Are you hungry? Do you even know what real hunger is? I think it is safe to say most Americans do not know what "real" hunger is since food is readily available to everyone. Looking at the obesity epidemic proves this point. So who is to blame? The food industry with their fancy marketing? The overly processed foods that are easy to grab and eat? The rise is carbohydrate consumption? Lazy people? All of the above? Most likely yes all of the above.
However the only way to actually get fat is eating a caloric surplus.
So now you know your LBM and now want to know how many calories you burn daily. Well take that number and multiply it by 13-15. So if your lbm is 185 then you should burn around 2405 calories a day. That is your TDEE. TDEE is the amount calories your body burns in a 24 hour period, sleeping, working, exercising, playing and even digesting food. This means if you want to safely loose weight than you need to eat around 1900-2000 calories a day. (-500) Add in some exercise (anaerobic preferably...aka lift weights/body weight exercise ) and you have a nice deficit. If you would like a TDEE CALC here is a nice one as well http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/
If you are very overweight any non retarded diet will work. Find one that is best for you and by that i mean one you can stick to and causes a energy deficit. Change one thing at a time and add anaerobic and if you want just aerobic workouts (anaerobic is always better i will explain later) The best way to diet if you are a beginner is start with one thing and change it ...then move to the next. If you are all Gung Ho! and want to drop weight fast!!..... though ill lay out a plan for that too.
Easy Diet plans
First and the most simple of plans -
Calorie Counting
- First download Myfitnesspal or a different calorie counting app on your phone to make it easy
- Count all your calories and eat a -500 calorie deficit a day ...and exercise
There it is... simple ..meal timing is irrelevant. Could be 10 snacks or one giant meal ...does not matter when or how. Every week have one day where you eat a surplus of calories but do NOT exceed 750 calories over what your TDEE is . Which is for most people your LBM x13-15 (explained above) Now the reason for this "cheat day" is we are resetting your hormones (leptin mostly) so for reasons ill explain later try and make this day lower in fat and higher in carbs. If you like this style weight watchers is perfect for you.
Low-carb/High Protien Ketonic diet
What it is and how it works
- Basically Eating low carbohydrates will help your body turn into using fat for energy and switch your brain from using Glucose to Keytones produced by the liver. This can be the most effective of all the diets but adherence is tough if you are social and especially if you have a weakness for sweets or breads pastas etc.
- But you can have lots of great food Bacon avocados Steak cheese eggs
One day a week you can have carbs ...a lot of carbs actually but keep the fat low (the exact opposite of what the other 6 days of the week are ( you could start at 6pm Saturday and end this day Sunday night at 6 pm) that makes a 24 hour "Carb Refeed"
- You can have very harsh deficits with this diet because the fat will keep your Hormones (testosterone mostly) in check and the protien will have muscle sparring effects....Also with a large deficit (30-40%) you will need a full week diet break once every other month where you eat at maintenance or just above to reset your body's hormones and metabolism. Repeat this and you can get down to very low body fat. Also weight training will be very helpful with this diet.
Also a quick note by default Paleo will most the time fall into this category but the reason Paleo works in the first place is you are eating higher fat more satiating foods. This means you feel fuller and it makes it easier to eat a deficit. If your into that you need to know Mark Sissan Marks Daily Apple
A little more Advanced -
Cyclical Ketogenic Diet (CKD) Carb Cycling w/weight training
This is what i find the best and easiest to adhere to
- 3-4 days a week weight train (do cardio on you off days if you like)
- On your weight training days eat -10% or maintenance (LBMx13-15) Hi carb- Low fat 75/25 ratio high protien (ex your TDEE is 2400 you would eat 2160-2400 calories)
- On your off days eat 25/75 Carb to fat (or even lower...take your carbs as low as you can handle on off days) and eat at -30% of your normal (for example your TDEE is 2400 this day you consume 1680 calories)
For this to be the most effective you must train hard and do compound movements full body workouts (for more experienced lifters or if not start slow) Examples of what you should do Benchpress Squats Deadlift Pull-ups (weighted if possible) Millitary press, Dips (weighted if possible) Rows Lat puldowns. I could go on. (ask me if your curious)
This diet is nice because you get to have your carbs on training days but still get to have a calorie deficit for the week and a few days in the Low insulin state (Ketonic-low carb)
Don't like the sound of counting calories and weighing food????
Lucky you ...there are other diets that don't require it (but remember still must be a deficit)
Here is the thing....eating a deficit is miserable. For me at least. Constantly dwelling over food. Waiting for the next meal. Thinking there are good foods and bad foods. It just sucks and is not maintainable in the long term. The best diet is one you can stick to long term and not yo yo up and down. So if you can stick to a diet that involves counting calories forever than by all means do it. I cannot.
Fear not!!
What is the answer then?
Scheduled Eating AKA IF or Intermittent fasting
Well the answer for me was pretty simple. Remember the old saying "he could stand to skip a few meals" ? It turns out it was freaking genius actually. Doing just that is the simplest way to create a calorie deficit. All the latest research now points to skipping a few meals (or just breakfast Leangains style (http://www.leangains.com/) is the most popular) or an entire 24 hrs of meals once a week Eat stop Eat style (http://www.eatstopeat.com/) Is a sustainable pain free way to create a weekly calorie deficit.
Now feel free to read all of the ESE books or just Google Intermittitent fasting and you can learn all you want to know. If you are too lazy i will break it down for you here. And link a ton of different websites that all explain it even better than i can.
