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Picture perfect, I paint a perfect picture,
‘Cuz I’m lifting with precision and all the bros are down with it,
With C-O-A-C-H J, and he’s about to show me,
Exactly how to get lean and stay lean, sho ’nuff.
– 2 Pac (probably)
Happy Friday, Coach J here from Anyman Fitness – and welcome to the latest edition of The N.W.A. Newsletter.
For today’s N.W.A. Newsletter, we’re going to give you a bit of a different format.
Today, I will be giving you 38 Fact Loss Facts you NEED to understand if you want to get lean – and stay lean.
If you’re struggling to get lean and stay lean, stay tuned – No Cardio Fat Shredding: The Holiday Shred opens for enrollment on Wednesday, October 26th.
There will be a sizeable discount this round as well. 🙂
I will also give you my single favorite piece of social media content from AF over the past week and link to it on either Instagram or Twitter.
Without any further ado… let’s get started, shall we?
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38 Fat Loss Facts you NEED to understand if you want to get lean, and stay lean.
1. Obesity is multi-faceted. It might not be your fault that you’re overweight.
Lots of factors come into play – genetics, environment, medical issues, etc.
At the same time, it’s always your responsibility to right the ship.
Nobody is coming to save you.
2. If you dine out frequently, it makes fat loss 100x harder, if not more.
This goes for nearly all take out spots and restaurants.
Dining out should be a 1-2x per week treat, not a daily habit.
3. Every “diet” that has ever worked long term has you eating real foods, and making your own meals.
If you rely on food that comes from bags or boxes, you’re going to have a long, uphill battle to lose the weight.
4. Liquid calories are one of the biggest factors to obesity.
They don’t fill you up, they’re too easy to over consume, and they’re completely devoid of nutrition.
You should strive to consume ZERO calories from liquid.
Become an adult and drink your coffee black.
5. Snacking is only a ‘good’ idea when it’s a planned and normal part of your daily diet, and it’s a healthy snack you’ve brought from home (Greek yogurt, a piece of fruit, a protein bar, etc).
Avoid vending machines like the plague and clear all the candy and bullshit out of your office desk.
6. At work, only eat the food you made at home and brought for yourself.
Don’t deviate from this.
No handfuls of candy at the receptionists desk, no cupcakes or bagels from the break room, no skipping your home made lunch to “get away” for a bit.
7. Cardio can be an effective weight loss tool, but it’s far less effective than mastering your diet.
Always start with your diet, and sprinkle in *a little bit* of cardio if you want to speed things up.
Be careful with this, though – excessive cardio ramps up your appetite, and it’s really easy to eat back the calories you’ve burned.
8. All calorie ‘trackers’ are lying to you. It doesn’t matter what the treadmill or Orange Theory counter said.
If you kill yourself for an hour doing high intensity training, you still only burned a few hundred calories.
It’s not anywhere close to the 1,000 calories your tracker told you you burned.
9. Eliminating alcohol from your diet is like a cheat code for fat loss.
Not only is alcohol excess calories, its effects make you more likely to get a case of the “fuck-its”.
All metabolic processes (like fat loss and muscle gain) stop on a dime when your blood has alcohol in it.
Booze effects your digestion, heart rate, blood pressure, sleep, recovery, and mood.
It’s best to avoid it if you’re serious about getting into good shape.
10. The best dieters out there eat the same thing for breakfast and lunch most days.
They rotate through 6-7 healthy dinners.
On the weekend, they often dine out, but they act responsibly.
They always have a plan and know what they’ll eat.
They never open up the fridge and say, “What’s for dinner?” and honestly not know.
11. Cardio burns more calories than strength training short term.
Strength training burns more calories than cardio long term.
Do with that what you will.
12. It has never been proven in a scientific setting that going low-carb is superior to other dieting methods.
The missing ingredient to your fat loss woes is a calorie deficit.
Whether that means low carb, low fat, or moderate everything, you need to take in less than you burn.
There’s no way around it.
13. Insulin resistance isn’t a good thing, but insulin in and of itself doesn’t cause you to ‘store’ body fat – that’s a total myth.
The leaner you get, and the more body fat you lose, the more insulin sensitivity you will have.
“Keto” works because you eat less calories when you eliminate carbohydrates completely.
It’s not because the magical insulin fairy comes to you and makes your pants looser.
14. If you want to get lean and stay lean, you will be met with resistance.
Co-workers, family members, and friends will all tempt you regularly.
Don’t take it personally.
They’re not used to you trying to be a healthier person.
You need to get used to saying “NO” and sticking to it like glue.
15. If you’re not consuming ample amounts of protein on your diet, you’re making things much harder than they need to be.
Protein fills you up, protects your muscles from catabolism (break down), and provides a metabolic advantage (20-25% of protein’s calories are used up during the digestion process).
It’s virtually impossible to eat “too much” protein – and the body rarely turns it into fat, no matter how much you eat.
Just be careful of the fat content of your protein, and eat up.
16. Most people eat way too much dietary fat.
They think they’re doing themselves a favor by watching their carbs, and loading up on fatty cuts of meat and butter.
This is missing the forest for the trees.
Going low-carb is fine, but calories matter first and foremost.
Most people who are watching their health don’t have a ‘carb’ problem – they have a ‘fat’ problem, since “fat is good; carbs are bad” (which is nonsense).\
17. Nobody got fat from eating fruit.
If your favorite guru told you that, find a different favorite guru.
