Limited time offer for a fat annihilating, metabolism turbocharging pill!
Just kidding, I don’t have a pill to get you washboard abs or a nice behind. Want to know why I don’t have a pill to get you in shape? Because one doesn’t exist, and most likely never will.
I can’t tell you how many people I hear complain about being fat, but there are a lot. I also can’t tell you how many people I’ve had tell me “I wish I was like you and could eat whatever I want without gaining a pound! You’re so lucky” (pretty annoying).
I must be special, right? I must have some sort of special genetics that make me superhuman, able to consume and consume and consume and not accumulate mass, or maybe I actually exist in a parallel universe where the laws of physics don’t apply to me.
Truth is, I could be fat if I wanted to. It would actually be quite easy and fun for me to get fat. I would love to come home after work every day and shotgun a bag of chips, pound a bucket of jellybeans, and wash it all down with a two liter of soda. I’d also love to not spend 4.5 hours per week at the gym and save that $55/month I spend on a membership.
Thing is, I choose to not be fat. It’s not a single choice (i.e. I didn’t just wake up one day and decide not to be fat), it’s a product of the choices I make on a regular basis. Likewise, if you’re fat, it’s most likely because you choose to be fat; it’s the result of the choices you make on a regular basis (unless you have a medical condition).
I don’t think being fat should be glorified, and I also don’t think you should be proud to be fat. At best, being fat indicates a lack of self-discipline or a lack of prioritizing your health (which is really important). At worst, it’s downright dangerous. Being overweight is associated with innumerable health issues (just Google “problems linked to being overweight,” spoiler: there are a lot).
I’m not in shape because I’m lucky or exist in a parallel universe. I am no better a human than anybody else. I’m in shape because I work hard at it; I eat healthily and exercise, and I do those things consistently. That’s the good news, you don’t have to be special to look great, all that’s needed is a little bit of work and discipline; there’s no magic here. If there were a shortcut/secret to weight loss, everybody would be walking around with chiseled abs and a trim body. As you are probably aware, that is not the case.
I know a lot of you folks won’t know where to start and that’s why I decided to write this article. I’m by no means an expert and have no formal training, but what I can do is provide you with the example of my strategy for maintaining a reasonably healthy physique.
I’m a 6’1” 185 lb 26-year-old male. I squat around 225 (3 rep) and bench around 225 (1 rep). I’m by no means Hercules and certainly don’t have the body of a Greek god, but I’m more or less happy with the way I look. Below is the plan I follow to maintain my weight and strength (I made this plan up myself).
Breakfast
- ¼ tub of fat free plain Greek yogurt (about ¾ cup) – 100 calories
Morning Snack:
- Peanuts (a snack bag full, or about 3 ounces) – 600 calories
Lunch
- Quinoa and chicken cooked in an instant pot (2 lbs chicken breast and 5 oz quinoa split into 5 portions, one for each weekday, add seasoning) – 370 calories/day
- 3 Greek yogurts (150 g each) – 120 calories each, 360 total
Afternoon Snack
- Protein shake – 200 calories
Dinners (One dinner per night, each served with microwavable veggies. I sometimes eat peanut butter and pretzels as well if I’m still hungry)
- Shake and bake chicken (5 drumsticks in shake and bake mix) – 1600 calories
- Turkey burgers (3 1/3 pound burgers, or 1 lb total with rolls – 1220 calories
- Hamburgers (3 1/3 pound 90% lean 10% fat burgers, or 1 lb total) – 1220 calories
- Chicken or pork sausage (3 sausages with rolls) – 870 calories for chicken, 1080 for pork
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told “dude, you eat so much, your metabolism must be insane!” Truth is, I actually don’t consume that many calories in a day. Sum the above for any given dinner. Yeah, the total is only around 3,000 calories. I can almost guarantee if you’re overweight, you actually consume a higher number of calories in a day than I do.
Some things you’ll notice about the above are the following:
- I don’t drink soda
- I don’t drink alcohol (of course that’s not actually true, I usually have a few drinks on the weekend)
- I don’t snack on things like chips, candy, etc.
