How
To Lose 20 Pounds Really, Really Fast
By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
Back in
the day when I was a full time personal trainer
and I met with weight loss clients in person at my New
Jersey Health Club, the first thing I would always ask
during the initial consultation was:
"Tell
me what you want... and I'll show you how to get it."
Typical reply
from client:
"I
want to lose 20 pounds fast."
My reply:
"Are you
SURE that's what you want? ...If I can show you how to
lose 20 pounds REALLY fast, will that make you happy?"
They nodded
their head affirmatively as their eyes lit up in anticipation
of the rapid weight loss secrets I was about to reveal...
Their face
went white when - with a totally straight face
I pulled out a hacksaw and started walking towards them....
menacingly.
Not sure whether
to laugh or run in sheer terror, they said,
"What
the heck are you doing?"
"You said
you wanted to lose 20 pounds fast. This is the easiest,
surest, most effective way I know to take 20 pounds off
you FAST! In fact, I figure that right leg of yours might
even weigh 25 pounds!"
I kept walking
closer and started to get into sawing position, wielding
my fast, effective and guaranteed weight loss tool...
"Bear
with me because this IS quick, but sometimes it takes
a few minutes for me to cut through the bone."
By this time,
my client (and I) are either completely cracking up, I
have seriously scared the living you know what out of
them, or they just think I'm a complete lunatic... (depends
on whether I was able to keep a straight face or not)
Finally, the
light bulb goes on, and my client would see where I was
going with this:
"Okay,
smart alec," I get it... I don't want to lose WEIGHT,
I want to lose FAT."
Sometimes I
would be having so much fun, I would just keep on playin'...
"But why
not? This is easy, fast and guaranteed - just what everyone
wants these days... it's even better than taking a pill!
Come on... let me hack it off! You'll be my next testimonial:
'I lost 20 pounds in 5 minutes!' Imagine what that will
do for my business!"
"Very
funny. I told you, I get it! I want to lose FAT, not muscles
and bones. I need my leg!
Naturally,
of course, I don't always have to pull out my trusty blade.
Every once in a while... about as often as a total solar
eclipse... a client answers my question like this:
"What
do I want? Tom, I want to lose 20 pounds of body fat in
the next 12 weeks. I want to do it slowly, safely and
healthfully and then keep it off permanently. I want all
the fat around my hips and thighs completely gone and
I want a firm flat stomach. I want muscle all over my
body while still looking feminine. I'd like to see myself
at about 16% body fat and maintain all my muscle or gain
a few pounds of lean mass if I can, especially in my arms.
This is important to me because I want to set a good example
for my kids, I want to be healthy and live to at least
90 and I want my husband to look at me and say, "I
love your body," and I want to be able to *honestly*
say back to him, "me too!"
It is on these
rare occasions that I know there is still intelligent
life on this planet.
If you could
answer the question, "What do you want" with
the lucidity, clarity and specificity that this woman
did, I don't think you would ever have any difficulty
reaching your health and fitness goals... or any other
goal in your life, for that matter.
Her answer
was what you call a very "well-formed" goal,
backed up with lots of emotional motivation-inducing "reasons
why."
"I want
to lose weight" is a poorly-formed goal.
"Weight"
is not the same as "fat." Weight includes muscle,
bone, internal organs as well as lots and lots of water.
If you only
learn ONE thing from all my newsletters, articles and
books, PLEASE learn this:
WHAT
YOU REALLY WANT IS TO BURN THE FAT, WHILE KEEPING THE
MUSCLE!!!!
FAT
LOSS is what you want, not weight loss.
If your body
were 100% rock-solid muscle, with absolutely nothing that
jiggled (unless it was supposed to), would you care how
much you weighed?
I bet you wouldn't!
And if thats true, then
STOP WORSHIPPING THE SCALE AND START MEASURING YOUR BODY
COMPOSITION!
By measuring
your body fat, you take the guesswork out of your health
and fitness plan and you get an accurate picture of what's
really happening in your body as a result of your diet
and exercise program.
Instead of
worrying about whether you are losing muscle, or wondering
if you are losing fat, you can measure it and KNOW for
sure. (I always get a good chuckle when someone tells
me they're worried about losing muscle when they don't
even measure how much muscle they have!)
Instead of
being confused by all the "opinions" from weight
loss and exercise "experts" who are all telling
you something different, you can MEASURE your body composition
and based on the results, you can KNOW for sure whether
your program is working.
A very wise
man once said,
"A single
measurement is worth a thousand opinions."
So, how do
you measure body fat?
