Body fat loss

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Leigh

Engineer
Pro Fighter
Jan 26, 2015
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I'm going to explain how I drop body fat. This is different to how I cut weight (but not THAT different) - vermonter @vermonter has helped me a lot with weight cutting but that's his profession, so I'm not going to post up his stuff. In any case, weight cutting isn't relevant to most people.

The main principles I'm going to explain are calorie restriction and insulin control. In very basic terms, calories in vs calories out can be used to control body weight but insulin management is hugely important in controlling hunger (calories in), metabolism (calories out) and where burned calories come from.

If you burn more calories than you consume, you lose weight. That is very simple. However, a 6 mile run will burn around 700 calories (depending on body weight) so relying on exercise alone to burn calories is going to be a slog. You also want to preserve muscle, so just cutting calories is not enough. You also want to keep your metabolism working - starving will drop your BMR (basal metabolic rate, the number of calories you burn with every day bodily functions).

Let me talk about insulin very briefly. It is the most anabolic hormone in the body, more so than testosterone, and is released in the pancreas whenever you eat carbohydrates and, to a lesser extent, protein, with high glycemic carbs having a bigger response. Insulin forces nutrients into body tissue. This is good for building muscle but for fat loss, it's horrendous. Insulin also causes you to store glucose as glycogen, lowering blood sugar levels. This has a disastrous effect on fat loss as it makes you crave more sugar. So eat something sugary, get an insulin spike and the cycle repeats. [Paragraph edited in line with Splinty @Splinty's post]

The most effective method I have found to utilise these principles is the Protein Sparing Modified Fast (PSMF). Eat high levels of protein (usual number given is around 1g protein per lb of lean bodyweight per day) and basically nothing else. Lifting weights will also be a big help in preserving muscle. I do this for my weight cuts but it's not sustainable and therefore not practical for long term weight loss - when you go back to regular eating, you will put the weight back on again. It's also not very nutrient dense, with little essential fatty acids (EFAs), vitamins, minerals etc. However, we will use it as a basic template.

So the ideal (but unsustainable) fat loss diet would be something like a 50g protein shake for breakfast and 400g of chicken breast per day with as much green veg as you like. You would try to use Intermittent Fasting (IF), where you eat your daily calories within a small window of time so that your insulin levels are not elevated all day. Something like a shake at 9am, lunch at 1pm and dinner at 5pm. Even better if you can drop the shake and have your protein in 2 meals instead. We're eating high protein to preserve muscle mass, low calories at well under 1,000 and low insulin with no sugary carbs.

However, to make your fat loss more tolerable, I would instead suggest using this as an extreme example and simply making minor modifications to your diet that trend towards the PSMF. It's much easier to sustain your normal lifestyle with small changes than to make a huge jump. So start by dropping the garbage. You know what junk food is: crisps, chocolates, cakes, alcohol, soft drinks etc. The next step is to drop bread, pasta, dairy and fruit juice. These are also horrendous for fat loss (actually, cheese isn't too bad at all). Fruit is quite high in sugar but the pulp slows absorption. However, the juice alone is basically a soft drink. Rice and potatoes should also be controlled or eliminated.

These foods are so ingrained into people's diets that they often tell me that they don't know what else to eat. In reality, we have only removed processed foods, which are high glycemic. You can still eat meat, eggs, nuts, fruits, vegetables, berries etc. During a weight cut, I'd remove fish and nuts due to the fat and fruit due to the sugar but they are great for everyday healthy eating. A typical daily diet might be:

Breakfast: 2-3 eggs and a couple of apples
Lunch: chicken, steamed mixed veg and a sweet potato
Dinner: salmon and veg

I can lose 1lb per day eating over a pound of home made burgers. I enjoy steaks and roast pork. I get my carbs from fruit and veg. I snack on nuts and fruit.

Make the adjustments gradually and when you get results, maintain the changes. If you want more extreme results, make more extreme dietary changes but switching into ketosis (fat burning) can be rough; it's much easier after a week or so once your body has made the adaption. Until you switch into ketosis, you do crave junk. Be strong.

If you want to use exercise to help, you will burn the most calories using steady state cardio. Try to do your cardio before breakfast, when your insulin levels are low and you are not in fat storage mode. I draw a small spreadsheet for my fat loss programs and aim to lose around 0.5lbs or 0.2kg every day. I find this sustainable but you may want to go up or down on that number. If you lose any more than that, it's probably water.

