How
To Lose 20 Pounds Really, Really Fast
By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
Back
“in the day” when I was a full time personal trainer and I
met with weight loss clients in person at my New Jersey Health Club,
the first thing I would always ask during the initial consultation was:
"Tell
me what you want... and I'll show you how to get it."
Typical
reply from client:
"I
want to lose 20 pounds fast."
My
reply:
"Are
you SURE that's what you want? ...If I can show you how to lose 20 pounds
REALLY fast, will that make you happy?"
They
nodded their head affirmatively as their eyes lit up in anticipation
of the rapid weight loss secrets I was about to reveal...
Their
face went white when - with a totally straight face – I pulled
out a hacksaw and started walking towards them.... menacingly.
Not
sure whether to laugh or run in sheer terror, they said,
"What
the heck are you doing?"
"You
said you wanted to lose 20 pounds fast. This is the easiest, surest,
most effective way I know to take 20 pounds off you FAST! In fact, I
figure that right leg of yours might even weigh 25 pounds!"
I kept
walking closer and started to get into sawing position, wielding my
fast, effective and guaranteed weight loss tool...
"Bear
with me because this IS quick, but sometimes it takes a few minutes
for me to cut through the bone."
By
this time, my client (and I) are either completely cracking up, I have
seriously scared the living you know what out of them, or they just
think I'm a complete lunatic... (depends on whether I was able to keep
a straight face or not)
Finally,
the light bulb goes on, and my client would see where I was going with
this:
"Okay,
smart alec," I get it... I don't want to lose WEIGHT, I want to
lose FAT."
Sometimes
I would be having so much fun, I would just keep on playin'...
"But
why not? This is easy, fast and guaranteed - just what everyone wants
these days... it's even better than taking a pill! Come on... let me
hack it off! You'll be my next testimonial: 'I lost 20 pounds in 5 minutes!'
Imagine what that will do for my business!"
"Very
funny. I told you, I get it! I want to lose FAT, not muscles and bones.
I need my leg!”
Naturally,
of course, I don't always have to pull out my trusty blade. Every once
in a while... about as often as a total solar eclipse... a client answers
my question like this:
"What
do I want? Tom, I want to lose 20 pounds of body fat in the next 12
weeks. I want to do it slowly, safely and healthfully and then keep
it off permanently. I want all the fat around my hips and thighs completely
gone and I want a firm flat stomach. I want muscle all over my body
while still looking feminine. I'd like to see myself at about 16% body
fat and maintain all my muscle or gain a few pounds of lean mass if
I can, especially in my arms. This is important to me because I want
to set a good example for my kids, I want to be healthy and live to
at least 90 and I want my husband to look at me and say, "I love
your body," and I want to be able to *honestly* say back to him,
"me too!"
It
is on these rare occasions that I know there is still intelligent life
on this planet.
If
you could answer the question, "What do you want" with the
lucidity, clarity and specificity that this woman did, I don't think
you would ever have any difficulty reaching your health and fitness
goals... or any other goal in your life, for that matter.
Her
answer was what you call a very "well-formed" goal, backed
up with lots of emotional motivation-inducing "reasons why."
"I
want to lose weight" is a poorly-formed goal.
"Weight"
is not the same as "fat." Weight includes muscle, bone, internal
organs as well as lots and lots of water.
If
you only learn ONE thing from all my newsletters, articles and books,
PLEASE learn this:
WHAT
YOU REALLY WANT IS TO BURN THE FAT, WHILE KEEPING THE MUSCLE!!!!
FAT
LOSS is what you want, not weight loss.
If
your body were 100% rock-solid muscle, with absolutely nothing that
jiggled (unless it was supposed to), would you care how much you weighed?
I bet
you wouldn't! And if that’s true, then…
STOP
WORSHIPPING THE SCALE AND START MEASURING YOUR BODY COMPOSITION!
By
measuring your body fat, you take the guesswork out of your health and
fitness plan and you get an accurate picture of what's really happening
in your body as a result of your diet and exercise program.
Instead
of worrying about whether you are losing muscle, or wondering if you
are losing fat, you can measure it and KNOW for sure. (I always get
a good chuckle when someone tells me they're worried about losing muscle
when they don't even measure how much muscle they have!)
Instead
of being confused by all the "opinions" from weight loss and
exercise "experts" who are all telling you something different,
you can MEASURE your body composition and based on the results, you
can KNOW for sure whether your program is working.
A very
wise man once said,
"A
single measurement is worth a thousand opinions."
So,
how do you measure body fat?
Thanks
to technology, there are some methods today that are so accurate, they
can tell you whether your left pinky has more fat than your right pinky!
