Monthly Archives: June 2015

6 Habits of Successful Long-Term Dieters

Today’s guest post comes from strength coach, Eric Bach.

EricBach

Lets kicks things off with the hard truth:

Fat loss diets suck.

You’re literally flipping off your bodies cravings. Plus, there’s that whole extraordinary willpower, dedication, and responsibility thing needed to to be successful.

Well, I’m here to make things a bit easier for you.

I’m here to simplify the process and give you the tools to become more aware.

In return, better awareness will help you throw that last piece of pizza at your roommate instead of down your throat. You’ll be able to turn down your patented Vodka Red-Bull, and make some meaningful progress towards fat loss without hating life.

Yes, there will be sacrifices, but all great things require you to make the tough choices.

Let’s dig into six habits that have helped my clients collectively lose 1,000’s of pounds and keep it off.

 

1)    Start Cooking

ChefArnold Eating healthy is expensive, I get it.

But so is neglecting your health for a gluttonous barrage of refined sugars, dyes, trans-fats, and hidden calorie bombs at restaurants.

Make the sacrifice of convenience and learn to cook. Take this weekend and find your local farmers market here, prepare double portions, and seal them away in Tupperware for future convenient meals.

Plus, mastering 3-5 awesome meals should be a perquisite to your adulthood and getting laid.

Bottom Line: Learn to cook. You’ll make healthier choices, save cash, and impress your next date.

Check out these awesome resources for recipes and quick tips on cooking:

Four Hour Chef

Gourmet Nutrition Cookbook

 

2) Trade Starches For Greens Early in Your Day

VeggiesRaise your hand if you eat 10-12 servings of vegetables per day.

….

That’s what I figured, my hand is down too.

Rarely does anyone get enough vegetables into their diet. Thus,the first step is replacing starches like grains, rice, potatoes etc. with vegetables during the first few meals of the day. This strategy works whether you’re follows an intermittent fasting approach, eats 6 meals per day, or following IIFYM approach.

My reasoning is this:

First, taking most starchy carbohydrate sources out during the early day keeps calories lower. Plus, most of us tend to overeat at night as a way of relaxing and socializing. Keeping carbs lower during the day minimizes the damage without crushing your lifestyle to the point you quit a diet.

Second, keeping carbohydrate intake lower during most of the day will improve insulin sensitivity over time. Better insulin sensitivity leads to better nutrient partitioning, helping you look better naked. Nuff’ said.

Third, overall health and digestion will improve. If you’re body isn’t healthy, it’s not going to function optimally whether you’re chasing a new PR, six-pack, or a scholarship.

This doesn’t need to be indefinite, but try it for a week. Either continue on the same plan or add some starches back in as needed to support training, while keeping your greens constant.

 

3) Try Fasting (On Occasion)

IMFBefore you draw your IIFYM or Paleo sword, I want to be clear: I’m no slave to particular nutritional dogma. They all have their place.

That said, I’ve found great results with periodic bouts of fasting to stimulate fat loss. Without going into the depths of science, intermittent fasting requires taking periods of 12-16+ hour periods without eating or drinking calories. Then, use the remaining hours of the day as feeding window.

The reasoning is simple:

If you eat less often, it’s tougher to overshoot your baseline calorie goals, making it more practical to stay under maintenance calories for fat loss.

But that’s not it.

I find the best part of intermittent fasting to be the awareness you gain.

Are you craving food or physiologically starving?

With fasting, you’ll dial into true hunger signals for better self-awareness, restrict your calories to hammer fat loss, and improve digestive health by giving your gut a rest from constant feedings.

Fasting forces you to be disciplined and more in-tune with your true hunger signals, instead of just cravings.

If you haven’t given fasting a try, start by taking 12 hours between your dinner on one night and your first meal on the following night. Only drink water, tea, and coffee between. No, your #gainz won’t disappear, but you’ll gain better control of your bodies true hunger signals.

 

4) Carb Cycling

Carb-CyclingPicture This: It’s early fall and Saturday, about noon. College football season has arrived. You’re at your local alumni sports bar with your buddies. Everyone’s ordering, microbrews, nachos, chicken wings, and fries. Food galore, a gluttonous paradise if you will.

The waitress makes her way to you, what do you do?

Carb cycling takes care of the question for you. Eat based on your activity levels for the day.

Carb cycling is as easy as it sounds: Eat more pizza carbohydrates on weight training days (high carb), and keep carbohydrates lower on off/conditioning only training days.

Why High Carb Days Work: Due to the repeated muscle contractions of resistance training your body will have an increased insulin sensitivity. With this increased response to carbs your body will drive nutrients into your muscle cells, aiding them in repair, growing them, and providing you with more energy.

Why Low Carb Days Work: On the non-lifting days you keep carbohydrates low because there isn’t the same increase in insulin sensitivity. Without carbs flowing through the bloodstream the body is forced to burn stored fuel, or body fat. By minimizing carbs a few days per week the body becomes more receptive to insulin, so when you do indulge on the sugary goodness your anabolic response is maximized.

 

5) Track Calories

Calorie-Counting-TipsBlasphemy, I know.

Tracking calories is far from an exact science. Foods are mislabeled, food quality alters the vitamin and mineral content, and tracking is be a huge pain in the ass.

That said, it’s still good for one big reason: Self-awareness.

The biggest benefit to tracking calories is the awareness of your current intake, where you have nutritional gaps, and whether you’re near your caloric goals.

I don’t track calories ad-nasueam and neither do my clients. Instead, we have periodic check-ins a few times per month to see whether their actually getting close to where their numbers are.

If you’re already tracking calories, awesome for you. You’re more disciplined in that realm than I am.

