One of the toughest aspects of losing weight is simply getting the process started. Just like Newton’s laws state, an object that is at rest shall remain at rest, and an object that is in motion shall remain in motion. The same can be said about our nutritional habits. Getting started can be very difficult, but once we get the ball rolling we tend to rely on “emotional momentum” and we can keep going. The problem is that it takes time to reach that level of momentum. As I outlined in this blog post, it can take several months to really build a habit up to the point where you don’t feel that internal “resistance” to change. So here are some tips on how to get started with your weight loss program.

1. Have a Plan
Nothing is worse than uncertainty…well maybe a Jonas Brothers concert…but aside from that, nothing is worse than uncertainty. From the start, you need a plan so that you know exactly what you’re doing and when you’re doing it. Here’s the kicker- the plan doesn’t have to be perfect, it just needs to lead you into the general direction of your goal. Don’t waste time revising your plan a hundred times or search for the “perfect workout” (as if that exists). Action is most important step. So pick a plan that involves eating healthy, less-processed-whole foods, cardiovascular exercise, and strength training. Then get to work. Make sure you know what type of exercise you are doing and when you’re doing it. Go into detail and plan everything you will need to complete the exercise. Write it down if you have to. For example, if you want to start running 1 mile first thing in the morning, prepare your running clothes the night before and leave them out by your bed so this is the first thing you see in the morning.

2. Gain Leverage on Yourself
This is a very powerful technique. You want to make it impossible for you not to follow through with this commitment. The best way to do this is to install either a reward or punishment should you complete the activity. I prefer to use punishment because it is usually a more powerful tool. Here’s an example…write out a check to a trusted friend for a large sum of money (some value that won’t bankrupt you, but at the same time will be very punishing…..it could be anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, it really depends on your income level). Tell the friend that if you don’t lose X weight by Y date, he should cash the check immediately and spend the money…preferably on an item that depreciates in value as fast as possible! If that won’t get you to action, I don’t know what will.

3. Get a Partner or Mentor
Having someone following you on this journey is important…it literally doubles or triples your chances of success. Someone with the same goals as yourself will motivate you to keep going on days when you can’t muster that internal drive to get the job done. Preferably it should be someone at a greater level than you are (a mentor) that can take you under his wing and show you the ropes. However, a highly-motivated friend with similar goals can also do just fine. If you have to, pay for a mentor (i.e. get a very good personal trainer). The money is worth it. Even if the trainer only trains with you once or twice a week and you complete the rest of the program on your own…having that extra accountability is a good thing.

4. Keep Track of Your Progress
During the midst of your transformation, you may not see huge differences from week to week and this can be very demotivating. This may not be a reflection of your progress, but rather the insensitive instrument that you are using to measure that progress (your eye/the mirror). The mirror simply isn’t that great at picking up small changes that occur from week to week during a weight loss transformation. You want to take a progress report every 2-3 weeks which includes your weight, body fat percentage, and circumferential measurements. Read this post to find out how all this works. It really doesn’t take that much time and is one of the highest value actions you can perform to get the weight loss started and keep it going.

5. Watch Motivational Videos, Read Books, Listen to Audios
It may sound corny, but a little motivation can often go a long way. Don’t overdo it, but watching 1 or 2 short clips per day can really help especially at the beginning stages. Check out one of my favorite clips below:

How do you get started with a weight loss plan? What tips can you share? Leave a comment below!

Today, I’m going to show you how to lose 4 pounds in less than a week! In fact, I can show you how to do it without exercise. So if you’re looking to lose those last few pounds, this post is for you!

It’s Not Really All That Much
4 pounds isn’t really that much weight. If you’re just starting out, you can probably lose that much weight in just a few days. Some of this will be water weight, but some will also be fat. Four pounds is a very trivial number, but what’s important is that losing those first four pounds is enough to motivate you to keep going and you will begin to see differences in your appearance and the way clothes feel on your body.  Losing this much weight is enough to ignite your “motivational engine” and keep you going!

Your Current Condition
Losing 4 lbs is going to be different depending on where you are along your journey. As I alluded to before, if you’re just starting out, you can easily lose 4 lbs with a few simple dietary changes. You can start by decreasing your carbohydrate intake. This is guarenteed to drop weight fast. So if you normally drink sodas, try cutting your soda intake in half and replacing it with water, and see what happens. Did you know that if you remove just 1 can of soda per day from your diet, you can lose over 14 pounds this year without any other dietary or exercise changes! If you drink 2 cans per day and you replaced it with water, you would lose almost 30 lbs by next year! With no other changes whatsoever! How does this happen? Well, 1 can of soda has about 140 calories. If you drink 1 can per day, that’s 365 cans per year or 51,100 extra calories per year. Since there are 3500 calories in 1 lb of fat, you can lose 14.6 lbs of fat just from removing that 1 can of soda per day. Now you can remove something else from your diet that is equivalent to soda and the effect will be the same. The point is that when you’re just starting out, small changes can lead to big results.

