8 simple ways to stay out of the starvation mode and lose your fat permanently without dieting and starving yourself

In order to lose fat permanently, you must give up the entire concept of dieting on very low
calories to lose it. You’ll never lose weight permanently with low calorie diets – it’s nearly
impossible. Temporary dieting can only produce temporary results. You need to use other
methods.
And that said, here's eight methods you can use to lose fat permanently while staying out
of the starvation mode.


1. Instead of "diet" mindset, introduce yourself to "habits"


The first step towards your new lean body has more to do with your mindset than it does
with nutrition or training. You have to change your entire attitude towards these factors.
Instead of adopting the mindset of “diets” (short-term) you must adopt the mindset of
“habits" (long term).

A habit is a behavior that you perform automatically without thinking or putting any effort on it.
Once a habit is firmly established to your everyday life – doesn't matter if it's good or bad - it takes
a lot strength to break it. To describe it, it would be like trying to swim upstream against the current.


The entire concept of “dieting” for fat loss is distorted. When you say you’re
“going on a diet” the implication is that it’s a temporary phase and at some point
you’re going to have to come off the diet. With this kind of attitude, you’re setting yourself
up for failure right from the beginning. Permanent fat loss won't be achieved by going on and 
off diets. It can and will only be achieved by adopting new exercise and nutrition habits that you
can maintain for the rest of your life!. 

Depending on your goal, you may need to make your nutrition plan more or less restrictive
at certain times, but you need to maintain a baseline of  healthy eating habits to which you stick
for the rest of your life. Usually you’ll eat the same foods all year round. When you want to
lose body fat, all you need to do is cut a little off of those same foods and exercise
a lot more.

The best way to get rid of unwanted habits such as poor nutrition or inactivity is by replacing
them with new ones, and not attempting to overcome them with sheer willpower.
We could think about this scenario: To cover up a bad paint job, you need to lay over a new paint
that is thick enough so the old paint disappears. The new habit then takes over as the old one is
forgotten away in the subconscious mind.

Good nutrition habits may not be easy to form, but once you’ve formed them, they are
just as hard to break as the bad ones you had. One expert put it this way:
"The beginning of a habit is like an invisible thread, but every time we repeat  the act we
strengthen the strand, add to it another filament, until it becomes a great cable and binds
us irrevocably."

At the beginning, there will be a period where starting the new habit feels somewhat uncomfortable.
But the key is to be patient! Everything is difficult at the start. For a new habit to become
permanently entrenched into your nervous system, it could take months. However, the
base of nutrition and exercise habits can be formed in just 3 weeks - 21 days.

That’s why it’s so important that you give 100% total effort and commitment for at least the first
3 weeks! Once those 21 days have passed, you'll already be leaner and you'll be on your way to
making your new habits as effortless and natural as brushing your teeth or taking a shower!


2. Keep your muscle mass at all costs


One of the most important factors in turning your body into a “fat-burning machine” is to build
and maintain as much muscle mass as possible. Muscle is the bodybuilder’s secret weapon to fat burning! Muscle is your greatest friend on this matter. The more muscle you have, the more calories
you burn, even at rest. With more muscle mass, you burn extra calories even while sleeping.

With a higher lean body mass, the calories burned during exercise are greater. If you put two
people side by side on a stationary bike, one of them with 90 kgs of lean body mass and the other
with 75 kgsof lean body mass, the person with 90 kgs of lean body mass will burn more calories
from the exact same workout.

The most efficient way to burn extra calories and lose more body fat is to gain more muscle.
That’s why weight training is an important factor in the fat loss equation.


3. Use only a small calorie deficit.


To lose body fat, you must be in negative calorie balance. You can create a calorie deficit
by increasing exercise, by decreasing calories or with a combination of both. The most efficient
way for fat loss is to decrease your calories a little and increase your exercise a lot. The
recommended guideline is to reduce your calories by 500 to 1000 less than your maintenance level.

For example for a female whose calorie maintenance level is 2100 calories per day, then a 500 calorie deficit would put you at 1600 calories per day.

And if you’re a male with a calorie maintenance level of 2900 calories per day, then a 500
calorie deficit would put you at 2400 calories per day. In one week , that's 3500 calories minus.

In a kilo of fat there's approximately 7000 calories, so (in theory), a 500 calorie per day deficit
will result in a loss of  about 0,5 kgs of body fat per week. It follows that a 750 calorie deficit would
produce a loss of about 75 per week and a 1000 calorie deficit would result in close to 1 kgs lost.

But because of the way the weight regulating mechanism works, fat loss seldom follows these
calculations so airtightly, so don’t tangle up in them. An emphasis on exercise with a small
reduction in calories is the best approach. 500 to 750 calorie deficit under your maintenance
level is usually enough. Add weight training and aerobics into the mix and this
will produce as close to 100% fat loss as possible.

An alternate (and preferred) method is to set your calorie deficit as a percentage of your
maintenance level. 15-20% is the recommended starting calorie reduction for fat loss.
This is considered a small calorie deficit and just that small calorie deficit is the key to
losing fat while maintaining muscle.

For example, with a 2000 calorie maintenance level, 20% would be a 400 calorie deficit,
which would put you at 1600 calories per day. With a 2600 calorie maintenance level,
a 20% deficit would be 520 calories. That would put you at 2080 calories per day.

The reason why this percentage method is superior is because using an absolute number
like 500, 750 or 1000 calories as a deficit instead of a percentage deficit might drop your
calories too low into the danger zone. To illustrate this, if you are a male with a 3500 calorie
maintenance level, a 750 calorie deficit to 2750 calories per day is only a 21% drop (a
small, safe and acceptable deficit.)

However, if you are a female with an 1800 calorie per day maintenance level and you cut
your calories by 750 per day to 1050 calories, that is a severe 41% cut. Using the percentage
method is more individualized and appropriate for everyone.

At times, an aggressive calorie deficit greater than 20% may be allright, but calorie cuts
greater than 20% are much more likely to cause muscle loss and slow down your metabolic
rate. If you do use a calorie deficit greater than 20%, then it’s wise to raise calories
at regular intervals using the “zig-zag method” (Which i covered on my earlier post).

This will trick your body and prevent your metabolism from slowing down when you happen to
have a large calorie deficit. Always remember to start with a small deficit. In other words,
cut calories out slowly. It’s better to start with a small deficit and then slowly increase towards
your maximal deficit than to make a sudden drop in calories right away. The body cannot be forced to
lose fat, you need to coax it.

Based on what you now know about the body’s weight-regulating mechanism, the
optimal amount to decrease your caloric intake for fat loss is as little as possible, as long
as you still keep losing body fat.


4. In fat loss, use exercise rather than diets to burn the fat


To lose body fat, there must be a calorie deficit. Such are the laws oft energy balance.
However, there’s more than one way to create a calorie deficit. One way is to decrease your
caloric intake from food. The other is to increase the amount of calories you burn by exercising.

Of the two ways to create a calorie deficit, burning the calories is much superior approach.
This is because large calorie deficits cause muscle loss and  trigger the starvation response
in your body. Ironically, many people do the opposite: They slash their calories to starvation
levels and exercise too little or not at all.

This causes a loss in muscle mass and wakes up the starvation mechanism.
Controversial as it seems, the most effective approach to fat loss is to eat more
(keeping the calorie deficit small) and let the exercise burn the fat away. You must not
starve yourself! You just have to choose the right foods and make exercise
a permanent part of your lifestyle.

So we might ask ourselves, why would anyone resort to starvation diets when they can burn
fat more efficiently through exercise? Perhaps they believe that eating more food and
working out at the same time will “cancel each other out". Maybe they are afraid of the
hard work involved in exercise. There's also a false belief going around that cardio exercise
will make you lose muscle, and thus they're avoiding it.

But contrary to belief, aerobic exercise combined with weight training - is the only
fat loss method that allows you to create a calorie deficit and burn fat without slowing
down the metabolism.

