How My Client Lost 4 KG In 5 Days And Keeps The Weight Off (And You Can Too)
My client lost 4 kg in 5 days without getting on a crash diet.
Most of this is water. He did not burn through more than 40000 calories it takes to lose 5 kg of body fat.
So why do I make a fuzz about it?
When you change your behavior in a systematic way without getting overwhelmed, success is almost guaranteed.
My client and I build momentum by making the Fitness, Diet, and Habit plan adapt to his busy life.
The sooner he saw results, the more willing he was to throw himself into this 100%.
His level of energy and excitement is infectious, making this super fun for him and me.
He still has the occasional fast food and a beer on weekends, but he has become much more conscious of what is healthy and what is not.
This is what it is about: Learning and adapting the advice without giving up your life.
In this article, I break down the steps that we have followed over the last 2 weeks.
If you apply this structured approach, you will lose weight and eat a more healthy diet.
Gradual Change
Losing weight is difficult. Keeping the weight off is even more difficult.
Being overweight is caused among other things by
Underestimation of calories consumed
Overestimation of the calories burned via exercise
Poor food choices (processed foods high in calories, sugar, salt)
Lack of planning for meals and thus impulsive eating
Eating too fast
Eating too often
My client was checking almost all boxes, except for the overestimation of calories burned via exercise.
This list is not complete but should give you an idea.
Let`s face it: We feel better, have more energy, look more healthy, and are better protected from all sorts of problems further down in life when we control our weight.
You will not have to give up your favorite foods, spend hours in the kitchen, or get bored with the food you eat.
About change in general, there are two ways to do that
Radical change: Go from a diet consisting of mostly processed food to a picture-perfect clean diet.
Take smaller but sustainable steps
It might not surprise you that I favor number 2.
Why?
Moving forward in small steps is much easier and you avoid the risk of getting overwhelmed.
Let me give you an example: If you tend to eat too much fast food, focus on aiming to get better over time.
Your road of improvement could look like this.
Source: precisionnutrition
Here`s how my client made this make sense.
Deep down he knew his diet was shit, but had no clue how many calories were in his food.
He did not give up on an occasional Burger but stopped eating the fries.
That is a first step.
If you only eat fast food now and then, let's say once a week, you won't even need to tweak those meals.
You eat a healthy diet 80% of the time and have fun with the remaining 20%.
The first step we took as soon as we were clear on my client`s goals, obstacles, and time availability was
1) Tracking Food
Tracking food is not much fun.
It takes time and people can easily burn out from the tedious task.
That means my goal is to get away from it as fast as I can.
This will take 1-2 weeks….sometimes longer
So why do I make my clients do that?
They have a feeling that they eat too many calories and that their diet is unhealthy.
The scale proves them right.
But how do they know which foods come high in calories and how high their overall calorie consumption is?
In most cases, they don`t.
This is why tracking food is so powerful. Feelings turn into facts.
By focusing on the facts and adjusting the diet, the positive feeling of losing weight and feeling better in your skin follows. Can you imagine how awesome that is if you have been struggling with weight loss for years?
So, track your food for at least two weeks.
This will bring a bunch of “aha moments” to you.
See what my client Wren had to say about it.
More on the “eat less” column in a minute.
Even if your diet is cleaner than my client`s, it is still a good idea to understand portion sizes and their related calories.
How to do this?
Use any app that you prefer. There are hundreds.
MyFitnesspal is one of the most popular ones for this. In the free version, you type in your food, and the portion size and get the calories, and distribution of macros (protein, fat, carbs).
For instance, my client`s MyFitnesspal is connected with software I use, so it is convenient to see all his numbers in a dashboard.
If you want more convenience, the paid version allows you to take a photo of your meal and MyFitnesspal will spit out the numbers accordingly.
Every day my client and I have conversations like…
“Hey Wren, you are doing great, we just need to up the protein content a bit”.
“Try to swap some carbs in favor of more veggies”.
We both act fast, thereby steering in the right direction.
2) TDEE and Macros
To lose weight you have to burn more calories than you consume.
There are different ways to determine the amount of calories you can eat to lose weight, stay the same, or increase your weight.
Either by trial and error, which works fine for some.
The only downside to it is that it takes longer, much longer.
We want results fast without compromising your health.
If you are stuck in your weight loss attempts, you don`t want to rely on trial and error.
Again, we assume a systematic approach.
We use a program to calculate the calorie needs and macro distribution.
Each client receives a personal report with all the information needed to get started.
This is my preferred one.
https://www.precisionnutrition.com/weight-loss-calculator/
How does it work?
You type in your age, height, weight, your weight loss goal and the time frame, the activity level that you have, diet preferences, and a few more.
The program is smart. When you type in a weight loss goal that is beyond the scope of what is realistic/healthy in the time frame you put, you will be denied a full report and given a warning that your goal is too ambitious a.k.a. unhealthy.
