I have a brief story for all of you regarding my weight loss. Since getting my first set of kettlebells, my weight is down 35lbs and my bodyfat is under 10%. I generally find these stories really boring so I will keep it short and too the point. The only reason that I am even bringing it up is because over the last week I have had three people say that I should write a book or report about weight loss. It is an interesting thought, but then I realized two facts:
* I don't like to write!
* When I do, it is not very good!
I know a lot of people who write a lot better than I do, I may meet them over beers, tell my story, then have them write it. I do a number of consultations regarding health, and most of them want to lose fat. From these consultations, I have learned that the biggest reason that people are not successful in weight loss is the emotional attachment to food. Now I am not qualified to diagnose or treat this dysfunctional attachment, but I know it is there. During my consultations the first thing that I do ask "What are your twenty favorite foods?" There is a reason for this, I have worked with 2 separate companies that have a "Fitness Questionnaire", and I noticed that if you ask someone "What they eat?", it is a very direct question and peoples' guards are up and they will blatantly lie to you. If you ask them what their favorite foods are, they will tell you. Now, you can infer that they is what they are eating, but it is a less threatening questions. I have learned in this industry, that word choice and how you ask something are very important. When recommending a diet, I like to do is recommend foods that the person actually eats. I also like to recommend substitutions, but really not more than one or two at a time.
Now back to the emotional attachment. I have had people ready to fight me about certain recommendations. "Why can't I have chocolate at night?" "But I can't eat in the morning?" My only question is this, when you ask this question, who are you negotiating with? Me or Yourself? If you are struggling with your weight, do what bowlers do when they are not bowling well -- CHANGE SOMETHING! If you don't know what to change, ask someone. When I am bowling bad, and I am "completely lost" and have no idea what to do, I asked a teammate (that is much better and more experienced bowler) what I should do - AND I DO IT. There are a couple reasons that this generally works. The first is that someone on the outside sees things that you don't. The second is that you always have a hard time judging yourself. The lesson here is that if you suffer from dysfunctional eating, find an outside source to help you out. Also, if you have gained more than 10lbs in the last year, you suffer from dysfunctional eating.
What I have just described in the paragraph above is the "Energy In" portion weight loss. The second is the "Energy Out" portion. This is very hard to measure from a analytically because there are multiple sources of "Energy Out":
* Basal Metabolism (hard to measure)
* Physical activity (hard to measure)
* Thermogenic effect of food (hard to measure)
==> Since this can't be measured directly, you are better off managing this by:
1) Keeping an accurate track of you food and physical activity
2) Seeing if the scale/BF% is going in the right direction
3) Replan if it is not
==> Just like finding a bowling shot, the best you are doing is guessing. You just gotta keep making tweaks and never give up.
When people FAIL on a diet, it is because they give up. I have lost about 26lbs in the past year. Did I lose weight every week. No. The key is I never gave up. Everything works if you stick to it. Nothing works if you don't.
1) P90X works if you stick with it -- you will just be sore as hell and it takes a lot of time
2) Body For Life works if you stick to it -- it is boring
3) Westside Barbell -- works if you stick with it -- it doesn't fit into a lot of peoples schedules
4) Enter The Kettlebell works if you stick with it -- too many people try to tweak it for more fat loss (usually people who have no business doing so)
5) Return of the Kettlebell works if you stick with it -- but if you haven't done ETK/RoP you have no business doing it
6) MaxVO2 works if you stick with it -- most people don't read the book and/or don't have enough snatch proficiency to do it.
7) A 2/1/2/2 Muscle and Fiction program will work if you do it -- most people don't have the sack to stay with it.
The people I have seen get results get them because they stick with a program, not because they pick the perfect program.
Lesson Learned: You will succeed if you don't quit. If you quit it is your own fault.
So maybe I will write a pamphlet instead of a book. It is simple. Not easy, but simple.
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