How To Make Sure Your Fat Loss Program Is Working
Someone from Twitter recently came to me kind of confused about why they’d only lost 1 pound even though they fasted 3 times in a week, and although I gave the best response I could – I want to lay it out in detail on the blog so everybody knows why this happens.
Ok so first we’re going to start off with the proper way to weight yourself, then I’m going to tell you why sometimes you might not actually lose as much weight as you think you should be losing – even if you’re still losing a lot of fat!
How To Properly Weigh Yourself
Your body can fluctuate anywhere from 1-5 pounds or so throughout the day (due to food and fluid intake, water retention, etc.), so the time of day you weigh yourself is very important. I’ve weighed myself one morning and been confused on why I weighed so much, then the next day I was 3-4 pounds lighter and hitting my goal.
It’s confusing!
So here’s what you do.
On a day where you wake up and go to the bathroom (in both ways) before you eat or drink anything – go weigh yourself. That’s roughly your true weight. It’s not the best measure because if you don’t eat enough vegetables you might have some backed-up “waste” inside you…but it’s the closest you’re gonna get.
Then each time you do the same thing…weigh yourself again.
This is the ONLY way to truly weigh yourself accurately. If you don’t usually go #2 in the morning, try eating a bunch of vegetables before you go to bed with a lot of fiber in them. That way you have a better chance of going when you wake up.
Ok so that’s the first thing you have to know.
The second thing is that if you’re following my advice and strength training while you’re dieting – you’re probably not going to lose weight as fast as you’d like.
Why?
Because you’re building muscle, which ADDS weight, at the same time you’re losing weight!
So if you lose 10 pounds of fat but put on 5 pounds of muscle, you’re only going to lose 5 pounds – but you’re going to look A LOT better than if you just lose 10 pounds of fat but didn’t put on any muscle.
So my point is – don’t worry about your weight!
Instead, take some pictures of yourself. If you start seeing a change, well, that’s a good thing. I also advise taking measurements. Taking a measurement of your stomach is a great place because you’re not going to add all that much muscle in that area (not as much as something like your chest at least) – so it’s easier to see the decrease in fat.
I also would suggest going out and grabbing a pair of fat calipers. They’re pretty cheap and probably the most accurate measure of body fat out there.
I suggest these Accu-Measure Body Fat Calipers – it’s what I use. They’re cheap and work pretty good, it just takes a little time to get used to (not too much though).
With these calipers you might want to get a trusted friend to do the measurements for you. After all if you’re trying to get a measurement on your back, you’re going to have to be a human-gumby and have eyes on the back of your head!
So here are a few take home points from today’s lesson:
- If you’re going to weigh yourself, make sure you do it consistently. This means doing it in the morning after you’ve gone #1 and #2.
- It’s more important to worry about how you LOOK as compared to how many pounds you lost. If you’re strength training while losing weight, factor in that you might be adding a little muscle so in the beginning especially your weight loss gains might be a little slower (this is more important for guys than girls).
- The best way to measure your progress is through pictures, measuring yourself with a measuring tape, and getting body fat calipers.
How To Lose 10 Pounds Fast
If you want to lose 10 pound fast, this post is going to show you exactly how to do it in the healthiest manner possible.
However, I just want to give a little disclaimer up front saying that I DON’T recommend losing 10 pounds fast very often. If you’re getting ready for an upcoming wedding and gained enough weight that your dress wouldn’t even fit, ok, but for most other reasons I’d advise against this.
Anyway, the first thing you’re going to want to do is get yourself a colon cleanser. Maybe it’s gross, but if you’re like most people you probably have 2-3 days worth of food backed up inside your intestines.
I’ve heard of people who did a colon cleanse and lose 10+ pounds in the first 3 days!
Granted, this won’t be fat, but I can guarantee you – you’re going to feel a lot better and lighter.
The second thing you’re going to want to do is do double workouts. Instead of just working out 4x per week or whatever you’re doing now, ramp that up to double what you’re doing. Do a morning workout then another one after work at night.
