About a month before Christmas, I decide to see how much body fat I could drop in that short time period.
With a few modifications to my strength training and an increase in energy systems training to add some metabolic stress, the exercise programming was a snap.
To address the nutritional side of the program, I contacted my good friend Mike Roussell, author of Your Naked Nutrition Guide, to consult on what modifications I needed to make to maximize fat loss over that last month of the year. I ended up using the same principles that Mike explains in his book.
A couple of revelations…
Chicken breasts are a lot bigger than you think. Where I needed about 5-6 oz. of chicken breast in some of my meals, turns out the chicken that I was buying was about 10-12 oz. per breast. Even eating clean, you can exceed your necessary food intake for fat loss if you don’t pay attention to serving sizes.
I prepped food twice per week on Sundays and Wednesdays to keep things fresh and flavorful. I always had a large bowl of fresh veggies prepared and cooked chicken breasts, fish, ground beef, etc. in quantity.
I stored everything in glass Pyrex containers. The food tastes better that way and I could heat and eat in one dish, so clean up is easy.
I started the Morning Breath Club. With my schedule, getting my own training in after a long day was the last thing I wanted to do, so I started doing it first thing in the morning. Based on my schedule, that means I’m up at 4 a.m. and in the gym by 4:15. 75 minutes later, I’m done and ready for my work day. It was exceptionally difficult at first to get up that early and train with any intensity. At this point, I only carry on my mental argument to stay in my warm bed over training for about a minute and then I’m up and ready.
Drinking water can get a bit boring, so I put a couple scoops of Xtend BCAA’s in my water bottle to add flavor. I recommend the grape flavor over the lemonade (which isn’t too bad either), but I haven’t tried the orange flavor yet.
Staying on an eating program is very easy when you’re busy. Too much down time is the killer I think for most folks who struggle with controlling their eating. I don’t have too much unplanned time, so for me eating is something that’s just part of the daily schedule. I didn’t really have any major cravings to deal with and was rock solid the entire month maybe missing a couple meals throughout.
The results…
13.5 pounds of fat lost with no measurable loss of muscle in 4 weeks.
I took the week of the holidays off from controlled eating, ate what I felt like at the time and didn’t stress out about it.
I got back on it after the new year and as of this morning, I’m down 16 pounds of fat.
I have one belt that I can’t wear anymore because there aren’t enough holes in it, and my pants are looking like hand me downs from my big brother becaue the waist is too big.
My final revelations from the last 6-7 weeks…
While I didn’t really look it, I was a lot fatter than I thought.
My overall conditioning is has improved, and I feel a lot better.
I need some new pants and a new belt…I HATE shopping.
Bill