The Real Goal of Weight Loss (Part II)

The real goal of any weight loss program should be to lose as much body fat as you can and not simply weight on the scale. If you are judging the success of your program by simply using how much weight you've lost on the scale, then you are missing out on the health benefits that go along with having a body fat percentage within proper ranges (21-24% for women and 14-17% for men).

There are many ways that you can determine your body fat percentage, and some are more accurate than others. This site gives you all of the different methods that are currently used with a write up on the pros and cons of each one. Personally, I use digital calipers and the free body fat calculator at www.mybodycomp.com to determine my body fat percentage. Now, before you rush to the website, let me warn you that the webmaster(s) there has not been keeping the site up to date and many people have reported errors trying to sign up for a free account. I like this calculator because it's the only one I've come across on the web that you have to input approximately 12 measurements to determine your body fat %. So, if you are able to sign up for an account, make sure to have a measuring tape handy. I plan on getting my body fat % tested using Hydrodensitometry Weighing (Underwater Weighing) and DEXA before the year is out. Of course I'll report my results here.

(*Update: mybodycomp.com is no longer available. Use shapefit.com or fitday.com)

To maximize your body fat loss and minimize losing your lean body mass (i.e., muscle), you need to focus on muscle building exercises and following a diet that causes your body to use more of its stored fat than muscle.

Guys, what I've found to be the ticket as far as muscle building exercises go is to perform compound exercises, which work more than one muscle group at time, using free weights and following a simple workout routine. Unless you are considering participating in the sport of bodybuilding, I suggest you drop all of the isolation exercises like tricep pushdowns or lat pull-downs and replace them with dips and pull-ups. Real men do dips and pull-ups as far as I'm concerned . . .

Learning how to properly bench press, squat, military press, and deadlift will take you a long way to getting the body you've always wanted. Also, I would drop the 3 sets of 10 reps that we've been taught since high school in favor or less reps, more sets (depending on your goals), and using heavier weights. A great book to understand this concept is Pavel's Power to the People.

As far as diet is concerned, there is no better one to follow than a low-carb diet, and no, I'm not talking about Atkins's version either. I follow a paleo-style, low-carb diet, and eat whole foods, not the processed low-carb junk food that many LC diet plans promote. However, I'm not a zealot about following a low-carb lifestyle, nor do I think it is the only diet that someone needs to follow to get lean. In losing and gaining weight, calories count more than the composition of the diet; but, to optimize the weight loss process and to have the majority of your lost weight be body fat, going paleo/low-carb (no more than 100g of carbs daily) is the best way to go. To those who are truly interested in why this is the case, there are three books that I suggest you read:

Ultimate Diet Secrets (Lite Version) by Dr. Gregory Ellis
Neanderthin by Ray Audette
Fat Loss Bible by Anthony Colpo

These three authors have had the greatest impact on my understanding the process of attaining a lean and sculpted body. They all clearly practice what they preach and don't make excuses for it. They are considered controversial, arrogant, and eccentric by many, and I would tend to agree. But, I could care less about that because they all focus on getting results! And that's what my blog is all about--achieving and maintaining results.

Next week, I'll address the often debated issue of what's more important in losing weight, counting calories, carbs, or fat consumed.

Are you scale-phobic?

Gentlemen,

I want to appeal to a less emotional and more rationale side of you today, OK? So, do me a favor and check your emotions at the door--thanks.

I know that many of you can identify with the idea of being scale-phobic. Surely you've experienced the sweaty palms of anticipation smacking against your belly as you steady yourself on the scale? Society would have us to believe that women are the only ones who dread getting on the scale, but this simply ain't true. Many men, especially those with dunlap disease, deplore the thought of having to be weighed when going for a physical.

Fellas, don't worry about how you've reacted in the past about the scale because today's a new day, and you're going to approach this with a different mind set this time. Yes, the scale can help to feed that negative voice of doubt you hear inside as you start on yet another weight loss journey; however, that's just one way of looking at it. You can also view it as simply one tool you'll use on your journey to determine if you're program is giving you measurable results.

As, I've said, there's no room to be emotional about the scale anymore because you're using your fear of the scale as a crutch to not be accountable to yourself. Listen, I weigh myself everyday; yes, I really do because how else will I get to know how my bodyweight fluctuates on a daily basis? How else will I hold myself accountable for pigging out (read: eating too many calories) on nuts and the ensuing, and inevitable, water weight gain that occurs? The scale, in many respects, keeps you honest and accountable.