It might not be “healthy” to do that long-term due to over training issues, but if you’re trying to lose 10 pounds fast for a special occasion then plan on going back to your regular workouts, I don’t see a problem with it. Just make sure you take a few days off after your special event so you can re-heal your body.
The third thing you’re going to want to do is simply start fasting. Fasting for 24 hours is a GREAT way to lose weight without sacrificing muscle. I explain this in detail in my Hassle Free Fat Loss book, but for now just understand that all the rumors you hear about fasting really aren’t true – at all.
Now, since you’re going to be exercising more, fasting, AND getting rid of your wastes a lot quicker, you’re going to want to make sure you’re eating very healthy.
If you’re doing all this and still not eating healthy foods, quite frankly you’re going to feel like a pile of crap. So make sure you’re loading yourself up with a lot of healthy fats, extra protein to help rebuild your muscles, and tons and tons of vegetables. For this “losing 10 pounds fast” diet, I’d recommend doing a low carb diet and when you have carbs, make them low G.I. yet highly nutritious carbs such as oatmeals and sweet potatoes.
So that’s it!
Do those 3 things and you can lose 10 pounds very quickly – sometimes within a week or less.
Now understand, you SHOULD NOT do this on a continual basis. This is for extreme situations only and if it’s a week before your special event and you need to lose 10 more pounds, it’s your fault anyway for not planning in advance!
So please, please do this kind of diet with caution. It’s only more for very short times and is NOT a healthy long-term approach to fat loss (well, fasting is, but that’s a topic for multiple blog posts).
Are There Any Effective Weight Loss Pills?
If you look around in any magazine, online, or any other place that has advertisements, you’ll likely see tons and tons of ads for effective weight loss pills.
But there are a lot of problems with effective weight loss pills.
First of all, the main problem I see is that it’s VERY hard to increase your metabolism without adding muscle or fat to your body. Your metabolism is mostly based on your body’s weight and your activity level, not the foods you eat.
So the first thing I see wrong with effective weight loss pills is that, well, THEY’RE LYING.
The reason these pills might help you lose weight is because they stop your hunger, which would cause you to eat less – NOT because it increases your metabolism.
But if you’re following the layout in my Hassle Free Fat Loss book, you won’t even have to worry about hunger because you learn how to automatically control it. I just went 25 hours last night into today without eating and I got hungry 1 time throughout that entire 25 hours – and it only lasted for about 2 minutes.
And no, I’m not joking.
Anyway, the second thing I see wrong with “effective weight loss pills” is that even if they are effective, at what cost are you taking them?
The ones that actually help you lose a lot of weight usually have chemicals in them that you really shouldn’t be taking, such as Yohimbine. It’s not natural for your body and even if you don’t experience immediate symptoms, it’s still hurting your body down the road. Plus a lot of the herbs and chemicals in these effective weight loss pills interact with the other chemicals in your body and can cause major problems!
But are all weight loss pills bad?
No, I don’t think they are.
One thing I’m kind of a fan of is colon cleansing. Although it sounds disgusting, if you find the right company you’ll see that all the ingredients are completely natural and don’t have any consequences.
I don’t think you’re going to lose 30-40 pounds like they say, but it’s ALWAYS a good thing to improve your digestion for various reasons.
So when it comes to effective weight loss pills, I honestly wouldn’t recommend them. If you’re following the right fat loss program, you shouldn’t need them anyway!
Do Alcohol And Fat Loss Mix?
All the time I hear people talking about alcohol and fat loss and how you can pretty much NEVER drink alcohol if you want to lose weight and keep it off.
But is that really the way you want to live you life, stuck to certain rules and principles and guided by whether or not something is going to make you just a tiny little bit fatter?
I hope not!
Listen, I obviously care a lot about my weight and everything, but I would never compromise my life for it. If I want to go out and have a drink with my fiancee, I’m going to do it.
Now am I suggesting that you go out and get drunk 3 times per week, drinking 5-10 beers each time? Of course not!
