TLDR; Be Patient. Sleep more. Track what you eat and while progressively eating less. Keep lifting weights. Stay active.
If you want to figure out how to get started with your cut/weight loss journey then I highly suggest you look at the previous blog I wrote. The blog you're reading right now is kind of an extension of the one I linked.
Hello friends! I thought it would be a great idea to continue helping all of you lose weight in the best ways I know how to. Much of weight loss is actually mental than it is physical. We could make that argument when it comes to fitness in general but that's a story for another time. I'll be giving you some proven sick ass advice both based on my own experiences and my clients! If you recall from my blog, "The Comprehensive Guide on Weight Loss" I emphasized calories in vs calories out. This still applies as we are trying to induce a net caloric deficit in order to lose weight. So with that said, let's begin!
Advice 1: Do not be married to the number on the scale.
Weighing yourself on a scale is one of the best ways to objectively measure your progress don't get me wrong. However, I think many people become too obsessed with the number on the scale hence being "married" to the number which I believe is not okay.
One of the lessons I've learned in the ER is that physicians use multiple pieces of evidence to come to a diagnosis. For example, a physician doesn't just look at an EKG (electrocardiogram, the machine that prints out a 10 second strip of all the fun lines which is the rhythm of your heart) to come to the conclusion that a person has a heart attack. No, they look at your blood to see if there was any heart damage and/or to see if there were elevated levels of a specific protein which correlates to heart failure. Aside from that is the patient complaining of chest pain? If so where? How does the patient look? Are they sweaty and clammy? Does it look like they're in a lot of pain? How are their vitals? I hope you're getting to understand my point that we cannot be married to the number on the scale because that's just one piece of evidence which is not enough to firmly deduce true weight loss.
If you haven't figured it out already, weight loss is not linear and it resembles more like the stock market. There will be ups and downs but stay consistent and you'll see a gradual decline.
The best way to use the scale data is to find the weekly averages of your weight and compare them week to week. I highly recommend 5-7 days of weight tracking, take the average of it and compare. If the average number goes up from week to week then you probably need to eat less. If it goes down and falls within the range of 1-2lbs a week then you're on the right track!
Advice 2: Weekly progress pictures
Let me let you in on a secret while cutting: Don't expect the scale to change much on the first month or two. This happens often because you're working out the kinks of your diet to induce a noticeable change on the scale. Don't be scared homie! That doesn't mean your body is not recomping. How we can confirm this is taking weekly progress pictures. If you see weekly changes of your body changing such as your legs looking skinnier, your jawline becoming sharper, or your abs starting to form lines but your weight hasn't changed much does that mean you're not losing weight? No because the camera doesn't lie and is showing you otherwise. There are many reasons why the scale hasn't reflected your weight loss yet, biggest ones including fluid shifts and water retention.
It is another very powerful tool to determine whether or not you're losing weight. Now you have two pieces of evidence to confirm or deny your weight loss. From my experience when I'm deep af into my cut and feeling demoralized, I look at my progress pictures and by doing it helps me psychologically stay in the game longer.
Advice 3: Sleep 9 - 10 hours a day
With the exception of having sleep issues while raising 6 kids and working two jobs I'm pretty fucking sure, 100% without a doubt sure you can get at least one more hour of sleep in your schedule. I normally sleep for 8-9 hours on average for both health but really more for increased performance and much better recovery. Sleep is so powerful that it's been months since I've taken pre-workout before my heavy days. So much so that I can confidently say without a doubt that no amount of caffeine ingested prior to heavy lifting can give me the amount of mental acuity, focus and decreased rate of perceived exertion can top an extra hour of sleep.
Sleep is paramount for weight loss because your body is already is a hypocaloric state which means your recovery isn't all quite there and your hormones tanked quite a bit. Speaking of hormones, let's see what happens when you skimp on sleep:
Cortisol: The stress hormone. It increases when you sleep which in turn makes it harder for you to lose weight.
Leptin: The hormone which utilizes your fat cells into energy. It "regulates" your weight. Leptin becomes severely diminished when you're months deep into your cut and when you don't get sleep.
Ghrelin: Hunger hormone. This increases when your sleep is trash. Increases when you're deep in your cut.
Don't be an idiot and spend money on weight loss pills and detox teas that were peddled to you by your boyfriend's or your (because it's 2021, we have to be inclusive) favorite Insta Thots. A cheap and easy way to increase your weight loss is to sleep longer and sleep in. Besides you won't be tempted to eat while you're sleeping right? That and calories in vs calories out of course!
Advice 4: EAT YOUR FUCKING VEGETABLES
I cover this and much more in a previous blog here.
