Everyone is always on the lookout for the Ultimate Diet Secret. What can I do to lose fat FAST?! I need to know NOW! Please HELP me!
As a fitness and athletic coach I hear this all the time. I hear it more than just about anything else (at least from women, men generally are more interested in muscle gain). In fact I’ve been hearing that now for nearly 12 years! But, let me tell you, there are precious few people who have actually done anything with the secret diet knowledge once I lay it out for them.
Yes. There IS a secret. The problem is that you already know it. Since I couldn’t say it better, I’ll just quote Chad Waterbury:
If I told you to consume one gram of protein per pound of body weight, fibrous vegetables, water, green tea, 12 grams of fish oil, and spread those out over the course of six meals each day you’d be anything but impressed. But if I held you in captivity and forced you to do that every day for a month, you’d be blown away by the results. The nutritional methods to lose fat have already been found. The challenge we coaches face is figuring out how we’re going to get you to adhere to the guidelines.
What’s the take-home message? Stick to the plan. Losing fat, gaining muscle, and other forms of body composition change require the one thing most of us refuse to put in: Consistency. It’s often boring, but the boredom will pay dividends.
July 6, 2008 at 8:30 pm
The reason people have such a difficult time adhering to such a strict diet is because the thought of eating like overly supplemented rabbits for ALL OF ETERNITY sounds like a bit much. It takes all the joy out of life. What good is looking like a supermodel when all you can think about is how much you want to eat something that tastes good! Cheat days, or at least cheat meals, must be worked in. The problem is how to limit the cheat to one day or one meal and not to fall back into old eating habits. I am still searching for a way to do this (as I eat my ridiculously sugary and fattening carrot cake). If will power worked then this would not be an issue.
July 7, 2008 at 7:37 pm
There in lies the rub. We all want there to be some magic bullet, but there isn’t. We have to work our asses off, period. But, that doesn’t have to be a chore. never forget, the more you work out, the more you can get away with with your diet. I have no intention of giving up ice cream. Most of us don’t.
But, that means we have to pay for it somewhere else. I prefer to spend more time working out at higher intensities. Then my body NEEDS more calories just to survive: Ice cream to the rescue!
July 7, 2008 at 7:38 pm
As a follow up, we all have 1 of 2 choices: workout less and diet more, or workout more and diet less. Moderate exercise and moderate diet will net you moderate results.