Weight Loss for the Average Joe

• Category: Journal, Research Lab
• Date: 3.3.10

I recently meet up with a guy looking to get fit. He’s overweight, and sick of it, but has no idea how to go about it in the right way. So many questions I’ve heard from other people, and I see him doing all the wrong stuff that idiot trainers have taught him at his gym, or useless nonsense he has picked up from watching the Biggest Loser.

Here’s one of my replies, outlined his problems, with my easy solutions…
I always skip breakfast.

Make sure you always have skim milk on hand, and grab yourself a low carb protein powder (really doesn’t matter which brand, just anything with minimal carbs, ie under 10 grams). In the morning, as soon as you wake up, before anything else throw half a banana, a glass of milk, and a scoop of protein in a blender and down it with any vitamins you take. then go about your normal business. it’ll take you all of 5 minutes, tops.

My portions way too large (especially at dinner).

Get yourself a water bottle. Don’t just buy any one either, find one that you actually like the look of, it’ll make you be proud to carry it around, trust me, this shit actually does matter haha. try and drink water all day long, never go without at least a gulp every hour. And when you feel like snacking on something, take a few big chugs. Lots of times we feel hungry but it’s actually thirst.

I’m not eating enough fruits.

Fruits are basically just sugar. Stay away from them. Only eat fruit in the am, and try to keep it to 2 pieces a day MAX. The half a banana in your morning shake is plenty, trust me. If you need an energy booster later on, or want a snack before lunch, eat an apple.

I eat way too many carbs, and barely any protein.

Get protein in EVERY meal, even snacks. If you’re eating a plate of veggies and beef, eat all the beef first, every ounce. Then down a glass of water, let it all settle, and then move to the rest of it. Meat is what we’ve lived on for 10,000 years, it should always be the main attraction of any meal.

I overeat (obviously).
All the other stuff I already said should take care of this. If you’re downing water all day you’ll be less hungry, so you’re less likely to gorge when you get to dinner. And by making sure you eat shit loads of protein, you’ll also stay full longer.

Lastly, it’s good to hear you’re doing weights. However lets get you doing it a bit different. Ideally aim to do cardio 2 times a week and weights 3.

When you do weights, don’t think of a full body workout as doing each body part separately and accumulating into a full body workout. Work your body as a whole unit. Pick exercises that make you feel worked/sore in more than one place at a time. Put a few isolation exercises together (grab some dumbbells and hold them at your sides, do 5 squats, then 10 lunges, then 10 curls, then 15 presses, rest 30 seconds then repeat). Your workouts will be shorter, but more effective.

Then for your cardio days, make sure you’re still doing intervals. Choose either a rower or a treadmill (or a skipping rope if you can skip, and actually, if you can’t skip, get a rope and start practicing, it’s amazing for you. use it as your warm up. just skip for 5-10 minutes, resting as needed before you start your weights). Then warm up for 5 minutes nice and easy, then go back and forth from high intensity to low. High intensity would be like running/sprinting, low would be a jog. Choose to go for a certain distance or time, and choose how many intervals you want to do before you start (no less than 5, ideally 10 working intervals). Do 100m sprints then 100m jog to rest, and repeat 10 times. Or 30 second sprint with 30 sec jog, etc.

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