A Guide To Successful Weight Loss

Introduction If you’re reading this then you must be in the same boat I was about 8 months ago. Back then, all I did was eat junk food. Packets of this and boxes of that. Bottles of coca-cola and chocolate milk, along with buckets of ice cream. I was on the fast track to diabetes, heart attacks and even death. But after I had a fling with a girl I decided I wanted more. I didn’t want to be the rebound guy or someone people only talk to too either make themselves feel better or because they felt sorry for me. I wanted to stand out from the crowd, I wanted to turn heads. But the only way I could do that is if I wasn’t fat. Now if you’re anything like me, you have a long list of failed diets under your belt. I bet this leaves you feeling pretty discouraged, I know I was. But then I decided it was time to break free of the flabby shackles that had held me back for years. So the next day I went to the chemist and looked through their range of dietary aids. I know what you’re thinking, sounds like the start of another failed weight loss program. But you’d be wrong, just like I was. So while I was there, I came across a meal replacement shake. Of course I was sceptical at first, but after reading the back of the box and remembering the commercials on TV I decided it was worth a shot. So I bought it. Now, if you’ve seen the commercials on TV that promise “You can lose all the weight you want while still eating all your favourite foods.” You’re probably thinking “That sounds too good to be true.” Well the sad fact is, it is too good to be true. Eating all our favourite food is how we got to the point we’re at. So after a month on this diet I wasn’t noticing any results at all. The scales weren’t moving and I didn’t notice any changes about myself. I was about to quit but then I decided to get serious and do some research. I discovered that the bare minimum amount of calories a person can eat before their body goes into “Starvation mode” is 1200. This would be the key to the success of my diet. So after I discovered this I went out and bought some digital scales so I could precisely track my progress and I also bought some more shakes. Then I began to focus on everything, I measured my food and counted every calorie. But all of the hard work paid off now that I’ve lost 35 KG or 77 Lbs and my Dietician is telling me that losing any more weight/fat can pose health risks since there isn’t enough fat left to use and my body will start converting my muscles to energy. This is a very bad thing because we want to keep the muscle, but also because your heart is a muscle and your body will burn through heart muscle for energy. The funny thing is, with the diet I’m about to show you, you even burn fat while you’re sleeping. Sounds too good to be true doesn’t it. But guess what, I’m telling the truth. So let’s get down to business. Information I’m adding an information page just to clarify a few things before we get started. 1. Fiber: Soluble and insoluble fiber both have great effects. But the main ones are that it attracts water and turns to gel during digestion, traps carbohydrates and slows the absorption of glucose, lowers total and LDL cholesterol, regulates blood sugar and reduces risk of heart disease. So for just those reasons you can see why this is important. The fact that it turns to gel during digestion is the reason why fiber helps you to feel full. Also, trapping the carbohydrates and slowing the absorption of glucose means you’ll stay full for longer and you’ll have a steady source of energy. Regulating blood sugar also helps to keep your insulin levels stable. If your insulin levels become high, your metabolism slows down. 2. Water: Health care professionals say that you need to drink at least 2 Litres or half a Gallon of water each day. But for this diet, we’re not just going to be drinking it because it makes us healthy. We’re going to be drinking it for 2 main reasons. The first being that it helps to make you feel full. This is going to be a life saver in the early stages of the diet. And the second reason is that it boosts your metabolism. Another bonus is that when you finish your diet, you won’t be craving the drinks that are full of sugar anymore. You’ll be so used to water that you won’t want to drink anything else. 3. Metabolism: It’s important to understand that your metabolism is responsible for burning fat and using energy. When your metabolism is high, you burn more energy/fat doing the things you normally would. That’s why, if your metabolism is low, you won’t lose weight and you could potentially put some on. So we want to keep it elevated. Water speeds up the metabolism and it has no calories. Eating does also, but we need to pace ourselves. I’ll go more into that later. 