There are a million ways to lose weight. I could sit and tell you that some of them work, and some of them don’t, but that’s just a lie.
The truth is: you are the one that decides whether a diet will work or not. If you want it badly enough, like anything in life, you’ll find a way to make it work.
You will find a way, to make it work.
In this article I’m going to drill down deep, past all the bullshit, and give you the 12 things I KNOW will work, if you have the self discipline to apply them.
For most of my young adult life (18-25), I was slightly overweight. I’m 5’10 and in those years my weight always hovered around 195. The best word for it was ”chunky”.
That’s what I was….I was chunky. See here:
Pay no mind to the horrible sense of fashion I had back in those days.
I had a brief few months after this when I was 22 where I dropped some weight, but I wasn’t able to keep it off for long.
Years later, in 2011, at the age of 25, something inside me changed. I didn’t like who or what I saw in the mirror. I had let myself slip. I was too young to weigh as much as I did. And the weight wasn’t the only problem. I didn’t like who I saw in the mirror.
To me that was a problem because (at least for the previous 10 years) I had always liked myself. That however, was the problem. That was the reason I had slipped and had gained weight.
I’m not saying that’s why everyone gains weight, what I am saying is that oftentimes it can however. So its worth taking a little time to consider what else in your life could potentially be contributing to your issues with weight.
Anyway, the point is: I changed. I changed internally, then that manifested itself externally.
That’s the long and the short of it. Looking back on it (Spring/Summer of 2011), at the time I didn’t even realize how much weight I was loosing. I just changed the way I was eating, and a few month’s later, one person after another kept telling me how good I looked.
So what did I do? First I’ll give you a quick rundown of what I specifically did that summer, then I’ll talk about how I’ve been able to maintain 10-12% bodyfat for last 6 years.
That summer specifically, I followed the Brad Pitt eating scheduled he used to get in shape for the movie ”Fight Club”. There are several versions of this floating around the internet, but the real, exact one (at least the one I followed), is outlined below.
Nowadays, I’m more interested in having the physique he had in the movie ”Troy”, than he did in Fight Club.
The eating schedule I followed that summer was eating 6-7 times a day.
Now, here’s the part about this that everyone overlooks when they shit on this way of doing it: Notice that I said 6-7 times a day, I didn’t say 6-7 meals a day. Eating 6 meals a day is different because it implies that every time you eat you’re eating a full meal.
On this diet, breakfast, lunch, and dinner were the meals, and the 3 meals in between were either a banana, protein shake, protein bar, or a handful of almonds. See below:
Breakfast (6 Eggs Whites with 3 yolks removed, steel-cut oatmeal w/raisins)
Mid-Morning Food: Banana Or Handful Of Salt-less Almonds
Lunch (Chicken breast, green vegetables, and brown rice)
Mid-Afternoon Food: Banana & Protein Bar Or Whey Protein Shake (ISO 100 Hydrolyzed, carbless protein)
Dinner (Same as lunch or swap out the chicken with wild caught tilapia or salmon)
Casein (slow release) Protein Shake Or Low Fat Cottage Cheese
This diet worked for me personally and got me looking lean and mean. I followed this for years actually, and I only stopped because I got bored of it. Give it try and see how it works for you. I also happened to follow the weight training regimen he used for the movie, which was okay.
Only following the diet alone is going to make you ”skinny-fat”. To really look good, you have to lift weights too. They are both critical, diet and lifting weights, you cant have one without the other.
So this helped me drop the weight (this is one way to do it). What you’ll read below are the 8 LAWS to know and follow when it comes to keeping the weight off of you.
The last thing you want is to lose it and yo-yo back up to your old weight.
1.) Stop Drinking Everything, Except Water & Unsweetened Tea.
DO NOT drink soda, do not drink lemonade, do not drink energy drinks, do not drink milk, do not drink Gatorade, do not drink alcohol….
Do not drink ANYTHING that is not water or isn’t tea… I’m absolutely amazed at this one and why its so hard for people to grasp. I’ll tell someone this and 20 minutes later they’re drinking a Powerade…
What you drink has calories in it, never forget that. It’s better to get your calories from your food than from what you drink.
2.) Don’t Eat Within 3-4 Hours Of Going To Sleep.
This is one I’ve gotten away from recently, maybe that’s why lately I’ve been unable to shed that last 2% of body-fat. When you eat right before, or close to the time you go to sleep, you aren’t giving your body enough time to work off the calories you just ate.
If you normally go to bed at 10pm, then don’t eat your dinner any later than 6:30pm. If you go to bed at 11:30, then don’t eat dinner any later than 8:00pm. Its that simple, count back by 3 1/2 hours from the time you go to bed and that’s when you eat dinner.
3.) Don’t Eat Carbohydrates (Mainly Bread).
This might be the hardest one for me, but I can tell you if you commit yourself to it, it does get better. I wont say it gets easier, you’re always going to crave carbohydrates, but you do get used to it to an extent.
4.) Don’t Consume Sugar.
Sugar is one of the worst things you can out in your body. If you have a sweet tooth, then I’m sorry but you were honestly born with an affliction.
A sweet tooth should be considered a mental illness or an addiction, no different than alcoholism, or gambling. This isn’t some joke I’m trying to make or something to not take seriously:
If you have a sweet tooth and can’t sop eating sweets, you are NEVER EVER going to keep weight off (and you won’t loose it in the first place).
Live Intentionally,
-Matt Mitchell
