The Fitness Influencers are LYING to You. If you Want Body Transformation, you NEED to Follow Strict Guidelines (Initially)

Everyone wants to nudge body transformation – specifically fat loss – with flexible, comfortable habits, rather than rigid, dramatic lifestyle changes.

But here's the secret.

Flexible, comfortable changes don't work. At least not in the beginning. 

If you really want transformation, you need to hold yourself accountable to rigid lifestyle, diet, and exercise habit changes for at least 8 weeks.

No cheating or falling off during those first 8 weeks. 

Once you get 8 weeks in, you're allowed a little more flexibility and grace. This is for 2 reasons:

1. If you commit to a rigid diet and exercise regimen (I'll provide some examples shortly) for 8 weeks, you'll notice some changes. People that complain and say that's not true are people that have never committed, and held themselves accountable, to seriously rigid diet and exercise regimens.

2. After about 8 weeks, your body and mind become sharpened. You no longer suffer from frequent cravings if you've resisted these feelings and cravings for the previous 8 weeks. Your taste buds change and you begin enjoying the less exciting home cooked meals. 8 weeks is enough time to learn the power of delayed gratification, and if you're able to follow simple, yet somewhat rigid, guidelines. You're body will begin working the way it was designed to work again.

So yeah, after 8 weeks, you can begin incorporating cheat meals one day per week, you can increase carb intake (more on this later), and you can be forgiven for missing a workout with the understanding that you'll make it up the next day. 

Anyone that's lifted weights 3-4 days per week every week for 8 weeks and done cardio on 3-4 other days per week every day per week will be able to relate to the fact that, after 8 weeks of consistent exercise, you won't WANT to miss any workouts. It's a positive addiction.

So, what are some rigid guidelines?

There are many, but for most people looking to lose body fat, build muscle, get lean and look more toned/defined/hot/whatever word you want to use, the following guidelines work very well:

1. Lift weights 3-4 days per week. Do an upper/lower split OR Pull/Push/Legs split. Upper/Lower is done by alternating between upper body workouts and lower body workouts while PPL alternates between a pull workout, a push workout, and a leg workout. Here's a couple general templates to follow (select exercise variations based on your preference and what you have access to):

Upper/Lower

Warm up: 1-2 sets of glute bridges or clam shells, an ab exercise of choice, and rear delt flyes (or band pull aparts) before each lifting session.

Upper Body Session

Ex 1: bench press variation-2x6-12

Ex 2: pullups or lat pulldowns or row variation-3x6-12 (lower reps if pullups, like 4-8 reps)

Ex 3: lateral raise variation or overhead press variation-2x6-12

Ex 4: bicep curl variation-2x6-12

Ex 5: tricep extension (skull crusher, cable pushdown, or overhead extension)-2x10-15

Lower Body Session

Ex 1: squat or Bulgarian split squat variation-2x6-12

Ex 2: deadlift or Romanian deadlift variation-2x6-12

Ex 3: step ups or lateral squats or reverse lunges or leg extensions-2x10-15

Ex 4: hamstring curls or hip thrusts-2x10-15

Ex 5: calf raise-2x10-15

PPL

Warm up: 1-2 sets of glute bridges or clam shells, an ab exercise of choice, and rear delt flyes (or band pull aparts) before each lifting session.

Pull

Ex 1: lat pulldown or pullup variation-2-3x5-10

Ex 2: row variation-2-3x6-12

Ex 3: bicep curl variation-2-3x6-12

Ex 4: shrugs or hammer curl-2-3x10-15

Push

Ex 1: overhead press variation-2-3x5-10

Ex 2: bench press variation-2-3x6-12

Ex 3: tricep extension variation-2-3x10-15

Ex 4: lateral raise variation-2-3x10-15

Legs 

Ex 1: squat variation-2-3x6-12

Ex 2: Romanian deadlift variation-2-3x10-15

Ex 3: lunges or box step ups or hamstring curl or leg extension variation-2-3x10-15 

Ex 4: calf raise variation-2-3x10-15 

2. Walk walk walk. Walk at least 7,500 steps per day. The more steps, the better. 3-4 days per week look to do a slightly more intense cardio session, whether that's kettlebell swings every minute on the minute, stair master for 15-20 minutes, jump rope for 10 minutes (practice and rest as needed), stationary bike for 45 minutes, or even jogging for 30-45 minutes. Get your steps in. And, for bonus points, make time to do cardio (with the purpose of doing cardio exercise – like the examples above – and not just walking) 2-3 days per week.

