This is the beginning of a 3-part series in which I give you a sneak peak behind the scenes of my online coaching program so that you see what progress looks like in its many various forms.
Every path is different.
Change happens at various rates and at unpredictable times. I’ll highlight the major observations from each transformation story so that you can hopefully apply some of it to your life.
Here’s what you can learn from a 37-yr old corporate pro who shed 15 lbs. of fat, got stronger, and eliminated his back pain.
Transformation #1: How Matt Lost 15-lbs of Fat
This transformation is what slow, steady progress looks like. Real change that’s sustainable long-term never happens quickly and it’s rarely linear.
It’s almost always messy with lots of ups and downs. Just like life..
The Power of Patience
Matt is 37 years young. He’s a busy dude with a successful finance career, a wife, and 2 kids. There is no time for hour-long gym sessions. Or spending a lot of time preparing meals. We had to be efficient with workouts and be realistic with food choices given his full schedule.
The key was sticking to the plan, staying committed to the workouts and simply showing up every day and building small habits slowly.
That above chart is what it looks like over the course of 6 months. If you look at the time horizon on the x-axis, you’ll see that we were actually up in weight after 5 months!! Yes, that’s right..5 months in and an increase in weight.
This was mostly due to the focus on strength training early on to get him stronger and build some muscle mass. With a little more muscle mass on the frame, getter leaner and shedding fat becomes easier.
In month 6, we dialed in the nutrition, cleaned things up a little bit and boom…weight starts dropping, as does the crucial waist circumference that you see here.
I can’t emphasize enough the importance of patience and consistency when transforming your body.
Why Slow Weight Loss Is Better Than Quick Fixes
Real fat loss happens slowly over the course of months, not weeks or days as the mainstream fitness industry will lead you to believe. Sure, a restrictive diet plan followed for 30 days and you’ll lose weight, but you won’t have the skills necessary to keep it off once the 30 days are over.
Why? Because life doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Life happens in the real world.
Maybe these scenarios sound familiar to you – presented with less than perfect choices at the airport. You don’t have time to get to the gym. You love certain foods that aren’t very friendly to your waistline. And of course you really dig drinking beers with the boys.
This is life. And knowing how to navigate this stuff takes time.
Habits Of Long-Term Body Transformation
You start to develop a practice of awareness to see how certain food choices affect hunger later on in the day. You realize that you can get an effective 15-min workout in without going to the gym. These things take time to develop. And when you do develop these skills, you become unstoppable.
All of a sudden, a work dinner pops up and it’s no problem because you have a game-plan of what to drink and what to order.
Or maybe there’s no hotel gym, but that’s no problem because you got your 15-min bodyweight workout you can in your room.
Or you have to travel for work, but you know that you won’t make a poor food choice by eating shitty airport food because you now travel with a tasty protein bar that will tide you over until you arrive.
These are the real life examples that Matt experienced along his weight loss journey. He might have shed the pounds at a much slower rate, but he has acquired the knowledge and developed the skills to keep on making progress long after we’re done working together.
Power of Muscle Mass
Having more lean muscle mass allows you to burn more calories at rest which will help the fat loss equation in the long-run. This is because muscle is much more metabolically active compared to fat tissue.
More muscle also makes you more capable to do more intense workouts, which create a positive hormonal environment in your body for shedding fat. You become more insulin sensitive (which is a good thing), and you release testosterone and growth hormones — both of which promote fat loss in the body.
Our weekly plan was simple — maintain adequate levels of protein intake, keep training short and intense, and start dropping total food intake a little bit.
That was the simple recipe for shedding fat. And that’s exactly what happened in month 6.
Properly Track You Progress
The other vital piece to this story is the need to track something other than just body weight. Taking girth body measurements at various places on the body — especially at the waist and chest — will provide important information that weight alone doesn’t reflect.
Especially in men, waist circumference is one of the best indicators for risk of developing metabolic syndrome — a cluster of conditions — increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist, and abnormal cholesterol or triglyceride levels — that occur together, increasing your risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes.
Reducing this waist measurement is always a top priority for this reason. As you can see, the waist came down nicely in month 5 as we started to focus on fat loss.
The truth is, fat loss isn’t that complicated, but there are a few things you need to have in place to be successful.
4 Keys to a Successful Transformation (S.W.A.T.)
1) STRATEGY
You need a specific plan that works for your lifestyle. Telling a busy guy with a full life, a demanding career and 2 kids to go the gym 5x per week just isn’t going to happen.
Instead we focused on a few simple, intense workouts that he could knock out in 20 minutes, 3 times per week, all from home with minimal equipment. Those 3 workouts, executed week in and week out, produced the results we were after.
2) WHY
It always starts with a powerful why. Without a strong why in place, you’re forced into the trap of relying on motivation and willpower to stay the course. More often than not, the environment around you and the old habits you have take over to keep you exactly where you started. “He who has a powerful why can bear any how.” Victor Frakl
3) ACCOUNTABILITY
Everyone needs someone in their corner. A coach or trainer obviously works well here, but you can also get accountability from a workout buddy, your spouse, a friend, or a coworker.
The bottom line is that you’ll try and sabotage your progress along the way and the only way you’ll be able to see that yourself is to have someone else there keeping you on track.
4) TRACKING
You need to see if what you’re doing is actually working. If you’re not tracking something, you’re flying blind. You need to track something.
Body weight is an obvious one. But waist measurements or other girth measurements are normally a better indicator of progress.
What To Do Next
If you’re a guy 35-50 and you want to move better, feel stronger, and look better now than you did in your 20’s, I can help you. 100%. The best part – you can be anywhere in the world. If you’re willing to invest and commit to your health, I’d love to have you in my online coaching program.
Right now I have a few spots open and I want to make sure I have room for you if you want in. If you’re interested, click the below button, grab a time that works for you, answer a few questions, and we’ll talk soon.
Interested In Coaching – Click HereHope to connect soon..
Nick