Here are some very good reasons why exercise - not dieting - is the best method of
losing body fat:

-Training – aerobic and weight training - boosts your metabolic rate.

-Training will create a caloric deficit without triggering the starvation mode.

-Training is good for your health and heart. Dieting is usually harmful to your health.

-Training, especially weight training, signals your body to keep your muscle and not
  burn it for energy. Dieting without exercise can result in over 50% of the weight loss
  to come from muscle mass.

-Training increases fat-burning enzymes and hormones in your body.

-Training increases your cells sensitivity to insulin so that carbohydrates are easier to burn
  for energy and stored as glycogen rather then being stored as body fat.

5. Establish your minimal calorie requirements (maintenance level) and never drop below them – ever

One way to make sure that you never trigger the starvation response is to find out the minimum
amount of calories you can eat without slowing your metabolism. Then, use that as your bottom
calorie number. Because nutrition can be quite different for everyone, it’s difficult to set an absolute
single figure for everyone in general as a minimal calorie requirement, but the American
College of Sports Medicine has suggested some guidelines.

The ACSM recommends 1200 calories as the minimal daily calorie level for women and 1800
as the minimum for men. They have also recommended a maximum deficit of 1000 calories below maintenance level. The 1000 calorie maximum deficit is good advice, but it’s just a guideline.
Sometimes a 1000 calorie per day deficit can be too much.

People with low bodyweights or low activity levels will have relatively low daily calorie needs,
so 1000 below maintenance could be a little overkill. For example, it’s not uncommon for a female
to require only 1800 calories per day to maintain her weight. If she were to drop 1000 calories off
this already quite low maintenance level, this would bring her to a dangerously low 900 calories per day. 1200 should be her rock bottom number, and a small 20% deficit of only 380 calories would be
very ideal (1520 calories per day).


6. Eat frequently and don't skip meals!


I will explain the importance of small frequent meals more deeply on my future posts, but for now,
let it be known that the body might interpret missed meals as starvation. Here's an example:
You eat lunch at 11:30 and dinner at 18:30. If you would skip breakfast for some reason the next
day, that’s 17 hours without food! This sends a signal to your body that you are starving, even if
your lunch and dinner are good and large meals.

Your goal should be to eat approximately every three hours. Make scheduled meal times and
follow them. Regularity in your eating habits is crucial in weight loss. By eating smaller portions
more frequently, you’ll eat more food than you’ve ever eaten before and you won't be starving
yourself. Many people have said that by starting to eat eat more than they’ve ever eaten,  they still
have gotten leaner than they’ve ever been before.


7. Don’t stay in a calorie deficit for long


I bet we all know that one person who always seems to be on a diet. The odds are also good
that although these dieters may achieve some small success in weight losses, they are among the
95% that always gain it back. Then, with the failure of the last diet in mind, they quickly hop
on to the latest “extra-super-diet” and repeat the cycle.

When fat loss stops or begins to slow down after being in a negative calorie balance, most people
panic and cut down their calories even more! Sometimes this may work and it breaks the plateau.
More often though, it digs you into an even deeper metabolic downfall. The best thing to do
is to raise your calories for a couple of days or even for a few weeks.

Your body’s weight controlling mechanism works both ways: It can decrease your rate of
energy consumption when there is a calorie deficit, or it can also increase the rate of energy
consumption when there is a calorie surplus. When you eat more and frequently, your body burns
more calories. A temporary increase in calories when you have hit a dead end in fat loss will give a
“spike” for your metabolic rate. It sends a signal to your body that you are not starving and that it’s ok to keep burning those pesky calories!

This process of raising your caloric intake up and down is known as “cycling” your calories
(also known as the “zig-zag” method). In general, the lower you go down with calories, the
more important it is to take periodic high calorie days.


8. Make your goal to lose weight at a rate of 0,5-1 kgs
per week. And be patient!


The best way of losing fat permanently without losing you muscle is to lose weight slowly with
focusing on exercise rather than cutting calories severely. In my posts on goal setting, I already
made the suggestion to lose no more than 1 kilos per week.

Let’s elaborate a little on the logic behind that recommendation. In the ACSM’s position statement on “Healthy and unhealthy weight loss programs,” The ACSM recommends losing weight at a maximum
rate of 1 kgs per week. This 1 kg figure has become almost universally recommended as the standard
guideline for safe weight loss. Why? Because, of course, you can lose more than two pounds of weight
per week, but losing fat over 1 kilos per week is highly unlikely. Even at that rate, it’s difficult to lose 100% body fat with no loss of lean body mass.

There are cases of fat loss with greater than one kilos per week on numerous occasions, but this is
the exception that makes the rule. Usually this only happens when someone has a large amount of
weight to drop. But the more slowly you lose weight, the easier it is to maintain your important muscle
mass and keep the fat off, permanently. It’s better to lose only 0,5kgs of pure fat per week than it is
to lose one kilo per week with half from muscle and half from fat.

Bodybuilders also usually set their goal to lose weight at a rate 0,5 - 1 kilos per week. Losing
only a single pound a week may seem like an excruciatingly slow and painstaking process,
however, this is one of the secrets of bodybuilders and fitness models and one of the most crucial
keys to permanent fat loss. Why would you want to lose weight faster if you know you’re going to lose muscle and there’s a 95% chance that all you just lost will come back right away?

How should you react if you lose more than 1 kilo per week? It depends; everything is relative to
the individual. If you have very much of fat to lose, then losing 2 kgs a week is safe and
acceptable during the beginning. But make sure it's not water or muscle weight you're only losing.

And as you get closer to your long-term goal, you can expect the weight loss to slow to half - one
kilos per week. For most people, losing more than a kilo per week signals that you should actually
eat more! This may be hard for you to accept, but if you're losing more than the recommended
amount, you’re also losing muscle with the fat.
Don’t let the temporary confidence boost from a large drop in scale weight sabotage your efforts
in the long run. Remember to be patient! Don’t ever confuse weight loss with fat loss.

Why low calorie diets can actually make you even fatter in the end?

Today i will make one quick post about how dieting can actually make you fatter.
I'll start right away with an example of how a low calorie diet would affect a real world dieter
physiologically and psychologically, and can actually make you fatter!
So, let's get down to business:

Suppose our typical dieter would be a male who weights 100 kgs and has 20% body fat.
His goal is to lose 10-15 kgs.
Before dieting:
20% body fat
20 kgs fat
80kgs lean body mass


Like most people, our dieter assumes that the best way to lose the body fat is to starve it,
so he goes on a 1500 calorie per day diet. In the 1st week he loses, let's say 2,5 kgs. and is
very happy with his results. The second week he loses 2 kgs. Weeks 3-6 he loses 1,5 kgs per
week. The total weight loss is 10,5 kgs lost.
Our dieter now weighs 89,5 kgs and he continued to lose weight with a steady pace without
coming to a dead end (although the weight loss did slow down during the last weeks). Judging
by the scale alone, we could say he has succeeded in his goal.

But, if we take a little closer look on this, however, we find that he has not been
so successful after all.
After the diet
89,5 kgs.
16% body fat
14,3 kgs. fat
Lean body mass 75,2 kgs.
Weight loss: 10,5kgs.
Fat lost 4 kgs.
Lean body mass (muscle) lost 6,5 kgs

By judging his success in terms of body composition instead of only weight loss, it is clear
that he has failed. About 60% of his weight loss came from lean body mass. The drop in
lean body mass also has led to drop in his basal metabolic rate so he is now burning even
fewer calories each day than what he was when he started. This has set him up for a relapse.

Now when this (temporary) diet is over,  he goes off his diet. Few people have the desire or
willpower to stay on low calories for long periods of time. On a strict calorie and or foodrestricted
diet, almost everyone falls of the wagon sooner or later. After a long time with low calories,
his body produces hormones which trick him into "greed" eating by triggering severe cravings and hunger.

