I've lost about 10 pounds since the end of October which is a good deal for me since I'm the kind of person who gains weight easily, but doesn't lose it so easily. The loss of the 10 pounds appears to have cut my body fat percentage down a good bit, and fortunately most of the weight has come off my gut which is where my body usually stores fat the most.
So I've done a few things to lose weight and most of them may seem like common sense stuff, but not necessarily things everyone does in their day to day lives. Also I want to say that there can be a lot of bad info and advice given amongst powerlifters and body builders. A lot of guys will tell you to get strong and put on muscle you got to eat like a madman and go for broke and stuff your face in pursuit of putting on mass. Sure I know "bulking" can be necessary for some guys in order to put on the kind of mass they want to achieve, but just telling a guy to eat as much as he wants and to stuff his face with bacon cheeseburgers and wash it down with whole milk isn't exactly great advice.
Some guys start out with a super scrawny and bony frame with little to no fat, so in their case advice like GOMAD (gallon of milk a day) makes sense, but for other guys this will just cause them to get fat, or be really strong and have big muscles but also a fat gut.
So what are some of my tips that have worked for me? First and foremost read labels on nutritional value, and cut back heavily on sugar, especially sugary drinks. There is a brand of canned and bottled yerba mate tea that I would drink one of just about every day, I assumed because it was natural and organic it was good for me, but I was neglecting to realize that it had 26 grams of sugar per bottle.
I was also very guilty of drinking lots of Odwalla juice drinks thinking they were natural and healthy, but when in reality once I started to read the labels I figured out a lot of them have upwards of 50 grams of sugar. So after I drink a yerba mate, an Odwalla drink, and another drink, I've almost hit 100 grams of sugar for the day. Once I started reading the labels on sugar content, I stopped buying so many juice drinks, and other bottled drinks with high sugar content.
The next thing I did which pretty much everyone knows, but few adhere to is I've tried to make an effort to cut back on carbs, especially after 5 pm, but I will admit that this has been an ongoing challenge and while I've cut back on carbs I haven't been able to cut them out completely. Now my focus is carbs at breakfast or lunch, and then a high quality protein source at dinner with mostly veggies on the side. Carbs are one of the biggest reasons why people gain weight and keep their weight.
Next I stepped up cardio big time, and I think powerlifter types disregard and downplay cardio way too much. Now I will say cardio just like your diet can vary a lot from person to person and their body type, a scrawny guy with no mass probably can skip a lot of cardio and just focus on eating and lifting heavy, but for guys who stack on body fat easily, cardio is a must.
I went from 10 minutes of a slow pace on the eliptical for my cardio warm up to a faster more swift 20 minutes before I lift, I also try to attend 2 Muay Thai classes a week, and do one pool session of 12-15 laps.
Another thing that I did which I feel had made a big difference is tried to make an effort to eat dinner early, and for me early usually means before 7:30 since I am used to eating later around 8-9 pm. It should be pretty obvious that the earlier you eat, the more time your body has to digest your food, so you're not going to bed with a full bloated stomach, only to sleep all night and not do anything to burn off that food.
I also used to force myself to eat huge portions and if I went out to eat or got take out mentally I believed that I had to finish the entire meal. That is a very stupid and unhealthy mentality, now I eat till I am full and either toss the last bit or take the rest home to finish off later, instead of forcing myself to eat those last 4-5 bites of food once my stomach is telling my brain that it's full.
Finally I started taking my apple cider vinegar tablets again, after I pretty much stopped taking all my supplements for 6 months. The ACV is advertised as aiding in digestion, boost metabolism, and to reduce the body's storage of fat. I can't say how much it has been an X factor in itself, but I'm sure it's aided the process.
I was the heaviest I've probably ever been at the end of October and was 198, still had some muscle from lifting, but had slacked off hardcore all summer and was in an LTR and kind of got lazy and let myself go, all while pigging out on carbs, and indulging in all kind of sweets and treats. My gut was definitely a decent size and popped out in proportion to the rest of my body. Now I'm down to 188, but have gone up on all my lifts and am almost back to where I was when I was going hard at the gym before getting lazy and slacking off.
I'm just about 5 ft. 11 exactly on the dot and my goal now is to get down to about 180-185 with really low body fat % and hopefully visible abs for the first time since entering high school. Then maybe going hard as fuck on the weights and getting back up to around 190, but being yoked and shredded as fuck... That is the ideal and the goal, maybe I will backslide, but for now I feel like I'm on the right path.
I will finish with saying that I think so much of sculpting the human body depends on each unique individual and their unique genetics. The advice that will be spot on for the scrawny lanky skinny guy, will be horrible for the shorter stockier guy who puts on a gut easily. The best thing to do is figure out what kind of body type you have, what your strengths and weakness are, and then experiment and tinker with your diet and workouts to come up with a recipe that is the best for you.
