I lost 20kg/44lbs in 3 months, here’s what I learnt.

As a preface I want to highlight how becoming healthy doesn’t mean starving yourself or following a boring “diet” or training program

It’s about small lifestyle adjustments, becoming more aware of yourself & how your body responds to different things

Everyone is different, leading a healthy life is far from a one-size-fits-all shoe.

1 . Caloric deficit / surplus

Look up how to use the MyFitnessPal, an app for tracking calories

If you’re trying to lose weight then follow the principle of “volume eating”, where the food you consume is low in calories but high in volume.

So food high in protein & fibre, I personally love “protein ice-cream” look up “Greg Doucette Protein Ice-cream”

The opposite applies if you’re a “hard-gainer” who can’t gain weight, you want to eat “high calorie dense food”

This doesn’t mean to stuff your face with fast-food every day, but look up “home-made mass gainer” & other ways to quickly supplement calories when you either dont have time to cook or are too full

Drinking your calories can trick your body because you can drink faster than chewing tells you you’re full & you don’t have to digest liquid so much as chicken & broccoli

2 . Resistance training

This can be either Calisthenics (body-weight training) or weight-lifting, either works as long as you implement “progressive-overload”

You want to hit each main muscle group 2-3x a week

This is because each time we provide a muscle with training stimulus we illicit a process known as “muscle-protein synthesis”, where our bodies partition protein to re-building muscle while we sleep & recover.

This process generally lasts 48 hrs but is said to be less with more trained individuals & sometimes longer with newbies.

Remember, muscle isn’t built in the gym, it’s built while we sleep, our gains are also relative to the quality of our sleep/nutrition & general well-being (low stress etc)

“Progressive overload” is the principal of training harder than last time

Our bodies adapt to the stimulus we provide it, so to keep our bodies adapting at the pace we desire we have to increase the workload accordingly

Think of the boy who carried the baby cow up the mountain, as the calf grew so did he.

Progressive overload can be achieved by increasing weight or volume/number of reps & sets

Mobility exercises are also very important

3 . Cardio

I just recommend a 10 minute walk after each meal

5 minutes one way, 5 minutes back.

You’ll probably find yourself enjoying the walks & going for even longer, but so long as you’re getting 10 minutes.

It’s easier than the thought of 30-60 minutes on a treadmill every day, for most people.

4 . Nutrition

The main point is getting 0.7-1g of protein per lb (pound) of lean body-mass

So if you weighed 300lbs but were 100lbs overweight then you’d want 200g protein a day, max.

Don’t stress about other macro-nutrients for now

As long as you’re consistent with your calories/protein intake & training your body/physique will recompose itself.

4 . Rest & Recovery

I’ve said it before & I’ll sure as hell say it again

Muscle is NOT built in the GYM, it’s built while you SLEEP.

SLEEP HARDER THAN LAST TIME

Lack of sleep also throws your hormones out of balance, which WILL adversely affect fat-loss & muscle growth.

Look up ways to get more quality sleep, here are some of my strategies.

1. Bedtime ritual, I like to have a shower, brush my teeth & read manga in bed (currently reading JoJo Part 6, Berserk & One Piece)

Over time these rituals will subconsciously prime our body for sleep

1. Limit exposure to blue-light (light from screens)

Blue light suppresses our bodies ability to naturally produce “Melatonin”, the sleep hormone which is responsible for regulating our sleep cycles, like REM (rapid eye movement)

Most screens have blue-light filter settings, though I’m not sold on how effective they are.

It’s also a plus to limit social media, youtube etc

as they can be very stimulating (something to do with dopamine, our brains reward-centre)

There are supplements for sleep but they should generally only be used temporarily to help reset our sleep patterns

1. Sun-light & exercise as soon as we wake up

This helps reset our circadian rhythm (internal body-clock)

A good way to pair the two is to go on a morning walk, it doesn’t have to be long (5 minutes one way, 5 minutes back)

5 . SUPPLEMENTATION

Try to meet as much of your nutritional requirements through whole-foods! but don’t be shy to supplement where needed

Protein powders

WPI (whey protein isolate)

Organic unflavoured/un-sweetened protein powder is the best for you, but it shouldn’t really hurt to drink the sweetened stuff, unless you’re having heaps (the important thing is just getting enough protein every day)

For long-term health try to stick to whole-foods as much, but for now it should be okay (see your doctor)

Vitamins

There are some staple ones I recommend, like Cod Liver Oil & for most people Vitamin D3

But before taking a bunch of supplements I advise you to get a blood-test & ask the Dr, General Practitioner what you’re deficient or too high in.