Even if he doesn’t binge and he simply goes back to his normal style eating again, his
body isn’t burning calories as efficiently as before the diet. That's why the number of calories
which used to maintain his weight now causes him to gain it. As the days and weeks go, the weight
sneaks back on until he finally gains back all the fat he lost, and usually a bot of extra as well.

6 weeks after the diet:
100 kgs.
22% body fat
22 kgs fat
Lean body mass 78 kgs.

Now he is back at 100 kilos where he started, with only one big difference: He has less muscle,
more fat, and a slower metabolism than when he started. And because he has damaged his
metabolism it will now be gradually even harder for him to lose weight.

That's why you should really stay clear of diets that introduce very low calories. You just end up
feeling tired and drowsy all day because of lack of energy. And as we established on the example,
they can actually make you fatter! I will  continue on this subject, and tomorrow I will discuss on
how to avoid the starvation mode and lose fat permanently without starving! I will give yo eight
strategies to avoid these pitfalls!

7 Reasons why to stay away from very low calorie diets!

The results of extremely low calorie dieting are actually automatic and unavoidable. The
responses are metabolic, hormonal, and psychological in nature, and they include: slower
metabolism, muscle loss, increase of enzymes and hormones which speed up fat storing,
decrease of enzymes and hormones which burn fat, increased appetite, increased chance of regaining weight you've just lost, and decreased energy and work capacity.

Here's 7 reasons as to why to stay clear of those "miracle diets" they advertize almost everywhere.

1. They slow down your metabolic rate

The first thing that happens during a severe calorie deficit is a slowed down metabolism. The
lower your calories, the slower your metabolism becomes. Simply said; when you eat less calories, your body burns less calories. When you eat more calories, your body burns more calories.

I read this great analogy on how our metabolism mechanism works, when put in simple form:
Let's say you’re earning 4000$ a month, but your boss suddenly cuts your paycheck to
2500$ a month. Of course, you will try to live the same lifestyle on 2500$ a month as you did on
4000$ a month. Soon enough, you have to adjust and save money, and change your
lifestyle.

The same is true with a calorie intake that is simply too low. When calories are cut below
maintenance level, the body will adopt and slow down its metabolism, so it becomes nearly
impossible to lose fat even on low calories. This metabolic slowdown is well researched.
When calories are restricted extremely, your metabolism slows down by about 20-30%.
With severe calorie deficit, some research have shown that resting metabolism can slow down
by as much as 45%!
Thinking in calories, if you have normal calorie consumption 3000 calories a day, that would drop to just 1650 calories per day! That explains why, after long periods of low calorie dieting, you can eat
very little food and still not lose weight. This also explains why it is so difficult to lose
those last 5 or 10 kilos.




2. Very low calorie diets make you lose muscle


The most dramatic effect of the low calorie diets are the loss of muscles.
Once the starvation mode comes into action, your body starts looking for ways to save
energy. Muscle is metabolically active tissue. Getting rid of it is the body’s way of
decreasing energy consumption. And it’s simple for your body to use muscle for energy.


This process is known as Gluconeogenesis – converting muscle into glucose. This includes
muscles, internal organs, and even your heart muscle! Studies have shown that very low
calorie diets without exercise will always cause 40 - 50% of the weight loss to come 
from lean tissue (muscle). Many diets, especially low carbohydrate ones, cause large losses
in water weight. Between the loss of water, glycogen and muscle, fully 75% of the weight you
lose on such plans is not fat!

The initial weight loss on most diets can be very deceiving, giving you the illusion of fast success.
Even with exercise, if a diet is too restrictive, much of the weight loss will still
be lean tissue and water weight.


3. Very low calorie diets increase activity of fat-storing enzymes and on the contrary 
decreases the activity of enzymes that burn fat


The main fat storing enzyme is called Lipoprotein Lipase. When you drop your calories
very low, your body will produce more of that Lipoprotein Lipase and less of those enzymes
which are burning the fat. Simply put, when you don’t eat enough, your body changes its
chemistry to make it easier to store fat in the future.


4.  Low calorie diets decrease output of thyroid hormone.


The Thyroid gland is largely responsible for the regulation of your basal metabolic
rate (the rate at which you burn calories at rest). When your body notices an extreme
reduction in calories, there is a corresponding reduction in the output of active thyroid
hormone (T3). The result is a decrease in your metabolic rate and that leads to fewer calories
burned.


5. Very Low calorie dieting increases the chance of rebound weight gain 
A.K.A The Yo-Yo-effect


Almost everyone loses weight when they start a very low calorie diet, but it never takes
long before your body catches on and starts saving and hoarding energy. That’s when you hit a
"plateau", dead end. Once you come to a dead end, it becomes increasingly harder to keep
losing weight even if your calories are already extremely low.

This lack of continued results, combined with hunger cravings, usually causes people to give
up out of sheer frustration. They quit their diet, the weight sneak back on and their body fat
ends up right back where they started. Only now they have lost muscle and by that they have
a slower metabolism. With a slower metabolism, what used to be a maintenance level now
becomes a surplus, and the weight comes automatically back on.

Most people gain back all the weight they just lost, and many gain back even more, leaving
them even fatter than when they started. This up and down pattern of weight loss and weight
re-gain is commonly known as the “yo-yo-effect”, and sadly it often continues for years or even
for an entire lifetime. With each repeated cycle of dieting, your metabolism becomes less and less
efficient and you can actually in a way become progressively fatter while eating less food.


6. Very low calorie diets increase your appetite and cravings.


When your body sinks into starvation mode, this normally triggers increased appetite and
hunger cravings in an attempt to get you to eat more food. These hunger and cravings can be
so strong that you are in the verge of greediness. It’s near impossible to stay on a diet when
you are ravenously hungry and all you can think about is food. Few people have that much
willpower.


7. Very low calorie diets decrease your energy levels and working capacity


Very low calorie diets leave you tired, drowsy and unable to sustain high levels of
activity or intense exercises. Dr. Lawrence Lamb, nutrition specialist, points out that
“The first sign of under nutrition is the loss of energy and the inability to sustain prolonged
physical work. There is a direct relationship between calories consumed and the physical
work a person can do.”

If you have no energy to exercise, you’re going to feel lousy and seriously compromise your
results. The ability to do hard cardio training and weight training is critical for your long-term
success at fat loss.

That's all for today! Tomorrow i'll continue with this same topic, and tell why dieting can actually make you fatter! And 8 ways to avoid the starvation response of your body and losing fat without dieting or deprivation! Until then!

Why over 90% of the usual diets fail when you are trying to slim down?

Cutting calories backfires you. The more you cut, the more your body clings onto its fat stores as decreased calories produces the starvation response, where the body tries to “survive” and hold onto its calorie reservoir known as fat.

Diets sparsely Work

Most conventional diet programs call for extremely low calories. Any time you restrict calories dramatically, you will lose weight. So if your only criteria for success is losing weight, and you don’t care where the weight comes off from, or how long it stays off, in that sense you could say that “all diets work.”

There are two big problems with this approach. Firstly, the weight loss from very low calorie dieting almost never lasts. About 90% of the people who lose weight with diet programs can’t keep it off. The other problem is that most of the weight you lose with extremely low calorie diets is muscles, not fat. If you want to permanently lose fat without losing muscle (like you should), then it would be more appropriate to say “diets

never work.”

Research proves that diets never work in the long term. If they would work, how can you explain the obesity problem in the western world today? And why it is getting worse and worse day by day? 

According to statistics, almost 69% of the adults are overweight in the United States. And Over 37% are clinically obese, which means that they are at risk for one or more of over 25 health problems that are associated with excess body fat.