3. Follow a rigid diet. There's a bunch you can do, but one that I can guarantee will work for you, especially during the first 8 weeks of non-negotiable commitment, is a fasting + low carb protocol. Now, I'm not saying carbs are bad. They're not bad. But if you're struggling to lose body fat, there's a very real chance that you're body is not utilizing carbohydrates efficiently. Carbs are also the easiest to overeat and least satiable of the macro nutrients. So I want you to limit your carb intake to less than 75 grams per day.

I want you to prioritize fruits, vegetables, and either jasmine rice or sourdough bread as your carb sources. You don't have to eat the rice or bread, but if you need starches or grains, these 2 options are low sugar and highly satiable. You must eat fruit and veggies every day. The sugar in fruit is different from the sugar in your baked goods. Fruit is GREAT for us. Eat lots of fruit. 

Pair this low carb diet with an intermittent fasting protocol, like 16/8. So, for me, this would mean I wake up and don't eat until 10 am. I stop eating by 6pm. So the 16 hour window of not eating, in this case, would be from 6pm-10am the following morning. This is super helpful for fat loss clients because it limits the amount of chances you have to consume calories, reverses the modern habit of feeling like we need to always be eating, and it actually helps reverse insulin resistance. There's also lots of talk surrounding the positive relationship between fasting and longevity, supported by many smart people that work in the research field, including Dr. Rhonda Patrick, Dr. Peter Attia, and Dr. Andrew Huberman (plus many more, but these are a few big names).

Some people have schedule reasons that make it difficult to eat meals during an 8 hour block. If this is the case, or if you're a person that likes to eat in mornings AND evenings (breakfast and dinner) you'd simply eat 2 meals a day – breakfast and dinner. This would be a 12/12 type fast, or similar. The numbers don't matter. Just eat only 2 meals per day, in this example, and eat breakfast and dinner but skip lunch. 

Additionally, 2-4 times per month I want you to do a 24 hour fast. It's easiest to do this starting after dinner one night and breaking the fast 24 hours later at dinner the following night.

Intermittent fasting can also be called time restricted feeding, so if you hear one phrase or the other, don't be confused. If fat loss is the goal, you're limiting yourself, basically, to 2 meals and maybe 1 snack per day, either way.

This daily 16/8 intermittent fast and weekly/monthly 24 hour fasting will make it easy to create a calorie deficit, which is necessary for fat loss. Limiting carb intake to 75 grams or less per day makes this even more easy and, hopefully will help you prioritize protein intake. 

Speaking of protein intake, I want you to eat 1 gram of protein per pound of goal bodyweight. So if you're 200 pounds, and you want to weigh 150 pounds, you'll eat 150 grams of protein every single day.

So, to review the rigid diet section:

Eat 1 gram of protein per pound of goal bodyweight.

Eat less than 75 grams of carbs per day. 

Eat either on a 16/8 intermittent fasting schedule or a 12/12 time restricted schedule (you're either skipping breakfast in the first option or skipping lunch in the second option).

Once every 1-2 weeks, do a 24 hour fast where you consume no calories. I suggest you be sure to add salt to your water, drink electrolytes, or even drink amino acids on these days.

This doesn't have to be your forever diet, but I do want you to do it for 8 weeks before making changes. If after 8 weeks you still have body fat to lose, keep on with this schedule but allow yourself 1 meal per week as a cheat meal (probably best to do before the 24 hour fast).

4. No alcohol. If you want to lose body fat, shape up, improve strength and endurance, and drop weight, cutting alcohol (even if you currently only drink occasionally) is an easy solution. Alcohol offers zero health benefits (that's actual, up to date, scientific fact) and it's empty calories that are difficult to track. It works against the body's attempts to mobilize fat and it negatively impacts our brain health, muscular health, and long term performance. Cut it out for 8 weeks. Your body will thank you and your stubborn body fat will miss you (though, you won't miss it).

That's it. Those are the 4 rigid guidelines for your transformation.

Again, I'm not saying you'll reach all your goals in 8 weeks, but being strict and rigid for the first 8 weeks will set you up for better success achieving your goals.

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