For People Who Have Already Lost Weight but Have Stalled
If you’re a bit more advanced and you’ve already lost a bunch of weight, the chances are that you’ve already removed the soda and all those other small things. But you still have options you can choose from. For starters find a way to reduce carbohydrates, especially at night. If you have pasta in your last meal, cut the portion in half and see what happens. In fact, one of the best things you can do is remove all starchy carbohydrates and sugars from your last meal of the day and watch the weight begin to fly off.

Diet Is the Important Factor
Losing 4 lbs through diet is far easier than trying to do it through exercise. As I demonstrated in this previous blog post, the ability to burn calories through exercise is overrated. Simply put, You can go for 30 minutes of hard running and you still won’t burn off the amount of calories in just 1 cup of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream. So if you want to lose 4 lbs quickly and efficiently with the least amount of effort, focus on removing carbohydrates from your diet.

What are some ways you have discovered to lose a small amount of weight quickly?  Share your ideas below.

It is commonly believed that you must work out for hours upon hours to lose fat. You’ll see guys put in a good 2-3 hours at the gym per day to look good. But how much time is really necessary to get results? Does doing more speed up the process? Let’s take a look.

Types of Exercise
First, let’s talk about the types of exercise you see people doing most often. For cardiovascular exercise, where you are keeping an elevated heart rate for a certain length of time (either on a device such as a treadmill or by running/swimming, or other means)…most people stay on for 20-60 minutes with a heart rate of 60-85% maximum. This actually is true for weight lifting as well. After about an hour, our bodies begin to secrete lots of catabolic hormones and we start getting diminishing returns from exercise. If you’re well-trained you might be able to go longer (maybe up to 90 minutes), but most people should keep cardiovascular exercise and weight lifting to an hour or less.

Intensity vs Duration
It’s important to examine the relationship between intensity and duration. You can go long. You can go hard. But you can’t do both. The more intense your exercise is, the less of it you can do. This is why people only do high intensity interval training for 15-25 minutes, whereas steady state cardio is done for up to an hour. Weight training that focuses primarily on compound movements for short rest periods can also be completed in 30 minutes, whereas adding lots of isolation exercises lengthens the workout and decreases the intensity. Generally, I believe in keeping intensity as high as possible. But very intense workouts are difficult to recover from, so it’s a good idea to alter your intensity throughout the week.

Availability
Another important factor is how much time you have available for working out. This is really the bottom line when it comes to exercise. We have pretty busy lives. If you have an hour to workout everyday, then use it. If you can make an hour, then do it. But if you only have 15-20 minutes, then make the best of it and aim for a high intensity routine. The important thing is that you make exercise a daily ritual, regardless of how much time you spend.

The Dosage
My general guideline for most people would be to exercise daily and alter high intensity and low intensity days. 3 days of weights and three days of cardio is ideal. Another possibility is 2 days of weight training, 1 day of interval training, and 3 days of low intensity cardio. I think daily exercise is the best bet because it helps to ingrain the habit of exercise and it gives us a reprieve from our sedentary lives.

But, Let’s Keep it Real
Your goals will have to guide your decision here. If you want to get ripped like a fitness model, working out 20 minutes a day probably won’t cut it. But if you just want to look good in clothes, it really doesn’t take a lot of effort so long as your diet is in check. As always, you’re going to have to experiment and find out what works best.

How much time do you spend exercising? Write a comment below!

You see the advertisements all the day: “8 minute abs”, “Get a Six Pack in 6 Weeks”, “Transform your Body in Just 90 Days”, “20 minute workout only three times per week”….Can you really get the body of the cover model on the advertisement using these systems? For most people, the answer is No. Some people will get those results but only with a disciplined diet and usually in a much longer time frame than stated in the advertisement. So let’s get real people, what does it really take to get into that kind of shape? Should you aim for it? What should you expect? Find out below.

Time Frame
Infomercials and internet advertisements are absolutely notorious for spewing lies concerning time frames. If you are 20-30 lbs overweight, there is no way that you can safely lose enough weight to get a six pack in 30 days. The fastest and most impressive transformations usually take a BARE MINIMUM of 3-4 months and this is with spartan-like discipline and intensity with workouts and dieting. For most people this translates to 6 months to a year (so an average of 9 months) of daily exercise and disciplined dieting with some minor deviations now and then. The more you deviate from your diet and training, the longer the process will take. Sure I’ve seen overweight people make amazing gains in 30 or 60 days. But I’ve never seen someone go from extremely overweight to six pack in a month or 2. I won’t say it’s impossible but it is highly unlikely, so don’t expect it.