Despite the fact that there are more diet programs and weight loss products available than ever before, obesity has continued to rise. There’s a scientific reason why most diets fail. Many people make the 

mistake of trying to starve the fat with extreme diets. However, because your body has a complex defense mechanism to protect you from starvation, it’s nearly impossible to permanently lose fat with very low calorie diets. 

As soon as your body notices there's a food shortage, these defense 

mechanisms start to work. Your body is simply too smart for the very low 

calorie diet approach to ever work.

Why Eating Less Doesn’t Always Work

When you eat more calories than you burn, your body will store the excess as body fat. If you eat less calories than you burn, you will lose fat. Simple mathematics, ain't it? Unfortunately, not quite. If fat loss 

would be as simple as calories in versus calories out, then how could you explain why some obese people eat less than fit people, yet they still can’t lose any weight/fat? And how would it be possible for someone with a 2300-calorie maintenance level to eat only about 1000 calories a day, and they won't be losing any weight?

Using the mathematical approach, if you cut out 1000 calories per day from your maintenance level, that will add up to a 7000 calorie deficit in one week. There are about 7000 calories in 1 kilo of body fat, so in theory, cutting out those 1000 calories a day should produce a weight loss of 1 kilo per week. In reality fat loss rarely works out with such mathematical manner.

When a you start to cut calories, weight loss generally occurs rapidly. But it never takes long before weight loss slows down, and then eventually comes to a complete stop. Why, you might ask? How come is it that you don’t lose 25 kilos in 25 weeks or 50 kilos in 50 weeks with a 1000-calorie deficit?

The explanation is actually quite simple: Over thousands of years, humans have developed a weight-regulating mechanism that recognizes when there’s a food shortage and decreases energy expenditure to “protect you.” This survival mechanism is known as the “starvation response.”

The Starvation response

You may have heard probably stories about people getting lost in the mountains or at sea for months with no food at all (only water), or being confined in a prisoner of war camp for years with only tiny amounts of

food. What makes surviving possible in these situations is your body’s remarkable ability to slow down calorie burning.

When your body notices calorie deprivation it says to itself, “It looks like this is all the food we’re going to be getting for a while, so we’d better stop burning up so many calories and start saving our energy. This

way we’ll be able to survive longer on the little amount of nutrition we have.” The starvation response has been developed largely because of exposure to extreme environmental conditions like droughts, natural disasters and food shortages. Furthermore, there were no supermarkets tens of thousands years
ago. If people wanted to eat, they had to either grow or kill their food.

It was likely at those times, that a man didn’t know when the next meal was coming and may actually have only eaten once or twice per week.The starvation response evolved in humans to ensure the survival of the 

species. That's why your body can’t tell the difference between dieting and starvation. 

This feature of human evolution is a blessing if you’re stranded out with no food. During periods of starvation, the body slowly begins to "feed off itself", burning fat stores, muscle and yes, even 

internal organs for energy. If your body continued to burn calories at its normal rate, your limited reserves of stored energy would be finished quickly and you would die very soon after your food supply was cut off. 

This response keeps you alive longer. Unfortunately for most of us, this same life-saving mechanism will work against you when you’re trying to lose weight, because your body can’t tell the difference between dieting and starvation! Cutting calories extremely always awakens your bodys starvation
mode. There’s little to nothing you can do to stop this from happening other than to avoid too extreme calorie deficits!

That's all for today. Tomorrow I'll continue with the same subject, and give you 7 very good reasons why to stay away from extremely low calorie diets!

Great weekend tips on how to relax without compromising your fitness efforts!

Saturday and Sunday relapsing can wipe clean your fitness gains which were made earlier in the week. Here's a few very good tips to relax on the weekend, and still feel awesome on monday! So without furter blabber, let's get rolling!

On the weekends, there's almost always some party that you "must" attend to. The wise thing to do would be sticking to water or other non-alcoholic beverages.

But in case you'd like to have some good time, here's a few tips:

Squeeze in at least one long workout later in the week to counteract the extra calories you'll undoubtly consume during the weekend.

Take a break from your typical routine of jogging, say, attend a boxing class. You'll burn more fat as you put demands on different muscle groups. Take a swim instead of your typical cycling route; or play basketball or soccer. Maybe instead of a short run go for a longer one that includes sprints and hills.

Start your Saturday and Sunday with a healthy breakfast, even if you wake up a little late. It'll quicken up your metabolism. Breakfast is one major part in weight controlling and fat loss.

While at home, jump on the scale on Saturday morning, and do it again on Monday. Research says people who weigh themselves are better at controlling their weight

Variety is the cornerstone of a healthy nutrition, but having too many options might spell disaster for persistent snackers. You need to restrict afternoon snacks to one healthy choice, such as almonds, apples or other fruits.

When heading out to a bar, do it with a full belly. Eat a meal with at least 180grams of meat, poultry, or fish and a cup or more of vegetables, raw or cooked. When you're full you're less likely to crave high in fat barfood.

Stay away from mixed drinks. They can contain over 500 calories per glass. Stick to a 150-calorie beer or glass of wine. Or you can order something which is made with a low-calorie mixer, like diet soda or diet tonic.

Remember to rest! Sleep deprivation is a disaster for your metabolism and it makes it difficult to avoid overeating, especially after a long night of drinking.

While eating out, set the tone for the meal by choosing a healthier entrèe.

Don't waste calories on foods, like white rolls or baked potatoes. Save those calories for foods you don't usually eat or make at home. That makes the meal more special and separates it from your everyday routine.

Drink with dinner, not before. A drink before the meal lowers your resistance, making you much more likely to eat something greasy and unhealthy. Something you definitely wouldnt want to eat!

So keep those tips in mind when you go and have a good time! You'll be more likely to feel better when starting a fresh week the next monday!

Next week I'll go in deeper on why almost 90% of the conventional diet plans fail and do not produce the wanted results.

And I'll give you the tools to beat those odds! 

10 of the most effective fat burning foods

On the past few days I've talked about the importance of goal setting (hope you didn't skip that!)
and how much it really affects your performance.
Today I'll give you a quick list of 10 foods with the "highest fat-loss potential" (and very very healthy as well!) to eat. So tomorrow when you go and do your weekend shopping, don't forget these!

1. Fish

Fish like Salmon, Tuna, and Sardines make your body more sensitive to a fat-burning hormone 

called Leptin. It suppresses your appetite and determines whether you store the calories you 

eat as fat or if you burn the calories you eat for energy.

2. Avocados

Avocados contain a sugar called mannoheptulose that helps lower insulin levels to prevent you from storing fat. It also contains very much potassium (485 mg). They are also rich in B-vitamin, as well as vitamin-E and vitamin-K

3. Apples

Eat apples so the pectin found in apples can prevent your body from absorbing too much fat. Also, the same pectin causes your body to release fat!
Pectin is also a strong appetite suppressant that keeps you satisfied for long periods of time 

So the risk of overeating is greatly reduced!

4. Milk products

Milk products or foods are high in calcium, for example low-fat yogurt, cheese and milk. 

They break down fat cells faster and more efficiently.

In a recent study, people who ate low-fat milk products 3-to-4 times a day lost about 

70% more fat than people on a low-milk product diet. Researchers also believe that 

foods high in calcium suppress calcitriol, a hormone responsible for making fat cells bigger.

Milk products also contain high quality proteins that help suppress appetite.

5. Raw Vegetables and Fruits

Not only you'll maintain your weight much easier if you eat more raw fruits and vegetables 

but you'll also lose fat much faster with a nutrition plan that has more raw fruits and vegs.

Your body burns about 15% more calories after your meal that has mostly fruits and vegetables than if you ate a meal without any veggies or fruits

Some fruits (like oranges, lemons and pineapples) contain very much vitamin C, 

which liquefys (or burn off) body fat so the fat can be easily flushed out of your system.

Did you know that farmers don't feed pigs with raw vegs and fruits, because that would slim them down?!

