fatlossNot to sound like an egotistical douche bag but to be completely honest I find fat loss to be very simple and easy. I have had times during my teens where I didn’t give a hoot about my diet.

Of course I suffered the consequences and gains a shit ton of  weight but I never really worried about it cause I knew I would be able to loose it very quickly

So you might be wondering, “what’s his secret?”

I don’t have one. All I have is a tool box full of useful tools that I know I can always go back too if I were to not care about my diet again. (By the way I’m trying to avoid these phases of fatassery. Just like everyone else I don’t like being a fat ass. Food is just so damn good)

Anyways, all these tools that I’ve collected, together make for a pretty ridiculously quick fat loss transformation.

How ridiculous you ask?

Once I lost 19 pounds in 25 days. Sounds crazy? That’s cause it is. It was brutal, if I remember correctly I believe I trained 24 out of the 25 days. It was a crazy program but it taught me a lot about fat loss and the way our bodies respond to training and diet simultaneously.

So through all the trails and tribulations I’ve gone through concerning fat loss I have perfected a formula that leads to the fastest fat loss ever.

These are the tools I use whenever I need to burn fat because I’ve become a fat slob again. I follow these steps in order to go from fat to fab

1. Aim for a Deficit

First things first, everybody has their own unique maintenance caloric requirement. What this number represents is the number of calories your body needs in order to stay the same, absolutely no change to your frame.

If you want to burn fat you need to eat fewer calories than what your maintenance caloric intake is. I usually start with a 300 calories deficit. If I’m not losing weight then I drop it another 100 calories (400 calories dificit). But no matter what, I never go below a 500 calories.

I believe this starts leading to muscle loss. Which is a big NO! NO!

So I’ll use myself as an example. Right now my maintenance caloric requirement is 2,290 calories. If my goal was fat loss I would start eating 1,990 calories (2,290 – 300= 1,990)

The difference in calories leaves a void in my bodies energy needs so it gets it from somewhere else, like my body fat.

2. Adding a Cheat Day

I was first introduced to cheat days for fat loss when I was around 16 yr. I’ll admit at first I was skeptical cause it went against everything I knew about fat loss (which at the time wasn’t much)

But I gave it a go and quickly saw how beneficial cheat days actually were.

This strategy became my favorite way to lose weight and I still use it to this day. So if you’re like most people you’re probably wondering how can eating ice cream, pizza, hamburgers, cake, and doughnuts help you burn more fat?

It all comes down to manipulating your leptin levels

What is leptin?

Well according to Dr. Mercola

“Leptin is a very powerful and influential hormone produced by your fat cells. Your fat, by way of leptin, tells your brain whether you should be hungry, eat and make more fat, whether you should reproduce, or (partly by controlling insulin) whether to engage in maintenance and repair. In short, leptin is the way that your fat stores speak to your brain to let your brain know how much energy is available and, very importantly, what to do with it”

So you see, leptin is one of the most important hormones when it comes to fat loss (the other being insulin)

So now the question lies with, how do I manipulate leptin?

Manipulating your leptin levels is easier than you think. In order to burn the most fat possible you need your leptin levels to be at an all time high.

This will ensure your body uses your fat for energy, therefore burning it.

Did I just get your attention regarding manipulating leptin? Good

So according to John Romaniello it takes 5 to 7 days for leptin levels to decrease but only takes 24 hours for leptin levels to sky rocket.

Knowing this info about leptin should get you thinking.

Like I mention above, in order to burn fat we need leptin to be at high levels in our bodies. So what we want to do is decrease leptin levels during the week and have that 24 hour period to increase leptin and take advantage of leptins power of using fat cells for energy.

How do I decrease leptin levels?

Ok I’m glad you’re asking questions.

This is simple as well. According to Brad Pilon, leptin levels can decrease by 80% from just a 72 hour fast

But who the hell wants to fast for 3 days. A similar approach and one that I learned from Joel Marion is that by restricting a macronutrient you can decrease leptin levels as well.

This is awesome cause there’s already a diet out there that has restrictions in a certain macro, low carb dieting.

Low carb eating is in my opinion the best ways to burn body fat, and when you add leptin manipulation into the plan your body has no choice but to burn body fat.

What I like to do is eat a low carb during the week.

This burns fat but at a slow rate. The good thing is that leptin is also decreasing because your body is going into starvation mode (by the way, this is why low carb diets eventually stop working after a while. Once your body is in starvation mode it holds onto fat for survival reasons).

When you add a cheat day into the mix it increases leptin while taking you out of starvation mode. You’re basically killing 2 birds with 1 stone.

Cheat day’s help you avoid fat loss plateaus and help keep you sane during your diet.

So remember if you want to have cheat days eat low carb Sunday – Friday and indulge in your favorite foods on Saturday, then go back to low carb eating on Sunday, making sure you get one hell of a workout that day.

