Weight Loss: The Idiot’s Way & The Smart Way

The Idiot’s Way

One of the things that annoys me most within the fitness industry is the majority’s approach to weight loss.

When people decide they need to “lose weight” the first thing they do is dramatically reduce their calorie intake – or at least they reduce it whilst people are watching. They then tell their friends, family and colleagues that they’re “on a diet”.

The “diet” generally consists of some bogus breakfast cereal (Special K being the favourite), soup and some rice cakes/crackers. They may even go all out and only shop in the Weight Watcher’s section of their local supermarket or ditch food altogether in favour of a liquid diet. 

The ‘dieter’ then goes to the gym and either signs up for some sort of exercise class with the prefix “body” or, worse, they walk on a treadmill for half an hour whilst holding on to the sides as if it were Zimmer frame.

After an arduous day of work, cardboard for food and “hard work” at the gym complete, they go home, put their feet up and enjoy whatever nonsense is on the TV, before repeating it all over again the following day.

This ‘regimen’ generally lasts between the Monday and the Friday of the first week before the individual falls off the wagon at the weekend, goes out for lunches, orders take away and heads to the pub with their friends. After all, they deserve it; they’ve worked hard this week and they’ve “been good”.

When the weekend ends, so too does their bad behaviour and it’s right back to the Cup-a-Soups and the Diet Coke on Monday.

Two or three weeks in the person decides that “it’s not working”, gives up and goes back to their previous lifestyle. They then put back on the pound or two that they lost and some more on top of that. Three months down the line they’re fatter and even more miserable so they go back to stage one and repeat the process again.

The Smart Way

In order to truly lose weight (it’s fat you want to lose, by the way, not weight), you must be dedicated and patient.

You must ignore those around you because they will try to stop you from succeeding.

“You can have one biscuit.”

“One drink won’t do you any harm.”

“What’s one night out going to do?”

These are statements you will hear from friends, family and colleagues time and time and time again on your journey to the body you want. They’ll try to keep you down because they don’t have the willpower to do it themselves and it’s easier for them to keep you down than it is for them to rise up.

The majority of the population are fat, so you must do what the majority do not; and that means you should:

• get the majority of your calories from organic, free range animal meats, vegetables and healthy fats
• avoid processed foods
• drink lots and lots of water
• lift weights
• do short duration, high intensity cardio workouts; i.e. hill sprints
• keep alcohol intake to a minimum

You must accept that in order to make significant changes to your physique it’s going to take months and months of sacrifice, and that it’s not going to be easy. After all, if it was easy everyone would have a desirable physique.

Another important “must” is that you must ignore what people tell you. Everyone who’s ever read a Men’s Health magazine, a celebrity gossip magazine or watched the Biggest Loser will have a say on what you “should do” to lose weight. All these different opinions and “facts” will conflict and serve only to confuse you.

My biggest piece of advice is that you must ask one person whom you know to be knowledgeable on the subject. It doesn’t matter who it is – whether it’s a trainer at your local gym, a blogger you follow online or your ‘fittest’ friend – what matters is that you take on board what they have to stay and you stick to their principles.

Over the weeks you will notice small changes in your physique that will keep you motivated. Over the months other people will notice the changes in your physique and this will motive you further. Over the years you will become the one people look to for inspiration and advice and that will motivate you to keep pushing on to reach new limits.