Dumb Weight Loss Thing: Exercise at your desk.

It was 1999 when I first made any effort to learn about any aspect of weight loss, nutrition, exercise and really just diet and fitness in general. Since that time, I’ve heard/read/seen some REALLY dumb things. Here now is one of those things…

Dumb Weight Loss Thing #8,304:

That you can workout at your desk.

Seriously, how many “5 simple exercises you can do while sitting at your desk at work” articles can one human being read before they never want to read ANY article of ANY kind EVER again.

Yes, I know that a lot of the people who want to lose weight and get in shape happen to spend most of their days sitting in a chair in an office and are just looking to make the best of this situation. I understand.

But, come on… “20 butt clenches” every half hour is not going to make any real significant difference. In fact, it’s not even going to make half of a real significant difference. In fact, the only real difference “20 butt clenches” will make is causing your co-workers to think you may have crapped your pants.

If you really want to make something real happen, make time for a real workout routine. None of the exercises I’ve seen in any of these crazy “how to exercise at your desk” articles are enough to make anything happen. Something as simple as going to bed at 10:30 instead of 11:00 and then waking up 6:00 instead of 6:30 is all it takes to get a REALLY REAL 30 minute workout in before you even get to work.

If you sit down and think about it and make a real effort, there are probably a dozen (or a few dozen) other ways you can rearrange your own personal daily/weekly schedule that will allow you to make time for real workouts. Whether it’s at a gym, inside your house, or just walking/jogging around your block… EVERYONE can make time for at least 3 or 4 real workouts a week.

Anyone who claims they can’t just isn’t trying hard enough. To you people, I have this message… we will all be laughing at you when you do your butt clenches.

This has been Dumb Weight Loss Thing #8,304.

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Lose weight AND build muscle?

Ok, I’m going to answer a series of questions with either “yes” or “no.” After all the questions have been answered, I will explain.

1. Should I lose weight first and then build muscle?
No.

2. If I want to lose weight and build muscle, should I wait until all of the weight is lost and then work on building muscle?
No.

3. I have some fat that I want to lose and then I want to work on building muscle. But, my friend told me I should just work on turning my fat into muscle. Is that possible?
Hell no.

There is a noticeable theme to these questions… the goal of wanting to both lose weight AND build muscle. I’ve noticed this to be the cause of a lot of confusion, so let’s get it all straightened out. Question #1 and #2 are basically the same question with a different wording. Either way, the answer is still no. Here’s why…

If you want to both lose weight and build muscle, there are absolutely no reasons to first ONLY lose weight, and then, when the weight is finally gone, first begin to build muscle.

On the other hand, there ARE many reasons to work on building muscle at the same time you are trying to lose weight. Some include:

Weight loss happens when you put your body into a calorie deficit either by eating less of them, burning more of them, or a combination of both. And, huge surprise, weight training burns calories. It might not be equal to jogging on a treadmill, but it still burns a significant amount of calories.Not only does the actual act of weight training burn calories, but the results you get from weight training (increased muscle) ALSO burns calories. Yes, muscle literally burns calories. You know that whole calorie maintenance level thing? Well, that is the number of calories that your body naturally burns each day just functioning. The more muscle you have on your body, the more calories your body will naturally burn. You don’t even have to do anything. You just build muscle, and it takes care of the rest. Adding muscle to your body really is the closest thing to a weight loss miracle.HELLO… you start building muscle sooner! If you just sit around waiting until you lose weight before you finally try to build muscle, you will have wasted precious muscle building time. Both could have been getting done at the same time. (More on that later.)

So, to sum up, if you want to both lose weight and build muscle… you’d be pretty silly to not start off doing both at the same time.

On to question #3. The infamous “turn fat into muscle” idea. This, of course, is not possible. As mentioned above, you should start to both lose fat and build muscle at the same time, but you should also keep in mind that these are two separate things being lost and gained separately.

You’ve got your muscle, and you’ve got your fat. These are the only forms they come in. They can’t magically transform into the other. You can only gain and lose muscle, or gain and lose fat. That’s it. Those are the only tricks they do. Of course, you can lose 5lbs of fat and then gain 5lbs of muscle. But, one did not turn into the other. Case closed.

