How To Lose Body Fat And Body Weight

Question

Hi Blake,

I want to know if it's possible to lose the fat on my body. I'm about 270 pounds and would like to drastically cut my body weight to under 230 pounds. I'm not very athletic and don't have what you would call, a fitness routine.

My eating habits are pretty horrendous - I don't have anything near a healthy diet. What I'd like to do is lose about 50 pounds and get into shape. I'd also like to build up my muscles. Is it possible to do this?

Thanks,

Michael

Response

Hi Michael,

I'm going to give you a crash course on losing body fat and keep the lean tissue growing.

The first thing you need to do is adjust your diet.

This is the most important aspect of losing body fat. You need to cut an appropriate amount of calories that will allow you to lose body fat at a rate that doesn't shrink your body.

According to your figures, you weight 123 kilos or 270 pounds. Take that figure and multiply that by 11 or 12. This equals about 3,000.

This figure will be your base caloric intake for losing body fat. You will structure your diet around the 3,000 calorie figure.

What you have to do, is start eating 3,000 calories per day. I'm going to guess that once you start to eat 3,000 calories per day, in conjunction with a consistent weight training and cardio sessions, your going to start losing weight quickly. The 3,000 calories that you will be consuming is your starting point.

I'm a very big proponent of "knowing where you need to start in order to know where your going". Once you have your starting point, you can monitor your daily diet and see if it's working.

If you're losing about 2 pounds a week, your on the right track. If, after two weeks, you haven't lost an ounce, you will have to cut your calorie down to 2,700 calories per day.

The thing you need to keep in mind is to be consistent with your meals and monitor your progress on a weekly basis. So, every two days or so, hop on the scale and take your measurements.

I strongly suggest you eat 6 meals a day spread out 2 hours apart, 3 at the most.

You now know your base starting point. The following will have some sample menus for you to try. These menus will give you an idea of what and when you need to be eating in order to start losing weight and body fat:

Diet Menu

To show your abs you need to peel away some fat. The only way to do this is by increasing your aerobic activity and cutting back on the amount of calories you are ingesting. I suggest you cut back 300 to 500 calories per day and increase your

aerobic activity to about 4 to 6 times per week at 1/2 hour sessions. You want to sweat! Get that oxygen into the muscle so you can start to use fat as the energy source and burn that up. Here are some pointers:

-Use filtered water instead of milk in protein drinks
-Do not ingest any carbs after 6:00 -7:00 pm
-Increase aerobic activity- at least 1/2 hour per day- make sure to sweat
-Keep fast acting carbs to a minimum- only after workouts
-Cut down on fruit juices and other simple sugars or better yet, cut them out completely
-Cut calorie intake by 300 to 500 calories per day

I suggest you take a multi vitamin with your breakfast and take ZMA on an empty stomach before going to bed.

If you find yourself going hungry in the evenings, you must, I repeat, you must stay away from junk food. This is the real killer to losing weight. I suggest having some carrots and celery handy for the evenings.

Once your body starts to get hnugry and starts up with big hunger pangs, you will immediately go to your comfort foods which may be junk food. You must avoid this.

Get into the habit of eating veggies such as carrots and celery in the evenings when you start to get hungry. Once you start doing this, your going to start seeing some serious results!

Here is a sample weight training plan for your to follow:

Use this routine 3 times per week.

Warm up: 5 to 15 minutes - exercise bike, walking, jumping rope or whatever else gets you heart rate going

Stretches - Very important to stretch for 10 to 15 minutes

Squats or dumbbell squats
Warm up 1 x 20 repetitions
2 x 12 repetitions

Bench press or dumbbell press
Warm up 1 x 20 repetitions
2 x 12 repetitions

Single arm dumbbell rows
Warm up 1 x 20 repetitions
2 x 10 repetitions

Seated shoulder press
Warm up 1 x 20 repetitions

Shrugs
2 x 12 repetitions

Standing barbell curls
Warm up 1 x 20 repetitions
2 x 10 repetitions

Lying tricpes extensions or standing cable press downs
Warm up 1 x 20 repetitions
2 x 10 repetitions

Standing calf raises
2 x 20 repetitions

Sit ups or crunches
2 x 20 repetitions

Follow this routine on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Remember to increase the weight by 10% to 20% every other workout. As for cardio, start off with 10 minute sessions as soon as you've finished weight training.

With each passing week, you should be adding 5 minutes to your cardio sessions up, to 35 minutes per day. Follow this plan for 12 weeks. Remember, keep motivated. If you need more help, just let me know.

All the best,

Blake