It does not happen overnight and it shouldn't be the entire focus
This is where I think bodybuilding gets it right. Bodybuilders typically have an offseason where the goal is to gain as much muscle mass as possible. Now in order to gain muscle mass one must EAT because you need additional calories to sustain your body mass. Now if you're in a caloric surplus (which you must be in if you want to gain muscle mass) then you will add some body fat as well. The goal is to add as much lean mass as possible while not going overboard with the fat gain.
This is why people cannot maintain contest looks all year round. Well natural competitors and those without superior genetics cannot be shredded all year.
OK then we have the contest prep. This is where the goal is to lose as much body fat as possible while still maintaining as much muscle mass as possible.
This is where I am right now...in the valley of contest prep.
Since my coach actually knows what she is doing, the goal is to eat as much as possible and do as little cardio as possible in order to lose body fat.
Now for me as a first time competitor and with genetics that like to hold on to body fat, I have not been able to do a standard 12-18 week contest prep. I simply have not progressed at that rate and that is fine by me because from a physiological standpoint if we had gone at that rate this is what would have happened:
1. I would have had my calories cut way too low and I probably would have quit or went Silence of the Lambs on everyone
2. Say I would have survived my calories being cut to some ridiculous number, I would have lost fat all right and also lost muscle mass and looked stringy and skinny on stage. I would have looked terrible. Instead the idea is for me to lose the body fat and keep muscle mass so I look full onstage. I am not trying to look emaciated.
3. After the show I would have eaten everything in sight and had a rebound where you gain all the weight back and then some. This has actually been shown to be true in a study. In the book Good Calories/Bad Calories, Gary Taubes cites a study where men went on a diet of about 1200 calories a day while simulating World War 2 marches. Well afterwards the men gained all of the weight back plus some. I will be talking about this later on.
4. My metabolism would have slowed down because it adjusted to eating 1000 calories or however many paltry calories we cut down too. When I started eating normally again, my body will gain weight because it's used to surviving on 1000 calories and that's where it is set.
What I am doing is not SUSTAINABLE for long term fat loss. When this is over I'm not going to turn into Sherman Klump but I'm also not going to stay really lean. I'm going to eat to grow so I can get back up onstage again even better than before! Mmmhmmm cause I'm gonna do it again. But my goal will not be to eat all the things and gain a whole lot of fat. I have an exit strategy
How long will Sustainable Fat Loss Take?
Of course I need to preface this by saying everyone is different. Depending on your goal, genetics, training history (newbies will have more success), hormone levels, stress level, etc. it is all different.
Ok I want you to sit down for this one and if you're sitting down, then I want you to take a deep breath.
You need to give yourself 1 year to create a sustainable atmosphere to lose body fat.
There I said it.
I know that won't win me any fans in the realm of social media or advertising where people want to hear you can lose 50 lbs in 50 minutes if you buy my Multi Level Marketing Magic Beans or come to my bootcamp where we destroy your joints and pass out cookie cutter diets so that you can lose 20 lbs in 3 weeks!
I have clients who lose 20 lbs in one year and guess what baby...they haven't gained it back or rebounded. They have also started to lose cravings they have for sugar and other things and they are still making progress.
Sidenote: I can't wait to get my website and youtube channel coming this fall because I will be posting RECEIPTS of what I am talking about.
If you want SUSTAINABLE fat loss then you need to give yourself 1 year to achieve this goal.
Turn off the marketing scams, the BS sold to you by gyms who want to make a sale, and social media. Coach Scott Abel posted something so awesome on Facebook last week that I want to share with you.
Careful what you "think" you see on Fakebook. Every week somewhere someone is posting "awesome" before and after pictures of their transformation and thanking their "awesome" Coach as well, and everyone comes in "cooing and congratulating." Well first of all, you need to wonder how sustainable is that "after" picture you are all cooing over. And worse - to many of us in the know - these so-called "Coaches" are known to insiders as little more than sub-culture "drug-pushers" - not experts. Oh yes, your friend's B and A was "awesome and incredible" but are they telling you about the thyroid, the GH, the estrogen blockers, and the whole host of other pharmaceuticals used to get there, that their "awesome" Coach prescribes "if you want it bad enough" - I'm willing to bet THAT PART of the whole story is left out of the conversation. So as so many of you continue to coo and congratulate - many others in the know continue to shake our heads and realize this truth reflected in this industry -> "There are none so blind as those who have eyes, but just refuse to see."
He's so spot on. What you see on social media in large part isn't true. It's marketing and I would love to see the afters of these people in a year. I can tell you that within the Bodybuilding subculture on Instagram a lot of these people who get super shredded for their shows, rebound, and then become unrecognizable. It simply isn't sustainable.
Time to Get your Mind Right
1 year.
This is all about Commitment
Commit to 1 year of changing habits and lifestyle change instead of going for the quick fixes, going hardcore until you burn out, quitting, and then having to start all over again.
STOP THE MADNESS.
Tell yourself this is a PROCESS that will take TIME. You did not get where you are overnight and you're not going to leave it in 12 weeks or whatever other BS people try to sell you.
Tell yourself that you are going to stay with it and make changes little by little. Little by little changes add up to BIG changes later on down the line.
Be patient with yourself, celebrate small successes, and for PETE'S SAKE STOP FOCUSING ON ALL THAT IS WRONG AND BEGIN TO FOCUS ON THE SMALL VICTORIES AND STEP FORWARDS THAT YOU ARE MAKING!
While I'm on that tangent: Please have some fun while you're at it. You can enjoy your life while you're making lifestyle changes. That's why it is sustainable because you're going to do this for the rest of your life.
1 year. 12 months. The 12 week, 6 week, 8 week Bullcrap isn't working. Try something different. Commit to the PROCESS.
It works.
Happy Training!
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