For the people who work out like crazy and are not losing

Ok guys I have read sooooooo many posts with this in the topic that I simply had to write this, now you may say he is crazy or that I am so full of crap that my eyes are brown but I have spent many years up and down with weight and for the first time in my life it is sticking and I am not just weighing less but I have my health back through diet. Now you may ask should I model myself after this guy, my answer is simply no, you need to find what works for you but the basic building blocks I do recommend as your foundation. So here I am breaking it down for you.

1) Ditch the bloody scale, its the greasy car salesman of the weight loss world, either get a good measuring tape or one of the sales that reads body fat. The goal here for all of you should be to preserve muscle tissue as that is what will burn the fat, and for those who say its near impossible to gain muscle on a cal restricted diet I say no its not, I am living proof of that. I have made significant strength gains on a cal restricted diet and my arms which were fat to start measure a 1/4" bigger while I am much leaner.

2) Diet and nutrition are 2 very different things, feeding the body correctly will always have a positive result, take the time to educate yourself and learn about clean eating and how to get off the junk, make them small changes the devil is in the details, for example if you only change 1 meal a day it will have positive results. (If you are going to do this I recommend breakfast as a start) A big healthy breakfast gets the metabolic rate fired first thing in the morning, and gets the day off right. Don't have time you say? Bullcrap you do, 5 mins for your health is not a big thing to ask a good protein shake with some fruit and a slice of rye bread toasted with some peanut butter will not deprive you of that all important sleep.

3) Do not expect the huge weight loss numbers every week, they are going to take time, you did not get fat overnight and you are not going to get skinny overnight, why should you expect to lose the weight in 1 month? Did you put on that extra 4 dress or pant sizes overnight?

4) If you have hit a true plateau (meaning 3 weeks or more) with 0 loss or 0 gain then your body has gotten used to what you are doing or you are not meeting your dietary needs, for the girls burning 7000 cals a week and eating 1200 a day this is pointed at you, for the love of god its common freakin sense, you are not feeding your body so it is feeding off itself in a catabolic state its not rocket science. Learn about catabolic and anabolic states for the body, take the time to educate yourself. I recently helped one of the girls who was in your boat and following my advice he has lost 3 pounds this week eating nearly double what she was. (1200 cals to 2000 cals and those were quality cals including FAT)

5) Form a group of friend who support your goals, negativity will not help you so if you have that in your life then find a way out of that and into a positive environment. If that is not easy for you then learn to develop the inner strength needed to be positive and stay positive.

6) For the people who are eating less but not feeding the body right, make it smart choices, you do not need to be a diet nazi eating nothing but veggies and fruits to get results but you do need to start seriously looking at your overall health, small changes snowball into big results. Once every few weeks go out and splurge, have a cheat day and enjoy it because it will not adversely affect you the body needs that cheat day sometimes to keep the metabolic rate going.

7) Fat is not the enemy here, good fats like omega 3s, salmon, fish, avocado, and nuts (almonds in particular) are great sources of good fats, eating these will actually aid in your weight loss not hurt it.

8) Workout recovery does not require super expensive protein shakes or gimmicky type crap. The best bodybuilders I have known know the secret is simple, chocolate milk. 1-2 cups 10mins post workout (the sugar does not go to the waistline or thighs it goes right into the muscles) followed 15 mins later with a good healthy protein shake with some fruit in it will benefit immensely with workout recovery. Now if your goal is not muscle gain then sure you can reduce that protein but make sure you get some in, you want to avoid a catabolic state at all costs.

9) This is a journey to a lifestyle change for the better, enjoy the trip and chronicle it for your own good, take a day a week to reflect on it and learn to love yourself, you deserve the best in life and to have your health is not something which should be optional, it should be something that is mandatory for you. I can stand here and preach all day to you about healthy eating and working out but until you hit that point where it becomes mandatory then you are not ready to really hear what I have said previously.

if you are going to add me as a friend then include the reason in you request otherwise I will decline it.

Think of it like a car as most of us can relate to that. You are given a car (your body) and you are given a set destination (goal weight) Now given the amount of fuel (calories) that mfp alots you it will get you there in 6 hours. Now when you drive faster (working out) you burn that fuel quicker and will start to break down unless you add more fuel (eating back cals used). The whole point of driving faster is to get to that destination quicker. The problem is that some of us exceed the safe speed (not eating back the cals) and the cops pull you over (this is your metabolism). Now you can cheat it a little in that staying above 1200 net cals a day for short bursts before the body says "oh no you don't" and stalls you out by either eating the muscle you put on for fuel or dropping metabolic rate on you. Its not a choice you make it is your bodies and is totally out of your control until you learn to work with it and not against it. I say that working out is not to burn off fat, which it is not as we will not burn the fat off by exercise alone, it is what happens inside the body that burns the fat off which is a raised metabolic rate that will burn off that fat all on its own without you even thinking about it. It can be as simple as more out vs less in to some extent before the body says f**k you and slows you down. This is why I preach time and again that hunger has nothing to do with nutrition, I can feed someone crap all day and they will never get hungry but will gain fat like crazy, or I can really feed the body what it needs and it will shed that fat like its going out of style.

I liken it to spoiled child, give it what it wants and its happy (fat loss), take away what it wants and it freaks (fat gain). Which would you rather have?