There's no question that vegetables are good for you. Tons of micronutrients and fiber to help you have bomb ass poops. BUT DID YOU KNOW THAT EATING VEGETABLES WILL KEEP YOU MUCH MORE SATIATED WHEN INCLUDED IN YOUR MEALS? Yes you you heard me right, eating vegetables will help you stay full. This is due to the high fiber and food volume in vegetables. It takes your body a long time to digest all that fiber in say broccoli or spinach. You have to eat 300 grams of broccoli to eat 100 calories worth. That's a little over 10 ounces of broccoli! 1 serving or 28 g of Limon Flaming Hot Cheetos is 160 calories which is about the palm of your hand. Typically for me I'm not that anal to input calories of the veggies I eat in MyFitness pal because it'll end up being some super small amount anyways.
I attest to this 100% because this was the secret behind my most recent and most successful cut. And when I mean successful I mean the easiest and quickest shed of 16 pounds I've ever done. Towards the end of my cut, I was eating 6 ounces of rice and 10-12 ounces of vegetables. Don't do it for me, do it for your shredz and helf.
Pro tip: As you start reducing the amount of carbs you eat in your meals, add in more veggies!
Pro pro tip: You should always be eating vegetables but if you're not, start eating a minimum 4 oz a day. Any type counts except potatoes and tofu.
Pro-er tip: If you have an air fryer you can make some bomb ass roasted veggies like brussels sprouts or broccolini! There are so many ways to make plants taste good.
Advice 5: Be wary of the fruits you eat while cutting.
Look, you know I'm all for prioritizing micronutrient dense food aka "healthy" foods aka plants but unfortunately not all fruits are made calorically equal. Some fruits have a ton more carbs and fat than others. It's not that you can't eat them, it's just that as you get deeper and deeper into your cut, you'll want to start looking for higher volume foods to delude yourself that you're still eating a lot when in actuality you're still starving.
For example avocados are no doubt good for you. 1 cup of avocados is 233 calories with 21 grams of fat but 9.8 grams of fiber! Unless you're eating mainly chicken breast and need to get your fats in then sure it would be a good pick.
If you're like me and love eating fresh coconut I hate to tell you but 2.8 ounces of coconut meat is 283 calories. About 27 grams of fat, and 7 grams of fiber sigh...Coconut water is mainly carbs and electrolytes so you could get away with that.
Generally any kind of berries like blueberries, strawberries and blackberries are awesome choices. Roughly 6 ounces of strawberries is 53 calories and 3 grams of fiber. 5 ounces of blueberries is about 84 calories and 3.5 grams of fiber.
Pro tip: Eating a ton of blueberries will make your poop greenish blue. High key low key thought I was having gallbladder issues when I first saw this happen. So long as you don't have abdominal pain with your different colored poop I think you'll be ok.
Advice 6: Meal Prep
No it doesn't have to be all fancy shmancy with all those little containers you put into your meal prep bag with all the fun compartments. There are so many benefits when it comes to meal prepping with which I'll list down below:
1. You save a ton of time meal prepping.
It takes me 1 - 2 hours to make food for both my girlfriend and I to eat for at least 3 days. Cooking in of itself takes about 1 - 2 hours. So imagine cooking every day. That's 7 - 14 hours a week! Sometimes when I'm feeling lazy I'll just by rotisserie chicken from Costco, steam some vegetables and cook the rice. For dipping sauce I use siracha and/or teriyaki sauce. Less than an hour of work for at least 3 days of food!
2. You save quite a bit of money.
It's hard enough to try to track food from take out. Restaurants don't care about your macros, they care about making the food taste great so you come back and buy more. Where I live in Los Angeles, take out ranges from $9 to $15. Multiply that by 3 (breakfast, lunch and dinner,) and you're spending about $27 to $45 dollars a day! That's $189 to $315 a week! If you're buying mainly organic, free range, wild caught, sustainably sourced food at Whole Paycheck I mean Whole Foods then you'll be spending maybe close to $100 a week on groceries. I personally spend about $30 to $35 on groceries a week which feeds both my girlfriend and I. I don't shop at Whole Paycheck and occasionally would go to Trader Joe's which is decently priced because even if they use hormones on the chicken or beef I eat there hasn't been any longitudinal evidence suggesting harm to humans. People worry about the ChEmIcAlS they inject in our meat products but don't seem to bat an eye when it comes to smoking or drinking. Fuck me right?
3. Grocery stores sell marinated meat and/or dishes. All you have to do is follow directions.
Want to feel like you've actually did some cooking? Well now you can because I've just made you aware that your local and commercial grocery stores sell already marinated meat! Get some of that, make some rice and steam some vegetables. Voila. Still cheaper than eating out!