So I've done a few things to lose weight and most of them may seem like common sense stuff, but not necessarily things everyone does in their day to day lives. Also I want to say that there can be a lot of bad info and advice given amongst powerlifters and body builders. A lot of guys will tell you to get strong and put on muscle you got to eat like a madman and go for broke and stuff your face in pursuit of putting on mass. Sure I know "bulking" can be necessary for some guys in order to put on the kind of mass they want to achieve, but just telling a guy to eat as much as he wants and to stuff his face with bacon cheeseburgers and wash it down with whole milk isn't exactly great advice.
Some guys start out with a super scrawny and bony frame with little to no fat, so in their case advice like GOMAD (gallon of milk a day) makes sense, but for other guys this will just cause them to get fat, or be really strong and have big muscles but also a fat gut.
So what are some of my tips that have worked for me? First and foremost read labels on nutritional value, and cut back heavily on sugar, especially sugary drinks. There is a brand of canned and bottled yerba mate tea that I would drink one of just about every day, I assumed because it was natural and organic it was good for me, but I was neglecting to realize that it had 26 grams of sugar per bottle.
I was also very guilty of drinking lots of Odwalla juice drinks thinking they were natural and healthy, but when in reality once I started to read the labels I figured out a lot of them have upwards of 50 grams of sugar. So after I drink a yerba mate, an Odwalla drink, and another drink, I've almost hit 100 grams of sugar for the day. Once I started reading the labels on sugar content, I stopped buying so many juice drinks, and other bottled drinks with high sugar content.
The next thing I did which pretty much everyone knows, but few adhere to is I've tried to make an effort to cut back on carbs, especially after 5 pm, but I will admit that this has been an ongoing challenge and while I've cut back on carbs I haven't been able to cut them out completely. Now my focus is carbs at breakfast or lunch, and then a high quality protein source at dinner with mostly veggies on the side. Carbs are one of the biggest reasons why people gain weight and keep their weight.
Next I stepped up cardio big time, and I think powerlifter types disregard and downplay cardio way too much. Now I will say cardio just like your diet can vary a lot from person to person and their body type, a scrawny guy with no mass probably can skip a lot of cardio and just focus on eating and lifting heavy, but for guys who stack on body fat easily, cardio is a must.
I went from 10 minutes of a slow pace on the eliptical for my cardio warm up to a faster more swift 20 minutes before I lift, I also try to attend 2 Muay Thai classes a week, and do one pool session of 12-15 laps.
Another thing that I did which I feel had made a big difference is tried to make an effort to eat dinner early, and for me early usually means before 7:30 since I am used to eating later around 8-9 pm. It should be pretty obvious that the earlier you eat, the more time your body has to digest your food, so you're not going to bed with a full bloated stomach, only to sleep all night and not do anything to burn off that food.
I also used to force myself to eat huge portions and if I went out to eat or got take out mentally I believed that I had to finish the entire meal. That is a very stupid and unhealthy mentality, now I eat till I am full and either toss the last bit or take the rest home to finish off later, instead of forcing myself to eat those last 4-5 bites of food once my stomach is telling my brain that it's full.
Finally I started taking my apple cider vinegar tablets again, after I pretty much stopped taking all my supplements for 6 months. The ACV is advertised as aiding in digestion, boost metabolism, and to reduce the body's storage of fat. I can't say how much it has been an X factor in itself, but I'm sure it's aided the process.
I was the heaviest I've probably ever been at the end of October and was 198, still had some muscle from lifting, but had slacked off hardcore all summer and was in an LTR and kind of got lazy and let myself go, all while pigging out on carbs, and indulging in all kind of sweets and treats. My gut was definitely a decent size and popped out in proportion to the rest of my body. Now I'm down to 188, but have gone up on all my lifts and am almost back to where I was when I was going hard at the gym before getting lazy and slacking off.
I'm just about 5 ft. 11 exactly on the dot and my goal now is to get down to about 180-185 with really low body fat % and hopefully visible abs for the first time since entering high school. Then maybe going hard as fuck on the weights and getting back up to around 190, but being yoked and shredded as fuck... That is the ideal and the goal, maybe I will backslide, but for now I feel like I'm on the right path.
I will finish with saying that I think so much of sculpting the human body depends on each unique individual and their unique genetics. The advice that will be spot on for the scrawny lanky skinny guy, will be horrible for the shorter stockier guy who puts on a gut easily. The best thing to do is figure out what kind of body type you have, what your strengths and weakness are, and then experiment and tinker with your diet and workouts to come up with a recipe that is the best for you.