And now, one more related question:

I’ve heard that it’s not possible to lose fat and build muscle at the same time. Is this true?
Sometimes

As someone whose goal was always to both lose fat and gain muscle, I know exactly how confusing that “sometimes” answer may appear. But, it’s really not. Let me explain.

In order to lose a significant amount of fat, you have to consume less calories than your body needs each day. In order to build a significant amount of muscle, you have to consume more calories than your body needs each day. As you can see, they are counterproductive opposites. If I currently tried to do both at the same time, I would fail at both.

However, don’t give up hope. There are two groups of people that could actually succeed at doing both at the same time, and I’m not one of them. These two groups of people are:

People with “assistance.” Specifically, a word that starts with “ste” and ends with “roids.”Beginners. It truly is an amazing thing, and you’d be just plain stupid to not try to take advantage of it. See, when you are first starting to build muscle (aka, a beginner), very little is required for it to work. Don’t get me wrong, it will still take tons of effort and the correct information, but all of the other aspects that would cause a non-beginner to fail to build muscle does not apply to the person who is a beginner. Their body will, for the most part, build muscle either way. I’ve heard this borderline miracle described as “newbie gains,” “beginner’s gains” and the “honeymoon period.” None of these are scientific terms, by the way.

You remember that whole thing I said before about having to eat more calories than your body needs in order to gain a significant amount of muscle? And that the reason most people can’t do both at the same time is because losing fat requires consuming less calories (the opposite)? Well, this doesn’t really apply to the beginner. Yes, they will need to be in some kind of calorie deficit in order to lose weight. But, because they are a beginner, this won’t stop them from building muscle as it would a non-beginner.

And it is because of this reason that a beginner is able to both lose weight and build muscle at the same time. Amazing, isn’t it?

Obviously at some point you won’t be a beginner anymore and successfully doing both at the same time will become much harder (or near impossible). But until then, you might as well pretend you have temporary super powers and just enjoy it. In my opinion, the last thing you’d want to do is have this ability and not use it. That’s why the idea of waiting until you first lose weight before trying to build muscle is… well… dumb. It would be like Superman taking the bus to Lex Luther’s hideout.

You have the ability… use it while you can. As for how exactly to do this, it’s pretty simple. Follow The Lose Weight Diet (takes care of the weight loss part of the goal) and combine it with a proper weight training routine (takes care of the muscle building part of the goal). That’s it.

(Oh, and just to clarify something… any mention of the word “beginner” in this post refers to a weight training beginner, not a weight loss beginner. You could have been trying to lose weight for 10 years and have done all kinds of cardio and been on all kinds of diets, but unless you have been weight training consistently for the last 6-12 months, you are still considered a muscle building beginner who will most likely be able to take advantage of these “beginner gains.” Even if you worked out all the time when you were in college 5 years ago, unless you were doing it over the course of the last year, you too are still considered a beginner.)

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How Many Calories Per Day To Lose Weight? Daily Calorie Intake

Do you want to know how many calories you need to eat per day to lose weight? If so, congrats. Asking about your daily calorie intake is something only a smart person who truly understands weight loss would do.

What I mean is, losing weight is literally ALL about eating the right total number of calories per day. Protein, fat and carbs are certainly important as well (as are the food sources of those nutrients), but above all else, your total daily calorie intake is the key factor in allowing you to lose weight.

So, let’s figure out what your ideal daily calorie intake should be. All it takes is two simple steps…

Fat loss basically works like this…

There is a certain number of calories that each person needs to eat per day in order to maintain their current weight. This is what’s known as your calorie maintenance level. To lose weight, all you need to do is eat less calories per day than your “maintenance” amount.

Doing so creates a caloric deficit, and this causes your body to burn your own stored body fat for energy instead.

This is of course the scientifically proven fact that The Lose Weight Diet (and any other intelligent diet) is based on… just eating below your maintenance level on a daily basis.

So, that means that in order to answer the almighty question of how many calories you need to eat per day to lose weight, you first need to figure out what your daily calorie maintenance level is.

This maintenance level amount is based on a ton of factors specific to you and your body.

These factors include:

WeightHeightGenderAgeActivity LevelAnd a whole host of factors that are purely genetic.

