How to Lose Weight

I’d like to share an e-mail I received from Kevin Kimmel about the weight loss mind map.

“Today whilst on the Sounder Commuter train from Tukwila to Seattle I started to listen to your podcast.  When I saw the title on weight loss I decided to start with that one first, I have so far listened to it three times today.  Three months ago I went to the doctor and found out that I was a diabetic (blood sugar at 267), which is understandable since I weighed in at 442 pounds (5″9′) with family history of diabetes.  My doctor said that if I did not get my weight off he would more than likely be cutting off my feet before I died.  So I considered that a great motivation factor and started changing my lifestyle.  I have not been counting calories as of yet but I started eating four small meals with snack in between my meals.  I no longer eat fast foods and measure everything morsel of food out.  Now it is three months later and I have lost 54lbs which of course makes me happy, but now that I am eating very healthy I want complete body health.  I knew I needed to write everything out and somehow create a way to monitor every part of my health, but did not know how to begin.  I had gone out and bought a white board to start graphing out my weight, goals and exercise.  But since I did not know how to put it together, the white board has not been hung up on the wall and still has not had the first mark on it.  So you can understand why I got real excited when I listened to your podcast.  When I arrived at work, I went to the link for the overview map and opened it up.  I could swear that I heard angels singing with a full orchestra.  This is going to make an incredible difference in my goal for complete body health.  I might leave early from work so I can get my white board hung and start moping.  So thank you so much for taking the time to creating this overview map, it is deeply appreciated.”

You are very welcome Kevin.  Once I got my hands on that particular piece of software, I only had a short trial.  I opted to create something useful that even the highest priced books don’t show you.  A lot of us are visual learners.  While we read and learn how to do many things, unless it’s mapped out in a step by step process, many of the small stuff (important stuff) gets lost in the jumble of the 10,000 tips and tricks and fundamentals we’re supposed to do.

I hope this mind map can help others.  Print it out!

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I receive countless emails that start off like this…

In January I was 190 lbs at 25% body fat. 8 weeks ago I stopped seeing results. The last 8 weeks while cutting down I have dropped a few pounds (which I don’t really want to do) and my body fat has remained the same.

What many people fail to realize when cutting is the concept of nutritional periodization. All too frequently, I get e-mails from frustrated weight loss seekers who have been on a calorie deficit for MONTHS. While they understand the basics of calorie cutting and what it means to be in a deficit, very few of them use a Zig-Zag method or fully comprehend the deficits or length a cutting cycle can have on their metabolism.

People who seek to lose weight grasp the very basics.

1. Calculate calories
2. Eat less
3. Eat good foods
4. Keep cutting until I achieve the desired effect

While that works, at some point they hit a wall and what’s the 1st thing they want to do?

EXERCISE MORE and EAT LESS!

Which is the wrong approach. Nobody told them about the tips below.

The 3 best tips for fat loss are as follows:

1) Cycle your calories and your carbohydrates. This can be referred to as the Zig-Zag approach. In a nutshell, it’s defined as days of maintenance calories mixed with days in a calorie deficit.

2) Understanding your personal level of tolerance to carbohydrates. There are great differences in the way people process foods. You can find your nutritional ratio and then adjust it according to your personal needs and tolerances that you will discover thru experience.

3) “If man made it, don’t’ eat it!” – Jack Lalanne. You need to eat natural foods and avoid refined foods. I notice in many meal plans, more than 20% of the daily protein requirements are coming from protein shakes. My own rule is not to get more than 20% of my daily protein from supplements.

The 3 biggest mistakes are as follows:

1) Too severe of a calorie deficit:

• 15% below maintenance = very conservative deficit
• 20% below maintenance = conservative deficit
• 25% below maintenance = moderate deficit
• 30% below maintenance = aggressive deficit
• 35%+ below maintenance = very aggressive deficit
• 50%+ below maintenance = semi-starvation/starvation

2) Too prolonged of a calorie deficit. More than 12-16 weeks of a calorie deficit could result in a lowered metabolism. The concept of nutritional periodization of cycling calories and carbohydrates comes into play after out 12 weeks depending on your overall progress.

3) Over-training while under-nourished. Long stints of high intensity work in a long period of calorie deprivation no matter how small.

I’d love to take credit for these weight loss tips. Unfortunately I can’t. While I did adjust them and add some of my own tips, I pulled the real gems from pages 47-48 of THE FAT BURN FILES, a unique collection of by Tom Venuto. It gets 2 thumbs up from me because of the way it reveals everything that DOESN’T work as well as what DOES work for burning fat and gaining muscle… all in a fascinating, entertaining personal interview format.

