Ultimate Fat Loss

I get asked by a lot of guys at work and otherwise, how to lose weight. This question generally comes from people who are not really that badly off (18 – 22% Body fat), but are far from athletic. I thought it might be simpler if I just wrote a blog post about it.

People at this level of fitness generally do not need the various carb cycling diets that fitness professionals nowadays tend to recommend. The problem with these diets is that you can never really follow them if you have a hectic life. And I work in a place where most people have a 60 hour week all the time, and in India you spend at least 14-15 hours a week just travelling. Plus if you really were to begin following a carb cycling diet, it would cost you a fair penny. You need supplements, BCAA pills, lots of protein- all of which are really expensive here.

A lot fat can be lost, simply by identifying the reasons you are fat in the first place. You must understand that just like all other tissues, fat also serves a purpose in the body. Remove the reasons for its existence, and the fat will go away.

I am going to list the various purposes of fat in the human body, and you can judge for yourself, why you are carrying excess fat.

1.       Blood Sugar Levels are too High and your Body is Insulin Insensitive-

This is a semi diabetic condition, where the body is unable to fill the muscles with glucose, and this glucose hangs around in the blood stream and is stored as fat. This happens because the muscles either won’t accept the glucose (Insulin Insensitivity), or there simply is not enough muscle to accept the sugar/glucose.

The simple solution to this is to increase the Insulin sensitivity of the body by exercise and preventing frequent changes in blood sugar levels. This can be done by either keeping a constant intake of sugar, or by eliminating sugar altogether. The Frequency of change is more important than the degree of change in sugar levels, as frequent fluctuations can desensitize the insulin receptors of the body, because of which the muscles to refuse the sugar.

Also, insulin insensitivity and blood sugar levels drop when you have greater muscle mass. The more muscle you have, the easier it will be for you to keep the weight off. The problem is, most people simply do not have enough muscle to keep off fat for a long period of time.

Many people out there, especially women, worry about gaining too muscle. To be honest, that is like worrying that by studying a lot, you may become too smart. The fact of the matter is, every guy or girl who is phenomenally muscular has put in years of hard work and labour into it, and you are not going to look like that unless you really work hard towards that specific objective.

Most guys and girls can easily gain 20-25 pounds of pure muscle, without worrying about looking too muscular. And those 20 pounds will keep off 50 pounds of fat for your entire lifetime and will give you health benefits beyond counting. So stop worrying about it.

Lastly, most woman, unless they are genetic anomalies or are on steroids, simply do not have that much testosterone in them to end up like that, and thus it is twice as hard for them to become overly muscular.

2.       Your Body is Full of Toxins

This is the biggest reason for excess fat nowadays in my opinion. Fat essentially acts like a sponge and sucks up and stores all the toxins in the body, to prevent the toxins from entering the blood stream. This is why a lot of people fall ill when they lose weight, because the toxins that were in the fat get released into the blood stream.  Then when you start eating again, all the fat comes back, simply because it is needed to store all the toxins in your blood.

The best way to detoxify the body is to simply cut out all toxic food from your diet for some time. Then after 3-4 weeks of this approach, going on water fasts followed with large but healthy meals (to prevent losing fat too fast, thus avoiding excess blood toxicity) in order to burn some amount of fat, and to get rid of the chunk of the toxins in the body, is best. This practice will have to be repeated occasionally to prevent re-toxification.  You must remember that detoxification (and Fat Loss) is catabolic and catabolism needs to happen if you want to remain healthy, so don’t fall into the bodybuilding trap of never allowing catabolism to happen.

3.       The amount of calories you are eating is more than the amount you are using.

This is the most commonly cited reason, though it’s actually not the most common. This is also relatively easy to solve, by simply increasing your activity levels and cutting down your food intake.

A lot of professionals feel that a direct fat loss approach like the one cited above will stop burning fat in the long term, because the body’s defense mechanism will kick in and prevent you from burning fat, and will burn muscle instead.

First of all, if you are performing intense (i.e Heavy) exercise, you give the body a pretty strong stimulus to save muscle.

Secondly, we will not resort to excessive calorie depletion in the first place. We will never create a deficit of more than 20% of your calorific requirements.

Thirdly if you follow this system, these are very few reasons for the body to preserve fat (high insulin sensitivity, large muscle mass, toxin free body). The whole fat preservation over muscle thing does not really kick in. The body simply increases the glucose reserves in the muscles, and learns how to stretch them.

All right, so lets get on with it! I call this the gradual but permanent fat-loss approach.

I am not great with names.

Stage 1- Basic Detox!

Very simply, cut out all packaged foods from your diet, cut out all processed items, no simple carbs, no  sugar frosted goodies, no fried snacks and no wheat.

You will eat plenty of vegetables and fruits. All you meals will begin and end around them. You will try to eat foods as low on the food chain as possible. This means you will prefer fish over chicken, chicken over pig, pig over beef. . . you get the picture. Steaming and boiling is your preferred method of cooking.

No baked goods.

You will drink plenty- and I mean plenty, of clean water. You can have a lot of green tea as well, if you wish.

However, you WILL NOT CUT DOWN THE CALORIE INTAKE. If standard calorie charts say you need 2000 calories, you will eat 2000 calories, maybe a little more. You are not trying to deprive your body of nutrition and calories. You are simply trying to reduce the toxins in your body.

You may eat and meet your daily requirements in how many ever meals you wish- 1, 3, 10. It does not matter at this stage.

You will do this for 4 weeks.

Most people will notice significant fat loss by the end of this phase itself.

Stage 2- Complete Detox!

Now things will get a little serious. We are trying to kill 2 birds with one stone. We will both detox the body and increase insulin sensitivity. Insulin sensitivity rises when the muscles are drained of glucose, and the body experiences acute hunger.