4. Exercise: I know I said you don’t have to. But if you want to start walking, or doing some other kind of light cardio it will help you to get to where you want to be. Since doing exercise of any kind burns calories it will add to the total amount of calories you’ve burned off for the week. But don’t push yourself; if it’s too hard you won’t want to keep doing it. Just walking or something you don’t mind doing would be fine. 5. Goals: Be realistic. I started with a goal of wanting to get to 80 KG from 115 KG by the end of the year. It’s a 35 KG difference. I got to it, but I thought I needed to go further. Turned out I was wrong. So once you think you’re about finished, go see a Dietician and find out how much more, if any, weight you need to lose. When I went, I fully expected to be told to lose more weight. But because I have broad shoulders I was told that it was time to maintain the weight I’m at now. 6. Shakes: Not only are they an easy way to get a meal while counting the calories. They also contain vitamins, minerals and nutrients that your body needs to function. It also boosts your metabolism which as you know by now is very important. The brand of shake I used was Celebrity slim: http://www.celebrityslim.com.au/ if you’re able to get that brand of shake you will be able to follow this diet to the letter. I haven’t been able to test any other kinds of shakes, but as long as you get meal replacement shakes that have about 300 – 400 calories per shake it should work about the same. Make sure to get meal replacement shakes, not protein shakes. Later on near the end of the diet, if you want to start building muscle, you can increase your protein intake by drinking the protein shakes. But I won’t be covering that. 7. BMR: BMR stands for Base Metabolic Rate; this is the max amount of calories you can eat without gaining any weight while not exercising. To lose weight without exercising, we’re going to need to eat less than that. That’s why 1200 Calories is all you’re going to be eating each day until you finish. 8. BMI: BMI stands for Body Mass Index. It is a scientific way of finding out if your weight is appropriate for your height. Unfortunately, the BMI does not measure muscle mass and bone density. So if you have wide shoulders it’s not an accurate test. Your Dietician can plot you onto a graph to see if your weight is appropriate for your height and shoulder width. 9. Calories: There are 3500 calories in 1 Pound of fat. So there are 7717 calories in 1 KG of fat. So each week, we need to burn off 7717 calories to lose 1 KG/2.2 Lbs in 1 week. So if your BMR is 1800 calories and you eat 1200 a day you will burn off about 4200 calories per week. You may notice that that’s not enough to equal 1 KG/2.2 Lbs of fat. But with all the food and supplements you’re taking, along with water and eating every 3 hours, your metabolism will be boosted enough to double or potentially triple that amount of calories burned. But most food is measured in “Kilojoules” so we need to know the conversion. For the rough guess just divide the Kilojoules by 4 to get the calories of something. The precise measurement is 1 calorie = 0.004184 kilojoules but there’s no need to be that precise. 10. Motivation: For the first 1 to 6 weeks this diet will be a challenge. Your body is going to be going from the high calorie, high carbohydrate diet, to one that’s teetering on the starvation line. You are going to feel hungry a lot after the first few days. The key in the initial stages is will power. You have to force yourself to ignore it, do not go and get a coke, or an ice cream. Don’t eat junk food at all. If you absolutely cannot stand the hunger, you can make a salad wrap. Not a sandwich, bread is high in calories and since it’s not much in substance it won’t keep you full for long. I recommend some kind of gluten free rice bread with salad. Supplements/Supplies So to get through this without dying of a lack of iron or not getting the correct nutrients daily, we’re going to need to go out and buy a few things. All of these things should be easily bought and readily available from your local drugstore/chemist/pharmacist without a prescription. 