Photo of the Perfect Weight by Jill Greenseth Used under a Creative Commons license

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Hats off to a very brave woman who stepped up and finally wanted to get rid of the flabby arms and the sooner the better. Luckily for her, this problem is quite common and the solution is quite simple and two-fold. Working to get rid of flabby arms comes with overall fitness but there’s some specific exercises you can do in addition to reducing body fat that will bring those arms into super shape once again.

On just another normal day, I received an email with a cry for help.

” I want to get rid of my flabby upper arms! Are there any exercises for flabby arms that I can do?”

For starters…

The muscle that is most problematic for flabby arms is called:

The Tricep (pictured here to the right)

Most women think of these things when it comes to that area:

• flabby arms
• exercise for flabby arms
• tone flabby arms
• how to get rid of flabby arms
• flabby arm help
• flabby upper arms

There are really two key concepts to that particular predicament. Keep in mind that this is such a common question so you are certainly not alone in this. But just keep reading because the answer is pretty simple and may surprise you!

First, get the idea out of your head that there’s any such thing as ’spot reduction.’ Meaning, if you do certain exercises for that area, the fat will magically disappear just from there and your arms will suddenly be taunt and tone again. Let me give you a real quick lesson on fat. Don’t worry this is going to be easy.

Your body stores fat. It stores it in general areas that are common to you as a female. Most men store the most fat in their stomachs. Women tend to store it in their thighs, hips and buttocks. But with anything, you can and will store fat wherever. So the first thing you want to do is…

Reduce the body fat period!

Once you start to reduce fat, you’ll see it disappear. Don’t bother with creams and rubs and all the other gimmicks out there. You cannot spot reduce. Your body stores fat and the only way to reduce fat in any particular area that is bothering you is to reduce fat period from your body as a whole.

For all these reasons,…

Your first mission, should you choose to accept it, is to reduce the body fat.

Second, in order for that area of your arm to become tone, you’ll want to build muscle in the back of the arm. That is called the Tricep and there’s several good exercise you can do to build up that area.

But first, let me give you a list of some of the best exercises for flabby arms that will focus on the tricep and help you develop the area and make it stronger. This isn’t all inclusive but it’s some of the more common and better exercises for flabby arms or to build up the tricep muscle.

A short list of exercises for flabby arms or really, how to improve the tricep muscle.

• Weighted dips
• Close grip bench press
• Close grip push ups
• Lying barbell French press
• Overhead cable extensions
• Cable press downs
• Reverse cable press downs

Here’s a nice resource that explains how to do these exercises for your tricep.

Frankly…

Many people are caught up in the idea that in order for them to get rid of a problematic area they need to just work it out and do some exercises to target that area.

But that’s only half of the solution as you’ve read.

By working out the area AND reducing body fat, you will progress at twice the speed and make twice the visual differences.

Let’s suppose you only worked out the back of the arms. The muscle would be stronger and firmer no doubts, but it might not show IF your level of body fat is such that the muscle is still covered up.

As you see, by doing both, you will develop the tricep and make it more visible when the layer of fat that covers it up is reduced.

Men and women who want to reduce the ‘flabby’ anything simply have to realize that it’s a combination of body fat in that area, maybe loose skin and a muscle that generally needs to be developed in order to be taunt.

But I’m getting way ahead of myself!

This is a two fold mission.

1- Reduce body fat

2- Do specific exercises to build muscle in the back of the arm so that once the fat is gone, you’ll have a tricep and it will appear tight and tone. You have to have muscle to show right?

In a nutshell what this will do for you is make the back of your arms less flabby as the fat is lost from your body and the new muscle will bring added tone and tightness to the back of your arm.

If you are interested in burning fat the natural way - without supplements, without drugs and without screwing up your metabolism, then I can’t recommend this book highly enough. Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle is the #1 selling diet and fitness ebook in internet history and for a good reason.

Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle is my Recommendation and #1 Resource for Nutrition.

Photo of the tricep girl by I’m Combing My Hair Used under a Creative Commons license

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I decided it was about time to draw out a map of what I tell my clients when it comes to weight loss.

This is a nice 50,000 foot overview of what you need to do, step-by-step when it comes to burning that fat. This drawing you see above is called a mind map. It’s a visual way of thinking out a process.

When I think of trying to explain all the aspects of weight loss to a client, these are things we talk about over a period of weeks.

Click Here to see the full color version of the Weight Loss Tips MindMap

PS - The site is still a bit new, I’m fixing a few things. You’ll find the legend on the map that explains the symbols. You’ll get linked to articles about a particular subject that you see that will further explain an item on the weight loss mind map.

PPS - Your comments are most appreciated. I would love to hear back from you.

 

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