47 THINGS LEARNED IN A DECADE OF TRYING TO LOSE WEIGHT
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47 Things I’ve Learned During A Decade Of Trying To Lose Weight And Get Lean By Ryan in Lean Living on May 12, 2011
1. There are no shortcuts.
2. If it sounds too good to be true, it is.
3. No ab machine you see advertised on TV will give you abs. A clean diet and calorie deficit will.
4. It will take time to reach your goals. You can’t rush this. Enjoy the process.
5. You will have to make sacrifices to other areas of your life.
6. You will fail at some point – everyone does. Get straight back up and continue.
7. Learn to be a master of your thoughts. Understand how your thought process and patterns affect the way you behave. If you think you can’t do it, you won’t. No diet or training plan will work for you. Get your head straight first.
8. You will get given conflicting advice. Stick with what is getting you results.
9. All diets that work are based on the principle of eating less calories than you burn. There is no other way possible for the human body to lose weight.
10. Most diet books are written for money, not because the author wants you to have a six-pack.
11. Understand the difference between losing weight and losing fat.
12 Don’t obsess over the scales. Your weight will fluctuate daily. As long as your measurements every two weeks are an improvement you are doing fine.
13 Don’t sweat the small stuff. Steady state cardio works. High intensity interval training works. 1 day resistance training works. 7 days weight training works. Fasted cardio works. Morning cardio works. Evening cardio works. Intermittant fasting works. Eating every 2 hours works. If you are a competitive bodybuilder or elite althlete then worry about this stuff, otherwise pick something you will and can actually see yourself commiting to and get on with it.
14. Be wary of anyone who strongly advocates one particular way of doing things – they may not be able to see the wood for the trees. Keep an open mind.
15. Read as much as you can, but be critical. Discard 99% of it. Keep the 1% that works. Knowing what 1% to keep comes from experience so keep at it.
16. Girls – you know that sexy, firm, round bum you want? You’ll get that doing squats and lunges in the weights room, not spending an hour on the cross trainer followed by 100 reps on the leg abductor machine.
17. Girls – no you won’t get massive bulky muscles by lifting weights. You have a tenth of the muscle building hormone testosterone in your body than men. Even men have to work hard to gain even a pound of muscle.
18. Stop doing 100 crunches (and any other ab excersices) to flatten your stomach. It doesn’t work and never will. Only do ab work to strengthen your core and/or build your stomach muscles to improve definition when they are already visible (e.g. you are below 10% body fat).
19. You haven’t got a slow metabolism or a thyroid problem.
20. Fish oil and a good multivitamin will serve you well.
21. You don’t need any other expensive supplements to succeed (you don’t even need those two to be fair, but they’ll help). To succeed you will have to become comfortable handling peer pressure. People will stare at you. They will question you. They will say you are doing it wrong. Most of them will think you’re crazy.
22. Don’t trust what you read in health & fitness magazines.
23. Personal trainers don’t always know what they are doing.
24. Stop moaning about what you can’t do – start DOING what you CAN do.
25. There is no such thing as ‘toning’. A muscle either grows or shrinks. The fat cells covering it either grow or shrink. When muscle grows and fat shrinks you look better. Focus on building your muscles and lose your fat for that killer beach body look. 26. Forget the whole high 12-15 reps for ‘toning’, 8-12 reps for body building, 2-5 reps for strength training mantra. Things have moved on. You can lose fat doing 10 sets of 3 reps.
27. Stretch. That back and knee pain you have is probably from tight muscles.
28. Showing up at the gym won’t get you a beach body. You have to train with focus and intensity as well.
29. Don’t do it for anyone else but yourself.
30. Avoid using gloves and belts when lifting. Your grip and stabiliser muscles will get stronger.
31. Keep things in perspective. Don’t be so restrictive and relentless in pursuing your nutrition and fitness goals that you forget to enjoy the love, peace and happiness you already have in your life.
32. The foam roller is your friend.
33. Leave your ego at the door. Lift less weight with good form rather than showing off. You’ll eclipse everyone eventually.
34. Don’t be frightened of lowering calories. I was and never lost any fat.
35. Fruit is healthy but can kill your attempts to transform your body. If you want to get lean then stick to fruits with a low glycemic load. Berries are ideal.
36. If you’re fat you don’t need post workout carbs.
37. Sometimes you will feel a bit hungry when dieting. Live with it.
38. You don’t need a sports recovery drink. Stick to water unless you’ve just run a marathon.
39. Whenever you eat sugar you are telling your body, “I don’t want you to burn fat for the next 3-4 hours”.
40. Vegetables are king. Eat them everyday. They provide your body with essential vitamins and nutrients.
41. ‘White’ carbs are not necessary. You can live without bread, pasta, rice and potatoes – and you’ll have an awesome body to show for it.
