Moving Forward

Well, here we are at the beginning of August. We’re one month into the competition and I’m very happy with my results so far. I’m down 15.4 pounds and there’s a noticeable difference in my photos. That back shot is really revealing, isn’t it? It’s not an angle I get to see of myself very often. Yikes! But it’s looking much better now. I wanted to show what was possible with hard work, proper nutrition, and sound science. I worked out 22 times this past month (once for each weekday), ate according to my nutrition plan, and got the proper amount of rest. In short, I made sure that I sent all the correct signals to my body. Our bodies respond perfectly to the signals we send to it, not to our wishes or desires. Once you understand what to tell your body, it will respond accordingly.

My goal was to lose a bunch of fat in the first month to show what was possible with focused intensity. There are actually 2 ways to decrease body fat percentage: the first is to decrease fat mass, the second is to increase muscle mass. Example 1: a 180 pound woman has 30% body fat. That means she has 126 pounds of lean body weight and 54 pounds of fat. If she loses 12 pounds of fat and maintains her lean tissue, she still has 126 pounds of LBW, but now has 42 pounds of fat, making her new body fat percentage 25%. Example 2: the same woman gains 8 pounds of muscle for a total LBW of 134 pounds, but doesn’t lose any of the 54 pounds of fat, she still lowers her body fat percentage to 28.72%. Here’s the interesting part, let’s say she does both. She loses 12 pounds of fat and gains 8 pounds of muscle. Her net loss is only 4 pounds, but look at her new numbers: She weighs a total of 176 pounds, with 134 pounds of lean body weight and 42 pounds of fat, which gives her a body fat percentage of 23.86%. Wow! That’s a loss in body fat of 6.14% with only a 4 pound scale weight loss. And she looks fantastic; she has more shape to her, is leaner, and looks so much more fit. Clearly combining the 2 strategies is the best way to lower your body fat percentage and improve your appearance. This will be my plan this month.

I will be changing quite a few things. I will be working out 3 days a week instead of 5. I will be changing my routine from fat burning to muscle building. And I will be changing my nutrition plan. I was eating down 5-6 days a week and eating to maintain 1-2 days. This month I will be eating up 3 days a week to build muscle and eating down the other 4 to lose fat. This will confuse my metabolism and prevent my hitting a plateau. It will also allow me to add lean muscle and lose body fat at the same time. It really won’t move the scale very much. I realize this probably isn’t the goal of most of my fellow participants, but I hope that it helps them by providing a visual of this very process. Many of you have expressed concerns that you are eating well and working out, but not seeing results on the scale. By this point, you should see why I am a big proponent of measuring your body fat percentage. If you don’t have the ability to measure that, then the next best thing is tape measurements. Because I guarantee you that the 4 pound loss from the example lost some serious inches from her body, maybe even a dress size. And that’s waaaay more motivating than a 4 pound loss. I hope it also takes some of the focus away from the number on the scale. For instance, you can be at an “appropriate” weight for your age, height, etc., but have a higher than healthy body fat percentage, and you won't look so great. But, you can be 20-30 pounds over your “appropriate” weight with a healthy body fat percentage and look amazing. This is because those charts do not take lean tissue into account. 18-22% body fat looks great on a woman, regardless of whether she weighs 118 or 180. Since the end goal is about being fit, healthy, and feeling good, that significantly broadens the spectrum beyond just scale weight. And this is the area in which I would like to help.

I would like to open a forum for questions. If you email me at SuccessLifestyle@gmail.com, I will respond to a few questions each week. Ask me about popular ideas you’ve heard but might not understand. Ask me why something works, or doesn’t. Ask me anything health, fitness, or nutrition related. I will try to answer the ones that I feel will benefit the most number of people. Hopefully we can start to dispel some of the myths that abound in the area of fitness and nutrition. Good luck to us all this month. New month, new challenge, let’s DO IT!!!