I’ve dieted and lost weight many times. I’ve lost over 30lbs since January and there is no way it’s coming back, I’ve made a lifelong change to watch what I eat. I’ve become obsessed with reading about fitness/diet research studies and success stories. And I’ve become obsessed with being healthy, losing weight, and gaining muscle. I’ve also learned a lot through trial and error and through helping my wife along — she’s lost over 25 pounds on the first diet she’s ever been on.

Also, maybe this is pathetic, but I often fantasize about helping obese people lose weight. I think about motivating them but most importantly teaching them about nutrients, the body, and how to lose weight. What would I tell them about losing weight? I’ve turned it into a three part post. This is my manifesto for losing weight, I’m sure some of the finer points will grow and change but these points I’ll never alter.

I think there are many facets of losing significant amounts of weight but only three stick out as being key for everyone. In this (long) article I’ll talk about each key in detail. I’m not claiming that I’ve discovered anything new or a magic bullet, just relaying what has worked best for me and what, based on research I’ve read, seems to be best. I apologize for the formatting of this article. I have been sitting on it a while and getting all the HTML correct is tedious and boring so I decided to just post up my rough draft that I’ve been piecing together for months.

The 3 keys to weightloss:
1. Maximize your metabolism
2. Count and limit calories
3. Banish white carbs

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Photo by Leo Reynolds.

Look who decided to make a blog post!

I’ve pretty much lost my will to post lately, nothing seems worthy (worthy of the blog or worthy of my time, I’m not sure). However, I will make an update on my progress losing weight and getting fit.

I missed my goal of 155 lbs this month but I’m sure I’ve put on some muscle and that if I could measure fat loss it would be more than 5lbs. This morning I was at 156 lbs and my waist measurement is down 1″ from last month.

In the past month I’ve made a several changes and learned some new things which I’ll summarize in this post. I’ll also talk about my future goals and the future of this blog.
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A medical journal published study from last month gave great news for people looking to lose weight.

Ninety-four women were put on caloric restricted diets and lost on average around 25-30 pounds. They were divided into three groups:

1. Aerobic training
2. Resistance training
3. No training

In addition to body fat their resting energy expenditure (their metabolic rate, how many calories they burn a day doing nothing) was measured. The result? The no-training and aerobic-training groups lost significant amounts of muscle and their metabolism decreased. The resistance training group not only didn’t lose any muscle but they gained muscle. And the icing on the cake is that their resting energy expenditure went up!

Bottom line, you MUST weight train when you are trying to lose weight if you want to maintain muscle and your metabolism.

Hunter et al.Resistance Training Conserves Fat-free Mass and Resting Energy Expenditure Following Weight Loss.
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Photo by Leo R.

I’ve lost 25 lbs after three months. I met my 5 pound goal for March.

Early January I weighed 185 and I’m 160 pounds now. I think this is the first time I’ve weighed 160 since my sophomore year in college — 2001. My upper abs are showing through and since I’ve concentrated a lot more on weight training I’ve have put on some muscle so my fat gains are likely more than 25lbs.

In March I made a few changes to my diet and exercise which I’ll outline in this post. I’ll also summarize how I got to this point for anyone new to the blog.
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“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.” - Thomas Edison

If you’re brave enough to regularly set challenging diet and fitness goals for yourself you’re bound to fail at some point. Despite your best efforts you missed your 5K time, your monthly weight loss goal, or your cholesterol level goal.

How people deal with failure is a key difference that distinguishes the successful from the unsuccessful. A lot of people experience a feeling of “I’ll never get it right”, “It is not possible!”, or “It’s not fair!”. A feeling of no control clouds the mind.

I always feel this way initially. I have to give myself some time to wallow in self pity then shake myself and try to take something positive out of the situation. The past is over and the future hasn’t happened, what are you going to do right this moment to mold your future?

In this post I’ll summarize three actions I take whenever I fail that might work for you. These recommendations are clearly not confined to fitness goals and failures, I use them whenever I miss the mark. You should write your responses down and carry them out as systematically as possible — hit the Stand By button on your emotions.
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I hope to have the space and money for a versatile home gym one day. In the meantime, however, I can only plan what would go in my perfect home gym. This article outlines my ideal home gym in all its simplistic grandiose.

My view on fitness training favors simplicity. I think the general theme should favor utility and stay away from clumsy infomercial equipment.

I plan on updating this list when I change my mind but here it is for now.

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Photo by mezzoblue.

I set weight loss and fitness goals back at the beginning of the year, as many of you probably did. And a very important step of goal setting is to review.

So, here it goes.

I met my goal and now weigh 165 lbs for the first time since 2004.

That means I lost 6lbs this month. I also met my — updated — cardio and weight training goals. I did cardio at least two days a week and weight trained three. My diet continued to be the one outlined in my original weight loss goal post but I have made a few tweaks. The reward for my efforts are glimpses at my upper four abs and a yet to be determined body fat scale.

In this post I’ll detail the changes I have made to my diet/fitness plans and goals and my progress thus far.

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Photo by Mike P.

The hardest part of losing weight and getting in shape for me is keeping motivated. On the first day it seems like nothing can stop me. But sometime after three weeks — or even three days — I begin to falter. Not only does doubt in my ability to succeed creep in but I question whether the goal is even worth achieving. I think the single most effective exercise to quell these doubts is to imagine wild success. It sounds simple and it is.

This works for any goal. Define exactly what succeeding is and visualize what it would feel like achieving that goal. How would you feel? What would you do? What would people you care about say? If it is weight loss, what size clothes would you wear? Where would you shop? How would your life change? When you look back on the path you took to achieve this goal, how will you feel about it? And what would you do next?

A one line motto I try to live by is “focus on success”, which I especially try to evoke when I’m anxious. I think all of my anxieties stem from fear of failure. If I’m stressed at work or if I feel like I just can’t stick with my diet/workout I tell myself “focus on success”. And the exercise above makes me focus on just that.

“Hello, Miss, Miss?”

“Yes?”

“Sorry to bother you. I was just wondering if you realized you are doing the leg press with no weight.”

“Well, I have different goals than you guys. I want to get tone not big, muscular, and manly.”

And so goes one of the biggest misconceptions in weight training. That if you’re a woman and exert yourself when weight training that you will turn into a freak of nature woman like those on the cover of Flex and MuscleMag.

If you believe this you are sorely wrong, so stop being lazy in the gym!

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Photo by Dunny.

This was written last month before starting fitfilter.com, but I want to share it with everyone. I wrote earlier about diet and fitness goal setting tips and now I’d like to expand upon that and talk about my goals.

The question I always get from my dad when I tell him I’m going on a diet is “Why?!” (then again that is his response to pretty much everything I say I’m going to do). I’ll tell him why then he’ll ask how, “Are you going to starve yourself again?” He also always reminds me to stay off diet drinks because “Aspartame is poison” and how pickles have “negative calories”, but that is a digression. I’m going to answer all the applicable questions in one fell swoop in this post. The “What, when, why, where and how” to my diet and fitness goals.
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