My 10 week plan – A Template For Fat Loss

            Fitness and body composition has been an ongoing conversation for me as of late with it popping up a bit more frequently in the past two weeks.  I knew as I wrapped the summer months up, along with vacations being wrapped - that I'd have to recommit to some discipline on the diet/intake front.

 

I’ve messed around with fat burners, various diets, and even increasing cardio.  What I have found is that I can shed anywhere from 5-10 lbs of fat in a week or so when I drop into a strict method.  The problem with this is that I invariably cannibalize muscle when I do so.

 

This time around, I’m intending to take a more measure approach that has me losing a steady 1-2 lbs per week for the next 45 days or so – without sacrificing any muscle.

 

Here’s the current plan of attack that just kicked off on August 6:

 

Continue Lifting – I’ll continue to hit the gym to lift weights 5-6 times per week.  At the moment, I have no travel in the immediate future – so this is totally doable.  The more muscle you have to burn off energy, the better.

 

Continue Protein – I’ve historically been averaging 1 to 1.25 grams of protein daily per pound of body weight.  I’m going to slightly reduce this to a 0.8 to 0.1 grams of protein during this cutting phase.

 

Determine Calorie Target – Mine is set at 2220, read below to see how I landed upon my number.

 

I am currently tipping the scales at 195, and I’m targeting a 10 lb reduction in fat – with no muscle loss.  This will land me in at 185 as my target body weight – knowing your ideal body weight is a key number here.  More on this in a second.

 

That’s roughly 1lb per week.

 

In the research I’ve been digging into – 3500 calories is about 1lb.

 

So I need to come in under 500 calories under what I spend each day of the week for the next 10 weeks.  3500 calories as a deficit per week = equals 1 lb lost per week.  Anything more aggressive, and I know muscle will get chewed up – which is what I’m going to preserve.

 

Here’s a rule of thumb that I will be employing as my target calorie range:

Multiply your goal bodyweight in lbs by the number 12 to determine your daily caloric intake.  This will result in anywhere from 1-2 lbs of fat loss depending upon a variety of factors.

 

For me this is 185 x 12 = 2220 calories

 

If I wanted get an accelerated fat loss – I could drop down to 11 as the multiplier.  For the first three weeks, I’ll be sticking with 12 as the multiplier.

 

Restart MyFitness Pal – This app is worth the upgrade to the full subscription.  It has any food you could possibly eat – already within the data base.  It will be a little tedious at first to restart counting my calories, although it is very gratifying to watch the weight melt off knowing that I’m following the app’s counting.  I did this about a year ago – religiously – it does work if you follow the calorie intake.

 

Tons of water with Electrolytes – I am a serious water drinker.  Tom Brady talks to this at length as a secret to his longevity in his TB12 book.  He recommends to drink at least half hour body weight in fluid ounces.  I go a little crazier than that.  I drink my body weight in water as I know that any caffeine or alcohol intake is an offset.  Exercise is also taxing on the hydration front.  So I over indulge in filtered tap water each day.  When I’m not traveling, I target at least 96 ounces before 12pm each day.  If I hit that much water intake by that point in the day, I am guaranteed to hit 200 ounces by end of day.  This has a slew of benefits, attention and ‘snap, crackle, pop’ type of energy is more easily realized throughout the afternoon.  Also, if I am strict on the water intake – the hunger associated with calorie deficits is not so acute.

 

Starting Up HIIT – I have not done HIIT formally ever before in my life.  High intensity interval training is what it stands for.  When I used to play soccer back in the day, we’d do HIIT and plyometrics – among other types of crazy routines that have since become traditions – but we did not call it HIIT back then.

 

I’ll be doing this a few mornings each week for the next 10 weeks.  I have no preference on a HIIT routine at the moment.  I’m thinking basic morning sprints, possibly some 20/30’s on a soccer field for a solid 20-30 minute window with 8-10 20/30’s with a light jog in between ought to kick my ass sufficiently.  There is no way I’ll be doing this in the evening hours when it is typically 100 degrees here in TX at the moment…  Then in the evenings after work, I’ll do my usual weight lifting.  Leg days ought to be even more fun…

 

A few benefits from the HIIT research:

• 48 hours after the HIIT session – the body continues to burn in an elevated fashion
• Alternating intensity burns more calories in less time than the typical walking on the treadmill or the eliptical gig I usually do
• My metabolism will be juiced for the day after I bang these out
• Aerobic and anaerobic benefits are both products of this type of workout

 

There is a ton of research out there that points to HIIT being more effective at fat burning that typical cardio by itself.  I’ll be starting slow and cultivating this as a habit with the initial few sessions being 10-15 minutes in length.  I’ll also be sure not to injure myself – my first rule of any workout is to be able to workout again the next day.

 

I’ll be targeting HIIT 3x per week during this 10 week period with a max of 5x per week.  I do have a tendency to overdue things, particularly when they work really well…

 

Intermittent Fasting – I’ll be getting back to 14-18 hour fasts with Bulletproof coffee being my breakfast during the window.  I will be doing the HIIT while fasting in the morning.  Supposedly doing HIIT while fasting will magnify the fat burn of HIIT substantially.
Let’s see how it goes.

 

Diet – I’ll be primarily getting my calories from protein and fat with a couple of days where I’ll be loading on carbs.  I’m going for calories and protein as the focal points – the other two macros of carbs and fats will be handled on a day to day basis depending upon how I feel.

 

BCAA Supplements – I love BCAAs – these are Branched Chain Amino Acids, and the ones I take are exceptionally well absorbed with very minimal caloric overhead.  I’ll be taking these right when I wake up to minimize any muscle breakdown.

 

Collagen Proteins – I will continue to supplement with collagen – primarily in my Bulletproof coffee.  There is zero sugar here, so the carb impact on the fast is minimized.

 

Whey Proteins – I will restart my whey protein supplementation later in the day after breaking my fast.  Organic, grass fed, non GMO with third party certified lab results of what is in the packaging – this is the type of whey protein I take.  I learned the hard way that without third party certifications – you can really wreck yourself.

 

Creatine – I discovered this stuff back in college when I used to live in Putnam with a bunch of my brothers.  I can remember one guy claiming it gave his massive calves cramps.  No seriously.  This stuff works wonders, and it has helped me this year put on a few new lbs of muscle.  I’ll be dialing it back during the next 10 weeks to a maintenance level.

 

I have been asked to put forward a bit more detail on the various protein supplements I’m taking, and that article is being drafted as I ready this one for sharing publicly.  I’ll be getting into those details later this week – if you are interested in taking onboard a few of the protein supplements that I have found work well for me.

 

I’ll share my journey and my results here.  I know by publicly stating all of this as part of the post – that it puts some pressure to follow through on myself.  This is intentional on my part.

 

Let’s see how this 10 week experiment goes, and I’ll share along the way.

 

Let’s GO!