Building Muscle Takes Even Longer
Some people have good genetics for building muscle, but for 95% of the population, building substantial amounts of muscle is an even slower process than losing fat. A beginner can gain 10-15 pounds of muscle in a few months with proper dieting and training, but results start to slow down dramatically after that. For the intermediate lifter, gaining 4lb of lean mass per month is very impressive and requires the strictest of training and dieting regimens. And that’s pretty much the best case scenario.

Fake Testimonials and Photos
I think this is pretty obvious, but if you watch the movie “Bigger, Stronger, Faster“, there is a wonderful scene where the director goes to a fitness model photoshoot and he unveils two important details that they don’t tell you during the late night infomercials for the latest ab gizmo. First, the photographer of the model readily admits that he alters the before/after photos. In fact, the photographer states that there are no real “before” photos. In reality, he takes pictures of the model in the best lighting possible and touches it up with photoshop to make it look really good, and this serves as the “after” photo. For the “before” photo, they take the same model, but have him eat a huge meal with lots of carbs, stick his stomach out, grow a little body hair, and take pictures under absolutely awful and unflattering lighting. Photoshop is then used to make the “before” photo look extra bad. The “before” and “after” shot are then merged into one image and you have a wonderful lie. The fitness model at this photo shoot also admits to using steroids, and most of these models do not use the products they advertise.

What Can You Expect
So with all the B.S. and all the lies, what types of results can you expect? Well, for fat loss (assuming you were absolutely perfect with dieting– not something that will likely occur), you can expect to lose fat at a rate of 1-2lbs per week. If you are obese, the rate may be faster at first. If you lose weight at a faster rate than 1-2lbs per week, you are most likely losing muscle. So ideally, you can lose about 4-8lbs of fat per month. If your diet/training isn’t perfect, assume that you will lose less. For muscle gains, expect to gain about 1lb per week under ideal dietary, training, and recovery conditions. If you gain much more than 1lb per week, there may be some fat gain. Let me put this into context: If you are a 200lb male with 30% bodyfat, and your goal is to get down to 8% bodyfat to see your abs, it means you have to lose about 44 lbs. At a safe rate of 1lb per week, this will take you 11 months. That’s almost a year!

Don’t Despair– How to get around those numbers!
That previous example may have scared you. You might be thinking “I have to wait one year to get into that kind of shape, even with perfect dieting and training?! Are you kidding me!?” Sadly, I’m not kidding. The good news is that you actually get lots of benefits during that year of training. It’s not like you’re waiting for some pay off. First, you will look better and better each and every month. These monthly results will motivate you to keep going. Second, you will begin to enjoy the process because exercise and eating right will make you feel great. Within a few months the workout will become addicting and you will love the high that you get from the gym. Finally, over time all of this will become habit and it won’t feel like you’re in a “constant mental struggle”.

Modify Your Goals and Expectations
Maybe getting down to 8% body fat isn’t your thing. The struggle and discipline it takes isn’t for everyone. However, getting into a healthy 15% bodyfat range is much easier and manageable for most people. No, you won’t look like a model but you won’t have flabs either at that body fat level. To get a realistic idea of this process, watch the movie “I Want to Look Like That Guy“. It is the most accurate depiction of what it takes to truly transform your body.

What are your thoughts on transformations and infomercials? Leave a comment below.

If you wanted to lose weight in the fastest way possible, what type of exercise should you do? Are some exercises better for building muscle and others are better for losing weight? This blog explains the best exercise to lose weight.

First Things First
First, let’s be clear that when it comes to weight loss, calorie deficit is king. Meaning, you must burn more energy than you take in. This can be accomplished via eating less, exercising more, or (preferably) a combination of both. Creating a calorie deficit will be the difference between achieving your goals and spinning your wheels. When it comes to calorie deficit, diet is usually what makes or breaks people because there is a limit as to how much you can exercise per day. Even if you are a hardcore runner and you run every single day for an hour, you’ll probably burn around 600-800 calories. This is a considerable amount, but you can easily eat that many calories in minutes. Check out the video below of Craig Ballantyne and Brad Pilon demonstrating this concept and then we’ll explore the idea of which is the best exercise to burn fat.