42. Photos don’t lie. They tell it how it is. Take them every month during your body transformation to assess your progress.
43. There is no ‘best’ weight training program. As long as it’s from a reputable source/trainer and you are working out with intensity you’ll get results.
44. Sometimes it’s better to encourage someone who has a slightly different way of doing things to you, rather than trying to convert them to your way of thinking.
45. Relax. Get a massage. Meditate. Get 8 hours sleep a night. Your body produces 75% of daily human growth hormone in the first 2 hours of sleep, which you need to build and repair your body.
46. 15 minutes if intense Interval training 3 times per week will strip away body fat and not make you lose too much muscle, providing your calorie deficit is in order.
47. Make everyday count. You will get there in the end.
47 Things I’ve Learned During A Decade Of Trying To Lose Weight And Get Lean By Ryan in Lean Living on May 12, 2011
1. There are no shortcuts.
2. If it sounds too good to be true, it is.
3. No ab machine you see advertised on TV will give you abs. A clean diet and calorie deficit will.
4. It will take time to reach your goals. You can’t rush this. Enjoy the process.
5. You will have to make sacrifices to other areas of your life.
6. You will fail at some point – everyone does. Get straight back up and continue.
7. Learn to be a master of your thoughts. Understand how your thought process and patterns affect the way you behave. If you think you can’t do it, you won’t. No diet or training plan will work for you. Get your head straight first.
8. You will get given conflicting advice. Stick with what is getting you results.
9. All diets that work are based on the principle of eating less calories than you burn. There is no other way possible for the human body to lose weight.
10. Most diet books are written for money, not because the author wants you to have a six-pack.
11. Understand the difference between losing weight and losing fat.
12 Don’t obsess over the scales. Your weight will fluctuate daily. As long as your measurements every two weeks are an improvement you are doing fine.
13 Don’t sweat the small stuff. Steady state cardio works. High intensity interval training works. 1 day resistance training works. 7 days weight training works. Fasted cardio works. Morning cardio works. Evening cardio works. Intermittant fasting works. Eating every 2 hours works. If you are a competitive bodybuilder or elite althlete then worry about this stuff, otherwise pick something you will and can actually see yourself commiting to and get on with it.
14. Be wary of anyone who strongly advocates one particular way of doing things – they may not be able to see the wood for the trees. Keep an open mind.
15. Read as much as you can, but be critical. Discard 99% of it. Keep the 1% that works. Knowing what 1% to keep comes from experience so keep at it.
16. Girls – you know that sexy, firm, round bum you want? You’ll get that doing squats and lunges in the weights room, not spending an hour on the cross trainer followed by 100 reps on the leg abductor machine.
17. Girls – no you won’t get massive bulky muscles by lifting weights. You have a tenth of the muscle building hormone testosterone in your body than men. Even men have to work hard to gain even a pound of muscle.
18. Stop doing 100 crunches (and any other ab excersices) to flatten your stomach. It doesn’t work and never will. Only do ab work to strengthen your core and/or build your stomach muscles to improve definition when they are already visible (e.g. you are below 10% body fat).
19. You haven’t got a slow metabolism or a thyroid problem.
20. Fish oil and a good multivitamin will serve you well.
21. You don’t need any other expensive supplements to succeed (you don’t even need those two to be fair, but they’ll help). To succeed you will have to become comfortable handling peer pressure. People will stare at you. They will question you. They will say you are doing it wrong. Most of them will think you’re crazy.
22. Don’t trust what you read in health & fitness magazines.
23. Personal trainers don’t always know what they are doing.
24. Stop moaning about what you can’t do – start DOING what you CAN do.
25. There is no such thing as ‘toning’. A muscle either grows or shrinks. The fat cells covering it either grow or shrink. When muscle grows and fat shrinks you look better. Focus on building your muscles and lose your fat for that killer beach body look. 26. Forget the whole high 12-15 reps for ‘toning’, 8-12 reps for body building, 2-5 reps for strength training mantra. Things have moved on. You can lose fat doing 10 sets of 3 reps.