Unfortunately, many of them are either too expensive or they are inaccessible,
being found only in hospitals or research facilities
If
you want to learn a LOT about various body fat testing methods, chapter
3 of my e-book, Burn
the Fat, Feed The Muscle goes into great detail about the pros and
cons of all the various fat testing methods. Instead of re-hashing it
all here, let me give you three quick and easy, practical suggestions:
Suggestion
1: Have a trainer or fitness professional measure you if this service
is available at your local health club. Sometimes, there's a charge
- usually $15 - $25, although some clubs offer the service for free
to all their members.
Suggestion
2: Purchase an Accu-measure skinfold caliper. Do a google or yahoo search
to find a reseller.
The
Accu-measure was designed to allow you to measure your own body fat
in the privacy of your own home (you don't need someone else to measure
you)
Some
people wonder if this is really accurate. Truth is, it's not quite as
accurate as a multi site skinfold test from an experienced tester, but
what's most important is not the "accuracy" per se, but the
reliability and consistency of your measurements so you can track your
progress. Skinfold calipers in general are not accurate or inaccurate,
it's the person doing the test that is accurate or inaccurate.
Suggestion
3: If you have a spouse, roommate, or friend who can measure your body
fat, you can purchase a Slim Guide body fat caliper (or just about any
brand of caliper) from Creative Health Products: chponline.com
The
Slimguide is the best inexpensive caliper available (about $20), but
it wasn't designed for you to measure your own body fat like the Accu
Measure. You'll need someone to measure you with this caliper. Other
models of body fat calipers (if you want to splurge), range from $150
to $450. (At our health clubs, I use the electronic "SKYNDEX"
caliper with the 4-site "Durnin formula.")
The
calipers come with instructions, or you can use these formulas, which
I have used and found to be very accurate:
4 Site
formula for men (abdomen, suprailiac, thigh, tricep)
% fat
= .29288(sum of 4 skinfolds) - 0.0005(sum of four skinfolds squared)
+ 0.15845(age) - 5.76377
4-Site
Formula for women (abdomen, suprailiac, thigh, tricep)
% Fat
= (.29669)(sum of 4 skinfolds) - (.00043)(Sum of four skinfolds squared)
+ .02963(age) + 1.4072
[Source:
Jackson A S, Pollock, M (1985) Practical assessment of body composition.
Physician Sport Med. 13: 76-90.]
Body
fat percentages vary based on age and gender, but 20-25% body fat is
average for women (15-19% is ideal), while 15-20% is average for men
(10-14% is ideal). I have detailed charts for body fat charts in my
e-book if you're interested.
Once
you know your body fat percentage, then weigh yourself and record your
weight and body fat on a progress chart such as the one found in my
Burn
the Fat, Feed The Muscle (a fat loss program, not a weight loss
program). This chart is how you will track your progress and "keep
score."
You
can calculate your lean body mass (muscle and other fat free tissue)
very easily just by crunching some numbers:
For
example, if you weigh 200 pounds and you have 10% body fat then you
have 20 pounds of fat (10% of 200 = 20). That means you have a lean
body mass (LBM) of 180 pounds.
Now
we're talking! With this data, you can get a really clear picture of
how your exercise and nutrition program are affecting your physique.
Losing
weight is very easy. Losing fat - and keeping it off without losing
muscle - is a much bigger challenge. If you simply wanted to lose weight,
we could just chop off your leg.
Or,
(slightly less painful), I could show you how to drop 10 - 15 pounds
over the weekend just by dehydrating yourself and using natural herbal
diuretics. Wrestlers do it all the time to make a weight class. But
what good would that do if it’s almost all water and you’re
just going to gain it all back within days?
You
don't have to "throw away your scale" like many "experts"
tell you to. By all means, keep using the scale, the tape measure and
even photographs and the mirror - the more feedback the better - but
body fat is where it's at.
By
the way, I recently bought a chain saw and a shiny new axe from Home
Depot, and I've been practicing my "American Psycho" and Jack
Nicholson, "The Shining" impersonations... so if you want
to come to my office any time soon for personal consultation, you'd
better have the right answer to my question, "What do you want?"
For
more information about a nutrition and training program that focuses
exclusively on FAT LOSS, not WEIGHT LOSS, visit: Burn
the Fat, Feed The Muscle
About
the Author:
 |
Tom Venuto
is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, an NSCA-certified personal
trainer (CPT), certified strength & conditioning specialist
(CSCS), and author of the #1 best-selling e-book, "Burn
the Fat, Feed The Muscle.” Tom has written hundreds of
articles and has been featured in print magazines such as IRONMAN,
Australian IRONMAN, Natural Bodybuilding, Muscular Development,
Exercise for Men and Men’s Exercise, as well as on hundreds
of websites worldwide. For information on Tom's Fat Loss program,
click
here.
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