Best Exercise to Lose Weight
So with that being said, if weight loss is all about calorie deficit, then arguably the best exercise to lose weight is one that burns the most calories in a given amount of time. According to Health Discovery, a 150 lb person would burn the following amount of calories in 30 minutes:
Stationary cycling (vigorous effort)- 378 calories
Rowing (vigorous effort)- 306 calories
Weight lifting (vigorous effort)- 216 calories
Basketball- 288 calories
Running (8 min/mile)- 450 calories
Swimming- 216 calories
Walk (15 min/mile)- 162 calories

So from the above list, it seems as though running wins out burning 450 calories per 30 minutes. Stationary cycling is your next best bet at 378 calories per 30 minute session. Weight lifting, which many believe is more effective than cardio, actually burns fewer calories than running, so it isn’t as effective from a calorie-burning perspective. So technically, if you are maintaining your weight at your current caloric intake, simply adding in a 30 minute running session will help you burn about a pound off each week (considering that there are 3500 calories in a pound of fat).

Not the Whole Story
Here’s the only problem with the above theory. First, as you decrease in weight, your total energy expenditure will decrease and you will have to continuously increase your deficit (i.e. more cardio or less food intake) to keep the fat loss going. Second, without the inclusion of some sort of strength training, you will not only burn fat but you will also lose some muscle, which means that you may look thin, soft, and small in a few months, rather than hard and ripped. So if you’re concerned about quick fat loss, cardio actually trumps weight lifting because it will burn fat faster. But for overall improvement in appearance over the long-term, weight lifting with a modest calorie deficit beats cardio any day of the week.

Bottom Line
There is one more factor that we need to keep in mind: Consistency. This concept overrides the amount of calories an activity burns in 30 minutes or the effect the exercise will have on your overall appearance. Consistency is what is necessary to see results in the long term. So you need to choose an exercise that you enjoy doing and are willing to do every week for the next several months/years. So if you hate weight lifting, stop torturing yourself…life is too short. Go do bodyweight exercises or swimming or whatever else you enjoy instead.

What is your opinion on the best exercise for fat loss? Leave a comment with your experience below!

Protein is a very important nutrient especially when it comes to weight loss. It helps regulate blood sugar levels, tames hunger pangs, and helps the body repair lean tissue after exercise. But how much protein is really necessary for optimal recovery and fat loss? The protein-loving supplement industry would love for you to believe that our daily requirement for protein is something along the lines of 1.5-3 grams of protein per pound of body weight. This is equal to 240 grams to 480 grams of protein if you weight 160 pounds. Meanwhile, the government recommends a much smaller daily protein intake of 0.36 grams per pound of body weight. That’s only 58 grams of protein per day (at a body weight of 160lbs)! So who is right? What is the best amount of protein to consume for weight loss?

Benefits of Consuming Protein
The greatest benefit from increasing your protein intake is that it will make you feel full so you will be less hungry between meals. This makes it easier to maintain a calorie deficit, which is the key to fat loss. Protein is also the key to increasing muscle size (or at least maintaining it). Studies have shown that individuals who consume more protein as opposed to carbohydrates while in a caloric deficit tend to lose more weight from fat than muscle. Besides it’s muscle-sparing benefit, protein is also known for its thermic effect, meaning that your body actually expends some energy in simply digesting it, more so than other macronutrients (carbs and fats).

Cons of Excessive Protein Consumption
A variety of risks have often been associated with increased protein consumption, but none of these risks are truly backed by any conclusive research. Some state that high protein intakes cause kidney problems but this has only been an issue with those with preexisting kidney disease. Other skeptics point out strange arguments such as calcium absorption issues (which only tends to be a problem if you don’t consume enough calcium to begin with) and other unsubstantiated and/or dubious claims of increased likelihood of cancers or heart disease…none of which have any reasonable evidence to back up these assertions. In my point of view, the only con of increasing protein consumption is that it may potentially limit nutrients that you get from other foods that would have been consumed instead of protein (namely from fruits and vegetables). This is easily avoided by eating a balanced diet and not going too crazy with the protein intake.

Intakes for People Who Exercise
One thing to take into consideration is the amount and intensity of exercise that you do. Generally speaking, those who do more intense exercise should consume more protein to ensure adequate repair. How much is necessary? Well this will differ for each individual, but depending on your size and exercise intensity, an additional 20-60 grams of protein post-exercise would probably suffice in addition to what you already consume in the rest of your meals.

Protein Supplements
This question usually comes up: should I buy whey protein?  my answer is: if you want it and you like it. For the average person, I highly doubt there are any tangible benefits that they can attain from a physique-standpoint from eating protein powder vs. regular food. That being said, I personally use protein powders everyday simply because I find them very convenient and filling. I don’t need to cook extra food, I can grab it on the go, it fills me up, and it tastes great (some brands). So the choice is yours, but I enjoy these supplements for the convenience factor. Let me be clear though that they are NOT necessary and will NOT make the weight loss process any easier or faster despite what the good people at Nitrotech want you to believe.

