Index
- Have a structure and monitor progress
- Being Consistent is better than intensity
- Don’t waste money on fat loss products
- Stop comparing yourself to others and be grateful for your journey
- References
1. Have a structure and monitor progress
Having a structure can help you immensely when you start to lose body weight. Simply by planning what food to eat, planning what days you will go gym and what exercises to do, will make it easier to adhere to your goals.
Having a structure will help you be clear with your goals. You will find there will be days when you are tired or stressed from daily life and it’s those days when having a structure will help you stay focused. For example, planning to go gym on Monday, Wednesday and Friday straight after work, will be easy for you to remember and easy to stick to. However, if you just tell yourself you plan on going to the gym 3 days per week, you might keep putting it off because you feel tired and find the weeks goes by and you have only been to the gym once.
Monitoring progress is also important to help you stay motivated and to let you know you are on the right track. The best ways to do this are to weigh yourself every 2-3 weeks and to take pictures monthly.
I say to weigh yourself every 3 weeks because doing it daily or weekly might drive you insane as there a many factors that can influence your weight daily. In fact, short-term weight fluctuations are primarily driven by water retention or water loss (Greg Nuckols 2017). For these reasons, if you’re interested in tracking your weight change, it’s important to pay more attention to trends rather than day-to-day fluctuations (Greg Nuckols 2017). Consistently checking you weight daily can also make you neurotic and demotivate you, especially when you see you’ve gained weight (even thou it might be water retention). Hence just generally it better to weight yourself every 2-3 weeks when you begin to lose fat.
Taking picture of myself is something I wish I had done at the beginning. I didn’t because I didn’t want anyone to see and hated the way I looked. That being said I could have easily taken them and uploaded them on my computer, so only I could view them! Noticing the change in how your body transforms will massively help motivate you and also its helps to see how much weight you lose. Remember you don’t have to show anyone, just take the picture to help motivate you and see your transformation. When taking photos remember to take them during the same time of the day (ideally after waking up and using the bathroom), and take photos under the same lighting.
Another simple way to monitor progress (although less specific) is to look at your clothes every 4-6 weeks and see if they are looser on you after you wear them.
So to conclude this part, at the start of each week, plan what days you will work out and what you will eat every day. If possible prepare meals every 3-5 day. Then review your weight on scales via picture every 3-4 weeks.
2. Being Consistent is better than intensity
Trying to lose body fat and change your life in 30 days by drastic dieting is never a helpful solution. Sure you might get results, but what happens after the 30 days. Will you continue to do crazy diets for the rest of your life?
A better solution is slowly implement better habits as I mentioned earlier. This will help you not only lose weight but create a more sustainable routine and you will enjoy it more. Plus in the long run, you are more likely to keep the weight off and its more likely you won’t quit.
So keep putting in the effort and keep showing up. The results will follow I promise If your putting in the hard work and be patient. Being patient is probably the most key lesson I learnt whilst losing weight.
Be patient, don’t fall the 30 day gimmicks to lose fat fast gimmicks.
I initially personally gave myself 30 days minimum to lose some body fat and if I didn’t then I would review my diet and routine. I know I wasn’t very specific but after 30 days I weighed myself and I found myself lose 2kg and this gave me motivation to carry one. Furthermore, I felt better about myself and felt fitter as I went to the gym and went dance classes
“Think progress, not perfection”-Ryan Holiday
3. Don’t waste money on fat loss products
There are so many products claiming to help lose fat. Most of them are promoted by fitness “experts” and trainers. Here’s the thing.
They are a WASTE OF MONEY and most of them are B*LLSH*T.
Most supplements now use the power of social media by getting people to promote their products. Half of these products are just gimmicks and the chances are the people promoting them haven’t even used the products.
No supplement, detox tea or fat loss shake will help you lose weight if you’re not in a calorific deficit.
It’s really that simple but it’s easy to fall for products when they are sold by people with a shredded physique and promise fast results.
I personally tried fat burner tablets and a certain “nutritional” shake when a friend recommended them because he saw a certain personal trainer on social media promote them. At the time I was on a calorific deficit and hence I fooled myself into thinking they worked. After when I stopped being in a calorific deficit they had no effect on me.
If you aren’t convince and do want to buy some, really make sure you find evidence for them and really question the person that tries to sell them to you. Just because they have protein and vitamins in them doesn’t mean they work. You can get vitamins and protein in chocolate these days!! Your better of using the money to buy nutrient dense food (or even hiring a coach who knows what they’re are talking about)
4. Stop comparing yourself to others and be grateful for your journey
Finally, you many think comparing yourself to others progress is a good idea. Yes sure, it can tell you what you can achieve and might motivate you BUT the thing you don’t know the persons circumstances. Maybe they have been training for years in the past or maybe they take drugs.
I’ve actually seen many online transformations which are completely staged. The individual would purposely take bad before pictures and gain weight. Then the individual would lose the weight over 30 days. But the thing is they have been training for years in the past and hence they have already developed more muscle mass than most people who have never been to the gym before. So it will look like they gained a lot of muscle in the picture but it was actually all there under the body fat.
By comparing yourself you rob the opportunity for you be grateful on how far YOU have come.
There’s no point losing weight if you don’t appreciate it.
I did this several times, where I compared myself to people on Instagram who have lost weight, and honestly it only makes you feel sh*t.
If you really want to find motivation, then compare a picture of yourself from when you start training to after 4 weeks later. Start monitoring your strength levels from when you start training to after 4 weeks later. Appreciate the strength gains you get, and try and see if you can push yourself harder to get stronger.
Truth is I wish I did this when I first started losing weight. Even after I lost 20kg I wasn’t very happy, as I was still comparing myself to others. This was when I started using a gratitude journal to start writing down what I was grateful for in terms of my training and my fat loss journey.
Be grateful for every little step you take forward, whether that be going to the gym when you don’t feel like it or choosing to not to eat cake and opt for fruit instead at a birthday party.
And remember instead of focusing on other people, focus on the person you become during this process of losing weight: a person who is determined, persistent and who doesn’t give up on their goals.
The goal should be to focus on your OWN growth and ENJOYING the process.
5. References
- Greg Nuckols (2017). Calories and Weight: From the Lab to the Real World. Mass. Volume 2, Issue 1.
Thank you for reading Part 3. Please feel free to contact me for information via my website or Instagram.