4. Costco is your best friend.
Competitive ground turkey prices. Rotisserie chicken! Their seasoned tri-tip is actually pretty good! At my Costco, they sell this Indian Chicken Tiki Marsala where all you need to do is microwave it, make rice and veggies and there you go! Look closer in the meat, stews and soup section. There's plenty of choices to pick and choose something to eat for a few days. I'm teaching you the secrets on how to be a lazy fuck when it comes to meal prepping.
Pro tip:
Find foods that you can eat for days, weeks and even months. It'll make your meal prepping much easier. For example, I pretty much have the same breakfast when I'm at work which is nonfat Greek yogurt with soymilk, protein pancake (from Costco btw), with Nutella. 3 years and counting because I'm not bored of it yet.
Pro-er tip:
I know some people have a hard time eating the same thing over and over for a few days. If you're one of those people, you're probably better off buying meals from those meal prep companies. If not, see if you can eat 3 days worth of meal prep. Then when you get bored, onto the next recipe. Rinse and repeat.
Advice: 7: Stay Active
Do not stop moving. In fact, become more intentional with being more physically active outside the gym. The deeper you get into your cut the more fatigue you'll feel. Don't give in. Keep your NEAT (Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) up by all costs. Let me give you some ideas:
Start walking 5,000 steps a day minimum. Then slowly work your way up to walking 10,000 steps a day. This is a great way to finally walk your dog like you're supposed to while spending time with your loved one(s).
Hand wash your car at least once a week.
Park your car further away from the store when running errands.
Take the stairs instead of the elevator.
If you're not doing weekly water changes on your aquarium like you're supposed to it's time to make it a thing. Also prune as well!
Clean your living space(s) once a week. Spend at least an hour.
If you have kids go spend time with them like going to the park.
Garden and/or start gardening. If not, clean your yard, backyard whatever!
Get into home improvement and start doing home improvement tings if you can.
Facetiming or on a phone call with someone? Walk around the house while talking to them!
Sing and dance while meal prepping and doing chores! By far my favorite way to get my NEAT up.
Advice 8: Be fucking patient
Trust me when I say this to those who are beginning their journey: It's going to take a lot longer than you expect. Tracking macros is a skill and there's a learning curve. You'll make a ton of mistakes initially like trying to figure out whether or not you should weigh your food before or after it's cooked (which by the way doesn't really matter as long it's weighed out). It'll also take time to figure out how to be within range of the macros and calories you've set for yourself. Hell it took me personally at least 3 months when I was first starting out how to hit my macros. Fortunately I started losing weight while trying to hit it which tends to happen to most people.
If it's your first time trying to lose weight via tracking calories then give yourself twice the amount of time to get to your desired goals. For example, if you're trying to lose 10 pounds in 3 months, double that time to 6 months. That way you have time to make mistakes, you won't feel as pressured while having leeway to adjust along the way.
By the way, the weight you lose from being on keto is mainly water because if you did it right and reached ketosis you have very little carbs in your body which help retain water. So the real weight loss of keto doesn't start until you stay at least a month consistent in ketosis. And if you tell me you're doing some type of modified keto where you're still eating some carbs then congratulations, you're no longer in actual ketosis and instead become a crayon eating homunculus.
You may think you need to bring your food scale with you including when you go out to eat with your friends and family but I'm here to tell you that you don't. One meal isn't going to destroy your diet just like how hitting your macros for one day won't instantly make you shredded. I'm assuming those of you reading aren't prepping for a bodybuilding show to which I will say yeah you probably need that type of dedication. Otherwise, don't be a weirdo and enjoy that meal with your family, preferring that you don't bring the scale please.
There's a high chance that your weight may not move down as much for the first 2 months. In fact, you yourself may not see any actual body changes either yet. Again, weekly progress pictures will help you stay consistent and disciplined. Real weight loss is slow and steady guys.
Last but not least, having someone keeping you accountable aka hiring a coach aka me (lol jk, but really) will really help speed up the process.
So with that said, thank you all for reading this blog. I hope you've all learned a thing or eight and before I go I just want to casually remind you all that as I'm writing this blog to follow my Instagram and check out my weight loss journey. I'll be posting weekly progress pictures of both my physique and weight, giving you all insight as to how it's going!
And if you're reading this some months later when I'm done with my cut you should still follow me on Instagram for more informative content and tank porn because let's face it, who doesn't like tank porn?
Sincerely,
Joseph L.
Be sure to check out my other blogs with regards to either seeing life a bit more profound or understanding the nuances of fitness deeper. If you loved this article, please support me by sharing it with your friends, liking it and/or dropping a comment!
When you're ready to take your fitness and mental state to the next level, feel free to check out what I have to offer by clicking on this. Spots are limited and the prices will eventually increase as I have more clients so make haste! It would truly be a honor to help you transcend into a stronger version of yourself.
Comments