1. A Good Multi Vitamin: I use Centrum multi vitamin. It works well and it’s easily available (In Australia at least.) You can find out more about this specific multi vitamin here: http://www.centrum.com/ 2. Iron Tablets: This one is the most important thing you need to get. Because on this diet you won’t be eating as much meat, if any, as you used to, you will have a high chance of depleting your iron stores and becoming anaemic. Find out more about anaemia here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anemia 3. Fish Oil Tablets: Not essential but they are a good source of Omega 3 and are good for helping to maintain normal brain growth and activity. 4. Fiber: This is going to be essential to keep everything moving smoothly. This will also help you to feel full for longer. The main benefits of fiber are keeping you full and scrubbing your insides. It will help to get rid of all the stuff that’s clogging your pipes and keep everything running nicely. Make sure to get both soluble and insoluble fiber. 5. Scales: Of course we’re going to need scales. A good set of digital scales is a must for this. Not only will scales boost your moral and let you know that you’re on the right track, you will get a precise measurement of how much weight you’ve lost. You have to weigh yourself when you start, then once a week from then until you finish. Following this eBook you should lose, on average, 1 KG or 2.2 Lbs per week. Food So now we get down to the meat (Mind the pun) of this eBook. Of course you can lose weight by not eating food, but that is a very dangerous and unhealthy way to go about it. Ideally, you would lose weight by sticking to a strict diet set out by a dietician. This diet would include a lot of fruits and vegetables, along with meat and nuts. Now if you’re anything like me, you’re a bit of a picky eater and you don’t like to eat a lot of that stuff. Fortunately, this diet was tailored for me. I am a picky eater so this diet had to keep me wanting to eat it. So without further delay, let’s get to it. 1. Pizza: A bit of a shock with that one isn’t it? But you read correctly. For the majority of this diet I ate half a large Pizza a day. The one I had was a cheese Pizza, but of course you can substitute. It doesn’t have to be Pizza; it just has to leave enough calories for the rest of the food you need to eat throughout the day. 2. Meal Replacement Shake: This is going to be your most important meal of the day. Make sure to get one that you like. You can add coffee or something else to the shake for flavour if you want, but don’t add chocolate mix or something like that. Remember that you have to add fiber to it also. 3. Snacks: Throughout the day you are going to eat 2 snacks. These snacks have to be around 100 calories. I ate a cheese snack. 4. Water: Not technically food, but you have to drink lots of water. I drank, and continue to drink, at least 2 Litres or half a Gallon of water per day. On average I drink closer to 4 Litres or 1 Gallon of water per day. The reason we drink water is because it’s going to be the only fluid you drink until you reach your goal. Not only is it good for you, but it makes you feel full and it boosts your metabolism. Let’s have a quick calorie break down minus the food names.  Main meal: 600 calories  Shake: 400 calories  Snacks: 200 calories So in total for the day, that’s 1200 calories. This is the bare minimum you can eat before your metabolism slows down and starts converting everything to fat. This is the worst possible thing we could have happen. You’re eating less but you’re gaining weight. It doesn’t make sense, but now you know why it would be happening. Now you may notice that you’re only actually having 2 main meals a day. If you like, you can split up the 600 calorie meal into two 300 calorie meals. This will work better because it will keep your metabolism raised. Keep in mind; it doesn’t have to be Pizza. It just has to be something you can get a fairly precise estimate of how many calories are in it. Implementation So now that we have that out of the way. Let’s talk about how we’re going to introduce this diet into your life. Of course it all sounds relatively simple, and I promised it would be, But this is going to be on you to take the initiative and stick with it. Day #1. So you wake up and you have a shake along with all the supplements, 3 hours later you have a snack, 3 hours later you have a 300 calorie meal, 3 hours later you have another snack and then 3 hours later you have another 300 calorie meal. No sooner than 3 hours later you go to sleep. Now I’ll explain why it is that your day has to be scheduled like that. 3 hours is about the time it takes for food to digest. While the food is digesting your metabolism is elevated. So if we eat every 3 hours we keep our metabolism elevated all day. As for why you shouldn’t go to sleep for at least 3 hours after eating. The reason is simple; you continue to use energy while you sleep. More so than if you were watching TV. So by the time it comes to go to sleep, if you haven’t eaten anything for at least 3 hours, your body will be running on empty. So while you sleep your body will burn fat for energy. Another bonus of not eating before you go to sleep is that you will want to eat breakfast as soon as you wake up. So your metabolism gets its boost. So at the end of day 1 you will probably be feeling about the same. That’s normal; it’s going to change later. But I hope you didn’t forget to drink lots of water. Day #2. Same routine as day 1. You may notice that you feel hungrier today. That’s completely normal. Just try to ignore it, add more fiber or drink more water. Day #3. Same as day 1. You’re probably starting to feel really hungry now. It’s still normal and it will only get worse. This is because your body has gone from a high calorie, high carbohydrate diet. To just sitting on the line of starvation. The only thing you can do about it is fight though it. Day #4 - Week #2. This time period is going to be the hardest. More than anything it’s going to be a test of your will power. If you want to lose the weight enough you will overcome your body trying to force you to eat that double double cheeseburger. Week #2 – Month #1. It’s going to be much the same as week 2. But by now, hopefully, your will power will be helping you push through it. Just remember why you started, think about what you’re going to look like when you finish. Just stay positive, don’t start thinking “This is too hard, I’m so hungry, I’m going to go get some McDonalds.” That is the worst thing you can do. Month #1 – Month #2. By now your stomach will have shrunk. This is a great thing because now you won’t feel nearly as hungry, if at all, and the 1200 calories you consume throughout the day will actually make you feel full. The first month is always the hardest part of any diet; if you can push through it you will be able to achieve your goals. Continuation/Maintenance Once you have reached a weight you think is appropriate, or you’re having trouble losing more weight after you’ve lose a lot, like I did. Go see your Dietician. They are the only people that can tell you if you’re at a good weight for your height and shoulder width. They will also most likely advise you to start eating fruit and vegetables. This is important as it will get you off all the supplements you’ve been taking for the duration of your diet. Now the great thing is, you’ll be able to maintain your new weight and look forever. Your stomach is still a lot smaller than it used to be so your appetite isn’t nearly as big. Also, if you’re anything like me, you’ll remember what you used to look like and you’ll be scared to go back to the way you were. You shouldn’t want to eat junk food or fast food anymore. Because by now you’ll be used to eating healthy and your mind set will have changed. You won’t want to eat it because it will remind you of what you used to be. Now this doesn’t mean that from time to time you can’t go and splurge. Just don’t overdo it, if you splurge for 1 night then that’s ok. 2 days of splurging in 1 week is a definite no. No one gets fat from just 1 session of over eating. But if you do it constantly you will be right back where you started. I’ve been finished for about a month and I still don’t eat fast food or junk food or soda. It’s just not necessary to live, it’s a waste of money and it’ll put me straight back where I was. Also at this point. It is a good idea to go for a check-up with your Doctor. Request a blood test after telling them how much weight you’ve lost. I wasn’t taking the iron tablets before then so my Iron was way down. But since you will have been taking the iron tablets you shouldn’t