Target fat loss

Above is an example of a spreadsheet I’ve used for myself and my clients to create a customized meal plan. As you can see the above macro split is roughly 50%/30%/20% . That’s 50% of total daily calories, which is 1721 in this example, consists of Protein. 30% consists of carbs and 20% is fats. There are also 2 high carbs days in this meal plan. These high carb days are CONTROLLED and extends the “life” of your metabolic rate by preventing it from slowing down as quickly as it would without these days. The body is forever adapting and ensuring its own survival. So if you reduce your calories to 1000 a day, your metabolism will eventually slow down and adapt to functioning on the 1000 calories. If not, you will continue to lose weigh forever and ever and wither away into oblivion, and we don’t want that. So, the body metabolism is constantly adapting to what its being fed, which is why most diets fail, they don’t adapt with the body. Now you may want to start off at a higher caloric intake depending on your metabolic rate. They’re multiple sites and formulas to calculate this number. So lets say you are doing weigh ins every Monday morning and you are losing roughly 2lbs a week on this plan while doing 3 days of cardio for 30 minutes (read cardio post for types of cardio). On the 5th week, the scale doesn’t move and you believe you’ve plateau. [Now to be sure you’ve actually hit a sticking point because the scale doesn’t always tell the whole story, you can wait another week to weigh yourself or perform visual checks w/ pictures or measurements. ] So when you eventually hit a sticking point, because it will happen, you would then reduce your total calories to lets say 1500 a day and increase cardio to 4 days a week 40 minute sessions. And so on and so forth. I may have anywhere from 3-5 of these meal plan for a client, each one containing fewer calories than the previous one. Now you can only reduce your calories so much before it gets to an unhealthy level. When you start to approach this, just steadily increase your cardio as you see fit. After you’ve blasted away your body fat and reached your ideal body, I wouldn’t recommend you start back eating how you were before. Nor would I recommend your calories stay super low to maintain your figure. What I would recommend is that you “reverse diet” to build your metabolism and allow you to consume more calories without gaining an additional weight. I’ll provide a post on reverse dieting in detail to further explain.

I get asked all the time about how to get lose weight, get a six pack, lean out, etc. These are the same questions I had for years! No matter how often I hit the gym or did cardio, I was never able to attain the physique of the guys on the cover of magazines or in the movies. Until one day while scrolling on facebook, I saw a guy I kinda-sorta knew back in college post pictures from a “bodybuilding” competition he was in and he was SHREDDED! Not super bulky like Ronnie Coleman or any of those HUGE guys you see on tv, but a sleak, magazine cover shredded. So I decided to send him a message to ask how’d he do it. He then proceeded to tell me he hired a coach. Now this wasn’t just any coach, it was a guy who competed back in the day and now he coached  folks to do the same. So I got his information from my kinda-sorta friend and reached out. After an agreed upon date, I drove an hour to go meet up with him at his office. After waiting about 40 minutes at his office I figured he forgot about the meeting and I left. It appears that I WAS STOOD UP! First time ever actually. Not a good feeling.

               So a few weeks pass by and I’m at a bar with some friends. The bartenders are wearing pretty reveling outfits (for tips I’m sure) so needless to say, there’s a lot of skin showing. I noticed this one bartender that was STACKED! She looked as if she belonged on the cover of health and fitness. You can tell this girl worked out! So I proceed to compliment her and ask the typical meathead questions such as “what gym do you go to? smh. So as we’re talking, I tell her about how I actually reached out to a fitness coach about a show (Not a personal trainer) but was stood up. She then proceeds to tell me about HER coach and how great he is and I should reach out to him. So of course, I take her up on that!

               So I give this guy a call, lets call him Brian, and tell him how I’m interested in doing a fitness competition. He asks me a few questions such as height, weight, how often I work out and that’s about it. The next day, he lets me know how much It’ll cost for a 3 month Meal Plan. I Venmo him the amount required and over the next few months, my body had a complete transformation. Not to mention I gained more knowledge on nutrition and how the body reponds than most will in their lifetime! I went on to lose 30 lbs over the next 3 months! Most of it was fat mind you. I couldn’t believe it! I had a 6 pack, pecs, triceps, I was SHREDDED!

 I soon came to find out that “bodybuilders” and people that participate in fitness competitions are some of the most knowledgeable people when it comes to nutrition and body composition and WEIGHT LOSS. Now I know this sounds quite obvious, but most people still try fad diets to try and lose weight such as Akins, weight watchers, keto, paleo, you name it! As opposed to trying a traditional “bodybuilder” meal plan. Now I am not saying you can’t lose weight on these diets, you can. But many people don’t and they are plenty of factors as to why that is (we can discuss that later). Now, I know some of you are oblivious as to what these “fitness coaches” actually do. Well, let me tell you! It’s simple really, they create a meal plan specific for you! Ensuring you are consuming the correct portions of macros (protein, carbs, fats). All you have to do is eat what they tell you, hit the gym and check in weekly, THAT’S IT! Your coach will adjust your plan as necessary to ensure you continue to lose body fat because you will plateau eventually. That’s why constant monitoring is necessary.   After going through my first prep and doing my first show and meeting dozens of bodybuilders, I realized that everyone was pretty much on a similar regiment! I couldn’t believe it! I remember being backstage with dozens of competitors looking as if they all belonged in a magazine thinking to myself “why would anyone do weight watchers when they can just hire a fitness coach?” Now when I say fitness coach, I mean someone who has experience prepping clients for “bodybuilding” competitions. Now I know plenty people wouldn’t even think of reaching out to a bodybuilder to help them lose weight, but they should!! It’s a proven system that’s been around for decades!!! People have been leaning out and losing fat at will using this method! “But I don’t want to be a “bodybuilder” or compete.” That’s perfectly fine, you don’t have to.  The typical bodybuilder meal plan is designed to burn body fat as efficiently as possible. Now if you don’t want to have 5% bodyfat, you can stop dieting any time before then, it’s that simple.