Many people focus on weight loss, but they fail to have a strategy for long term weight loss, which is why most will gain back the weight, only to re start the cycle. The entire diet industry counts on your failures to make their profits…In this vid, I cover the essential issues of Permanent Weight Loss with a full article to cover all the additional info on the topic you will need to stop the yo yo cycle!
Article to read after viewing this vid: The Big Picture Of Permanent Weight Loss
The end result….
Welcome to Part 2 of the journey to getting lean and mean!
As the second and third weeks progress and I as I cut calories, I would note some dips in strength for some lifts but not for all. I could usually attribute a bad day to poor sleep, straying from my usual workout time, or another calorie adjustment. The fact that I wasn’t seeing dramatic losses in strength was a really good sign that I wasn’t losing much in the way of LBM. Still, I really, really missed picking up heavy weights, so made a pact that we were just on a “time out.” I’d be back for more heavy metal in no time! Some people might be able to continue with heavy (i.e., 85% of their 1 RM) while cutting but not me. It just felt far too taxing. Cutting made me realize how very much I am in tune with my body, how making minor adjustments always translate into something else, and it reassured me that my instincts would really help me proceed through this journey. Everyone is different, and what works for me might not work for everyone.
So you want to look like a fitness model? What does it take to get from the right picture to the left one?
I’ve always wondered just how it is those fitness models and figure competitors get so darn lean for photos and competitions.
I recognize there’s a lot of photo editing that does go on to get models looking so perfect for covers (see here: but for those gals that do decide to compete in a teensy weensy bikini, there’s not much “editing” they can do, other than to look their best, after all that diet, preparation, training, posing, tanning, etc etc.
In preparation for an upcoming photo shoot, I put myself through a temporary “cut” to drop some body fat and look leaner for the pics (more shredded, ripped, etc).
It’s always surprising to me the number of people who train hard to lose weight, or gain muscle, etc, but don’t test their body fat, or know what their body fat is. Below is a list of reliable gadgets for testing your body fat. This vid covers that important topic. If you don’t test your body fat, you really have no idea what is working and what is not in your plan if attempting to lose fat and or gain muscle mass!
Inexpensive accurate body fat testers:
Outside the programs that are designed to obtain a specific goal, such as increases in 1RM strength, or an increase in muscle mass, etc, conditioning workouts can also be an integral part of a well designed program. In my earlier days, like most western trainers, I generally ignored General Physical Preparedness (GPP)/ general conditioning when focusing specifically on an increase in strength and LBM. The more western approach to increasing strength, muscle mass, or what ever the specific goal, is to simply focus on the training that follows the goal, and generally ignore everything else. For example, if you want to be good at the powerlifts, just practice the powerlifts and so on.
LEPTI-WHA??
It’s name is Leptin (derived from the Greek word leptos, meaning “thin”), and it’s without a doubt the most important hormone you probably never heard of.
You see, leptin was only first discovered just over 10 years ago, and as far as weight loss is concerned, that’s extremely recent.
Leptin’s function? To communicate your nutritional status to your body and brain.
Leptin levels are mediated by two things. One is your level of body fat. All else being equal, people with higher levels of body fat will have higher leptin levels than those with lower levels of body fat and vice versa.
“What goes up, must come down.” When ‘70’s music sensation Billy Preston immortalized those words in his catchy tune, he must have been thinking about some of the professional bodybuilders gracing the posing dais these days. In case you haven’t noticed, it’s in vogue again to “bulk up” or should I say, “pork out” in the so-called off-season. This was a common practice from the 1950’s through the 1970’s, but I thought that common sense had prevailed during the bodybuilding renaissance of the 1980’s and that bulking up was as passé as bell-bottom jeans. I was wrong! These days, you’d think that reverse anorexia and dysmorphia were spreading like SARS in the pro bodybuilding community. I mean, in the off season, some of these guys look like they are pitching their tents at the local all-you-can-eat buffet!
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