27. Stretch. That back and knee pain you have is probably from tight muscles.
28. Showing up at the gym won’t get you a beach body. You have to train with focus and intensity as well.
29. Don’t do it for anyone else but yourself.
30. Avoid using gloves and belts when lifting. Your grip and stabiliser muscles will get stronger.
31. Keep things in perspective. Don’t be so restrictive and relentless in pursuing your nutrition and fitness goals that you forget to enjoy the love, peace and happiness you already have in your life.
32. The foam roller is your friend.
33. Leave your ego at the door. Lift less weight with good form rather than showing off. You’ll eclipse everyone eventually.
34. Don’t be frightened of lowering calories. I was and never lost any fat.
35. Fruit is healthy but can kill your attempts to transform your body. If you want to get lean then stick to fruits with a low glycemic load. Berries are ideal.
36. If you’re fat you don’t need post workout carbs.
37. Sometimes you will feel a bit hungry when dieting. Live with it.
38. You don’t need a sports recovery drink. Stick to water unless you’ve just run a marathon.
39. Whenever you eat sugar you are telling your body, “I don’t want you to burn fat for the next 3-4 hours”.
40. Vegetables are king. Eat them everyday. They provide your body with essential vitamins and nutrients.
41. ‘White’ carbs are not necessary. You can live without bread, pasta, rice and potatoes – and you’ll have an awesome body to show for it.
42. Photos don’t lie. They tell it how it is. Take them every month during your body transformation to assess your progress.
43. There is no ‘best’ weight training program. As long as it’s from a reputable source/trainer and you are working out with intensity you’ll get results.
44. Sometimes it’s better to encourage someone who has a slightly different way of doing things to you, rather than trying to convert them to your way of thinking.
45. Relax. Get a massage. Meditate. Get 8 hours sleep a night. Your body produces 75% of daily human growth hormone in the first 2 hours of sleep, which you need to build and repair your body.
46. 15 minutes if intense Interval training 3 times per week will strip away body fat and not make you lose too much muscle, providing your calorie deficit is in order.
47. Make everyday count. You will get there in the end.
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Replies
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Thank you for sharing.
Item 30. I use weight gloves. My hands already have calluses. I do not need more. Thank you
Best wishes0 -
Taking fish oil/ omega-3 oil can interfere with your immune system. Just eat something high in omega-3's only 2-3 times a week.0
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excellent
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But what if you actually do have a thyroid problem? lol. I'm full of autoimmune diseases, so yeah. That matters.0
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I use gloves too... sweat can be slippery!0
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Interesting stuff, thank you :flowerforyou:0
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BUMP!0
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Nice post0
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Excellent. I've had 20 years of dieting and have learned similar lessons. And thanks for not fogetting to point out that WHAT we eat matters. You probably wouldn't agree with my lifestyle (which is permanent) but it eliminates or limits all the non helpful types of foods that you mentioned. I feel awesome and it works for me. :flowerforyou:0
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Just what I needed to hear!
Definitely saving this for later, thanks!!0 -
what a cool post0
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I enjoy weight training.0
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bump0
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THANK YOU FOR POSTING ...GREAT POST!!!0
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I have to admit, I thought this was going to be full of the same old misinformation that gets tossed around ad nauseum. Imagine my surprise when I agree with nearly everything on the list.
41 I take exception to.0 -
I have to admit, I thought this was going to be full of the same old misinformation that gets tossed around ad nauseum. Imagine my surprise when I agree with nearly everything on the list.
41 I take exception to.
Agreed. But I also take exception to 32. The foam roller is a vicious sadist, not a friend. We are both much happier now that it's a dog toy.0 -
Okay ma'am I have some questions.
For #11, what is the difference between losing weight and losing fat? What did you mean by that?
#32, does the foam roller really work that well? My mom bought it a looong time ago when it was first released for like $50. No one used it lol.
#35 what other fruit are low glycemic? I eat a lot of watermelon because its 92% water and Im not big on drinking water unless its my lemon and water mix.
#41...well I've been lied to by the system. The government keeps putting up this food diagram with a plate saying eat fruit, veges and grains once a day. Thats what I've been doing.0 -
I was confused by #11 too. Is he talking about water weight or losing muscle mass possibly (shrinking vs growing as in #25)?
Love #24. Must do more of that! And some more squats and lunges too... Thank you!0 -
Now that is good advice. Like the turtle who wins the race . Easy does it.0
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Great post!0
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I love this.
Bookmarking it. 0 -
Also have to take exception to your comments about what you eat.
If weight loss is all about a caloric deficit, then it stands to reason that eating potatoes or white bread is not going to have any effect, positive or negative, on your weight loss. (this does not mean, of course, that filling yourself up with junk and going hungry later isn't going to make things harder on yourself, but that's not the fault of the food).