Let's run through a quick example. A 300lb man eats bacon sandwiches for breakfast, burger and fries for lunch, pizza for dinner, snacks on crisps and biscuits and has a few beers with his friends in the evening. Does he need to switch to broccoli and chicken and run 6 miles before breakfast? No, he can probably drop 0.5lb a day by swapping his breakfast for bacon and eggs. When he stops dropping weight, he can swap the crisps for fruit. He can keep making incremental changes until he reaches his goal.

So in summary, draw up a plan/schedule to lose weight gradually, cut out crap, cut out sugar and starches and keep protein high. If you exercise, do it before breakfast.

As always, feel free to ask questions.
 
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otaku1

TMMAC Addict
Jul 16, 2015
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Again very interesting.
I'll have to discipline myself with chocolate and cakes alas... :(


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Wild

Zi Nazi
Admin
Dec 31, 2014
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This is awesome Leigh @Leigh. I've gotten into eating a real shitty diet, and not exercising for a WHILE now...picked up about 30 pounds (especially after starting this site, and I'm sitting on my ass 10 hrs a day doing this). So your plan above is a huge help for me. I really appreciate you taking the time to share. Now...finding the will power to do it, is a totally different story but I am going to try. I'm 6'-1" 238 lbs right now, and I would love to be below 205 by Christmas time. I know I can do it...I just have to find it within myself to do it and stick to it. Any motivation support you all can give me along the way, would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again.
 

Leigh

Engineer
Pro Fighter
Jan 26, 2015
10,925
21,293
This is awesome Leigh @Leigh. I've gotten into eating a real shitty diet, and not exercising for a WHILE now...picked up about 30 pounds (especially after starting this site, and I'm sitting on my ass 10 hrs a day doing this). So your plan above is a huge help for me. I really appreciate you taking the time to share. Now...finding the will power to do it, is a totally different story but I am going to try. I'm 6'-1" 238 lbs right now, and I would love to be below 205 by Christmas time. I know I can do it...I just have to find it within myself to do it and stick to it. Any motivation support you all can give me along the way, would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again.
One thing that most people don't do is write a plan/schedule. Open up Excel and list out each day and the corresponding morning weight. I also include evening weights sometimes. Then hit those targets.

33lbs in 5 months is most definitely achievable.
 

Leigh

Engineer
Pro Fighter
Jan 26, 2015
10,925
21,293
When my prep is done i will come back here with some pictures and explain how i did it. LONG DICK STYLE!
Is this bodybuilding prep? I haven't done it but I imagine it is similar to a weight cut, with some carb loading at the end.

As a complete guess, I would say PSMF and fasted cardio to get body fat levels super low, then carb up for 24-48 hours. If you carb too much, a water cut to remove any water retention (I think pros use diuretics).

Is that close?
 

Pitbull9

Daddy
Jan 28, 2015
9,832
14,130
Is this bodybuilding prep? I haven't done it but I imagine it is similar to a weight cut, with some carb loading at the end.

As a complete guess, I would say PSMF and fasted cardio to get body fat levels super low, then carb up for 24-48 hours. If you carb too much, a water cut to remove any water retention (I think pros use diuretics).

Is that close?
Pretty much spot on. Right now my carbs are pretty damn low during the week, and on the weekend i will bring them up a bit with one cheat meal. I started this prep like 6 weeks ago and plan on making this a really long prep so that, i can do it slowly and properly and not have to suffer as much as i would if something was coming up soon and i had to kill myself for like 16 weeks or something to get in shape. I want to play around with things to see what works best and see how i look at the end and the end has no timeframe, it will be when my legs are totally in, and when my glutes are somewhat shredded. So far my BF has come down quite a bit but my BW has stayed around 185 so that i am very happy with. I am POUNDING food more now then before lol but with carbs low, more or less centered around my workouts, and fats low but still in there (good fats). I am not using anything at all besides my usual 100mgs a week of TRT. No other gear and def no diuretics. Its A LOT tougher that way but i dont care. I am not a HUGE guy by any means but my proportions are good, small waist (real small when dieting down) pretty wide shoulders, and good musculature which makes me look a lot bigger in poses.
 