Bottom Line
I personally recommend having most of your meals based around a protein source. That doesn’t mean that you have to consume only meat-based meals everytime you sit down to eat, but doing so for most meals will ensure that you gain (or retain) muscle mass and that you won’t get hungry. You can experiment with how much protein to consume on a daily basis. Bodybuilding sites often cite 1 gram/pound of bodyweight which tends to work very well but may be unnecessary for you. Other sites claim that you can get away with MUCH less.  I tend to take the middle ground. If you exercise regularly and intensely as I recommend, the RDA requirement is probably too small for you. But unless you are a bodybuilder you may not need to follow the “1 gram per pound rule”. And supplement companies who demand you eat more than that are simply absurd. So try to fall somewhere in the range of .50 to 1 gram per pound of bodyweight per day and that should be enough to get all the benefits of protein, without going nuts.

How much protein do you consume on a daily basis? What are your thoughts? Leave a comment below!

Today I’m starting a new recurring column titled “Celebrity Secrets”. In it, we will discuss what celebrities do to stay fit and get in shape for movies. While these routines are usually too intense to be followed verbatim, they can be broken down and reduced to more manageable variations. In general, celebrities have a short time to get in superb shape, so examining how they do it may give us hints on how to improve our physiques. Everyone is always curious to see what the celebs are up to. So I’m going to break out all their secrets, while keeping the workouts as accurate as I can in this column.  So without further delay, here is the first ever issue of Celebrity Secrets. Our spotlight today is on Daniel Craig, our current badass James Bond.

Many different Sources
Through my research I found several different sources listing a few different workouts. These workouts generally range from three days per week of weight lifting to circuit training done four days per week with compound movements.  The most accurate sources were an issue of British GQ from December 2006, Men’s Health (both British and UK versions), as well Mr. Craig’s trainer himself, Simon Waterson, a former royal marine. The following is a compilation of the most accurate workout known to date.

 

Casino Royale
In training for Casino Royale, Simon Waterson focused on developing muscle, speed, strength, and stamina- a functional physique, not just a body for show.  Thus, the workouts were a blend of power lifting, using several compound exercises that allows one to build muscle and burn a ton of calories due to the strenuous nature of the exercise session.  In the December 2006 edition of British GQ, Daniel Craig states that he told his trainer that he “needs to look like [he] can kill someone”. Workouts were only 45 minutes long, Monday through Friday but they were non-stop. Daniel states that they did “circuits, lifting, lots of pull-ups and press-ups [that's British for push-ups for all my fellow yanks out there!] and old fashioned stuff”. As for cardio, Craig revealed that if he needed to lose weight he would just hop on the bike afterwards, get his heart rate up to 160, and keep it their for 10 minutes or so. By the end of the program, Craig claimed that he could bench press his own bodyweight.

The Routine
The following was published by Men’s Health as the routine that Daniel Craig followed for Casino Royale:

Monday: Circuit training consisting of Clean and press, weighted knee raise, weighted step-ups, pull-ups, incline push-ups, dips for 3 rounds of 10 reps per exercise.
Tuesday: Chest/ Back workout consisting of incline bench press, pull-ups, incline flyes, and incline pushups for 4 sets of 10 reps each
Wednesday: Leg workout consisting of squats, stiff-leg deadlifts, leg curls, and weighted lunges done for 4 sets of 10 reps each
Thursday: Arm workout consisting of incline curls, dips, lateral raises, shoulder press done for 4 sets of 10 reps each
Friday: Repeat Monday’s power circuit
Saturday + Sunday: off days or cardiovascular exercise + stretching

Some Variation between Sources
British Men’s Health has the same workout but their power circuit includes other exercises such as bicep curls, squats, and deadlifts. It is probably a safe assumption to make that these exercises were probably rotated for each circuit. This workout is also inline with what Daniel stated in the GQ interview…about 45 minutes with lots of circuits and traditional movements. Cardio done at the end of this workout would help to burn a few extra calories. I personally contacted Simon Waterson to verify this workout. He states to add in “shrugs and reverse flyes to balance things out” but otherwise the Men’s Health workout was “close enough” to the real thing.

The Daniel Craig Diet
Daniel states that he gave up smoking, but he didn’t starve himself. On weekends he would let loose a little bit (which probably explains why his body fat wasn’t as ridiculously low as is common among movie stars). Daniel states that he wouldn’t starve himself but he did avoid certain foods after a certain time (4 or 5pm as stated in one interview). He also joked that he would drink protein shakes every 15 minutes. Not much else is known about his diet, but if you are familiar with other protocols that Simon Waterson endorses, he usually recommends smaller meals made of natural foods eaten throughout the day. Low-carb plans are not a common part of his programs as he believes that intense workouts need to be fueled with carbohydrates.

The Quantum of Solace Workout
Less is known about the Quantum of Solace workout, but from what some sources indicate  that for Quntum of Solace he focused less on weights and more on boxing, running, jumping, and injury prevention. From the films, you could see that he has lost some size in his shoulders and traps but still looks in shape.