Then adjust diet to include food high in these micro-nutrients & supplement accordingly

I’m sure I’ve missed a whole lot of information, but I hope this will help at least some of you

I will leave a list of resources & YouTube Channels who have helped me assimilate this knowledge

I will try to categorise them as well as I can by what the channel mainly focuses on, if you see them more than once then it’s because they cover a range of content

WORK - OUT ROUTINES (I’m following “Metallicdpas PPL - Push, Pull, Legs, Repeat”)

https://thefitness.wiki/routines/strength-training-muscle-building/

The following list are YouTube channels

GENERAL HEALTH & FITNESS

. Mindpump Podcast & Mindpump TV

A collaborative of trainers who discuss all facets of what it means to be healthy

Mindpump TV is a demonstrative channel teaching exercises

. Eugene Teo

Australians are known for being easy-going, & while Eugene is no exception he’s also a testament to how insanely smart asians are

. Greg Doucette (IFBB Pro Body-builder, a.k.a the parrot from Aladdin)

Great information on diet/nutrition & training

. Will Tennyson

Great humour, easy-going & practical

Check out his video on how he lost 100lbs, if you’re in the camp of trying to lose weight

. Coach Christian Thibaudeau - Thibarmy

Wealth of information, from training/nutrition to exercise demonstrations

Beginner to advanced

. ATHLEAN-X

Probably the most well-known fitness YouTuber, for good reason

. Shredded Sports Science

YouTube peer reviews & science-based information on health & fitness

. Gravity Transformation

Well-edited, succinct & straightforward

. Jonathan Clarke

Practical meal plan examples & outlook on health & fitness

. Omarlsuf

More exceptional content on general health/fitness

. The Bioneer

Focus on “functional fitness”

. Remington James

Really positive guy who shares lots of healthy recipes

. Mountaindog1

Another IFBB Pro Bodybuilder with outstanding work ethic & knowledge on training & nutrition

I recommend checking out the podcast episode he had with MindPump Podcast

Some of these channels include information on PED’s (performance enhancing drugs) but for the most part you can ignore that information if you want, the information almost always applies, whether you’re natural or enhanced.

. Dr Sam Robbins

Digestible information mostly regarding health/nutrition, as opposed to training

EXERCISE DEMONSTRATIONS

. MindPumpTV

. Coach Christian Thibaudeau - Thibarmy

. Mountaindog1

IFBB Pro Bodybuilder with outstanding work ethic & knowledge on training & nutrition (35 years training experience)

. Eugene Teo

Australians are known for being easy-going, & while Eugene is no exception he’s also a testament to how insanely smart asians are

. The Bioneer

Focus on “functional fitness”

HEALTHY RECIPES

. Flexible Dieting Lifestyle (Australian)

. Remington James (American)

. Greg Doucette

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

. ice1cube

. Better Than Yesterday

. HealthyGamerGG (relevant to everyone, contrary to “gamer”)

POSTSCRIPT

“The difference between the master & their pupil is the master has failed more times than the pupil has ever attempted”

Change doesn’t happen overnight

It’s about making small adjustments to lifestyle & nutrition

Everyone is different

What personally pushed me was the thought that even though all of this information was hard to take it at first, that if I kept learning eventually I’d gain a deeper understanding & the only thing stopping me wouldn’t be some intellectual barrier, but my own will power to just move

Happy New Year & best wishes!

submitted by /u/hiki_neet-
[link] [comments]

source https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/kqu9n8/i_lost_20kg44lbs_in_3_months_heres_what_i_learnt/