have that problem. My blood test results were perfect except for my iron levels. My cholesterol was down, my blood sugar was fine and so was my kidney and liver function. So I’m just an all round healthier person now, and so are you. Conclusion So after reading through this you still might be a bit sceptical. Maybe you’re not but hey, what have you got to lose, besides lots of fat? If you follow this guide to the letter, not only will you lose weight, but you’ll be well on your way to a healthy lifestyle you can maintain for the rest of your life. You will be a happier and healthier person and that’s exactly what you always wanted. Working Out Wait, what’s this? A bonus section on working out? That’s right; I decided to add a bonus section on working out. This entire section is going to focus on the Power 90 workout videos. I found it to be a very effective workout routine in the late stages of my diet. There are a few different levels of the series which can be found here: http://www.beachbody.com/category/fitness_programs/best_sellers.do Of course, since the majority of this guide was cheap/free we don’t want to be paying for anything. I suggest you go and look for a torrent or direct download. The name of the series that I will be focusing on is the Power 90 Master Series. Now let’s get started! The Routine First of all, I’m going to show you all the routine that I used about half way through my diet. Each of these workouts burns off 400 calories, so if you do 1 workout, you can add 400 extra calories to your diet for that day. But, if you don’t add an extra 400 calories then you will lose weight faster. Circuit 1: P90 Day 1 Sweat 1-2 1 hour break Ab Ripper 100 Day 2 Fat Burner Express 1 hour break Sculpt 1-2 Day 3 Ab ripper 200 1 hour break Sweat 3-4 Day 4 Sculpt 3-4 1 hour break Fat Burner Express Day 5 Sweat 1-2 1 hour break Ab Ripper 100 Day 6 Fat Burner Express 1 hour break Sculpt 1-2 Day 7 Ab Ripper 100 1 hour break Sweat 3-4 Repeat for 3 weeks Circuit 2: Move on to P90M Day 1 Cardio Intervals 1 hour break Fat Burner Express Day 2 Plyo Legs 1 hour break Ab Ripper 200 Day 3 Sweat 5-6 1 hour break Fat Burner Express Day 4 Sculpt 5-6 1 hour break Ab Ripper 100 Day 5 Upper, Middle, Lower 1 hour break Fat burner express Day 6 Core Cardio 1 hour break Sweat 3-4 Day 7 Fat Burner Express 1 hour break Ab ripper 200 Repeat for 3 weeks Circuit 3: Move on to p90X Day 1 Legs and back 1 hour break Ab Ripper 200 Day 2 Kenpo X 1 hour break Fat Burner Express Day 3 Back And Biceps 1 hour break Cardio Intervals Day 4 X Stretch 1 hour break Sculpt 5-6 Day 5 Cardio X 1 hour break Fat Burner Express Day 6 Core Synergistics 1 hour break Upper, Middle, Lower Day 7 Legs And Back 1 hour break Fat Burner Express Day 8 Plyometrics 1 hour break Sweat 5-6 Day 9 Chest and back 1 hour break Sculpt 5-6 Day 10 Yoga X 1 hour break Fat Burner Express Day 11 Shoulders And Arms 1 hour break Ab Ripper 200 Day 12 Cardio X 1 hour break Fat Burner Express Day 13 Ab Ripper X 1 hour break Kenpo X Day 14 Chest, Shoulders And Triceps 1 hour break Fat Burner Express Day 15 Yoga X 1 hour break Cardio X Day 16 Plyometrics 1 hour break Sculpt 5-6 Day 17 Back And Biceps 1 hour break Ab Ripper X Day 18 Kenpo X 1 hour break Cardio X Day 19 Legs And Back 1 hour break Fat Burner Express Day 20 Yoga X 1 hour break Chest And Back Day 21 Ab Ripper X 1 hour break Plyometrics Day 22 Cardio X 1 hour break Fat Burner Express Circuit 4: Move on to P90X+ Day 1 Interval X Plus 1 hour break Sculpt 5-6 Day 2 Kenpo Cardio Plus 1 hour break Fat Burner Express Day 3 Yoga X 1 hour break Cardio X Day 4 Ab Ripper X 1 hour break Fat Burner Express Day 5 Interval X Plus 1 hour break Yoga X Day 6 Kenpo Cardio Plus 1 hour break Fat Burner Express Day 7 Ab Ripper X 1 hour break Cardio X Repeat for 3 weeks Now as you can probably tell from going over the routine, it’s not an easy one. My advice is to just go at your own pace. If you don’t want to do 2 workouts a day, don’t. If you want to focus more on weights, then do it. Near the end of my diet I made up a new routine that focused more on cardio and toning. I’ll show you that now and if you prefer the one I’m about to show you, use it instead. The above workout is intense if you’re not used to physical activity and the progression and workouts will be very hard. Which is why the below routine will probably be better for you. The Second Routine For this routine we’re going