Final Thoughs
I’ve actually done the Men’s Health workout (for about 6 weeks) with a few exercises added in and I found it to be fairly effective, but no more effective than any other routine as long as you continue to put more weight on the bar every week. The workout was most effective in adding size to my shoulders, chest, and legs. Feel free to give it a shot but remember, diet will be the biggest factor in your results.

Post your thoughts on the Daniel Craig workout! Are there other celebrity workouts you want to see? Leave a comment.

Low Carb diets have been very popular over the years, despite the fact that as a nation we’ve gotten fatter. These days, the “bad” guys of the diet industry are now grains. Many authors believe that by limiting grains, you will limit carbs and insulin release, therefore decrease weight. Well, sorry to rain on your parade, but here are ten reasons why you low-carb lovers are wrong.

1. Low Carb Diets Won’t Work Unless You Are In A Calorie Deficit
At the end of the day, it still doesn’t matter whether you eat low-carb or low fat or high protein or whatnot when it comes to weight loss. Weight loss (and fat loss) are achieved through a calorie defecit. This has been proven scientifically and experimentally over and over again. Individuals placed on low calorie diets lose weight….it’s as simple as that. Thus, forcing yourself to eat low carb is irrelevant strictly from a weight loss perspective.

2. Low Carb Diets Don’t Solve (Infact They Encourage) The Underlying Problem of Gluttony
The reason people are overweight is because they eat more calories than they burn, simple as that. By telling them that they can eat all the chicken, steak, peanut butter, cheese, and eggs they want as long as they strictly stay away from carbs, you are actually encouraging gluttony which is the main source of their weight problem. Individuals who are overweight need to understand that they MUST reduce overall food intake in order to see noticeable weight loss. You can’t simply gorge on high fat steak and cheeses all day and expect to lose weight.

3. We Love Carbs Too Much
At first, it is easy giving up carbs when you have all these meat products that you can consume. But after a short while it loses its initial flare and appeal. We start to crave those foods we gave up…and a binge inevitably follows with weight gain. Better to enjoy all foods in reasonable proportions.

4.  Low Carb Diets are Socially Challenging
Look, there’s no denying it…most of the outside world eats carbohydrates predominantly. They are a big part of our culture. How stupid are you going to look if your friend invites you over to his house for dinner and they serve a pasta meal. Are you just going to refuse to eat? Are you going to spend the rest of your life ordering salad and chicken every time you go out to dinner? For the average person, eating low-carb is not a reasonable solution.

5.  Other Cultures Have Diets High In Carbohydrates.
One aspect that most low carb gurus don’t talk about is the fact that other non-American cultures, such as those in France, Italy, and Japan thrive on carbohydrates and their obesity rates are much lower. How much rice do people in Asia consume? and we’re not talking about your politically correct long-grain fiber-loving brown rice here. We’re talking plain stuff-your-mattress white rice here!

6. Low Carbs Mean Low Performance
Any type of hard endurance activity that you do will result in decreased performance without properly refueling glycogen levels between sessions. Attempt to train for a marathon or even half-marathon on low-carbs and watch what happens to your race times. Heck, even those who perform short duration, high intensity exercise such as sprinting will see decreases in performance if done often enough.

7. Low Carb Diets Result In “False” Weight Loss Initially
Because each gram of carbohydrate soaks up a certain amount of water, decreasing carbohydrates in your diet results in an instant drop in water, which can look like a 5-7 pound weight loss on the scale within the first week. This is deceptive though, as most of the weight lost is water and NOT fat.

8. Low Carb Diets May Leave You Feeling Irritable and Mentally Foggy
While not all people experience these symptoms, many have complained from low energy levels and increased irritability and headaches.

9. Low Carb Diets Give a Flat Deflated Look to Your Muscles
Low levels of muscle glycogen will give you that flat look, leaving you looking small despite all your effort in the gym. This is why those low carbers who have periodic carb refeeds, look bigger and more “full” the next day.

10. It’s Still a Fad Diet
Just like low-fat which was popular 15 years ago. Low carb is the current darling of the diet industry. But like all other fads, it’s a lot of style without any substance. Low Carb diets have been popular for over 10 years now with the mainstream, yet as a nation we’ve actually gained weight. This further proves that low-carb is not the solution.

Let me clarify something here. I don’t hate low-carb diets, and I acknowledge that they can work for some people very well. For most people, however, I believe that low carb diets just aren’t sustainable in the long run.

What are your experiences with low carb diets? Leave a comment below!