3. Intermittent Fasting

I found out about fasting 3 years ago and haven’t eaten breakfast since that day. I can’t say enough good things about fasting but I’m going to try.

So if you’ve been taught that eating 5 to 6 small meals a day is necessary in order to keep your metabolism high to burn fat, be prepared to have your mind blown.

When it comes to calorie intake it doesn’t matter how many meals you eat as long as you get in your in macros before bed.

Don’t believe me?

Well in Engineering the AlphaJ.R and A.B state that “french researchers found that there is “no evidence of improved weight loss” by eating more frequently. And they even went a step farther to show that in terms of the number of calories you burn per day, it doesn’t matter if your meals are separated into five 400-calorie meals or two 1,000 calorie meals” (assuming your calorie intake is 2,000 calories for your goal).

This is good news cause who the hell likes to meal prep and make sure they eat every 2 to 3 hours. If that’s you then keep cooking your meals days before hand.

Personally I like to have my food freshly made, not microwaved.

Fasting allows me to have freshly prepared meals every day. And that’s not the only reason I love fasting. It also has a shit ton of hormonal advantages.

For example, we all know how important growth hormones are when it comes to transforming your body. It will help you burn fat, build muscle, look young, and just feel better over all.

Well here’s the bad news. Once insulin is in your blood stream growth hormone production is shut off. Now think about what most people have in the morning.

Something high in carbs like oatmeal, breakfast sandwich, fruit smoothies etc.

All these foods will increase insulin secretion and stop growth hormone production. Leaving you with insulin in your blood stream and your chance to burn fat is gone.

By fasting in the morning you allow your body to keep growth hormones high which will help with fat burning.

I personally like to use the 16/8 rule.

This is when you fast for 16 hours of the day (sleep time is included) and then eat for 8 hours of the day (this eating window usually occurs towards the evening).

By changing to this style of eating, food doesn’t control my life anymore. Before I would eat every 2 to 3 hours and I would spend hours in the kitchen preparing my food for the week every Sunday.

Intermittent fasting has taken that burden off my shoulders and I have seen better results with it.

4. Strength Training

One mistake most people make when their goal is fat loss is they stop training heavy. Strength training is awesome for fat loss and of course strength.

Most people think that cardio is the best thing to do for fat loss, what I usually tell them is that cardio is part of the puzzle. It’s great for fat loss but not on its own.

What I personally like to do is keep strength training as a staple in my programs and add in conditioning (also called cardio).

I also use super sets or tri sets for my accessory lifts. This makes sure I keep moving and keep my heart rate up. This in itself is pretty much conditioning if you keep rest periods short, you’ll be huffin and puffin through the whole workout.

But always remember to keep training heavy. Lifting heavy shit burns a lot of energy and that energy needs to come from somewhere.

If you follow the above tips like eating in a deficit, eating low carb with cheat days, that energy is gonna come from your fat cells.

Strength training also produces more testosterone, which helps with recovery and being alpha.

5. Being Consistent

No one has ever reached their goals without consistency.

Being consistent is key to achieving anything in life and the weight room isn’t any different.

You can’t have 2 cheat days in one week and expect to lose weight that week or you cant skip 2 out of 4 days at the gym and expect to see results.

One mishap once in a while is fine. It even happens to me.

But when that happens brush it off and hop back on the wagon. Don’t use it as an excuse.

You have no idea how many times I’ve heard people say how they gave in and had a treat when they weren’t supposed too and decided since the treat ruined their diet for the day they would restart their diet the following week.

This is a huge mistake cause next week becomes the following week and then the following week becomes next month.

Don’t fall into this trap

2moro

Do shit TODAY. Stuff is only gonna get done if you do it right now. Tomorrow never comes.

6. Get 8 to 10 hours of sleep

No excuses

If you want to reach your goal sleep is important. You can’t expect to get 6 pack abs without putting in effort in the bed room

Working your ass off and dieting the correct way is part of the equation. But if your body doesn’t recover from the grueling workouts cuase of the little time you spend sleeping

You’re going to be in the exact same boat as you were when you started.

Don’t underestimate the power of sleep. I used too, but once I saw the benefits of more sleep I haven’t slept under 8 hours in years (unless I’m out late with my friends, but that’s a different story).

7. Carb Cycling

Probably one of the best methods ever created when it comes to seeing results. For those of you who don’t know what carb cycling is, it’s a pretty simple concept to get. Higher carbs on days you work out and lower carbs on days you don’t work out.

This will ensure you get the carbs necessary to recover while not over spilling into fat storage. (Make sure to do some form of conditioning on rest days. These days are meant to burn fat if you follow the carb cycling method)

If you want a more in depth explanation of carb cycling, this is the first article I ever read that helped me understand carb cycling a lot better.

If you do everything that I outlined in this article. Your fat has no choice but to die off and leave you leaner and healthier.

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If you have any questions drop them down below. I’ll be sure to answer them and clear up anything you need.

Talk to you later,

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