The Ming Crunch - How to lose fat (I did not say how to lose weight) in 12 weeks
GOAL: A healthy, functional body with lower body fat.
A lot of you aren’t going to like the suggestions I make here, but know that I have some extensive expertise in this particular area and know just what I’m talking about. This article is brought to you because a lot of people over the years have asked me for some quick information to help them get weight off. This kind of bugs the heck out of me. Anyone can take weight off, but wouldn’t you rather reduce body fat?
Most “diets”, especially “fast”, deal with dropping water weight and/or muscle mass. This is not hard to do. It is also not great for your body. And you will not be able to keep the “weight” off. Rebound is a reality. A conscious (that’s an important word, look it up please) healthy diet and exercise program is a choice. You want to make choices you can live with for the rest of your life (it’s your’s right? Who else is going to do it for you?).
First off
First things first: If you aren’t prepared to make a commitment to having a healthier body for rest of your life, don’t read further. Just go back to your cheese-covered nachos and leave the heavy lifting to those who can commit to a choice.
(50% of you have left this page at this point, pulling your greasing fingers from the keyboard and are going to see what’s in the fridge you can take back to the couch. 40% of you want to do the same, but are so intensely curious as to what this guy is going to say that you stick around for the next part. 8% of you are determined to try the stuff this guy writes down for a whole 2 weeks, before succumbing to the aforementioned. 2% of you will commit to it like you do the changing of your kid’s diapers while holding a spatula in your hand making pancakes for your spouse, wearing super fluffy slippers on your feet so that you can simultaneously mop the floor while moving around.)
Cut it out
I’m not talking about stopping the poking in your sibling’s ribs while trying to agitate your mom with her annoying screams (okay all ready, jeesh). I’m talking about dropping the following from your vocabulary and food intake. (Do this. You’ll live, and life will still have flavor. Trust me.)
Drop the following 4:
Alcohol
Soda
Any fried foods (yes, I said any)
Cheese (don’t you fight me, I said drop it. “But what about..” No. “But?” No. “How about low-fat?” No. “Fat-free?” Yes. “But I don’t like fat-free!” Then why suggest it? And: too bad.)
All ready I hear the wailing, “but life will have no meaning, I’ll have nothing to live for! WAAAAAAAAH!”
Too bad.
I’m not called Ming the Merciless for nothing. You on this ride or not?
You also get to eat the other stuff not listed on the 4. That means pasta, breads (try choosing whole grain), cereals, vegetables (there’s a lot of these freakin things, try a ton of variety and eat the ones you like), baked foods, steamed foods, fish, chicken, turkey, red meat (try to limit to 2 meals a week of red), etc.
Sweets
Limit this to 2-3 times a week. If you have a sweet tooth let it know when it can be satiated, not the other way around. Plan days that are “treat days” and stick to eating your sweets then. Mine is typically on the weekend.
The secret
(You get to add those 4 thing back into your body after 12 weeks.)
Yes, I said 12 weeks.
The other secret
Sweat, or: working out really hard exercising.
(“WAAAAAAAAH!”) Cut it out, you’re only encouraging me.
Here’s the minimums:
Resistance exercise 3-4 times per week, 30-45 minutes per session (the heavier you train the less time, but man, you better be sweating and having 1-minute rest periods max). You must move weight. Isometric movements aren’t enough for this course.
Walking 90 minutes five times per week (2- 45 minute sessions if you can’t do the whole 90), or 35 minutes running 4 times per week. And I mean a BRISK walk (please look that word up), not some lollygagging mope. You made the choice, remember? Be happy about it. You should feel energized and have mild muscle fatigue from the BRISK walk. (Did I have to capitalize that word again? Oooh yeah, you know I did.)
Working out earlier in the day also kicks up your metabolism for the rest of the day. Train early if you can.
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Awesome resistance training can be found with a good trainer, or bootcamp class that actually moves weight (whether it’s a car or kettle bells) and works plyometrics.
And women, I know you love to work legs and butts (I love it too), but you’ve got to challenge yourself to working that upper body in the same frantic and possessed way.
And men, we all like looking at our big guns (biceps) and chest, but you need to blast the legs and butts too. Seriously. That lightbulb-shaped body just won’t cut it.
Who’s still with me?