To get a pretty close estimate of what yours is, just use the quick and simple calorie maintenance level calculator I’ve included right here. Don’t forget to come back here for step 2 right after.

Alright, half way done. Now that you have an estimate of how many calories you need to eat per day to MAINTAIN your current weight, it’s time to figure out the daily calorie intake that will allow you to LOSE weight.

Which means… it’s time to create the deficit.

To do this, just subtract 500 calories from your estimated daily calorie maintenance level.

So, for example, if your estimated maintenance level was 3000 calories, you’d now start eating 2500 calories per day. Simple as that.

Doing so should cause you to lose weight at a rate of about 1-2lbs per week, which of course is the ideal recommended rate for safe, healthy, effective (and permanent) weight loss.

To double check and make sure this is indeed the ideal calorie intake for you, just weigh yourself once per week (always first thing in the morning before eating or drinking) and keep track of what your weight does.

If you’re losing 1-2lbs per week, you’re perfect. If you’re losing more or less than that (or not losing anything at all), just add or subtract an additional 250 calories and see if you end up losing weight at the ideal rate over the next couple of weeks. If you are, perfect! If you’re not, keep adjusting like that until you are.

And then… that’s it. You’re done.

Now you know how many calories you need to eat per day to lose weight.

If you have any questions, I just created a quick and simple new site that covers just this topic in a lot more detail. It’s here: How Many Calories A Day

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Milk: The Weight Loss Miracle Drink

Ah yes, milk. A good source of calcium, a good source of certain vitamins, and it’s even a good source of protein. But apparently, that’s not all. Milk also happens to be THE miracle weight loss drink.

Apparently.

I’ve been seeing this commercial lately for milk, or more specifically, the web site 2424milk.com. Maybe you’ve seen it? The “2424? stands for “24 ounces of low fat or fat free milk every 24 hours.”

Every commercial states pretty much the same thing their web site states. And, that is that drinking milk, as part of a reduced calorie diet, will make you lose weight.

Hold on. Let me repeat that.

If you reduce the number of calories in your diet… and THEN drink 24 ounces of low fat/fat free milk per day… it will lead to weight loss.

I don’t know who is behind this whole ad campaign, but I’d put my money on it being the same geniuses who brought us Special K Cereal: The Miracle Diet Food. Their whole thing was that eating Special K cereal, as part of a reduced calorie diet, helps your weight loss.

Well, guess what? Eating a McDonald’s cheeseburger, as part of a reduced calorie diet, will make you lose weight.

Banging your head against a wall, as part of a reduced calorie diet, will make you lose weight.

It’s not the milk, it’s not the Special K, it’s not the cheeseburger, and it’s not the head banging… it’s the “reduced calorie diet” part. That’s it. Consume less calories than your body needs and you lose weight.

Every food and drink on the planet could make the exact same claim that milk is making here. Really, McDonald’s would be just plain crazy not to register 2424cheeseburger.com.

And just to clarify, I’m not anti-milk. Milk is far from bad. I’m just, ya know, anti-BS. And this 2424milk thing is pure BS. Actually, mentioning anything besides “exercise” and “reduced calorie diet” when discussing weight loss is BS pretty much every time.

Oh my God, do you know what I just realized? What if you eat your Special K cereal… IN A BOWL OF MILK? Holy crap, you may drop 50lbs instantaneously! There should really be some kind of warning about combining these products. “May cause extreme amounts of weight loss… as part of a reduced calorie diet.”

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The “other” weight loss food log.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one… if weight loss is your goal, one of the most important things you can possibly do is keep track of everything you eat each day.

Nothing new there, right?

The reason you’d do this is because, as you know by now, the key to a successful weight loss diet is eating the right number of calories (and getting those calories from good sources) and keeping some kind of log, list, or journal of what you eat every day is the only real way of doing this.

While I fully agree with everything above, I feel there is actually a completely different weight loss food log that should also be kept.

Like I’ve mentioned other times in this blog, most people fail to lose weight because of the mental aspect of weight loss. Knowing what to do and deciding to start doing it is easy. It’s the motivation, dedication, and will power to keep doing it, and doing it correctly, that causes most of the problems.