Leigh

Engineer
Pro Fighter
Jan 26, 2015
10,925
21,293
Pretty much spot on. Right now my carbs are pretty damn low during the week, and on the weekend i will bring them up a bit with one cheat meal. I started this prep like 6 weeks ago and plan on making this a really long prep so that, i can do it slowly and properly and not have to suffer as much as i would if something was coming up soon and i had to kill myself for like 16 weeks or something to get in shape. I want to play around with things to see what works best and see how i look at the end and the end has no timeframe, it will be when my legs are totally in, and when my glutes are somewhat shredded. So far my BF has come down quite a bit but my BW has stayed around 185 so that i am very happy with. I am POUNDING food more now then before lol but with carbs low, more or less centered around my workouts, and fats low but still in there (good fats). I am not using anything at all besides my usual 100mgs a week of TRT. No other gear and def no diuretics. Its A LOT tougher that way but i dont care. I am not a HUGE guy by any means but my proportions are good, small waist (real small when dieting down) pretty wide shoulders, and good musculature which makes me look a lot bigger in poses.
Good stuff, that sounds very much like how I would do it. You handling it ok? You must be fully into ketosis
 

Pitbull9

Daddy
Jan 28, 2015
9,832
14,130
Good stuff, that sounds very much like how I would do it. You handling it ok? You must be fully into ketosis
I am good for now because that cheat meal once a week really helps, but the other day doing legs bro i felt it like never before it was rough, and yesterday i was doing chest and only did 120lb incline dumbells for 4 reps and i usually do about 8-10 easy. I very well could be but im not keeping my fats that high as you usually would if you were going full keto. My carbs right now are about 100g a day but soon they will be around 60 per day and at that point i most likely will be.
 

Leigh

Engineer
Pro Fighter
Jan 26, 2015
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Yeah I struggle in my last few days before a comp. Even though my cardio is at it's peak, I can't run more than 3 miles (I'm good for at least 10 miles at any stage of my training). I don't get tired, I simply run out of energy and my body won't respond to what I think it can/should do.

I deal with it by switching exercises to something more manageable.
 

Darqnezz

Merkin' fools since pre-school
Apr 25, 2015
4,653
7,214
I've done this before and I just started again on Monday. Going through caffeine withdraws right now. Anyway, the hardest part for me was cooking. How about starting a thread about meal preps?
 

Leigh

Engineer
Pro Fighter
Jan 26, 2015
10,925
21,293
I've done this before and I just started again on Monday. Going through caffeine withdraws right now. Anyway, the hardest part for me was cooking. How about starting a thread about meal preps?
I'm not a very exciting cook. I can give some meal plans if you want but they will vary, depending at what stage you're at.
 

teamquestnorth

Lindland never cheated
Jan 27, 2015
15,422
28,258
Leigh @Leigh

How much do you weigh now and what's your bf%

Are you doing competitive bodybuilding?

I just watched your fight against Sudo the other day and you seemed in pretty damn good shape. Granted that was awhile ago.
 

Leigh

Engineer
Pro Fighter
Jan 26, 2015
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I'm not a bodybuilder, no. I'm about 150-155 and at a guess I would say my bf is around 7%. Full disclosure - I don't get fat and can eat pizza and ice cream and still have a six pack. But I do coach fighters and get them lean and in shape.
 

teamquestnorth

Lindland never cheated
Jan 27, 2015
15,422
28,258
I'm not a bodybuilder, no. I'm about 150-155 and at a guess I would say my bf is around 7%. Full disclosure - I don't get fat and can eat pizza and ice cream and still have a six pack. But I do coach fighters and get them lean and in shape.
Well lucky you lol. I've noticed my metabolism come to a screeching halt once I hit 30. I was 6'1 around 175-180 from high school until around 28. I'm 33 now and 215 lbs.

Admittedly I don't eat the best though. Going to have to start incorporating cardio into my workouts.

Eating better, doing 30 minutes of cardio 3-4 times a week and bringing my rest time to 60 seconds between sets is my plan.

I'd love to hover around 200 and 10% bf
 

Leigh

Engineer
Pro Fighter
Jan 26, 2015
10,925
21,293
I'll be 40 in January.

You can drop 15lbs for sure, following my post. It doesn't even have to be that hard. Just stop eating crap. You can still eat steaks and home made burgers etc.
 