Detoxification happens when the body goes through large amounts of catabolism.

During this phase, you will eat one multivitamin very morning, drink lots and lots of water and eat a lot of fruits and vegetables- fresh or boiled, but not eat anything else during the day. Then at around 6 or 7 p.m- before dark but not more than 4 hours before bedtime (not less than 2), you will eat one mega meal, where you will eat almost whatever you want and however you want, with the following restrictions-

1.       You will begin the meal with a large quantity of vegetables.

2.       You will then eat proteins.

3.       Only then will you eat your carbs.

4.       Stop when you feel pleasantly satiated. You will be surprised how much you will have to eat before you feel happy.

5.       No baked goods, no candies, no fried snacks, no processed sugar.

If you follow these simple roles and eat at the correct time, you will not feel the negative fat storing effects of eating a big dinner and will be able to safely overeat. At the same time your body will be hugely detoxified and you will posses much more energy (after the first 2 weeks) and you will be healthier in general.

I am not going to get into the insulin mechanics of this meal, and why there won’t be a significant sugar spike. Just trust me, and if you really want to know, drop a line with your email id in the comments box below, and I will drop you a lengthy document that I have written, as to why this may be the best way to eat.

You will do this for 4 weeks.

By the end of this phase, most people would have lost all the fat they wanted to lose in the first place. Even if you have, resist the temptation to rush back to your old way of living, and finish what you have started, by following the nest stage to its conclusion. Otherwise all your efforts will be in vain and you will lose all that you have gained (pun intended).

Stage 3- Gradual Fat-loss and Heavy Muscle Building

If you are a power lifter, bodybuilder, weightlifter or a strongman you are going to love this- the previous phase would have primed your body for crazy muscle gains and fat loss. This happens due to a complicated physiological phenomenon called the negative feedback loop.

It works like this, you know how guys who get out of a diet gain weight fast? Well, it works for muscle growth too. If your body has been starved for a long time and has gone through a lot of catabolism, when you start feeding it and exercising properly, the gains will be phenomenal. For once in your life, you will be able to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time.

If you are a guy who has been stuck at a certain level of size and strength for a long time, you will be more than compensated for whatever muscle you may have lost during the first 2 stages. In this stage, you will lose fat and gain much more muscle than you lost. It will be like the days you started training. You will break through all your old barriers and reach new levels of strength and muscle size. Again, to understand this better, drop me a line in the comment section.

For beginners, it’s a double party. Beginners in any case can build muscle and lose weight fast. When they have gone through stage 2, it will be like they are on steroids.

You can choose one of 2 diets-

1.       Continue with the stage 2 diet with 2 additions- you will have a heavy source of protein at 2 (like a protein shake) and a liquid protein meal half an hour before your workout. You will also have a lot more fruits during the day. Some people like this because it allows them to stuff themselves.

2.       Eat 3 meals a day, with 2 snacks- one brunch and an evening snack. Each meal will be the same as the main meal in stage 2, except you won’t eat anywhere near as much. The snacks will be fruits and protein. Once a week you will do a day fast like in stage 2.

In both, you must eat exactly your daily recommended intake of calories (no less, not too much more) and you must eat 1.5g of protein a day for every Kg of lean body mass you have. You can calculate all these variables by going to any one of the online Body fat Calculators. You muscle building efforts will ensure you will be losing fat despite not creating a calorie deficit.

You will follow any one of the 2 or 3 full body workouts a week exercise programs I have mentioned in this blog. Or you could use the following 2 workouts a week template-

Workout 1-

Jog/Skip 5 mins to warm up

2 sets of 5 light squats- barbell back squats with a shoulder width stance, going deep (or a part of the pistol squat progression, if you don't want to train with weights)

6 sets of 2 with a weight approximately equal to 85% of your max (or a similarly hard pistol squat variation)

3 sets of 3 of quarter squats with a weight 110% of your normal deep squat max.

1 set of 12 of full- ass to calves squats with a weight which is 75% of your max. Pause at the bottom always.

2 sets of 6 of Deadlifts with 80% of your max Deadlift. (Replace with bridges for bodyweight exercises)

3 sets of 4 of bench presses with 85% of your max bench. (Replace with push ups if using bodyweight)

2 sets until technical failure (technique is collapsing) of overhand shoulder width pull ups.

Any other exercises you may wish to add.

Workout 2-

Jog/Skip 5 mins to warm up

2 sets of 5 light deadlifts (or a part of the bridge progression).

6 sets of 2 with a weight approximately equal to 85% of your max (or a similarly hard bridging variation)

3 sets of 3 of deadlift lockouts off the blocks with a weight 110% of your normal deadlift max.

1 set of 12 of deadlifts with 75% of your max. Pause at the bottom always.

5 sets until technical failure of pull ups.

2 sets of 6 of back squats with 80% of your max. (Replace with pistol Squats for bodyweight exercises)

2 sets until technical failure (technique is collapsing) of bench presses with 80% of your max.

Any other exercises you may wish to add.

Follow this or any other full body routine you like. Train heavy and train hard. And don’t be worried about over training or cycling your workouts, as your body has been primed for this. Just be certain to not cross more than 15 heavy reps with any exercise (anything over 84% of Max) a workout, and don’t unnecessarily add too many light sets and lockouts.

Do not cross more than 3 full body workouts a week.

On all the other days you will do something- long distance running, interval sprints, swim, cycle, throw a discus, box, do skipping, whatever.

Stay in this phase for 12 weeks.

Then take a week off completely and see what you want to do next.

By this time you should have gained 15-18 pounds of muscle and lost a lot of fat- FOR GOOD!

Just be sincere to the program.