss you have to be ingesting less calories than you are expending. This is the inescapable reality of weight loss. You can take all the weight loss pills you want, follow all the crash diets and P90x programs of the world, but if you do not abide by this one law weight loss is impossible.
Crash diets are not the answer. By starving yourself your body goes into preservation mode, and your metabolism slows right down in order to consume what calories remain. A solid diet insures that you are still feeding your muscles while achieving optimal fat burn. I have never seen someone succeed with a crash diet over the long term.
They simply do not work.
It might not be the answer you want to hear, especially in a world that espouses instant results for absolutely everything, but weight loss for the short term and more importantly, for the long term, is done with a responsible combination of caloric intake and caloric exhaustion (exercise).
A customized diet plan can help greatly in your pursuit of realistic caloric deficit. Kyle Leon’s Muscle Maximizer provides a completely tailored nutrition plan that is relevant to your sex, weight, height, level of activity and even your body type.
>> Click Here to Learn More About Kyle Leon�s Muscle Maximizer
Achieving caloric deficit for weight loss means that you will have to be aware of what you are ingesting. For some people this can be a challenge, as being aware of what they are eating has never even crossed their mind. Don’t be frightened or intimidated by this, however.
When you start learning how what you eat affects your body and overall health you are empowered to make the changes necessary to not only get your weight loss on track, but to also live your life at a peak level.
How Fast Can I Expect Weight Loss?
Obviously everyone’s situation is different, but overall a safe, and healthy rate of weight loss is somewhere between 1-2 pounds per week. This might not sound like a lot, but it is. Two pounds of fat in one week is surprisingly noticeable on an even relatively obese person.
Weight Loss and Your Diet
Just getting a grip on your diet will constitute a vast majority of your weight loss (anywhere between 60-90% depending on your present eating habits). The good news is this — you can still get your weight loss on the fast track while still eating a bunch of food. The key is understanding which foods you should be eating.
In fact, simply by avoiding certain types of foods weight can begin to occur. Foods such as:
- Alcohol. Often paired with pop, alcoholic drinks are crammed with calories.
- Refined Grains such as white bread and pasta. These can be easily substituted with whole grains, which are unrefined and still carry a nutritional punch.
- Foods loaded with Simple Sugars. These types of foods boost your energy in the short term, than give you a quick-to-follow ‘sugar crash.’
- Processed foods. Generally speaking, foods that come in a can, cardboard box or plastic bag are usually processed.
Beverages
An often-overlooked part of weight loss is liquids. We consume an outrageous number of calories from juice, coffee, energy drinks and alcohol. It is easy to overlook these things because we don’t necessarily feel full (and as such, we don’t feel “guilty”) after slamming a couple cups of coffee or juice.
Simply by increasing your water intake and eliminating sodas (even diet soda), energy drinks, “fruit” juices, coffee and limiting alcohol (I’m trying to be realistic haha) you can not only reduce a ton of useless calories and refined sugars from jumping into your system, but you will also save yourself a ton of money in the long run.
Physical Activity and Weight Loss
An excellent way to significantly boost weight loss is with physical activity. As a personal trainer I love this stuff. I have always been a very active person, ever since I was a kid.
So for me and many others this part comes easily. The best part is that you don’t need to undertake a huge amount of physical activity to see quick and long-lasting weight loss.
Performing a basic circuit training routine with a series of compound exercises for around 30 minutes per session three times per week in addition to doing interval training 2-3 times per week can provide HUGE benefits for not only your weight loss, but will also drastically improve your cardiovascular health (which combats heart disease — the number one killer of adults in North America), strengthens your bones and joints, and even improves your mood.
But for many who have suffered difficulties with weight loss they don’t come from the same active type of background that I have. These are a majority of the people that I see at my gym.
For these people the end goal is the same workout routine that I outlined above, but the beginning steps are very different. It may be as basic as walking for 20 minutes a day.
Regardless of the case, physical exercise is a massive part of your weight loss journey, and in my experience easier to stay on track with compared to diet.
Weight Loss Plans
There are more diet plans and “get thin quick” programs out there than I can count. Some work, many are simply fads based on questionable science, and many others are simply shams.
Before you get started with any of them, it is very important for you to sit down and ask yourself — “Are my weight loss goals realistic with this program?”
Most of these diet plans come with a variety of rules and guidelines, so it is essential that you are realistic enough to know that you will be able to carry through with it.
Below are several weight loss programs that I have had the chance to personally review and that are realistic enough for most people to be able to use successfully.
Fat Burning Furnace — created by Rob Poulos and his wife Kate, who both struggled with obesity for years, this simple yet powerful program combines sensible dieting with exercise to create the conditions necessary to achieve peak weight loss.
>> Learn More About Fat Burning Furnace.
Combat the Fat — for a more “tough love” approach, Jeff Anderson’s Combat the Fat is the answer for your weight loss goals. A United States Military Fitness Instructor, his no-nonsense approach to weight loss is refreshing.
>> Learn More About Combat the Fat Here.
Accelerate Your Fat Loss — personal trainer and pro fitness model Obi Obadike created this powerful program that combines an easy-to-follow diet plan with a convenient exercise regimen that can be done at home.
>> Click Here to Learn About Obi’s Accelerate Your Fat Loss
Truth About Six Pack Abs — one of my all-time favorites. Written by personal trainer and nutritionist Mike Geary, Truth About Six Pack Abs has been around for a while and is one of the best selling six-pack products online. On his website he talks about several six-pack myths that you should know. Although it is a “six-pack” program the principles apply to weight loss.
>> Click Here to Learn More About Mike’s Truth About Six Pack Abs
So now that you have all of this information and resources at your disposal, it is up to you to do something with it all.
Will today be the day that you decide to finally accomplish your weight loss goals? The time has never been better.
Let’s get started on your weight loss now.