6. Spices

Add spices to your foods like chili peppers, jalapeno, cayenne peppers or hot mustard 

to increase your fat burning metabolism by 8-20% for up to 3 hours after eating hot spices!

Research has proved that hot peppers can increase your fat-burning metabolism by 

adding just 3 grams of chili peppers to meals. Also spicy mustard made people burn an extra 

45-75 calories over a 3 hour period
Spiced foods can also reduce your appetite by increasing your body's norepinephrine and 

epinephrine levels.

7. Organic Beef


Organic Beef contains lots of CLA (or conjugated linoleic acid) which is basically a fat that helps 

you burn fat! According to a study, people who took CLA lost belly fat by reducing their waistlines 

by 4 centimeters without making any other diet or lifestyle changes.

8. RAW nuts

You should eat any kind of nuts because of fiber to keep the hunger away and to also get a 

good dose of protein and healthy Omega-3 fats. They'll help you burn fat faster and produce 

more testosterone. Make sure you eat raw and organic nuts instead of roasted or salted to get the

full weight loss benefits.

9. Resistant starch

Resistant starch is just another kind of good fiber but you'll burn 20-30% more fat by 

including more foods loaded with resistant starch like navy beans, bananas, potatoes, lentils

and wholegrain products in your meals. It also prevents your body from storing too much fat, 

and like other types of dietary fiber; resistant starch also makes you feel fuller longer.

10. Oatmeal

Oatmeal is very high in fiber which decreases your appetite by making you feel full so you can go for long periods of time without eating while keeping your energy levels high at the same time.
If you eat oatmeal about 1-2 hours before doing your cardio training Oatmeal will give you a longer lasting energy that helps you workout longer and with more intensity.

Researchers have found that when athletes ate complex carbs (f.e. oatmeal) for breakfast or lunch, they burned much more fat off during the day than those who ate simple carbohydrates.

The researchers also found out that the athletes burned more fat during the work out and were able to workout longer.

Examples on what kind of goals you should set yourself

For today, i will continue with the subject that has been covered in my 2 earlier posts.
Here are some proven examples of what are good goals to set yourself.

Some good goals


In this blog I’ve given you a lot to think, so to help and start your imagination, I’d like
to give you some ideas for how to write your goal list.





For example these would be for a woman:


I am so happy and thankful now that I am 12% body fat!
I am losing body fat and reaching my goal weight of 50 kgs and my goal body fat of 13%
by June 1st.
I am fitting into my new stretch jeans, size 5, by early December.
My summer dress from the summer of 2007 fits me perfectly and I am wearing
it during my winter vacation in the Caribbean.
I am learning enough about my body, diet and training in general that I am easily staying within 2-3
kgs of my optimal weight for the rest of my life.
I am celebrating the New Year with clearly visible abs.
I wake up every morning at 6 to fit in my cardio before 7, yes, I am a morning person!
I eat 5-6 meals a day with proper ratios of lean protein, carbohydrates and fats always on time
at 3 hour intervals.
I stay well hydrated by drinking at least 3 litres of water every day.
I'm to constantly improving my body and optimize my genetic potential.
I deserve to be healthy and superbly fit.
I am developing proper eating and consistent work out habits that are so integrated into my
lifestyle that they stay with me for the rest of my life.


And here are good goals for men:


I am so happy and thankful now that my body fat is 8% and I look super!
I can see my toes completely when I look down.
I am surprising my friends and family who I have not seen in a while by the way I look at
summer time.
I am keeping up these healthy lifestyle changes when the 12-week program is over.
I am reaching my ideal weight and body fat composition by May so I can show off my
new body in the summertime.
I always carry my goal card with me and read it as often as possible
I am reaching my goal of 13% body fat and 90 kgs by May 31st. I know this is
might be little challenge but it is my dream for the summer. I can do it!
I am buying all new clothes to show off my new, fit body: Suits, nice shirts, nice
casual clothes.
I am now leaner than I was 45 minutes ago (after finishing your cardio workout)
I am taking on being a body builder and learning about how to build my body
I design my weekends and vacations to include healthy activities.
I eat six, medium sized meals every day, each with a serving of lean protein and a
complex, all natural carbohydrates

Those are very good to start with, but of course, it's good to make up some of your own goals too!

Now what you should do every time you reach a goal?

Every time you achieve your goal, there's 3 things you should do:

1. Celebrate and/or reward yourself. Great CEO's, great parents and great
animal trainers all have one thing in common: They all know how to
continually get their subject, whether it's employees, children or animals,
to repeat the behaviors they desire. They do it by rewarding the behaviors
they want more of. And that's exactly what you should do –
reinforce your success by rewarding yourself. Did you have a great week of
training? If so, go out and squander! Have a “cheat meal.” Eat some
pizza or kebab. Treat yourself. Get a massage. Go
shopping. Buy yourself something you’ve always wanted. And don’t feel
guilty when you really deserve it!


2. Keep a list of goals you've achieved. It’s been said that success breeds more
success. That’s why you should start a “collection” of all your successes, kind of like prizes.
You will reach many, many small goals on your way to your ultimate goal.
Write all of them down on an “achieved goal list.” Any time you feel your
motivation or enthusiasm flagging, go back and read your list of past
successes. This is a sure way to lift your spirits when you’re feeling
discouraged. Even after a few short months, you’ll absolutely amaze yourself
at how big your list will become and how easily you can get motivated by
reflecting on your past successes!


3. Set new goals all the time. Goal setting never stops – it’s progressing process.
In truth, there never really is an ultimate goal because if there were, and you
reached it, what then? When the day arrives that you no longer have any goals,
your life ceases to have meaning. There's always something bigger to set your goal at!
Success is traveling towards the goal, not the goal itself.
Anthony Robbins wrote in Unleash the Power Within, “The only
true security in life comes from knowing that every single day you are
improving yourself in some way – that you are increasing the caliber of who
you are. I don’t ever worry about maintaining the quality of my life, because
every day I work on improving it.”

You should stop reading right now and set your goals right away!

To conclude this post, I'd like to tell you why you should stop reading right now
this very minute and write down your goals - Yes - NOW.


I read about this guy, who had read a great article by known champion bodybuilder,
and was so impressed with its contents that shortly after that purchased
his VHS-tape series which were instructional bodybuilding cassettes. In those tapes,
the instructor discussed the importance of goal setting. As he watched the bit of cassette
containing goal setting, the instructor urged viewers to "pause the cassette now and
do the goal setting exercise. Now."

There was a short pause in the VHS and then he came back on and repeated the instructions.
He said:  "If you just kept watching and you didn't pause the cassette and
write your goals on a list, stop the tape and do it. NOW." Guess what the viewer did?
He ignored that bit completely and said to himself (propably many of you are thinking the same!): "I know what my goals are, I don't need to do any "vain" goal setting training, and continued watching the tape.


Eight years later, he found himself having achieved some medium success
in many areas of his life, including bodybuilding and fitness, but he was frustrated because he hadn't
reached his biggest and most important goals and couldn’t figure out why was that. Then he thought
about VHS series he had watched. He recalled that even though he definitely knew what he
wanted, he never sat to write his goals down and repeat them every single day.

Frustrated with the moderate results, he consented and went back to the goal setting
exercise he had laughed off eight years earlier. Sure enough, the next year he won three
bodybuilding titles and within a few years after committing his goals to
writing and reading the goal list every day, he had accomplished every goal he initially had written down!

So right after reading this, go and make your goal list and write out your 3 month
goal on a small card or on your phone, so that it will always be with you . 
Don't worry if it's not "perfect" in your mind, important thing is just to start
writing. You can always go back to it later and edit. Do it now!

The 11-step formula to set powerful and effective goals

As I promised yesterday, here is the very effective 11-step formula to set your goals. And without further ado, let's get started!!