I'm not advocating a life eating processed factory-farmed crap food, but having sugar in your tea, eating rice and potatoes, and not eating salad and veggies every single day, not to mention indulging in the occasional ice cream treat, is not going to prevent you from losing weight so long as you are within your goals.
You can't have it both ways. Either caloric deficit is it, end of story, or it is not that simple after all.0 -
Also have to take exception to your comments about what you eat.
If weight loss is all about a caloric deficit, then it stands to reason that eating potatoes or white bread is not going to have any effect, positive or negative, on your weight loss. (this does not mean, of course, that filling yourself up with junk and going hungry later isn't going to make things harder on yourself, but that's not the fault of the food).
I'm not advocating a life eating processed factory-farmed crap food, but having sugar in your tea, eating rice and potatoes, and not eating salad and veggies every single day, not to mention indulging in the occasional ice cream treat, is not going to prevent you from losing weight so long as you are within your goals.
You can't have it both ways. Either caloric deficit is it, end of story, or it is not that simple after all.
I think you're right... It is that simple. However, there's a lot of research that shows that some foods are worse for us than others. Absolutely does not mean that all of us who are trying to lose weight are going to cut all of them out. But as far as good advice goes, I think those points are sound. Yes, you can lose weight by just counting/cutting calories. But you can also become much healthier while you lose weight by avoiding or reducing some foods (the over refined/processed 'whites', although personally I'm not sure why potatoes fall into this category...) and increasing other foods (vegetables). So you're right - for weight loss, that point is irrelevant. Isn't the same true of exercise? Is that really necessary for weight loss? I believe not. But it's a good practice for good health. And plus it means I can eat a little more!! Perhaps the title should have read "... trying to lose weight and get healthier".0 -
Agreed, KathyPerry.
The reason this topic is one of my "pet peeves" is that I think it can sabotage people's weight loss efforts. For someone who is very overweight, has struggled with diets all their lives, I think it is asking too much for them to track calories AND start looking heavily at macros and what type of food they are eating. It's going to be a huge adjustment to start looking at food in a whole different way in terms of the economy of calories (I was floored...STUNNED...when I learned that one Starbucks cookie with my coffee cost me upwards of 450 calories!).
I think if you add to that a dose of guilt associated with indulging in desserts or starches or processed foods then you risk this person not being able to sustain such a significant change in lifestyle. (this sort of happened to me when I lost weight on a low carb diet but gained it all back because the foods I was eating, while healthy, were so different from what I was used to eating). Better they get to their healthy weight without having to drastically change their diet (just focussing on portion sizes) and THEN when they are feeling healthier in their bodies and are used to living the calorie-counting life, then I think they will naturally turn their thoughts to eating healthier foods.0 -
Completely agree WalleyMama. We're absolutely on the same page. For me, it's gotta be sustainable. I lost a few lbs on a low carb diet. Then, as seems to be the trend, gained it all back and then some when I started eating 'normally' again. And you get an 'Amen' from this choir on the Starbucks cookie! One of the reasons I like MFP so much is the general awareness it's given me on just how much I was eating and how calorific my favourite snacks are. So without trying to force myself to cut any food groups out, I'm able to make informed decisions on how to use my calories.
The 47 item list is great because it starts with the reality that this is a process... a slow process that will take effort! And from there you can accept the advice and apply the principles as you're ready.0 -
For #11 he is just saying that losing weight means nothing unless that weight is fat.
I can eating nothing for a month, do tons of cardio and sit in a sauna every day, and lose like 50 lbs in that time. Woo, go me right?? Wrong, cause i just lost 50 lbs of water and lean mass, and killed my metabolism in the process. And prob lost very little fat. A common theme for a of of people who are happy with the scale, but still look very fat in the mirror.
Or I could eat a balanced diet, do resistance training to preserve lean mass, and lose 8 lbs of fat in that time and look faaaaar better because I lost fat instead of just weight.0 -
Great post!!!0
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Agreed with most of this list so kudos to you, but advocating not wearing gloves to lift is stupid. When i first started to lift I didn't use gloves and the bars we have at my gym have the diamond etching in to help grip, this shredding my hands and had massive callouses on my hands from wear I grip them. I aslo have sweaty hands to without gloves i was not able to keep a good grip on the bar so I wasn't able to do high weight volumes. When i got my gloves eventually I was able to add 20kg to my deadlift just because i could keep a hold of the bar.0
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Potatoes are awesome0
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Post never responded to anything lol0
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