We are back with our last piece on “Three essential principles of weight loss.” Yes…we changed the title above. Same great flavor, just in a different packaging.
Check out part one here – you must do more then you did last time.
Check out part two here – you must be in a caloric deficit.
And finally part 3 below!
You must allow your body to adapt and rest – “Rest and respond.” – principle of specific adaptations to imposed demands.
This one goes with the calorie one as generally. We see people doing TOO much for weight loss.
The goal is to coax your body into losing weight and optimally adapting, not force it too. That’s called prison.
And no one wants to feel like they’re in prison.
People assume weight loss is healthy. And since weight loss is healthy, that must mean that whatever I do to lose weight MUST therefore BE healthy.
Listen – weight loss isn’t healthy. The end results of losing weight is healthy, but the act of losing weight is not. Your forcing your body to destroy parts and pieces of itself, in no way is that healthy.
Pick one – either pursue health or pursue weight loss. You CAN do both, but, generally we find that people who are focused on weight loss could give two shits less if they are healthy or not.
Which I can understand, because being healthy means having your weight under control. However, the person that chases two chickens never catches one.
If you’re trying to decrease your mile time, or run a half marathon, or increase your bench – now is not the time for weight loss.
It may happen. But, if I do something, assuming that I will get one result, and I get a different result…it generally doesn’t make me too happy if the result I got was LESS then what I had hoped for.
Weight loss is all about managing stress, physical, emotional and mental. Managing stress means sometimes you need to take some rest days. But, what we see in the “die hard” weight loss people is NO rest days.
Managing stress DOES NOT mean to add more stress. If you’re unhappy with work, exercise MAY make you feel better in the short term, but ultimately it’s adding more stress into your equation.
Take some time off.
Here are some general points to ponder with taking time off:
If you are working out hard for 3 weeks, take one week off and stay away from the gym.
If you are working out hard for 3 months and you haven’t take any time away from the gym – you are either not working out hard enough (see rule one above) or you’re training for something specific (and it better not be weight loss).
If you haven’t improve by 5% in a third of your work outs in two weeks, then you need to take a week off, or suck it up buttercup because you’re not working hard enough.
If your body aches when you wake up, or during/after a work out – take a week off.
Weight loss happens outside of the gym.
You introduce a “new” stress to your body, in a state of caloric deficit and your body will respond by losing weight, gaining weight or getting stronger.
There is not a single person that is responsible for your results – but you. A personal trainer or gym simply provides guidance, accountability and plan. It’s up to you to follow the plan, show up for the accountability (with honesty) and follow the plan.
Allowing your body to respond to that “new” stress is the only way that you will see change in your body. And that means – rest.
How do you fix it?
This is the last point out of the three, because, with all things being equal, generally people mess up with the first two points. The third point is saved for my over achievers.
If some is good, then more must be better.
Or –
I want to chase two chickens at once and I expect to eat both of them for dinner tonight.
These people need to focus on one thing – either weight loss or something else.
Often times, we find that these people have a hard time in sticking to something, generally it’s diet. Sometimes it’s an exercise routine, but usually it’s diet. They also tend to program hop and always think the best plan is the one they are not doing.
They have a hard time sticking to the diet piece because they are HUNGRY! The more you work out, the more calories you need to consume to recover. And, if you don’t recover, you don’t lose weight. Sure…you might lose lean body mass, but not fat.
If you find yourself in this camp there are two things that I recommend:
- Take 3 months and focus on one thing. After those three months, focus on something else.
- See rule 2 above and follow the steps of a few weeks off, followed by 10% calorie deficit and/or one day of work out.
One final thought…
Why?
WEIGHT LOSS IS MAGIC! I can say eat 1,800 calories per day and work out 4 days per week and BOOM! You drop 20 pounds, but I don’t know WHY…or more specifically HOW. I guess it’s more the how, then the why.
It’s not as simple as what you ate and how you moved. It’s way more complex than that. Because if that were the case then we could fit people into buckets based on some simple measurements (age, weight, body fat percent, activity level, etc.) and EVERYONE that met the same criteria would eat and work out the same.
But, that’s not how it works.
I know if I put $100 into a savings account every week then in 6 years I will have X amount of money. It’s simple compound interest. I can do math on that.
I can’t do math on weight loss very well because your body changes on a daily basis. Get some more sleep? Then you burn more calories. Less sleep = less calories. Drink a lot of water = more calories burned, drink less water than you did the day before = less calories burned.
I can say you lost the weight because you followed X,Y and Z, but I don’t really know HOW the weight came off.
And really…it’s not important. I don’t know how a light comes on, other than when I flick the switch. I don’t care. I just care that there is light for me to see.
Don’t worry about trying to figure it out because you never will. Just follow the principles.
Let us help you clear this confusion up! Come to our “Troubleshooting your results” seminar. Click the link for more info.
“Troubleshooting your results.”