But if you want the occasional drink, I don’t think alcohol and fat loss should even be talked about. Sure, it might give you extra calories and screw up your hormones a tad, but it’s not like you’re going to have 1-2 beers and all of a sudden lose 2% of your muscle mass and gain 5 pounds of fat!
I personally have 1 or 2 beers a week, then usually 1 night out of the week or once every 2 weeks or so, I’ll have a few more. I don’t go crazy, I don’t drink 700 calorie drinks – I do it in moderation.
And if I get invited to a wedding or some kind of celebration, I’m not going to be that boring person in the back of the room who won’t even touch a drink because they’re afraid they’re going to gain 1 ounce of fat (to be clear, if you don’t want to drink because you just don’t want to, that’s fine, but don’t not have a drink once in awhile because you’re afraid you’re going to gain weight!).
Just please don’t take this as me saying it’s OK to get drunk and drink all the time. A glass or so per night is fine – it’s not going to kill you. It’s only 100-150 extra calories, and that’s SO easy to make up throughout the course of the day. If you know you’re going to be drinking alcohol at night and you’re worried about fat loss, just eat a little less during the day to make up for it.
It’s really as easy as that!
So do alcohol and fat loss mix in a diet program?
I think they do, you just have to be able to control yourself and not go out and get plastered every night of the week!
High Intensity Interval Training – Worth The Effort?
High intensity interval training has become something of yet another miracle weight loss cure, just like the Tabata Intervals I talked about in the last post.
The funny thing is, the same rules apply to high intensity interval training (HIIT) as they do with tabata intervals!
You see, although HIIT burns more calories PER MINUTE that you’re working out, you’re not going to burn a HUGE amount of calories more than you’d burn with low intensity.
Why?
Because even though you might be able to do low intensity exercising for 60 minutes, you’ll never be able to do that when doing high intensity exercises.
I get into the solution for this a lot more in my Hassle Free Fat Loss book, but just know that it doesn’t really matter which one you do, it just matters what you LIKE to do.
I personally like doing high intensity interval training because for me, it’s fun. It’s a great way to relieve stress and since you’re so concentrated, it’s like you’ve fallen into a whole other world.
For example when I’m doing stationary bicycle sprints in my basement, once I start doing them I literally zone out and can’t even hear the music playing (as a side note, I blast the music. I can hear it on the 2nd floor when it’s playing in the basement).
But some people don’t like the feeling of being exhausted like that, and that’s fine.
What you need to understand that is the method of fat loss isn’t going to determine how much weight you lose.
Having a “no excuses” attitude is what’s going to do the trick.
You just have to realize that if you don’t want to do high intensity interval training and you’d rather do low intensity, you’re going to have to put in more time working out.
My high intensity workouts might last only 20-30 minutes because I’m going all out the whole time, while you might need to jog for 45-60 minutes to get the same effect.
So if you’re looking for a way to get in a quicker workout while getting the same amount of calories burned as you would in a longer, slower workout – then try getting into high intensity interval training yourself and see the difference!
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Recent Comments:
- Johnine Bailey: You could mix it with water to make it less caloric. Or possibly substitute a cherry powder or herbal instead. There’s a Cherry Blossom herbal that is available, I’m not sure it would do the same, but maybe it would help.
- Darlene Siddons: great post and great 10 ways to attack those last few pounds….loosing weight is about attitude and feelings, when they are aligned right it is really easy…i use Vision Map Videos to keep my goal of correct body weight in a positive realm… darlene http://visionmapvideo.blogspot .com/
- Megan: great story, and so true! And i laughed a few times during this. keep up the good work!
- What Happens When You Stop Being “Healthy”: important if you’re doing workouts that are very intense and demanding on your body, such as High Intensity Interval Training or things like Tabata
- Weight Loss Excercise: You can also check out his post on weight loss goals here – http://hasslefreefatloss.com/b log/weight-loss-goals-getting- crazy/
- Johnine Bailey: You could mix it with water to make it less caloric. Or possibly substitute a cherry powder or herbal instead. There’s a Cherry Blossom herbal that is available, I’m not sure it would do the same, but maybe it would help.
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