8 Tips to Lose 15 pounds in 12 weeks

After going from 23.6% to 16.8% body fat because of my 12 week challenge, I decided to share a few tips about what worked for me regarding how to lose fat while gaining muscle:

• Forget the cardio

Getting bored of slaving away on the treadmill for hours each week while not seeing results? Can’t say I blame you.
Doing long stints of cardio is the equivalent of putting your body in cruise control…keeping the same pace maximizes your body’s mileage. exactly what you DON’T want to do to burn fat. instead of cardio, do a few short sessions of high intensity interval training a week. they take 30 minutes at MOST per session. intervals can be done running, swimming, biking, or on the elliptical or stairmaster. HIIT training is all about varying your pace to keep your body on its toes. all you do is alternate between doing your exercise at your near max level and a slower steadier pace. go hard, then go less hard. that’s it. more and more research is showing HIIT to be far more effective in burning fat, and it even helps build muscle.

you can do interval training while walking, running, or bicycling. if you’re in a gym, most machines have interval settings pre-programmed in already. Personally, running up a nearby steep hill has worked for me, and just the process of running up it immediately puts me in my target high intensity zone.

if you don’t have a hill, only have access to older machines, or simply want to make sure you’re always pushing yourself, checkout the amazing Cardio Coach series of training music. you can get them on CD or download them straight to your iPod. They’re fast paced decent music blended with guided training narration and are excellent for people training at all levels.

• cut the booze

everyone loves a good drink. and at the right time and place I’ve got no problems having a few glasses of wine or drinking a few beers. but if you’re serious about losing fat you’re going to have to at the very least cut back on booze, if not completely eliminate it. why? while traditionally people think ‘beer bellies’ come from the body converting alcohol straight into fat, that’s actually not totally true. what actually happens is that the majority of the alcohol consumed is turned into acetate, which your body uses for energy BEFORE carbs, protein, or fat. you’re basically putting your metabolic process on “hold” until your body burns through it all. additionally, alcohol consumption has been shown to increase people’s appetites and decrease testosterone levels. so while alcohol isn’t necessarily turning straight into fat, its preventing your body from burning the fat it already has, while simultaneously making you hungrier and more likely to eat more on top of everything else.

I personally kick started my 12 week challenge with 30 days of sobriety to get the ball rolling. It meant I had a lot of energy the first month (no horrid hangovers), saw results faster than I would have otherwise (which made it easier to move past the first 2 days), and got me used to feeling GOOD all the time, so that even now I drink far less than I used to as the enjoyment I get from feeling good all week has pretty much eclipsed the pleasures of drinking.

• set a measurable goal

‘losing weight’ isn’t good enough. the clearer your goal, the easier it’ll be for you to focus on obtaining it. Whether its fitting into a specific pair of pants you haven’t worn for years, losing a certain percentage of body fat, or bench pressing 220lbs seven times, the key is to make it specific and measurable. This obviously A) makes it easy to discover whether or not you succeeded at the end, but it also B) lets you chart your progress as you go, allowing you to see that your program is actually working, which actually increases motivation throughout your program. When you know its working, it becomes that much easier to do. And if it isn’t, then you still have time to tweak your program without wasting a full 12 weeks.

• get your community involved

Let your friends and family know that you’re training. The support and encouragement they provide can be invaluable, and also acts as a strong motivator to keep at it. Having to explain to a dozen people that ‘you just got tired and gave up’ isn’t very fun, so often its just becomes easier to do it than to have to deal with them. Plus, letting those around you know you’re working towards a goal lets them support you, whether by making you a special dish for dinner or not pestering you to ‘just have one’ beer while out on the town.

• keep a training log

Here’s mine. A training log gives you a place to keep track of stats from #7, provides continuing motivation for you to keep at it, and creates a space that allows you to write about what went good or bad during a particular exercise session. At any given two times sometimes you’ll have a great workout, and sometimes you full on won’t. instead of getting discouraged by this, the training log gives you somewhere to record those feelings and be okay with them. Plus if you choose to share your training log as I did, it becomes another great way for your community to hold you accountable for your training.

• drink lots of water

you might have the perfect diet and be training 7 days a week, but if you’re not drinking enough water you might as well stop now. water fuels everything in the body, and as rob over at PPN says, “its the layer the food pyramid is built on”. Drinking water can decrease if not often eliminate a great many hunger pains, gives you more energy, improves skin complexion, aids your body in protein absorption, flushes out bodily toxins, and increases training efficiency all around. not bad for something that falls from the sky, eh? so, how much should you drink? 8-10 glasses a day, not counting coffee, alcohol, or soda. You know you’re getting enough when your pee turns from yellow and pungent to clear and nearly odorless.

its best to distribute your water intake evenly throughout the day, so try to be constantly sipping throughout the day as opposed to just chugging a few glasses before bed.

• don’t diet

but do change your eating habits. you don’t have to starve yourself. instead, focus on protein, carbs, greens, and fats. in that order. you’ll want equal portions of the first (if leaning one way go for protein), a decent amount of the third, and obviously try to limit fats, though you don’t need to avoid them. needless to say its better to get your fat from something natural like an avocado than it is a big mac.

the best part of developing healthy eating habits is that it means there is absolutely no reason you ever have to be ’starving’ while losing weight. plan your diet correctly and you’ll always feel satisfied.

• eat more often

along with eating the right foods, you want to eat the right amount at the right times. first and foremost, avoid skipping meals at all costs. the less frequently you eat, the more likely your body is to start conserving energy and taking any excess calories you intake and converting them to fat. evolutionary wise, obviously when food intake is sporadic and irregular, your body prepares for the worst. meaning your metabolism slows down and fat storage goes up.

Encourage the opposite of this by eating less per meal, but more meals per day. instead of the traditional 3 meals a day, aim for 5 or 6 a day. this usually breaks down to eating about every 3 hours or so. doing so causes your body to increase its metabolism and gives you more energy. Optimally you’re aiming for 300-500 calories a meal, ensuring that your body is always getting enough energy to work with without going catatonic. (no more crashing after a huge meal). i personally found that after a few weeks of eating every three hours, my body naturally started getting hungry just about 10 minutes before my regular mealtimes and would be more than satisfied with my smaller portions during those meals.

• get an amazing partner

related to involving your community, getting an amazing training partner can be a particularly important part of any program. whether strength training, interval training, playing sports, or whatever physical activity you choose to do, it’s ALWAYS going to be easier if you have someone to do it with. A great training partner is holding you directly accountable, provides both constant challenge and support, and just makes the whole ordeal more fun.

The absolute best thing to do is to create a light dependency between you and your training partner. Something as simple as carpooling to the gym together can cause your consistency of training to go through the roof. Knowing your partner is going to be waiting for you, regardless of how you’re feeling that morning is just about the best motivator to almost never miss a training session.

• Strength Train

if you’re really serious about shedding fat and toning up, there’s simply no better practice to start than strength training. While long term cardio can lead to weight loss, the second you stop doing that cardio your body stops burning calories. Cardio is like the typical 9-5 job in which you only get paid while on the clock. strength training, however, is the equivalent to getting paid regardless of being on the clock. just doing 3 sessions of strength training a week can increase your muscle mass significantly, and since one pound of muscle burns roughly 25x more calories a year than a pound of fat, that’s one hell of a time investment. just a few hours a week of actual ‘work’ on the clock, and yet your body keeps reaping the benefits the rest of the week.

Strength Training will help you build lean muscle mass, strengthen your bones, lose body fat, and give you higher energy levels all around. Plus it also makes you look good.

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