18. The list of supplements that help with fat loss is extremely small.
Caffeine. Yohimbe extract. Crack cocaine (j/k lol).
If you’re taking a “fat burning supplement”, you simply have expensive urine, and nothing more.
19. The reluctance to track your calories or macronutrients is making fat loss much harder on you.
Sure, it can be a bit tedious and it takes some effort, but when you track your food, you’re guaranteeing fat loss, assuming compliance.
I’ve never met someone who tracked their food diligently who didn’t lose a load of body fat.
20. Your meal frequency and structure is really important.
Take notes as to what times of the day you’re naturally hungry, and what times you aren’t.
Adjust your diet as necessary.
Many people aren’t hungry in the morning, so a lighter breakfast works best.
Others can eat a bigger breakfast and a light lunch and be just fine.
Assess yourself and your own hunger cues and be intelligent.
21. The time between the end of dinner and when you go to bed is “The Dieting Danger Zone”.
This is the time when most diets go off the rails.
Get yourself some fizzy diet pops, some tea, or a few pieces of hard candy if you must.
But stay out of the pantry.
The kitchen is closed for business after dinner.
22. Fasting can be an excellent dietary strategy, but you still need to consume less calories than you need for it to work.
One of fasting’s best uses is making macro/calorie tracking much easier (you only need to plan 2 meals).
For some people, fasting can cause binges later in the day.
Personal preference should prevail here.
23. Protein shakes are a great idea if you’re struggling to get enough protein in.
But if you’re not being consistent with your diet, switch to 100% whole food protein sources.
They fill you up much more effectively than liquid calories do and naturally reduce hunger.
24. If your family isn’t on a diet and you are, suck it up.
You can’t expect them to diet just because you’re dieting.
Stop giving them shit for eating food – that’s not cool.
Do you, and forget anything else.
25. If someone in your household is trying to eat healthy and you’re mocking them with snacks, you’re a douche-canoe.
Knock that shit off and grow the f*ck up.
26. Walking is the best form of cardio there is, in my opinion.
It doesn’t ramp up your appetite the way jogging/HIIT does, you can do it forever, it doesn’t require recovery, and it doesn’t effect your strength at all.
Walk more, it’s a great idea.
27. Never neglect your hydration levels.
Often times, thirst is mistaken for hunger.
Aim for at least 1 ounce of water for every 0.5 pounds of bodyweight (half your bodyweight in pounds in ounces per day).
If you’re hungry, slam 20 ounces of ice water – and your hunger pangs will likely disappear.
28. Having an “empty stomach” and having a “hunger pang” are 2 very different things.
A hunger pang is an actual painful feeling that is usually short lived.
Simply feeling “empty” doesn’t mean you should eat.
You’ll survive, trust me.
29. “Starvation mode” is a bullshit tactic people use to justify eating all day long.
The idea that “not eating” makes you gain weight is the silliest bullshit I’ve ever heard.
If you’re still saying this in 2022, it’s time to read a nutritional science textbook.
30. If you want to lose weight, you’ll be hungry at times.
After all, you’re purposefully eating less food than your body needs in order to lose weight.
Deal with it.
You won’t die.
A bit of delayed gratification is always a good thing.
31. Get used to eating healthy foods and reduce the junk, and your food magically starts tasting better.
Hunger is the best spice.
When you eat processed bullshit, you get used to the taste of processed bullshit, and whole foods can taste bland as a result.
You’ll be amazed how naturally sweet an apple tastes if you eliminate excess sugar from your diet.
32. Don’t expect every meal to be a rich, culinary treat.
If every food you eat is covered in cheese and slathered in ranch, don’t be surprised when your waistline expands.
Food as “entertainment” is a big reason why our obesity levels are so high.
33. Aim for The Trifecta – you want your foods to be tasty, healthy, and repeatable.
If your food is healthy, you enjoy it, and you don’t mind eating it regularly, that’s the sweet spot of dieting.
Live in this zone.
34. Enjoy your holidays.
They’re only 10 or so days out of the year.
Your body composition isn’t a factor of 10 out of 365 days.
It’s the factor of the other 355 days.
35. You’ll mess up on your diet. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad person.
Food doesn’t have morality.
You’re not “good” if you’re being consistent, and “bad” when you’re not.
It’s just food.
Remember this always, and the “shame/embarrassment” you feel about your food choices will disappear.
36. People view food as religion.
When someone tells you of an ‘amazing new diet’ they tried, always be skeptical.
And if they had to pay money to try out this new diet, run for the hills.
37. Never get your dieting advice from a Netflix documentary. Trust me.
38. Show moderation in everything, including moderation.
Use the first 37 rules to help you get lean… but when you go on vacations or you’re celebrating, go crazy.
My friends are always surprised when we go on vacation and I eat whatever the f*ck I want.
Treats, ice cream, second helpings… whatever, who cares.
As long as you’re doing your best on all the ‘non-vacation’ days, you’ll be just fine.
One Favorite Social Media Post Of The Week:
The above 38 rules were from a thread I wrote on Twitter recently.
It was shared lots of times.
If you found value in the facts above, I’d love a re-tweet if you don’t mind. 🙂
I hope you enjoyed this edition of the Anyman Fitness N.W.A. Newsletter.
I’ll be back next week.
Hope you have a wonderful weekend.
Best,
Coach J
Anyman Fitness
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Maaaaan, when Pac went to Death Row, I thought my life was complete… what a welcome party this video was… (NSFW – lyrics)