1. Set specific and clear goals


When asking people what they want to achieve from their fitness programs, I
usually get indefinite answers like,"I want to get more fit, I want to lose weight, or I want to
build muscle." And those are perfectly good to begin with, but it’s not enough – it’s a little too general.
Specific goals have a more effective impact on your subconscious than general and indefinite goals.

A vague goal would be kind of like the captain of a ship saying, “Go North.” The ship may be headed in the right direction in general, but without a particular destination, it will never reach it's destination.
You need to narrow it down. Be specific, right down to the numbers. Think how many pounds exactly
you want to lose? When is the deadline of your goal? How much body fat do
you want to get rid of? How much do you want to weigh? How fast you want to run?


2. Set measurable goals


You must have an objective way to measure your progress; how else you’ll
know whether you’ve reached your goals or not. The mirror is of course a useful tool,
because in the end the only thing that really matters is that you’re happy with
the way you look.

Nevertheless, because you might perceive changes in your body quite subjectively,
(and it's kind of like watching your hair grow), it also helps to have other ways to
measure your results. The scale is also one of the most important tools, but neither does it give you
100% of the feedback you need. You should be more interested in the amount of body fat you have,
rather than how much you weigh. The ideal technique to measure your progress is the body composition test. Body fat can be easily measured using a skinfold test.


3. Set your goals high enough


Very frequently people under estimate themselves and say things like, "I'm never going to look like that"
or “I’m too old for this and that.” Many people succumb to the low expectations of wellmeaning
family or friends who tell them to "be realistic." And that's bullcrap! Nothing great was ever
achieved by being realistic! Most of us get "scared" when setting goals and only ask for
what they think they can achieve, not what they really want to achieve! This is a mistake 
because insignificant, so to say “realistic” goals are not motivating, wants are those 
that motivate the best!!

It’s often good if your goal scares you a little. And, if your goal isn’t scary and
exciting at the same time, then you can say goals might be a little too low. Thinking
about a high goal you’ve never achieved in the past is always going to make you feel
a little "on-you-toes" and afraid.

This uncomfortable feeling is what makes most people pull back into their comfort zone.
You must not let the fear of failure or the feeling of discomfort stop you from going after a goal
that you really want. Remember, always step forward into progress; never pull back into safety.
Raise your standards.

When you set your goals, don't be shy to think a little bigger and set your aim high
because you can only hit what you aim at! Think about what would you really like to
look like if you could have any kind body you wanted, and decide to aim there. Visualize
the picture in your mind. Dream and fantasize it. We all have been blessed with an amazing
creative facility called imagination. Use it; it’s the first step of your new self-image and
all permanent changes.!

Of course, there certainly exists genetic limitations to what we all can achieve athletically and
physically. But, most of us never even come close to ourselves full potential. And that's
simply because they don't believe it's really possible! And that follows that they won’t even try.
I would say it depends more of the individuals willpower than genetics. Don’t ask yourself,
"Is it possible to achieve this goal?" That’s doing it wrong. The proper questions would be like;
“How am i going to achieve this goal?” and, "Am I ready to pay the price required to achieve
this goal?" You can accomplish almost anything if you’re willing to pay the price it takes!


4. Set realistic time limits


“Lose 15 kilos in 30 days!” “Lose 5 kilos in a few days!” You may be familiar with ads like these
on TV all the time, and they sure are catchy. But is it really possible? Can you really lose weight that quickly? The answer is yes. It's quite possible to lose 15 kilos in 30 days or 5 kilos over the weekend.
However, if you do, you’re making a huge mistake by confusing fat loss with weight loss.


Your body is 70% water, so it's relatively easy to lose weight quickly. Any diet that produces fast dehydrating, will create a quick, drastic weight loss. If you need to lose a few kilos
over the weekend, just stop drinking water! Needless to say that would be quite dumb and
somewhat dangerous too, but that's what you do when you lose weight rapidly, you're just
dehydrating yourself (and propably lose some muscle too!). Your goal should be to lose body fat,
not body weight.

The American College of Sports Medicine, large and respected health, medical and exercise
organization, has established good guidelines for healthy weight loss. They are recommending a
weight loss goal of 0,5 to 1 kilos per week. Converting those figures to body fat, that translates
 to about a 0,5% per week. At first this may seem like painstakingly slow process, but the safest
and smartest approach to fat loss is a progressive one.

Of course, it’s possible to lose more than 1 kilos per week, but if you do, quite likely most
of the additional grams lost are usually water and muscle. And when you lose water weight,
you'll gain it back as soon as you re-hydrate yourself. Then, when you lose your muscle mass,
-that leads to metabolism slowing down and your body goes into “sstarvation mode". And as
I covered that on my earlier post, you will most definitely gain back the weight you just loss and usually a little more. You'll end up with less muscle and more fat.


5. Set long-term and short-term goals.


When you begin to think about what you specifically want to achieve, don’t just write down one
goal, make an good sized list! Your goal list should include long term and short-term goals.
Here are some types of short and long-term goals you may include:
Your ultimate long-term goal
One year goal
Three month goals
Daily goals (habits to develop, things to do every day day after day)
The goal of beating your personal best.

First set a long-term goal; your ultimate outcome. What kind of body do you
ultimately want to have? Let your imagination run wild and dare to dream. Don’t listen to
anyone who says it can’t be done! You can’t afford to associate with negative people
who always try to tear you down. If you really want it badly and you’re willing to work
for it, then go ahead and set the goal.

Next, set a one-year goal. A one-year goal is especially important if you have a
lot of work to do. For example, if your primary objective is to lose one hundred pounds,
that’s at least a twelve-month project. Don’t expect or even attempt to do it any faster.


Probably the most important goal you can have at any time is your three-month goal.
Three months is the perfect time frame for your short-term goal because a lot can happen
in three months. Most people can completely transform their bodies in 90 days. A
sensible and realistic 90-day goal would be to lose up to 6% body fat and 12 to 24
pounds. The three-month goal is important because long-term goals don’t have any
urgency. A one-year goal is so distant, you may find that you tend to procrastinate more
without the impending deadline.


There’s a law in psychology called “Parkinson’s Law,” which says, “A task takes as long
as there is time to do it.” Differently stated, “Work always expands to fill the time
allowed.” Deadlines are motivating. Without time pressure, you’ll rationalize missing
workouts or cheating on your diet: Your brain will keep saying, “You have plenty of time,
so missing this one workout won’t matter.” With a deadline right in front of you, you’ll
know that every workout and every meal counts.

You also need to have weekly goals to let you know if you’re on track. Weekly
goals provide immediate feedback to tell you whether you’re moving in the right
direction. Each week you should weigh yourself and have your body composition
measured with skinfolds. If you’re getting the results you want, you simply continue
doing what you’ve been doing. If you’re not seeing the results you want, you can
immediately adjust your training or nutrition to get yourself back on course.

To reach your weekly, three-month, twelve-month and ultimate goals, you must
develop good habits every day. You develop good habits by setting daily action goals and
working on them repeatedly until they become as routine as brushing your teeth or taking
a shower. Ninety-nine percent of the actions you take every day are habits. Write out a
list of daily goals, to-do’s and habits you want to develop - good daily habits that serve
you – habits like eating small, frequent meals, cutting down on sugar, getting up early,
making your meals in advance for each day and so on. Long-term goals are important, but
they can be intimidating and discouraging if you don’t have small daily goals, too. If you
only look at the “big picture,” it can sometimes be unsettling to realize how much farther
you have to go.


There’s an old saying about tackling big tasks: “The only way to eat an elephant is
one bite at a time.” When your larger goals are broken down into smaller parts and you
focus on each little step one at a time, you won’t be overwhelmed. “By the mile it’s a
trial, by the yard it’s hard, but by the inch it’s a cinch.” Take baby steps. Every step you
take, no matter how small, will give you a feeling of accomplishment and keep your
momentum going.