Today, I want to talk about the #1 most important aspect of any weight loss plan. If this is not handled, there is absolutely no way you will ever lose weight and keep it off for the long haul. What I want to discuss is the all important power of HABITS. Self help gurus like Tony Robbins call them rituals. You might hear cutesy expressions such as “You are your habits” or something along those lines. Regardless, there is truth in those statements. Cultivate the right habits and you won’t need to struggle forever with weight loss. Eventually, you will go to autopilot..but it does take time. Cultivate the wrong habits and you will always fight an uphill battle.

The Power of Habits
If you have the right habits in place, you won’t need to constantly rely on motivation which is fickle and not always available. When an activity becomes a habit, it is something that you naturally feel like doing. Not all activities can be made into habits, but fortunately a healthy diet and exercise program can be ritualized. Once something becomes a ritual or a habit, it is done over and over again without the feeling that you must “force yourself” to perform the activity. I recommend forming habits around your diet, exercise, and sleeping regimens. It is difficult to accomplish much else without these activities being streamlined. Once habits are formed- good or bad- they are difficult to break.

How Long Does it Take to Form a Habit
The media/literature out there states that it takes about 3 weeks or 21 days of doing in activity repeatedly until it becomes a habit. Some sources indicate that it really takes 30 days. These are arbitrary numbers and I don’t think that there is any scientific basis for them. From my own personal experience, it can take a lot longer to form a habit. It took me about 3-4 months to get to the point where exercising became a habit. After 4 months of pushing and forcing myself to get to the gym on a daily basis, there finally came a point where I actually wanted to get up and go to the gym without having to force myself.  That initial grind that you have to go through to form a habit is the part where you pay your dues. I’m not going to lie. It was very tough, but once you get passed that, you will never look back. Keep in mind that not all habits take months to develop like my own. Some people will develop habits faster, while others will take more time. It also depends on the particular habit we are trying to form and any associated poor habits that we have to break in the process.

How to Form a Good Habit
The best way of forming good habits is to force yourself to follow through with the habit every single day without fail, until it becomes ingrained. Make sure to keep the conditions constant. For example, if you want to form a habit of daily exercise, you’re MUCH better off performing exercise everyday (or almost everyday) AT THE SAME TIME. This is much better than just saying that you will go to the gym at some point of the day. Making exercise a specific scheduled event in your planner makes it a true commitment that you have to follow through on. Getting a trainer or any person to hold you accountable is another key ingredient. There will be days where we don’t feel like going, are too tired, or very sore. These are the days where a trainer or a friend can push you passed your perceived mental barriers.

Focus on Habits Not on Outcomes
When we want to achieve something…losing 10 lbs for instance, we tend to focus on that result. In reality, we need to focus on the habits that will drive that result to fruition. So if you want to lose weight, take the focus away from “I want to lose 10lbs”. Instead, think about “what activities do I need to do on a daily basis in order for this outcome to happen”. Generally, we need to create habits surrounding our eating, exercise, and sleep regimens. For exercise, you may decide that you will make it a habit to do bodyweight calisthenics for 15 minutes every morning (notice that I used a specific time of day and duration in this example). Sure it may not be as good as going to the gym for an hour everyday, BUT if you can commit to it in the long run, it will pay off tremendously a year from now. For eating, you may decide that you will make it a habit to always have four meals per day (something that may be more manageable than the recommended 5-6 meals) and to limit yourself to a few servings of protein and 1-2 servings of carbohydrate at each meal. For sleeping, you may commit to getting 7.5 hours of sleep every night and getting to bed by 11:30pm. These are just examples, however, notice that the thinking behind all of these is the same….choose something that you can REALISTICALLY (be honest with yourself here) stick to for the long run (long run, by the way, means long enough to form a habit…which could be several months). Maybe you currently only get 5 hours of sleep per night and would love to get 9 hours. But realistically, you have may have chores to do when you get home from work, kids to take care of, other priorities and obligations, not to mention the gym. So, at least initially, you may have to scale back the habit to something more realistic like 7 or even 6 hours if need be. Eventually when you have fewer commitments, you can allot more time to a specific habit, but always be realistic with what you can achieve.

Keep Track
Get yourself a calendar and put a nice big check mark on days that you follow through with your new habit and a nice fat ‘X’ on days that you fail. Psychologically, you are less likely to fail once you have more check marks because you will want to continue your ‘streak’. This psychological momentum is very important. Also, don’t forget to keep track of your body weight and body fat percentage. Once you start seeing results, it will really motivate you to continue on the journey.

Leave a comment and tell us about your habits!