As I said, we’re all about losing fat, not weight. Muscle mass is heavier than fat. If you are training properly, you will increase muscle mass, so you’re actual weight number will go up at first (and girls, knock it off, the “but I don’t want to be bulky with muscle” excuse is ridiculous and doesn’t work with me. We should all be so fortunate to add muscle bulk as quickly as you image you would. As it stands, it’s an excuse that doesn’t hold up. You aren’t going to be Lou Ferrigno in 12 weeks, or 5 years for that matter. It’s too specialized and intense a field to pop that much muscle on.)
Though your weight number may go up during the first few weeks, you will trim down, as more lean muscle mass increases your metabolism. Clothes will fit better and you’ll feel better. You’ll be more mobile and niggling pains will go away.
The other other secret - how to eat, 5-6 times per day
Eat the pyramid method. No, I’m not talking the food pyramid. I’m talking about the following:
Eat your biggest meal in the morning (or start of your day).
Eat nutritious snacks in between meals, preferably with high quality protein.
Taper off your other meals to where your smallest meal is before bed. (This will also depend on when you train your heaviest: training heavy means you generally eat somewhat larger portions to help recovery)
Drink 6-8 oz glasses of water a day. I said water. You can have a sports drink on top of that. Don’t skip the water.
Add high-quality protein to your diet through protein bars or shakes. You’ll need the extra amino acids to help repair and recover from your training. (Eggs, and specifically egg whites, are a healthy and inexpensive choice for quality protein if you’re on a tight budget.)
Breakfast
Eat your breakfast! Over the couple of decades I’ve been training people, two things stand out for people who don’t eat breakfast: migraines and being overweight (or they just can’t seem to ever lose weight no matter how hard they train).
You goal is to increase your metabolism, make it more efficient to burn fat. When you starve yourself, or calorie omit for long periods of time, your body’s metabolism slows down. Calories are shunted to fat stores to help survive the “starving” period. Keeping your body supplied with nutritious (look that one up too) food every 2.5-3 hours, along with exercise, helps to increase your metabolism.
Our bodies are made for positive physical stress (exercise). Why else would you have muscles that respond positively to resistance exercise? Why else would the body, through it’s own pharmacy, produce chemicals and hormones to help you feel great as a result of the same?
The opposite is true as well. Muscle atrophy and improper calorie consumption produces a whole host of short and long-term problems, most requiring mobility assistance later on, increased perception of pain, and the inclusion of harmful drugs required to counter a harmful lifestyle.
Calories
You can’t go anywhere if you don’t know where you are.
I’ve written (long ago) on how to work your calories, finding your basal metabolic rate (the number of calories you require at rest - that means the number of calories burned by your body even if you were to do nothing but sleep all day), etc. I’ve reproduced the article here: (http://corejkd.com/main/Nutrition_and_Core_JKD_Aug_2004.htm)
I cover “rest” there also, so I won’t add much to it in this article. Rest is important, healthy eating and plenty exercise will help you rest better.
Habits
If you associate your food intake with television, then drop television and pick up reading, writing, choir practice, painting, etc. In other words, find out what triggers an unhealthy association for food other than hunger. Emotional eater? Get a journal/diary and write with a hunger, rather than stuff feelings down.
It comes down to paying attention, being aware of things you do, and their triggers. With awareness, there’s realization, and with that there’s the ability to make habit changes.
People get overweight because of unhealthy habits. You get out of being overweight for life by making new habits.
After
After the 12 weeks you can start to slowly integrate those 4 elements back into your diet. But don’t go crazy. By the end of 12 you should have some new taste experiences and also have the awareness on what feels good for your body. With time away from fat, you lose a taste for it, or rather you develop an understanding of how horrible it is to feel it settling on your stomach and slowing you down.
Compensate/regulate your calories by reducing others if you add the 4. Remember, you are trying to maintain a fairly healthy daily calorie total, trying to keep fat to 30% of your diet or less. Remember, fried foods are calorie dense, and fat stores more easily as fat on your body than carbs or protein.
Keep up your training to compensate for your calorie intake. You should have a better idea how that works now. Calories consumed above what’s needed to maintain your current weight needs to be burned off. That means get your butt out and exercise off what you put in your mouth.
So to sum it up:
Make a choice, stick with it.
Drop the 4
Eat your breakfast and 5-6 smaller meals a day
Sweat with the minimums (you can go higher) of resistance training and cardio
Change to new habits
I include here a few picts of what my training and this does for a body (mine):
I include here a few picts of what my training and this does for a body (mine):