Why it works better than your standard diet :
Well it works only if you are eating a calorie deficit. Simple. You still don't get to binge and make up for the meal you missed or meals...However due to a few hormones in your body the longer you do it the easier it gets and more effective as well. You will learn what it is to really be hungry and will take control of your hunger instead of letting it control you. (as well as becoming more insulin sensitive and lowering the gherlin in your gut that makes you feel hungry)
Let me start with
Don't be afraid!!
Not eating for a day or even breakfast can be scary to some but if it wasn't safe they wouldn't have every single person that ever had surgery do it. Don't worry ...you will be fine.
I recommend starting slow and then push the limit ...start with waiting till 10 am for your first meal then try and push it off till 3-4 pm or even later if you can. Then when you go to a 16/8 schedule it will seem easy peasy.... If you can try and eat a high protein diet and follow any of the diets i mentioned above. Keep in mind this will still only work if you are eating a calorie deficit but a shorter window of eating will make this much easier to handle. Plus Hormones will be on your side since continued fasting actually tends to blunt hunger... give it a week or two and your body and hormones will be acclimated to the schedule.
Hormones that will help you loose weight. (if you really want to learn more just read this Detailed version of your hormones
First
- GHRELIN
This is the hormone in your stomach that signals to your brain that you are hungry ...now in the person that snacks all the time it will adjust to that schedule and tell your brain ...keep eating ...its been an hour ...where is my next snack?? So the hormone is abundant....this is a bad thing ...this is why the 6-8 meals a day thing is garbage and does not "Stoke" the metabolic fire...actually it just makes dieting a pain in the ass. Actually if you start to change your eating pattern to 2-3 or even 1-2 meals a day ...over a few weeks the hormone will decrease and you will feel less hungry. It is the body's way of adapting to this eating schedule. This will keep you from feeling hungry. Try it and see ....give it two weeks ...for me it only took a few days and by the first month i could go till 4-5 pm with little effort or discomfort/hunger.
Next is
- INSULIN
Insulin is the hormone that helps shuttle glycogen to your muscles and fat to your adipose tissue.
Many people who eat 3-8 meals a day only experience low levels of circulating insulin a few hours a day when they sleep. The longer that you are in a High insulin state the less insulin sensitive you become. Or the more insulin resistant (if you are really interested in how that works read this (http://www.marksdailyapple.com/fasting-weight-loss/#axzz2i6LJvODv)
Also insulin sensitivity will help when trying to build muscle because when you do eat carbohydrates it will help shuttle the glycogen into the muscles and since your receptors will be unregulated your insulin will be more effective at bringing nutrients to your muscles after a training session. Another reason anaerobic exercise is better than aerobic (lifting burns more glycogen than running and up regulates insulin and leptin receptors)
The Third and some would say most important hormone is
- LEPTIN
Leptin is the main reason for peoples YO YO effect on a diet. Leptin is very complicated and associated
with many functions in the body. To make it easy to understand Leptin monitors the energy balance of the body and when it senses a deficit it will lower to make you feel hungrier and even slow down your metabolism. Also when your body weight drops (via fat or muscle) your leptin drops right with it. Another intresting fact is leptin is only sensitive to carbohydrate intake and (to a small degree protien) is not effected by dietary fat. This is the reason why most diets incorperate "Cheat Days" or what should be Carb Refeeds In my opinion. That is all you really need to know other than how to regulate it and what effects Leptin ...If you want to understand more about Leptin (or all three hormones and lots of other stuff) i STRONGLY recommend reading "The Stubborn Fat solution" Lyle's Website
Catecholamines and GH
Also fasting also increases the output of Neoadrenaline and adreniline as well as Growth hormone which burns fat and preserves muscle. Which is an added bonus
Also if you really want to understand more than you ever wanted to know about leptin and how to change its set point ...Read this ...it is the most interesting article i have probly ever read and is very well presented and thought out
http://gettingstronger.org/2010/10/change-your-setpoint/
This is the main point of the article though
"One of the essential points to understand here is that if calorie restriction and intermittent fasting are effective, it is not for the reason that most people think explains this (that you are creating a calorie deficit). Rather, intense exercise and fasting work because they resensitize and grow your insulin and dopamine receptors in a way that allows you to get enough energy and pleasure from eating less food."
Now There are a few styles of Scheduled eating/Intermittent Fasting
Eat stop Eat style http://www.eatstopeat.com/
Leangains style 16/8 http://www.leangains.com/2010/04/leangains-guide.html
ADF http://thefastdiet.co.uk/
Warrior Diet (not a true fasting diet though) http://www.warriordiet.com/
Feel free to try any of them and Choose one you like. I would explain them in detail but i have a few links that will do a much better job than i can.
This already too long but here are my favorite websites about IF
John Romaniallo -Arnold Schwarzenegger personal trainer
http://www.romanfitnesssystems.com/blog/intermittent-fasting-101/
Mark Sissan Paleo guru and the head of the caveman movement
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/fasting-weight-loss/#axzz2iSviSflA
Dr.John M Berardi About John
http://www.precisionnutrition.com/intermittent-fasting
Andy Morgan (reddit superhero) He has done alot of work and has many results to prove it
http://rippedbody.jp/2011/10/08/leangains-intermittent-fasting-guide-how-to-do-it-by-yourself/
Thanks for reading and any questions feel free to Contact me
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