If not? Then start. It doesn’t need to be every day, but for the first week of your diet and twice per week after you start make counting calories a priority.

 

6) Focus On Just One Thing

target-flip2I know what it’s like to read an article with an awesome program or tips and immediately drop everything I had been doing, just do to that program.

And you know what?

It fails, every single time.

Picking any of the five habits above will make a big difference in your dieting success, but picking them all is a sure way to fail.

Pick one. Just one. And do it daily. For two whole weeks, until it becomes automatic, and then build on it. The change might seem small now, but small victories lead to big changes. After all, one pound of fat-loss per week seems small, but on a macro-scale 52 pounds of fat loss in a year is incredible.

 

You Know What to Do. Now do it.

Like any goal, there is more than one path to your final destination.

In regards to fat-loss, the main tenants will always be the same:

A caloric deficit, healthy food options to optimize your body functions, and consistently kicking ass in the gym.

Plateaus are bound to happen, but that’s why we’re here to kick them down.

Pick a habit above and hammer it for the next few weeks. If that’s working, great keep it up and add something else. Long-term dieting is about making change manageable and part of your life. Choose wisely, stay disciplined, and reap the rewards of your labor.

About the Author:

Check out Eric’s free ebook to build athletic muscle and dominate the front squat on his blog. Eric Bach, CSCS, is a Strength Coach Denver, Colorado where he helps Pros improve their game and Joes look better naked with high performance coaching. He loves Wisconsin Football, #gainz, and mixing his creatine with espresso.

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Good Fitness Reads of the Week: 6/28/2015

I hope you’re enjoying your weekend! It’s been a busy week with work and training.

alexviadaseminar

I had the pleasure of rounding out the week attending an awesome seminar put on by Alex Viada, An Introduction to Applied Hybrid Training Methodology, at Cressey Sports Performance.

Let’s get caught up on all the great fitness info from the past week!

Strength Tips & Training Videos

 

 Recommended Reading

  1. Fat Loss Made Easy: How to Go to Parties and NOT Blow Your Progress via Jordan Syatt
  2. 7 Secrets of Exercise Selection via Menno Henselmans, Jason Maxwell
  3. 100 Fat Loss Tips for Summer: Part I via Garrett Nicole Wood
  4. Training and Nutrition for Fat Loss: The Ultimate Fat Loss Guide via Jordan Syatt
  5. Copper via Examine.com
  6. Why Third Place is the New First via Peter Dupuis
  7. 8 Deadly Foods You Should Definitely Start Eating … TODAY – Healthy Living, Heavy Lifting via Mike Samuels
  8. 100 Fat Loss Tips for Summer: Part II via Garrett Nicole Wood
  9. 3 Ways to Create Context for More Effective Coaching via Tony Bonvechio, Eric Cressey
  10. The Trainer-Client Relationship via Tony Gentilcore
  11. Performance U. Fitness Continuing Education via Nick Tumminello
  12. 10 Evidence-Based Health Benefits of Whey Protein via Authority Nutrition
  13. Supplements, what works, what doesn’t via Anthony Dexemier
  14. How To Use Your Lats in the Bench Press: A quick tip that will change how you bench press forever via Adam Pine
  15. How important is psychological stress for your gains? via Fredrik Tonstad Vårvik, Bret Contreras
“Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.”
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Good Fitness Reads of the Week: 6/21/2015

I hope you’re enjoying your Father’s Day weekend!

Here’s this week’s latest Good Fitness Reads of the Week. This week is packed with a new Client Highlight, Strength Tips, training videos, my latest article and articles by others.

Enjoy!

New Blog Post

DL_NJ_BWSimplifying Your Squat, Bench & Deadlift

Over-thinking, over-complicating, over-coaching a movement kills speed and strength.

Lifting weights doesn’t need to be complicated.

Find out how you can simplify things to move more efficiently and explosively.

Client Highlight

My good friend and client, Greg has been training hard and killing it this training cycle. His hard work’s paying off and he’s making all his weights look easy.

I expect we’ll be seeing a bunch of PR’s in the next couple weeks!

Here he is smashing a 505lb deadlift!

Follow along on Istagram @gregboumil

Strength Tips & Training Videos

 

 

BTN Press @ 330 @titanbarbell @b_dimez @polarseltzer #press #X #powerlifting

A video posted by Adam Pine (@adamnpine) on

Recommended Reading

  1. Degeneration? More Like Normal Aging – Bret Contreras via Bret Contreras
  2. 5 Ways to Create A Meal Plan Your Clients Will Actually Follow via Mike Samuels, The PTDC
  3. Simplifying Your Squat, Bench & Deadlift via Adam Pine
  4. The Cardio Vs. Weights Cheat Sheet via James Fell
  5. Do What You Dream via Garrett Nicole Wood
  6. Artificial sweeteners – Is the evidence as sweet as these substitutes?  via Examine.com
  7. The Many Problems With Personal Training Certifications via Jon Goodman, The PTDC
  8. Four Exercises To Eliminate Lower Back Pain via Matt Ibrahim, Lift Big Eat Big
  9. Respect Your Elders – Especially If They’re Jacked via Jason Helmes, Bryan Krahn
  10. Best Exercise In Ever: Reactive Stability Drops via Dean Somerset
  11. 3 Tips for Improving Your Back to Wall Shoulder Flexion via Eric Cressey
  12. I Encourage You To Fail via Tony Gentilcore
  13. 4 Things I Learned From Going Old School via Rog Law
  14. How to Get Better at Anything via Dan John
  15. Here’s My Complete 10-Minute Squat Tutorial (Yea, It’s Free) via Jordan Syatt
“A goal without a plan is just a wish.”
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