This is helpful, because we want don`t want to set the bar too high.
The higher your activity level, the more calories you can consume and still lose weight.
Regardless of your activity level, the target calorie goal is below the amount it takes to maintain your weight.
Thus, you will lose weight.
3) Portion Sizes
Now that you know how much you can eat and what the percentage of protein, carbs, and fats are, how to meet these goals?
You may keep tracking for months and drive yourself crazy or you choose a different method.
Trust me, I am skeptical when it comes to overly simplistic solutions.
In this case, I was proven wrong.
Hand measurement works.
Think about it: Hands come in different sizes. Yes, there are shorter/smaller people with bigger hands and vice versa, but these are exceptions.
Bigger people tend to have bigger hands and also have higher calorie demands, whereas smaller people need fewer calories.
Here`s what the concept looks like
Now, the number of portions for proteins, carbs, and veggies may vary depending on your weight loss goal and the macro distribution you used manually.
Here are some general recommendations, based on the ressources you find on precisionnutrition.
Protein:
Men: 2 palm-sized portions for men, 1 for women
Carbs
Men: 2 cupped hand sizes, 1 for women
Veggies
Men: 2 first sized portions, 1 for women
Fats
Men: 2 thumb-sized portions, 1 for women
Try it out. You will this method to be feasible for your busy life while bringing results.
4) Make It Colorful
The two most classic goals clients come to me
lose weight
build muscle
Or both.
You may lose weight with a diet full of junk as long as you stay below your calorie limits.
But this would hurt your health further down the line.
What does this mean with the 1:1 approach?
Weight loss happens before the diet has reached a level of being at least 80% healthy.
My advice is to focus on one thing at a time.
The next time you have breakfast, lunch, or dinner, ask yourself: How could I make this more healthy?
In a nutshell, we want to eat more of the good stuff and less of the bad stuff.
Sounds simple, right?
Then what is good and what is not so good/helpful?
One thing I notice in my clients is that they don`t eat enough protein.
Of course, we can argue when enough is enough.
Again, it depends.
If you're mostly using your glutes for sitting, you don't need as much protein as someone who's really pushing it at the gym a few times a week.
If you come from a place of no exercise and a low number of steps per day (below 5000), I would advise you to start with 2 small exercise sessions for 20 minutes and increase your daily average steps.
My client Wren had prior Boxing before. He was in shape and knew how to push himself.
That is why he thrives on 4 exercise sessions per week with moderate weights to avoid injuries.
Back to the nutrition part.
Regardless if you move more or less, eating more protein has one huge advantage.
It helps you feel full for longer. Snacks, which often come in the form of highly processed food (think pretzels, cookies, candy bars) are not as alluring.
Plus, your body has to work harder to use protein as an energy source. This is called the thermic effect of foods.
I advise my clients to consume 1,4-1,6 g per kg of body weight.
Because they also follow a Fitness plan, this will ensure they get all the required protein to help repair and build muscle.
How to get enough protein?
You build your meals around it.
You can make this the focus of your diet after you are done with all the steps mentioned above.
Be sure to know how many portions per meal (hand measurement) you need and have them at home ready to be prepared or eaten.
Stick with this goal until you nail it, or consider branching out into more areas.
Depends on how many mental calories you can handle.
For instance, eating more vegetables is a worthwhile goal for many people.
Vegetables carry all the good stuff for your body. Vitamins, minerals, antioxidants.
Due to the fiber in them, they also help you feel full for longer, protect you from certain diseases, and more.
If we look back on the prescribed amounts above, eating three square meals a day means:
Eat 6 portions of veggies per day for men. This is a lot and I would never expect somebody to go from zero or one portion per day to six.
Aim to increase by one portion every week.
Make it fun by testing out different vegetables, so you add to the variety and have more options to choose from.
To make it easier for you, here`s a list of foods to choose from. They are divided into three categories.
Eat more
Eat some
Eat less
It does not get any easier.
Source: precisionnutrition.com
Meal Prep
Want to save time, and money and avoid stress?
Do meal-prep. There is no better way to ensure you have all the healthy and filling food prepared.
Some people like to prepare whole meals, others chop veggies and cook some chicken breast or whatever you plan to eat.
This is what my client does: He sets aside an hour per week, throws on some lean meat on the grill, so he has the meat ready for the week.
Summary
Losing weight does not have to be complicated. I am not saying it is easy, on the contrary.
But it does not have to be the end of life the way you enjoy it.
Follow a systematic approach and you will meet the desired results and feel good in your skin.
And my client…
He keeps the weight off.
Regardless of the amount of water in it, he is moving in the right direction and he loves it.
Can you do this on your own? You definitely can.
If you lack the discipline and need somebody to hold you accountable, I am happy to get on a call with you to see if I can help you.