to be doing 1 cardio workout every day except for 1. This is how it’s going to work. Day 1: Cardio Day 2: Sculpting Day 3-7: Cardio. The reason it’s done this way, and will continue to be done this way throughout the routine, is because the first day after a new cardio exercise, you will be a bit sore and worn out. The sculpting workouts are easy and they’ll be working different muscle sets so you can recover. So let’s get down to the actual workout. Circuit 1 Day 1 Fat Burner Express Day 2 Sculpt 1 - 2 Day 3 Fat Burner Express Day 4 Fat Burner Express Day 5 Fat Burner Express Day 6 Fat Burner Express Day 7 Fat Burner Express You can repeat circuit 1 for as long as you like. I found after about 5 days of doing it I wasn’t getting worn out anymore and it was actually easy and I looked forward to doing it. Once you get to that stage, it’s time to move on to circuit 2 if you feel you’re ready. Circuit 2 Day 1 Sweat 1 - 2 Day 2 Sculpt 3 - 4 Day 3 Sweat 1 - 2 Day 4 Sweat 1 - 2 Day 5 Sweat 1 - 2 Day 6 Sweat 1 - 2 Day 7 Sweat 1 - 2 After completing your first week on circuit 2, you may not feel up to moving on to circuit 3 just yet. That’s fine, I wasn’t. I repeated circuit 2 for 2 weeks before I moved on to circuit 3. If you feel comfortable moving on then by all means move on. But if you don’t, just go at your own pace. Also, remember to take the workouts themselves at your own pace. If you can’t keep up with the videos, just do what you can. You will eventually be able to do it easily. Circuit 3 Day 1 Sweat 3 - 4 Day 2 Sculpt 3 - 4 Day 3 Sweat 3 - 4 Day 4 Sweat 3 - 4 Day 5 Sweat 3 - 4 Day 6 Sweat 3 - 4 Day 7 Sweat 3 - 4 As I said above, take this all at your own pace. I spent 2 weeks on this circuit before I moved on as well. By now your heart and lungs will be stronger and you’ll be able to go harder and longer than you could when you first started. So when you’re ready, we’re going to move on to circuit 4. Circuit 4 Day 1 Cardio Intervals Day 2 Sculpt 5 - 6 Day 3 Cardio Intervals Day 4 Cardio Intervals Day 5 Cardio Intervals Day 6 Cardio Intervals Day 7 Cardio Intervals Now as you’ve seen by now, each workout progressively gets harder. You’re not jumping into one you have no hope of completing. Cardio Intervals is harder than sweat 3 – 4 because obviously it’s at a higher level. But by now it should only take 1 week to get used to it. Then you can move on to the 5 th and final circuit. Circuit 5 Day 1 Sweat 5 - 6 Day 2 Sculpt 5 - 6 Day 3 Sweat 5 - 6 Day 4 Sweat 5 - 6 Day 5 Sweat 5 - 6 Day 6 Sweat 5 - 6 Day 7 Sweat 5 - 6 By the time you finish this circuit you will be a lot fitter than when you started, and if you did this near the end of your diet, you’ll be a lot more inclined to go out and get physical. I go for long distance bike rides, swim, run and do push ups and other strength activities since I finished my diet and the circuits above. It’s well worth at least attempting these circuits. Conclusion So now that you’ve finished the diet and you’ve finished the workouts. You’re now the person you always wanted to be. But I want you to all keep something in mind. This eBook wasn’t a guide on how to lose all your fat and get completely ripped. This is just a weight loss guide that will help you get to a healthy weight and will get you in shape. It’s not guaranteed to get you well defined muscles and abs. If you really want them it’s going to take a lot more weight training and a different diet focused on protein to accomplish that. But there’s also the problem of genetics. If you ask your dad or other guys in your family if they have ever had abs and they say no, then odds are you will have a very hard time getting them. There are many high protein diets out there but I haven’t researched any. Essentially, if you want one that works you’re going to need to go sign up at a gym and get their advice. If you want to get a personal trainer that will also help you immensely. So, welcome to the rest of your life. You’ve been fat, you didn’t like it. Now you’re skinny, get ready for a whole new world of opportunities. The world really is nicer to skinny people. Gone are the days where you thought people were constantly judging you. Gone are the days of getting upset and sitting down with a bucket of ice cream. Those days are never coming back. You’ll always remember what being fat was like. But now you get to experience life being skinny. Welcome to your new life.