Today I want to discuss how to choose the right diet for you. It seems as though everyday a new diet fad sprouts out of no where and with it, a huge line of diet food products, supplements, bars, shakes, you name it. Here’s the interesting thing part- if you visit any website that is a proponent of any particular diet…i.e. low carbs, low fat, high protein, paleo dieting, zone, mediterranean…etc, you will notice that there are people who have been successful with all of these nutritional protocols. You will also notice that there are people who have failed with all of these diets. There is a myth out there that states that diets don’t work. They do work. But not every diet will work for every person. All of our bodies are different and there is a diet program for all of us that will allow us to lose weight in a healthy manner without going crazy. There is a sustainable weight loss program out there for everyone. So which one is right for you?

Some Popular Diets
Let’s look at the most popular diets out there. First, we have the low-fat diet. Proponents of this diet state that fat is more dense and has more calories than any other macronutrient (9 calories per gram as opposed to protein and carbohydrates which contain only 4 calories per gram), therefore if we limit the amount of fat we eat, we can decrease overall caloric intake which leads to weight loss. This is all true. Low carb diets are popular because they stabilize blood sugar levels, decreasing cravings and give you that ‘full’ feeling, therefore you should be eating less and losing more weight. Paleo diets tend to remove processed food and grains from the diet. This diet has the benefits of a low carb diets but often allows you to eat unlimited carbs in the form of fruits and veggies. Like low-carb diets, the paleo diet should work if it allows you to feel full on less food. The Mediterranean Diet has folks eating lots of olive oil, legumes, and unrefined grains & fruits/veggies, moderate amounts of dairy and fish, and small amounts of meat. This diet definitely tends to be higher carb in nature, but the blood sugar levels are moderated by high amounts of fat and fiber in the diet which slows the entire digestive process down. The Zone diet believes that you should eat fats, carbs, and proteins but in a specific ratio (Dr. Sears likes the 40:30:30 ratio of carbs to proteins to fats). He believes that this ratio which controls carb consumption creates a “hormonal balance” which will lead to fat loss. If you go on any websites that support any one of these protocols, you will find people who have had success with all of them and tons of people who have failed with all.

The Common Denominator(s)
So how can all of these diets work? If Dr. Sears is right, how do people who eat a paleo diet lose so much weight? If the paleo lovers are right, then how do those who eat a grain-focused diet like the Mediterranean Diet lose weight? The answer lies in the fact that these diets have two very important underlying concepts common to all. The first is calorie restriction. All of these diets limit some nutrient or some forms of food in hopes to get the dieter to eat less. Eating fewer calories leads to weight loss. It’s really as simple as that. The second underlying commonality is meal structure. All of these diets impose some sort of structure, rules, or boundaries on the dieter. The Zone Diet makes sure that your dinner plate is divided into a certain portion of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats while the Low-carb diets put a hold on most carbohydrate consumption.  Even Weight Watchers limits what you can eat by only giving you a certain amount of “points” per day that can be exchanged for food. Once you run out of points, you are done eating. Structure is what allows you to lower the calories and lose weight systematically. If you just try to lose weight without having some type of structure to your eating patterns, it will be a losing battle. When you buy these diets, you are essentially paying for structure so that you can keep yourself on track. Without structure, you are much more likely to eat whatever is around or convenient when hungry. Any successful fat loss plan will incorporate some form structure usually by limiting certain foods, controlling meal times and feeding opportunities, or controlling portions in all meals.

You Be the Judge
So how do you choose the right diet? A better question is: How can you choose a Meal structure which will allow you to comfortably and sustainably produce a calorie deficit over time? All of these diets give you cookie-cutter structures. Cookie-cutter diet structures are designed to appeal to the masses not to any particular person. This is why there are people that both fail and succeed on all of them. One of these diets may work for you. Try each of them out for a month and see which one works better for you. Alternatively, feel free to create your own structure based on what works for you personally (the best way of doing it). Here are some things to keep in mind when creating a dietary structure to produce fat loss:

• Do you prefer eating small meals frequently throughout the day, three square meals (traditional american diet), or one or two large meals? Which schedule makes you feel better?
• How do you feel after eating a big carbohydrate meal? Do you feel full of energy? Do you crash? Do you feel stuffed and bloated? Do you feel sleepy?
• How do you feel when eating lots of protein and low carb? awake and full of energy? tired and grumpy?
• Do you feel like you can limit any particular nutrient (fats, proteins, or carbs) or would you rather eat them all but in controlled portions?
• Do you always get cravings and are constantly hungry? What brings on the hunger?
• Do you constantly binge? Do you binge on certain foods?

The answers to these questions and many more will help guide you to creating a dietary structure that works for you personally. It may take you a few days, weeks, or even months of experimenting to find the right dietary structure. The important thing is that you arrive at a structure that you can follow in the long-term. As in- the rest of your life. Always think “LONG-TERM and SUSTAINABLE”. Those values will increase your chances of success. Quick and fast fat loss often leads to frustration and short-term unsustainable results.

Which diet works best for you? Leave a comment below and discuss your experiences.