Guys, if you don't have one, go out and get yourself a nice digital scale. Also, pick up a simple day planner to record your daily weight as you're on this journey. OK, I know that pen and paper sounds so 80s, so for the computer addicts you may consider using fitday or fittracker, which is an online diet journal with many free tools; however, before you start weighing yourself daily, I have some practical tips for you:

• your body weight fluctuates 1-5 lbs on a daily basis because of fluid retention. So, if you weigh 285 on Monday and 289 the next day, don't freak out and think that you've gained 4 lbs of fat because you haven't. It's OK, just keep following your program and recording your weight because you'll start to see that that the gaps will start to shift downward.
  
  
• to account for these fluctuations, determine your bodyweight on a weekly basis. Basically, weigh yourself everyday, add up a week's worth, and divide it by seven to get your weekly average. I would calculate my average weight each Saturday after I weighed myself. Do this for every week of the month, and then average the weeks out to get your monthly average.
  
  
• view the scale not as an enemy but as a valuable ally, companion, and tool on your weight loss journey. Along with a tape measure, body fat calipers, your clothes, and bathroom mirror, your scale is but one tool that will help you determine if your program is giving you the results you want.
  
  
• this is a methodical process and not an emotional one. View weighing yourself as emotional as you would watching paint dry on a door. Instead of being emotional, learn from the process. You'll start to get to know how your body reacts to certain nutritional situations (bottomless bowl night at the local Italian restaurant), stressful events (wifey wasn't working late after all), exercising, etc. In addition, you'll begin to see just how much control you actually have over your bodyweight.

No more lying, no more guesstimating, and no more fear! Go, get on the scale and write down the three numbers in your planner, close the planner, and move on with your day without giving how much you weighed a second thought. If you're too large to use a regular scale, go and find a place that would have a freight scale or go to your nearest recycling center. Approach that scale no differently.

Finally, be patient; it's going to take at least two to three months before things really become interesting, as you'll have more numbers to compare and contrast. The less emotional you are, the more enjoyable recording and charting your weight loss will be.

OK, so what's up with the pixs?

I think that it's worth explaining why I have so many pixs of me during my weight loss journey in my underwear. Since I had made up my mind that 2003 was going to be the year that I would literally get my weight under control, I figured that I needed more motivation this time. Going up and down with my weight had been a recurring theme for the last couple of years for me, and I felt that I was more than ready to make a sustainable change. So, what do we usually do when we need help fellas? Reach out to your homies, right? Well, I was just the average Joe Couch Potato, and I did just that.

My buddies and brother were more than happy to help me with not only their encouragement, but we would also start an online weight loss club! Since, I've always been more of a wannabe techie, I took on the job of building the website and setting up the forum. Since my cheap ass used a free service (thanks bravenet), it didn't take long to have our club up and running.

Everyone was pretty stoked about starting because we had all put on more weight than we were happy with and knew it was time for a change. There were six of us in the club, and the forums had many interesting conversations about water weight, experiences taking fat burners, which I was very interested in, to trying to get a six-pack. The ideas were being exchanged, and I had motivation that I hadn't felt in sometime. So, I was the first one to recommend that we all post a before shot of ourselves; however, I told them that they should be like men and take it without their shirts.

Hey, I can't throw down the gauntlet like that and not be the first one to upload my pixs even though my girlfriend--at the time--told me not to because "they're going to laugh at you." I knew she was right, but I was over 300lbs., and I needed something to motivate my fat ass to stay the course. So, I hit the send button and sent these pixs:

I was 296lbs when I took these pixs; I didn't have the nerve to send pixs of me when I was part of the 300lb. club. What stands out most in my mind while looking at these pixs is that I really did not think I was that fat. I think that I, like many of you guys, have been so use to being overweight that you really have a distorted view of your body size or just how large you really are. I thought that I was just a Big Boy or a Big Dawg that needed to eat a man's size portion. Hell, I took pride in wearing XXL because I didn't want to be skinny, I would tell myself.

Well fellas, I hate to tell you this, but if you're wearing a size 46+ pants size and/or haven't seen your Willy in a while when you take a leak, then let me assure you, without ever laying eyes on your naked body, that you're fat and you have a lot of body fat to lose. So, stop flexing your man boobs and chunky arms imagining that you're buff because you're not! But, that's OK for right now, just stop kidding yourself and start a more honest relationship with yourself.

I know I did, and it started the minute I uploaded my pixs to the website. Like my girlfriend predicted, I'm sure they laughed at me behind their monitors, thinking, "Shit, there's no way in hell I'm going to do that!". Yeah, and no one else posted a pix to our online club, which, as you can imagine, didn't last too long after I was left hanging.

Nevertheless, what I didn't plan on being a side effect from being dissed by my homies, and even my own brother, is that it made me realize, "Damn dude you're on your own!". Throughout your weight loss journey guys, you are going to be alone, so start to mentally prepare yourself for this.