Rapid but sustained weight loss
- 1 month, 1 stone, 1 concerted effort
Let’s find out what is necessary to achieve this. If we assume 30 days to a month, then we need to lose about 5 pounds every 10 days (about 2 kg or 15 pounds in 30 days, or 0.5 pounds per day, or more than 3 pounds per week).
I’m going to take an imaginary man and woman and put some numbers on them, showing you how to do it yourself if you are different from my examples.
If we assume that there are about 3,500 calories in a pound of fat, then you need to create a deficit of at least 11,500 calories each week if you want to lose those 3 pounds (3,500 x 14 pounds = 49,000 calories).
If we then break it down into each day, that’s a daily deficit of around 1600 calories.
Now, let’s find out how much energy it costs to keep living:
I will take 3 men and 3 women.
Male 1
- 70kg -11 ° 0.3lb – 154.3lbs
- Energy Cals (Range) 1,918 – 3,036
Male 2
- 80kg – 12 ° 8.4lb – 176.4lbs
- Energy Cals (Range) 2038 – 3226
Man 3
- 90kg – 14 ° 2.4lb – 198.4lbs
- Energy Cals (Range) 2158 – 3416
Woman 1
- 60 kg – 9º 6.3 lb – 132.3 lb
- Energy Cals (Range) 1598 – 2531
Woman 2
- 70kg -11 ° 0.3lb – 154.3lbs
- Energy Cals (Range) – 1,718 – 2,721
Woman 3
- 80kg – 12 ° 8.4lb – 176.4lbs
- Energy Cals (Range) – 1,838 – 2,911
Notes: The ranges shown for daily calorie expenditure depend on activity level, from sedentary (think of an office worker who drives to work and does little or no exercise) to very active (someone who has a job that involves several hours of manual labor per day). day, or exercise for more than 90 minutes at a high intensity / consistently high heart rate each day).
These imaginary figures are based on someone who is approximately 170cm tall, mid 30s, and are used for illustrative purposes only, the principles behind the practices here are valid, you just need to customize the practices to your situation. These are estimates only and will vary from person to person, to find out more precisely you need to get your own starting figures. You can do this using the calculators found at calorieperhour.com. Use the BMR and RMR calculations for a rough starting point, then use the practices here to modify the numbers based on real-world results.
So you can see that for a 60 kg woman, who is not very active or sedentary, this would basically mean not eating at all, for about a month!
For whom is this? However, the thing is, a 60kg woman doesn’t really need to lose 14lbs (about 6kg) or more than 10% of her body weight, so we’re not really looking after this person. What we should be looking at is the upper end of the scale. That’s where the big weight loss numbers really come in handy.
If, for example, we look at the 90 kg man, even a sedentary person could cut more than 1000 calories from their daily intake, provided they do so with the right foods. I’ll get to that in a moment.
First, let’s take a brief look at the 3 factors that will make this massive calorie reduction possible.
- Intermittent fasting
- Eat high protein, low fat, low carb.
- Do only high intensity weights and very low intensity cardio.
Now let’s expand each of them so you can create your own plan.
1: intermittent fasting
Intermittent fasting (the Leangains version) is a simple approach to fueling the body. You divide the day into two phases, an eating phase and a no-eating phase. The feeding phase lasts about 8 hours, so the fasting phase lasts about 16 hours. This does not mean that you eat for the entire 8 hour block!
There are two key aspects of IF that make it work for you when it comes to massive weight loss.
1: Each day is divided, physiologically, into two distinct phases, each of which supports your fat loss goal. These two phases are an anabolic, or tissue building phase, and a fat burning or energy breakdown phase.
2: Using IF makes it much easier to cut calories than traditional diets.
I don’t need to go into more detail about the IF lifestyle, because you can read the two posts on my website (address at the bottom, look in the intermittent fasting category ‘Intermittent Fasting Guide and Results’ and’ Training to lose fat ‘) that tell the full story, suffice it to say that if you want your weight loss to be as painless and effective as possible, you should probably be doing some kind of IF.
2: Eat High Protein, Low Fat, Low Carb
In his excellent set of articles on designing a diet to lose fat, Lyle MacDonald talks about how to prepare things from scratch, rather than from the top. What what? Well, what we’ve done here is start with a weight loss goal, which is the top or end point, and then we work backwards to figure out what we need to do. In those articles, Lyle takes a slightly different approach and finds out what he needs physiologically, and then puts those numbers on a diet, to see what comes out in the end. Here, we’re going to use part of that approach – setting your protein intake – to give you a starting point in determining your foods.
How much food do you need?
Or more specifically, how much protein should you consume at each meal? Well, we can give two answers to that question, the best answer is the one that makes you feel calmer. The quick answer is ‘many’. The more specific answer is solved as follows; Start at a level of about 1g / lb of body weight and divide it into your two to three meals, then adjust for lean tissue and strength drops and hunger / satiety levels. So if you find your strength decreasing and your muscle leaving your body, you need to add more protein, and if you are hungry between meals or not satisfied with a meal, add more protein!
What foods can I eat?
I have put together a list of foods that will work while you eat to lose fat massively. You can download it from my website, via the link at the bottom. One thing I constantly encounter is a complete lack of hunger and feelings of deprivation when on this type of diet, and this shouldn’t be surprising given the wide variety of foods on offer here. One thing you will notice is the complete lack of liquid foods / meal replacement powders / protein drinks. This is deliberate; they do not provide satiety or satisfaction, and they do not offer many opportunities for long-term diet adherence. As Martin Berkhan says, ‘don’t drink your calories’.
Why high protein, low fat, low carb?
A couple of reasons; 1, you want to keep calories as low as possible, as easily as possible. 2, Protein plus lots of bulky but low-carb foods provides the easiest way to feel full, satisfied, and happy by cutting calories.
3: Do only high intensity weights and very low intensity cardio
Each of the three components in this weight loss plan is equally important, so you better find a way to include this part! Just ask yourself if it’s worth jeopardizing the whole plan by missing a few simple exercises.
Why start with a statement like that?
Because it is too easy for many people to go back to the old ways of ‘exercising to lose weight’.
What you NEED to do is heavy weights, with low reps and using movements as big as possible. Remember, heavy weights are totally specific to each individual, and the actual number / weight is irrelevant, the important thing is that you lift to YOUR capacity and learn to lift fully at your capacity. For those of you who have barely lifted weights before, that means learning what a max effort lift feels like, AND expecting that max to rise quickly as you learn to get more and more out of yourself.
The best thing about this program is that it is really simple. Take the following exercises and twist them:
- Squatting
- Dumbbell press, bench press, or bodyweight dips
- Dumbbell or barbell shoulder press
- Lat pulldown, pullup, seated or bent over bar / dumbbell row
- Dead weight.
Your rotation is simple: do 3 weeks of 5 sets of 4-6 reps (5×5 style routine) and then 3 weeks of 3 sets of 9-12 reps (3×10 style routine). Every time you hit the higher rep range, you increase the weight. Only after 10-14 weeks do you need to rest (but if you’ve already been exercising consistently for more than 12 weeks, you should take a full week off at this time, unless your goal is within 12 weeks of starting of your program, in which case, you will rest at the end of that!)
If you don’t know how to do these exercises, you can get instructions from a competent trainer (you can find out if they are good at observing how they get you moving and focus on the exercises you are learning, if they do). to do their exercises like the ones done in the instructional videos, you can be sure they know what they are doing), or you can watch the myriad of videos on YouTube and discover your own way.