As we approach spring and people's thoughts turn towards their summer holidays on the beach, the realisation that this is only a few months away often comes with a sudden spike of motivation to do something about their physiques. People jump straight in without giving much thought to having a clear idea of A) what they want to achieve and B) how best to achieve it. In order to know how to get somewhere, you first need to know where it is you're going in the first place. The picture above shows my client Wahid, who dropped roughly 30kg in the space of 7 months, and as you can see got into pretty decent shape by the end of it. In today's newsletter, I want to share the outline that we followed to achieve the result. If you have goals to drop body fat and get lean for summer, then this may be useful for you because achieving this type of result is not easy by any means, but it is more than achievable if you possess the mental fortitude that is required.
In Wahid's case, the first consideration was that he was a complete beginner with very little muscle mass and low activity levels. He was also 39 years old at the time, and despite age not being a preventative reason for achieving an impressive physique, it does need to be taken into account. Though he had no illusions about being able to achieve his goal in just 3 months, being a successful business owner with a killer instinct, he also didn't want to spend any longer than he had to. From the get-go, setting expectations was of paramount importance. We spoke about the fact that he would need to make drastic lifestyle changes such as improving the quality of his food, working on sleep hygiene, tracking activity levels, saying no in certain social situations that weren't conducive to his goals, and making sure that his family was on-board with what he was planning. Expectation setting is an important part of this process because many people say they want to achieve a huge result, but backtrack when they find out what it actually may involve. We spoke about in detail what the process would involve, and what he could expect, so that there would be very few surprises along the way. We agreed on a realistic weekly target for weight loss, weekly activity levels that had to be met, diet targets that had to be followed, and more.
From a training perspective, it was important to get the ball rolling as soon as possible. As I already mentioned, Wahid was a complete beginner so this meant picking exercises that he could learn quickly so that we could increase the output. This was crucial not because we were looking to burn as many calories in his sessions (though this is beneficial to a degree), but because we needed to get him stronger and build as much muscle along the way. Yes, we were in a caloric deficit, which would theoretically mean that one can't build muscle, but in Wahid's case, his low training age meant that we could achieve some level of body recomposition (build muscle while simultaneously dropping fat). We prioritised machines for the most part as these would have the shortest learning curve, and would allow us to start to load them more significantly than certain free-weight exercises. He trained full-body every session, and each lift was tracked for the weights and reps so that we had a very clear picture of what we needed to do to progress. Many times you will hear that with beginners tracking is unnecessary as they respond to any kind of training stimulus. While this is true to a degree, seeing as we knew we would be training for at least 6 months, changing the training programme in that time would have been counter-productive. We needed to track everything in the beginning so that we had progression mapped from start to finish.
Each week our goal was to improve on his previous lifts, either through lifting more weight or increasing reps on the same weight as previously. We phased in short-duration cardio in Week 2 of our training so that he got into the mindset that it was something he would be required to do for his goal as well as to increase his weekly activity levels. Adjustments were made based on progress or lack thereof. Both cardio duration and frequency were increased from one session per week to eventually him doing it 4 times per week on top of his training and steps.
None of the training would have made such a big impact without following a complementary nutrition programme. Coming into this with poor eating habits (eating nothing throughout the day and bingeing in the evenings), we implemented easy-to-prepare meals and established consistency. The support network at his home made this more possible as well. The goal was to eat high-volume foods that allowed him to hit his macronutrient targets. During fortnightly meals out, Wahid made suitable swaps to his foods but still stuck to the meal structure that we outlined in the beginning. This is often a major hurdle for people as they want to eat out and assume that this is their chance to go crazy on the all-you-can-eat buffet. The harsh reality is that nutrition adherence has to be maintained even on social outings. This doesn't mean one can't enjoy oneself, have the occasional dessert, etc. but that everything has to be accounted for in some way. Another trap that often catches people unaware as it's more of a slow-burner, is the toll a process like this can take on their significant others. As sacrifices are made when it comes to social events, especially during the latter stages as the goal gets closer, it can increase the stress at home. In Wahid's case, we discussed this and agreed that it would be more conducive to achieving his result if on one or two occasions we sacrificed adherence for more flexible meals with his partner. Periodic refeeds also helped in this regard towards the end, both from a physiological but perhaps more importantly from a psychological point of view to continue his progress and allow him to stay consistent.
Undertaking a physical transformation is not a walk in the park. Achieving results that go beyond the average requires beyond-average efforts. It's important that you have a clear vision of what you want to achieve and understand what the process will involve before you jump in because it will test your resilience and determination. Having a clear plan from start to finish will minimise unforeseen complications and allow you to side-step common pitfalls that often derail the result before it's completed.
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