If any of the above bullets constitute a significant part of your diet, I can pretty much guarantee that cutting them out will provide you with relatively quick results.
If your only goal is to lose weight, the strategy is incredibly simple: consume fewer calories in a day than you burn. It is physically impossible to not lose weight if you consume fewer calories in a given period of time than you burn. Just be careful, crash diets and starving yourself aren’t the way to go and are harmful. If you want to get on a nutrition plan, I strongly recommend finding a personal trainer to set you up with one.
While the mathematics of weight loss are simple, the tricky thing to do is lose (fat) weight while building muscle. Depending on your stature, you might actually gain weight by exercising and eating healthily (i.e. the muscle mass you gain will outweigh the fat you lose), which is a good thing. Gaining weight through exercise and healthy eating can be viewed as a body composition change.
To lose (fat) weight and build muscle, you’ll have to work out, which will likely mean going to the gym. The thing is, going to the gym actually accomplishes absolutely nothing. If you go to the gym and just sit on your phone, chat with the receptionist, or watch the hot girl in leggings do Pilates, you’re wasting your time. You need to work and work hard when you’re at the gym. It’s going to be uncomfortable, and it’s probably going to suck, but it’s necessary. Once you start to see the results, I’m sure you’ll find the motivation to keep at it, even on days when you’d rather sit on the couch and watch Netflix.
Below is the workout schedule I follow. Again, I am by no means an expert, this is merely the example of what I follow and how I’ve come to be in the shape I’m currently in.
Sunday
- Bench press (2 sets 5 reps then 2 sets 8 reps 1.5 min rest period)
- Incline dumbbell press (4 sets 8 reps 1 min rest period)
- Dumbbell curl (4 sets 8-12 reps 1 min rest period)
- Tricep pull downs (4 sets 12 reps 1 rest period)
- Shrugs (4 sets 30 reps, decreasing reps with each set 30 second rest period)
- Shoulder flies (4 sets of 8-12 reps 30 second rest period)
- Pushups
Tuesday
- Bent over row (4 sets 8-12 reps 1 min rest period)
- Squat (2 sets 3-5 reps, 2 sets 6-8 reps 1.5 min rest period)
- Split squat (4 sets for each leg, 8 reps 1 min rest period)
- Weighted crunches (4 sets 20 reps 30 second rest period)
- Russian twist (4 sets 30 s-1 min each, 30 s rest period)
Thursday
- Hanging knee-elbow touches with ankle weight (4 sets 8-12 reps 1 min rest period)
- Weighted crunches (4 sets 12 reps 30 second rest period)
- Russian twist (4 sets 30 s-1 min each, 30 s rest period)
- Bench press (4 sets 8-12 reps 1 min rest period)
Note that for the above, the rep ranges are target failure ranges. That means that you should fail at or slightly above the listed rep range. You’ll most likely need to decrease the weight between sets and that’s fine.
Of course, the above workout schedule is probably geared toward men, but women can also follow a similar schedule. Just keep in mind what your fitness goals are. If you’re a guy who is out of shape and you do the above, I can almost guarantee you’ll look better regardless of your age; you may even end up having a shot with the hot Pilates leggings girl.
If you’re really serious about getting in shape, I recommend seeing a trainer to set you up with a workout and nutrition plan. I’m no expert and doing the above was merely enough for me to get to a place where I feel good about my health.
If you find it difficult to maintain consistency in exercising and eating healthily, that’s totally fine. Try to first make small changes and slowly build on them. You most likely will not be able to go from a sedentary and unhealthy lifestyle to exercising regularly and eating well overnight. Just keep at it and I’m sure you’ll accomplish more than you thought possible. The only thing I ask is if you are unable to make any sort of progress and ultimately give up, don’t go around being jealous of those who do what you cannot. We’re not lucky, we’re just hard workers.
Disclaimer: the above is not medical advice, please consult your physician before trying any of the above listed items blah blah blah don’t sue me thanksG