Thanks to technology,
there are some methods today that are so accurate, they
can tell you whether your left pinky has more fat than
your right pinky! Unfortunately, many of them are either
too expensive or they are inaccessible, being found only
in hospitals or research facilities
If you want
to learn a LOT about various body fat testing methods,
chapter 3 of my e-book, Burn
the Fat, Feed The Muscle goes into great detail about
the pros and cons of all the various fat testing methods.
Instead of re-hashing it all here, let me give you three
quick and easy, practical suggestions:
Suggestion
1: Have a trainer or fitness professional measure you
if this service is available at your local health club.
Sometimes, there's a charge - usually $15 - $25, although
some clubs offer the service for free to all their members.
Suggestion
2: Purchase an Accu-measure skinfold caliper. Do a google
or yahoo search to find a reseller.
The Accu-measure
was designed to allow you to measure your own body fat
in the privacy of your own home (you don't need someone
else to measure you)
Some people
wonder if this is really accurate. Truth is, it's not
quite as accurate as a multi site skinfold test from an
experienced tester, but what's most important is not the
"accuracy" per se, but the reliability and consistency
of your measurements so you can track your progress. Skinfold
calipers in general are not accurate or inaccurate, it's
the person doing the test that is accurate or inaccurate.
Suggestion
3: If you have a spouse, roommate, or friend who can measure
your body fat, you can purchase a Slim Guide body fat
caliper (or just about any brand of caliper) from Creative
Health Products: chponline.com
The Slimguide
is the best inexpensive caliper available (about $20),
but it wasn't designed for you to measure your own body
fat like the Accu Measure. You'll need someone to measure
you with this caliper. Other models of body fat calipers
(if you want to splurge), range from $150 to $450. (At
our health clubs, I use the electronic "SKYNDEX"
caliper with the 4-site "Durnin formula.")
The calipers
come with instructions, or you can use these formulas,
which I have used and found to be very accurate:
4 Site formula
for men (abdomen, suprailiac, thigh, tricep)
% fat = .29288(sum
of 4 skinfolds) - 0.0005(sum of four skinfolds squared)
+ 0.15845(age) - 5.76377
4-Site Formula
for women (abdomen, suprailiac, thigh, tricep)
% Fat = (.29669)(sum
of 4 skinfolds) - (.00043)(Sum of four skinfolds squared)
+ .02963(age) + 1.4072
[Source: Jackson
A S, Pollock, M (1985) Practical assessment of body composition.
Physician Sport Med. 13: 76-90.]
Body fat percentages
vary based on age and gender, but 20-25% body fat is average
for women (15-19% is ideal), while 15-20% is average for
men (10-14% is ideal). I have detailed charts for body
fat charts in my e-book if you're interested.
Once you know
your body fat percentage, then weigh yourself and record
your weight and body fat on a progress chart such as the
one found in my Burn
the Fat, Feed The Muscle (a fat loss program,
not a weight loss program). This chart is how you will
track your progress and "keep score."
You can calculate
your lean body mass (muscle and other fat free tissue)
very easily just by crunching some numbers:
For example,
if you weigh 200 pounds and you have 10% body fat then
you have 20 pounds of fat (10% of 200 = 20). That means
you have a lean body mass (LBM) of 180 pounds.
Now we're talking!
With this data, you can get a really clear picture of
how your exercise and nutrition program are affecting
your physique.
Losing weight
is very easy. Losing fat - and keeping it off without
losing muscle - is a much bigger challenge. If you simply
wanted to lose weight, we could just chop off your leg.
Or, (slightly
less painful), I could show you how to drop 10 - 15 pounds
over the weekend just by dehydrating yourself and using
natural herbal diuretics. Wrestlers do it all the time
to make a weight class. But what good would that do if
its almost all water and youre just going
to gain it all back within days?
You don't have
to "throw away your scale" like many "experts"
tell you to. By all means, keep using the scale, the tape
measure and even photographs and the mirror - the more
feedback the better - but body fat is where it's at.
By the way,
I recently bought a chain saw and a shiny new axe from
Home Depot, and I've been practicing my "American
Psycho" and Jack Nicholson, "The Shining"
impersonations... so if you want to come to my office
any time soon for personal consultation, you'd better
have the right answer to my question, "What do you
want?"
For more information
about a nutrition and training program that focuses exclusively
on FAT LOSS, not WEIGHT LOSS, visit: Burn
the Fat, Feed The Muscle
About
the Author:
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Tom Venuto is a lifetime
natural bodybuilder, an NSCA-certified personal
trainer (CPT), certified strength & conditioning
specialist (CSCS), and author of the #1 best-selling
e-book, "Burn
the Fat, Feed The Muscle. Tom has
written hundreds of articles and has been featured
in print magazines such as IRONMAN, Australian IRONMAN,
Natural Bodybuilding, Muscular Development, Exercise
for Men and Mens Exercise, as well as on hundreds
of websites worldwide.
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