The next time you feel a craving, you’re tempted, discouraged, unmotivated or you feel
like skipping a workout, focus on your daily goals, not on the huge amount of work that is
ahead of you. Tell yourself, "All I have is today. All I have is this moment, this workout,
this meal, the next 30 minutes, the next hour. If I just do what I know I must do now,
then I know I'll reach my ultimate goal eventually." Concentrate on the task at hand in this
moment. As the Zen masters of Japan remind us: “Be here now.” The point of power is
always in the present moment.

The final type of goal you should set isn’t so much a goal as it is a mindset. If you
fall into the habit of continually comparing yourself to others, this will ensure that you are
perpetually unhappy and unsatisfied, no matter how much you achieve. This is called the
law of contrast. There will always be people stronger, leaner, faster, more athletically
talented and more genetically gifted than you, so compare yourself only to yourself, not to
others.

Set goals to become better than you used to be, not better than someone else.
Constantly challenge yourself. Keep aiming to beat your previous bests. Going to the
gym can become fun and exciting when you’re always working on improving yourself.
So make it fun – make a contest out of it. Go for one more rep, five more pounds, five
more minutes, or one level higher on the Stairmaster. Aim for hitting your lowest body fat
ever. Work on constant and never-ending improvement. Make this process a fun game!


6. Make emotional reasons why you want to achieve your goals.


Everyone has days when they don’t feel like working out or eating the right foods.
The secret to staying motivated at times like these is not just having a goal, it’s
establishing the "reason why" you want that goal - it is the purpose behind the goal. The
philosopher Nietzsche said, “ If you have a strong enough why you can bear almost any
how.”

Determining the reason you want to achieve a goal adds emotion to it. The more
emotion you stir up, the more motivated you’ll be to go after it. In his Goal Achiever
program, Bob Proctor says, “The moment you get emotionally involved with your goal, it
instantly and automatically begins to move into physical form.” This is true because your
subconscious is the emotional part of your mind. Getting emotionally involved with your
goal impresses it deeper into your subconscious and whatever idea is fixed in your
subconscious will always express itself in physical form (behavior).

Remember, emotion is “feeling.” When you think about the reasons you want
your goal, you are “feeling” with emotion. What are your reasons? Sometimes people
have something to prove. Getting in shape for a wedding or vacation is often an important
reason for many people to get in shape. So is being attractive to the opposite sex. For
others, their reason is fear of health consequences (their doctor tells them if they don’t
lose 50 pounds in the next six months, they will die of a heart attack!)

After you’ve set your goals in terms of a specific weight, body fat, etc, then
continue to re-write an entire list of goals with as much emotional impact as possible. In
particular, answer these two questions: (1) What’s important to me about reaching my
goal? (2) Why is that important?

Some additional questions you might ask yourself to add emotional impact to your
goal list include: Who do you want to look like? Who is your physique role model? Do
you want to look like a bodybuilder, an athlete, or a model? Do you want to impress
anyone? Do you want to prove something? Do you want more energy so you can enjoy
certain sports or activities more? Do you want to win a contest or award? Do you want
more self-confidence? Do you want to look great in a certain type of clothes? Do you
want to look good for a certain event (vacation, wedding, reunion, etc.)? Do you want to
look great on the beach? Do you want to attract someone of the opposite sex? Answering
these questions will help you uncover the driving force behind your goals.


7. Make sure your goals are not conflicting. Put all your attention on your number
one goal!

There's an ancient Chinese saying: "He who chases two rabbits catches neither."
One of the most common obstacles blocking the way to reaching a goal is setting two
goals that are in conflict.

In the case of fat loss, the most common conflicting goal is
trying to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time. It’s common to see a large decrease
in body fat accompanied by a slight increase in lean body mass. It is also common to see
a large increase in lean body mass accompanied by a slight decrease in body fat. But one
thing you will almost never see is a large increase in lean body mass and a large decrease
in body fat simultaneously. It is physiologically impossible to lose fat and gain muscle at
the same precise moment in time. In order to lose fat you need a calorie deficit. To gain
lean body mass you need a calorie surplus. One process is catabolic and one is anabolic.

Therefore, there are big differences in the types of nutritional programs you need to
achieve each of these contrasting goals. Over a period of weeks or months it is certainly possible to see a net gain in muscle and a net decrease in body fat. However, that is the result of alternating back and
forth between short periods of caloric deficit with short periods of caloric surplus (aka,
the zig-zag” method). This is the most difficult of all the goals and it is a slow and
inefficient process. You are compromising your results in both departments if you set
muscle gain and fat loss as simultaneous goals.

Advertising for supplements and weight loss products has brainwashed many people into believing that incredible gains of muscle, along with large losses of fat are commonplace – they’re not! They’re quite rare. When someone successfully makes large muscle gains and fat losses at the same time, usually
they’re merely regaining muscle they’d previously lost, they’re genetic superiors or
they’re using performance-enhancing drugs.

Charles Glass, who has probably trained more professional bodybuilders than any
other trainer advises, "While you are dieting and burning fat, you are not likely to add any
more muscle. Burning fat and gaining muscle do not go together. Concentrate totally on
getting lean and defined during a pre-contest phase and forsake the thought of adding
muscle to what should be an already prepared framework." Although Charles was
speaking of competitive bodybuilders, his advice applies to everyone: Get the fat off first,
then set your new goal for gaining muscle while staying lean.


8. Write out an extensive goal list in the form of affirmations


The next step is to write down all your goals on a sheet of paper or on cards in the
form of statements called “affirmations." There are three rules you must apply when
writing your affirmations:

1. First, your affirmations must be personal: Use the word “I.” One of the best ways
to start an affirmation is to use the phrase “I AM” or “I have.” Your subconscious
only responds to commands given to it in a personal manner. Anything you say
after “I AM” has power. One of the best affirmations I have ever heard comes
from Bob Proctor, and it goes like this: “I am so happy and thankful now that I
am________________” (fill in your goal).

2. Second, your affirmations must be written in the present tense. To your
subconscious mind, there is no future. Your subconscious mind only responds to
commands given to it in a present tense. It may feel strange to write a goal in the
present tense, but if you write it in the future tense (for example, “Next year I
will” or “I’m going to”), your subconscious mind will make sure it always stays in
the future. Always write, think and visualize your goal as if you have already
achieved it.

3. Third, you must state your goal in terms of the positive. Your subconscious
moves you towards whatever you think about whether it’s positive or negative.
Therefore, write what you want, not what you want to avoid.


9. Read your your goal list at least twice a day and always keep your
goals “in front of you” and “on your mind.”


Psychologists have proven that repetition is an effective way to penetrate and
program the subconscious mind. Fortune 500 companies spend millions of advertising
dollars every year based on this fact. Why is it that people reach for Coke, Pepsi,
Budweiser, Marlboro, Crest, Palmolive and other brand name items? It’s because the
repetition of the advertising has penetrated their subconscious minds and moved them to
action.

You can use the power of repetition to influence your own subconscious and
move yourself into action. Once your affirmations are written out, read your list at least
twice per day, once in the morning and once at night. Read them more often if you can. If
you want to amplify the effect of the affirmation technique even more, don't just read
your affirmations; write them out by hand every single day.

Once you’ve set all your goals and written your affirmations, use the power of
repetition even more by literally “keeping your goals in front of you” all day long. Post
your goal statements in a conspicuous place such as your refrigerator, your bathroom
mirror or in your daily appointment book. Keep a goal card of your 90-day goal in your
pocket. Paste them onto the dashboard of your car. Stick them on the top of your
computer monitor so you have to look at them all day long.

You may have been exposed to this affirmation technique before and shrugged it
off as "corny." If so, let me ask you this: Did you really give it an honest trial? Did you
put 100% effort into it and put it to the test for at least 21 days in a row? If not, then
you’re denying yourself the chance of achieving everything you ever dreamed of. Don’t
let the simplicity of the affirmation technique fool you. Be open and don’t judge it.