Splinty

Shake 'em off
Admin
Dec 31, 2014
44,116
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This is good for building muscle but for fat loss, it's horrendous. Insulin also causes you to burn glycogen ("blood sugar"). This has a disastrous effect on fat loss. You store fat and lower blood sugar, making you crave more sugar. So eat something sugary, get an insulin spike and the cycle repeats.
I'm just going to be a pedant because I know you care about accuracy and detail. But the entirety of your post is completely correct...just one thing.

Insulin a significant anabolic hormone. For those reading to learn, that doesn't just mean muscle. It means build stuff with these glucose bricks.
Insulin, for all purposes, says "get this blood glucose out of here and put it somewhere!". It does this by moving blood sugar into your muscles and fat stores, but mostly the liver in the short term.
Chains of glucose stored in the liver and muscle are glycogen. Insulin does not cause you to burn glycogen predominantly. Instead it tells you to MAKE glycogen in a process called glycogenesis (versus glycogenolysis when we break it down to bring blood sugars back up) out of blood sugar (glucose). Insulin DOES drop your blood sugar and high glycemic foods due create a more likely erratic boom/bust and appetitie stimulant than low glycemic alternatives.

So Leigh is completely spot on. I'm just pointing out that "blood sugar" is mostly glucose and the stored version of this is glycogen (that insulin increases).

This is a highly dynamic process that does not happen a vacuum and is altered by sleep, protein/amino acids in your meal, weight lifting, stress, etc.
 

Pitbull9

Daddy
Jan 28, 2015
9,832
14,130
I wonder if you're really losing weight while eating a lot of eggs, chicken and salmon. If this is what your body really wants to lose weight then it really depend on the mind set to lose weight. I have doubt you're to lose weight faster in this way. Do you even know yoga for weight loss naturally even exist? I would suggest you to go for it and give a try rather than sticking to heavy food eating.

If you need any side advice, I will gladly help.
I eat egg whites and chicken A LOT of them and i have been dropping BF like crazy while maintaining my muscle mass. In fact i just went through a rigorous BF testing and my bodyfat is down to about 14 percent while my weight has almost remained the same. I will try to get it down to about 10 and a bit under to see how i look at that point. Weight means nothing to me the mirror is my guide.
 

Leigh

Engineer
Pro Fighter
Jan 26, 2015
10,925
21,293
I wonder if you're really losing weight while eating a lot of eggs, chicken and salmon. If this is what your body really wants to lose weight then it really depend on the mind set to lose weight. I have doubt you're to lose weight faster in this way. Do you even know yoga for weight loss naturally even exist? I would suggest you to go for it and give a try rather than sticking to heavy food eating.

If you need any side advice, I will gladly help.
Doubt all you want. I posted the biological mechanism and I've used it with numerous people.

I'm happy to discuss it but you'll need to offer more than doubt and yoga. Describe an alternative and explain the science behind it.
 

otaku1

TMMAC Addict
Jul 16, 2015
4,649
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I wonder if you're really losing weight while eating a lot of eggs, chicken and salmon. If this is what your body really wants to lose weight then it really depend on the mind set to lose weight. I have doubt you're to lose weight faster in this way. Do you even know yoga for weight loss naturally even exist? I would suggest you to go for it and give a try rather than sticking to heavy food eating.

If you need any side advice, I will gladly help.
Doubt+yoga. Weightloss.
Awesome.


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shlok

Member
Aug 3, 2015
10
13
Another alternative would be eat half what you usually eat everyday. I lost around 15KG by just eating less what I used to eat.
Suppose, I will have chicken curry and one bread for lunch - Just have half the bread and small portion of the chicken while you drink more juice/water and eat 2 times salad. Go for diet or yoga if you really want to lose weight.
 

Leigh

Engineer
Pro Fighter
Jan 26, 2015
10,925
21,293
Another alternative would be eat half what you usually eat everyday. I lost around 15KG by just eating less what I used to eat.
Suppose, I will have chicken curry and one bread for lunch - Just have half the bread and small portion of the chicken while you drink more juice/water and eat 2 times salad. Go for diet or yoga if you really want to lose weight.
Calorie restriction by itself will drop weight but you're also cutting back protein, which will mean more muscle atrophy. Bread and Juice will provide an unwanted insulin spike.

Yoga will not be as effective as cardio unless it IS cardio.
 
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