What the diet industry won’t tell you – Don’t lose weight, lose size!
I don’t know how many times a year I give this advice out to people who say they want to lose weight. If want to get fitter, healthier and change your body shape, you would do better to follow this process than be on a diet or just go to the gym.
Don’t focus on losing weight, focus on losing size.
Forget the six-month transformation.
Think in terms of two years.
Build new habits that last.
I always advise that you start from the outside and work in.
Forearms and calves are good starting points because you can often see progress relatively quickly. There is very little fat on these parts of the body, so after a small amount of time they will tone up. Give it two months and you will see a difference. This motivates you to want to do more. During this time you have started losing fat in other areas, not really enough to notice but is happening.
Then work towards biceps, triceps and quadriceps. After the first couple of months training, these won’t take too long to start toning up, depending on your starting point you will see changes after 3 to 6 months.
By now you are starting to build confidence, still fat around the middle but you can see changes. Don’t rush the process, the temptation is to up the weights as your muscles grow, but your tendons and ligaments take longer to build. Rush the process and you will tear things. Don’t believe me, ask any gym bunny, if they have not done it they know someone who has.
You don’t want to just focus on building muscle, develop tendon strength too. Isometric exercises, alongside controlled resistance training, help build strength and stability. Real strength is about more than how big your muscles look.
In this first stage we have built strong legs, ideally we have over built them. They are involved in almost everything you do, and stronger legs make everyday activities easier, but importantly the bigger they are the more energy we burn off doing ordinary everyday things.
At the same time we should be looking at the food we eat, you need to dump the processed foods, the crisps, the fizzy drinks, the sweets and the alcohol. You don’t try to stop everything overnight, that is asking for failure.
The food industry has hooked you on synthetic flavours, sugars, salt and chemical additives. Like a junky on drugs, if you just stop, the cravings WILL come back. Instead reduce the sugary drinks, crisps, sweets, alcohol and highly processed foods gradually.
If you have four bags of crisps a week, now aim to eat 3, and then two, same with drinks. You will never get to 1, by the time you get down to two a week you will just stop, that’s what happened in my family.
Think less about deprivation and more about changing habits.
A simple trick I tell students is, don’t keep convenience foods at home. If you fancy something, walk to the shop and buy it. You’ll be surprised how often you decide you can’t be bothered.
Now the arms and legs look more toned we need to focus on the shoulders, chest and the glutes or better known as your bum. At this point I would focus more on core exercises as well. By the time you are doing these you will start noting the tummy taking a better shape, still looking fat but definitely changing.
While you are focusing on these areas also focus on the spines mobility.
After another six to nine months it is time to fully focus on your core, by now you have been doing this for 18 to 20 months, but finally you can see the change you wanted, and more importantly the habits you have built are not chores any more.
Most importantly, enjoy the journey, lose the scales, tape measures are better.
It is better to track your progress through fitness, strength, measurements and how your clothes fit.
Scales are for those who believe what a multi billion dollar industry tell you. Tape measures are for the real heroes.
Two years of good habits beats six months of punishment.
Have fun!