Keeping the type of food log I mentioned above and knowing exactly what you’re eating every day is really one of the keys for making the physical aspect of weight loss happen.

But, it does absolutely nothing for the mental aspect.

That’s why I’m proposing that everyone who’s ever had a diet setback due to a lack of will power or motivation should start keeping a SECOND log…

A log of everything you didn’t eat.

Everything you wanted to eat that day, but didn’t. Every bag of potato chips, every candy bar, every french fry, every cookie, every fast food hamburger, every can of soda, every food you wanted to eat but didn’t because you know you shouldn’t.

Each food in that log is one victory for your will power. Looking at a daily/weekly/monthly/yearly log of every piece of junk food you were mentally strong enough to keep out of your body would be nothing but motivating.

The next time your favorite junk food is just sitting there calling your name, instead of eating it, write it down. Write them all down. If you’re up to it, you can even take the time to figure out the nutritional information of it (calories, grams of fat, etc.) just to get an even better idea of the junk you just avoided eating.

As motivating as that would be, it will be even more motivating when you watch this log become smaller and smaller over time as your desire and interest in eating these types of foods gradually fade away.

Not to mention, the actual act of writing/typing the food down rather than eating it could act as enough of a distraction to make the desire to eat it just pass.

So, while adopting this idea won’t actually cause you to lose any weight, it will serve as a way of improving your will power and keeping you motivated. And, without that, you probably won’t be losing any weight anyway.

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Weight Loss Rate Per Week – How fast should you lose weight?

Now here’s a topic people seem to be absolutely obsessed with… the ideal weight loss rate per week. Meaning, how fast should you lose weight?
And it’s pretty obvious why people are so interested in getting this question answered. Quite simply, knowing how slow or fast you should lose weight will allow you to estimate when you can expect to finally reach your goal and have the body you want.
People are super obsessed with reaching that point (especially early on), so it would only make sense that they’d be obsessed with figuring out when they will finally be there.
So, let’s answer that question right now.
To do this, I want to take a look at the two recommendations I give most often when it comes to the ideal weight loss rate per week…
This right here is the most basic and common weight loss speed recommendation you will see. Losing 1 pound per week is basically the textbook definition of safe, simple and healthy weight loss.
It’s not too slow (which is discouraging) and it’s not too fast (which is unnecessarily hard and potentially dangerous). This is right smack in the middle, which seems to be just right for most people.
In addition to being the most commonly recommended weight loss rate per week, it’s also the most generic. It really doesn’t take any outside factors into account at all (like you, your body, your preferences, your situation, how much weight you need to lose, etc.).
It’s just a solid universal recommendation for how fast the average person should lose weight. I like it.
However, despite the fact that I do like it and I have given this exact recommendation countless times before, it’s no longer the first recommendation I give. This is…
That’s right, I think your ideal weight loss rate per week should depend on you.
What I mean is, I think someone who has more weight to lose should lose it faster than someone who has less weight to lose, and vice-versa.
This makes sense for a ton of reasons. For example, people with more fat to lose are less likely to lose muscle due to the higher abundance of fat on their body. Therefore, they can handle losing weight faster without the same risk of muscle loss.
On the other hand, people who are leaner or just have less fat to lose are at a higher risk of losing muscle. Because of this they SHOULD have a slower rate of weight loss.
Plus, this also takes into account how easy or hard it will be. Meaning, it’s a lot easier for a person with 100lbs to lose to lose it faster than someone with 10lbs to lose. They should take advantage of that fact, especially early on.
Let me throw some numbers out there to show you exactly what I mean…
A person with an above average amount of weight to lose (example: 100lbs) should lose it at a rate of 2lbs (or more) per week.A person with an average amount of weight to lose (example: 30lbs) should lose it at a rate of 1-2lbs per week.A person with a below average amount of weight to lose (example: 10lbs) should lose it at a rate of 0.5-1lb per week.
I explain these recommendations in much more detail (along with the best way of actually making them happen) in The Ultimate Fat Loss Program.
So, while the standard “lose a pound per week” recommendation is still a perfectly fine middle-of-the-road goal to aim for, I think how slow or fast a person loses weight should depend more on them and be a little more personalized based on the exact amount they need to lose.
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