Affirmations are far more powerful than you can imagine, but they can’t work
when you just “try” them once or twice. They won’t work even if you do them for a few
days. They won’t work if you say them and then cancel them out with negative
affirmations like “this is stupid!” They only work when you continue to repeat them with
faith, emotion and belief over and over again so many times that they completely replace
your old, negative internal dialogue.

Your affirmations must become the new “tape” that runs over and over in your mind every day.
When you reach the point where your affirmations become your new habitual way
of thinking, the results will astound you and what you have been imagining will
begin to materialize in your life.


10. Read your goals with faith in them


William James, the “father” of American psychology, wrote that the subconscious
will bring into reality any picture held continually in your mind and backed by faith.
Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich and The Law of Success, said, “All
thoughts which have been emotionalized and mixed with faith begin immediately to
translate themselves into their physical equivalent.”

What is faith? Faith is just another word for unshakeable belief. Faith is
believing in what you can’t see. Faith is knowing that eventually you will reach your
goal, even though you look in the mirror and see that little or nothing has changed yet.
The opposite of faith is doubt. Shakespeare said, “Our doubts are out traitors, and make
us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.” The poet William Blake said,
“If the sun and moon would ever doubt, they would surely go out.” In short, you must
practice believing in yourself, or “banishing the doubt”.

How do you cultivate this attribute of faith? Act as if. Read affirmation
statements written in the present tense as if they were already achieved. See mental
pictures of yourself as if you had already achieved your goal. When you look in the
mirror every day, see what you want to become, not what is presently there. Behave as if
you were already there. Speak as if you were already there. “Act as though I am and I
will be,” says the ancient proverb. If this seems like you’re “lying” to yourself; well, yes,
that’s exactly what you’re doing. Repeat a “lie” often enough and you’ll soon start to
believe it and act on it.

To quote personal development expert Denis Waitley again, “Every captain
knows his next port of call, and even though he cannot see his actual destination for fully
99 percent of his voyage, he knows what it is, where it is and that he will surely reach it if
he keeps doing certain things in certain ways every day.” That’s the essence of faith –
continuing to take action towards your destination even when you can’t see it yet!

Read your goal lists with faith! Believe it’s going to happen, no matter what is
actually happening at the moment. If you read affirmations while at the same time
doubting that you can achieve them, you are canceling out the affirmation before it ever
has a chance to take root; it never reaches your subconscious mind.


11. As you read your affirmations, mentally visualize them as already achieved.


Visualization means making mental pictures or images – it’s thinking without
words. The brain thinks in pictures. If you think of a mountain, you probably don’t see
M-O-U-N-T-A-I-N spelled out in your mind. If you’re like most people, you see an image
of a mountain. If I ask you to think about your car, you’ll instantly get a picture of your
car in your mind.

Because your brain thinks in pictures, adding a bright, clear, moving mental
picture of what you want to achieve will help you to penetrate your subconscious mind
more rapidly and more deeply than if you just read your goals. In Psycho - Cybernetics
Dr. Maltz wrote, “Experimental and clinical psychologists have proven beyond a shadow
of a doubt that the human nervous system cannot tell the difference between an "actual"
experience and an experience imagined vividly and in detail.” As with affirmations,
visualization is most effective when your body is in a relaxed state, because that’s when
your subconscious mind is accessed most easily.

In the book Peak Performance, Mental Training Techniques of the World’s
Greatest Athletes, Charles Garfield writes; “Without a doubt, the most dramatic
contribution to the advancement of goal-setting skills in recent years has been the
Soviet’s introduction of visualization. During mental rehearsal, athletes create mental
images of the exact movements they want to emulate in their sport. Use of this skill
substantially increases the effectiveness of goal-setting, which up until then had been
little more than a dull listing procedure.”

Garfield went on to talk about a startling experiment conducted by Soviet sports
scientists. The study examined the effect of mental training, including visualization, on
four groups of world-class athletes just prior to the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics. The four
groups of elite athletes were divided as follows:
Group 1 – 100% physical training
Group 2 – 75% physical training, 25% mental training
Group 3 – 50% physical training, 50% mental training
Group 4 – 25% physical training, 75% mental training

What the researchers found was that group 4 – the group with the most mental
training – had shown significantly greater improvement than group 3. Likewise, group 3
showed more improvement than group 2 and group 2 showed more improvement than
group 1.

In Psycho-Cybernetics, Dr. Maltz shared a similar account of an experiment on
the effects of mental practice on improving basketball free throws. The study, published
in Research Quarterly, divided the subjects into three groups. Each group was tested for
free throw accuracy once at the beginning of the experiment and again at its conclusion.
Group one physically practiced free throws for 20 days Group two performed no
practice at all. Group three spent 20 minutes a day getting into a deeply relaxed state and
visualizing themselves shooting free throws.

When they missed, they would visualize themselves correcting their aim accordingly. The results were remarkable: the first group, which practiced 20 minutes a day, improved in scoring 24%. The second group, which had no practice, showed no improvement. The third group, which practiced in their
minds, improved their scoring 23%! Amazingly, mental practice yielded results almost
identical to physical practice.

What does this research on athletes have to do with your losing body fat?
Everything! Remember that the subconscious is the part of the mind that is responsible
for automatic behavior (also known as habits). By visualizing your fat loss or fitness goal
as already achieved, you are giving your subconscious mind instructions that will cause
you to automatically begin acting in a way consistent with your mental image. You’ll go
into automatic pilot mode. There will be less struggle and willpower involved.

When you’re in a situation that used to tempt you, suddenly you’ll notice you are no longer
tempted. If you used to dread going to the gym, you'll start looking forward to it. If the
idea of eating healthy, natural foods used to seem like hard work, you'll actually begin to
enjoy it. Everything will seem to get easier and your workouts will become better than
ever. The end result of making “mental motion pictures” is that you will see results more
quickly than you ever have before.

All great athletes and peak performers use visualization. Jack Niklaus said he
never hit a golf shot, not even in practice, without having a very sharp, in-focus picture of
it in his head. Tennis superstar Andre Agassi once told an interviewer that he won
Wimbledon at least ten thousand times. When asked what he meant by this, Agassi
replied, “Since I was five years old I saw it over and over and over again in my mind.
When I walked on the court that day, it was my exact vision. I felt like I was stepping
into the role I was made for, and I just demolished them!"

Legendary basketball Hall of Famer Bill Russell wrote about his use of mental
imagery in great detail: “I was sitting there with my eyes closed, watching plays in my
head. It was effortless; the movies I saw in my head seemed to have their own projector,
and whenever I closed my eyes, it would run.”

Bodybuilders and fitness athletes use visualization in many ways: they visualize
their workouts or they see themselves successfully completing a lift or performing aerobic
training. They also see pictures of their bodies the way they want them to look when they
reach their ultimate goal. Arnold Schwarzenegger visualized his biceps as mountains;
“When I am doing barbell curls, I am visualizing my biceps as mountains – not just big,
but HUGE!”

Former professional bodybuilder Lee Labrada visualized the skin on his abs
getting tighter and thinner like cellophane wrap clinging to the abdominal muscles as he
was dieting down for competition.

Three time Mr. Olympia Frank Zane said that he
mentally saw himself winning the Mr. Olympia at least one million times before it
actually happened.

Former Ms. Olympia, Rachel Mclish said, “I visualize the blood
surging through my muscles with every repetition and every set I do. When I pose, I’ve
got a mental picture of how I want to look. When you have that in your brain, the
physical body just seems to respond. Its important to tell yourself you are good and you
look wonderful.”

What if you’re not good at visualizing? What if you can’t see “vivid Technicolor
pictures” in your mind? Don’t worry about it– everyone creates mental images in their
own unique way. Some people see clear vivid pictures, while others get only
impressions. You’ll get results either way and you’ll also get better with practice.