Last time I had a coke was on 31st Dec 2015. Made a new year resolution to not have it again.
My everyday meals routinely include pounds of butter, mouthfuls of cheese, and scoops of oil. On Saturdays, I eat 6000 calories of junk food. All year round I stay between 10-12% body fat at about 75 kg.
Most of what you hear about fat loss and dieting produces no results. If you are reading this post, you are a testament to it. How many times you have tried to eliminate oil from your diet? How many times you have tried to avoid red meat or eaten those tasteless overpriced salads? What were the results like? You might have lost a kg or two in a month (Oh, gosh!).
I’ve completed 30 Day Fat Loss Experiments with over a dozen people in the past year and average weight loss for the first 30 days is usually between 4-8 kg depending on your starting weight.
If it is:
90-100 kg – fat loss 4-6 kg
100-110 kg – fat loss 5-7 kg
110+ kg – fat loss 6-8 kg
Here I’m sharing with you exactly what to do to achieve similar or better results, how the biology of fat loss works, and what you have been doing wrong.
Section 1: Common Traits of Fat People
Tell me if this is not true. When you see overweight people (or even yourself) who are trying to reduce weight, you see them doing one or all three of these things:
- Eat less oily
I’ve been to several restaurants with friends and acquaintances who are rather overweight. One common thread I’ve observed is that most of these people who are trying to live healthily are conscious of ordering something that is less oily.
They, and maybe even you, are doing this for years. You use less oil to cook, order less oily food, and avoid deep-fried yummylicious dishes.
Time to face the first hard truth: Eating less oily food has nothing to do with your weight loss or weight gain.
- Run on treadmill
When I go to the gym, I see that 80% of people running on treadmills are fat. They are thinking that if they do it for 30 minutes every day, someday in the distant future they will be slim.
I’ve been going to the same gym for over a year now. And I still see the same faces and same bellies. These people are still running.
Your second hard truth is: No person in the history of this world has gotten slim by running on a treadmill.
Yes, running is useful when you are trying to get rid of those last few pounds of fat and get those chiselled six-packs. But if you are far from it, don’t waste your time. That day will come as well. Very soon. But till then, let’s focus on spending the same time in choosing the right food.
Of course, running keeps your muscles in shape and your stamina high, so feel free to run. I run a lot. Just don’t run with the mindset of burning calories and reducing fat.
And if you are interested in gaining muscles while losing fat, then here is my Uncommon Guide To Bulking Up in 30 Days
- Eat 2 times a day
Fat people think that eating less, 1-2 times a day, will make them slim. It’s true that if you starve yourself you will lose weight. What you probably don’t know is that you primarily lose weight by reducing your muscles, not your stored fat.
I weigh about 76 kg. If I start starving myself, and let’s say lose 5 kg in 30 days, about 3 kg will be muscle mass and only 2 kg will be fat mass, approximately.
You might think that if you have more fat, your body will reduce more fat than muscles when you starve yourself. That’s not true. It’s easier for the body to break down muscles to generate energy, instead of burning fat to fuel you.
So when you starve yourself and reduce weight, you are basically losing strength and stamina. You are getting weaker. Before you realise you will develop lower back pain and whatnot. Just don’t do it.
So the third hard truth is: To reduce stored fat, you eat A LOT – like 4-5 times a day. And you never miss breakfast.
Section 2: Biology of Fat Loss
If you are like most people, you probably think that eating fats will make you fat.
And then if you want to sound a little bit intellectual, you will breakdown fats into saturated fats, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, and then transfats. Tell me you have not done this or not found yourself hearing this from other intellectual-sounding people? 😉
I am going to change the biology lesson for you today.
Carbs, and not fats, make you gain weight.
Carbs = Carbohydrates = Sugar
The entire theme of this uncommon guide will be to reduce carbs from your diet and shift it to proteins and fats.
Most people don’t know if a certain item contains fats or carbs. For e.g., butter, oil, and cheese are usually zero-carbs and all fat. Did you know that? I’ll clear this confusion as well through this uncommon guide.
As a general rule, everything you see in this picture is carbs.
The second theme of this uncommon guide will be to make you eat more. Isn’t it awesome?
Your biggest challenge will be to eat more. 4-5 times a day. Eat all you can!
The biology of eating works like this:
If you feel hungry, your blood sugar is below the optimum level needed to burn fat, so your body starts to burn muscle and hold onto fat. Conversely, if you eat a high-calorie meal with a lot of carbs, your blood sugar goes higher than optimum level and body stores those extra calories as fats.
Most people eat big carb-full high-calorie portions of meals twice a day, so essentially they are going from one extreme to the other.
Here’s what happens:
No breakfast – blood sugar low. Body holds on to fat.
Heavy lunch – blood sugar high. Body stores more fat.
6-8 hours gap between lunch and dinner – blood sugar low. Body holds on to fat after first 3-4 hours of lunch.
Heavy dinner – blood sugar high. Body stores more fat.
No food from dinner till next day lunch – blood sugar low. Body holds on to fat after first 3-4 hours of dinner.
Your goal is to stay within the optimum band
From the chart above, your goal is to eat 4-5 times a day, every 4 hours approximately, in moderate portions.
The only carbs you will be eating will be from vegetables and lentils / legumes, as they are low on sugar carbs to spike the blood sugar past the upper limit.
Basically, you will be training your body to burn fat to fuel you, instead of breaking down muscles or carbs.
The way we do it is to feed ourselves primarily proteins and fats.
Our mind gets the signal that it is not going to get carbs so it shifts our metabolism to breaking down fats (both stored ones and the ones you eat) to fuel us.
Section 3: What You Are Going To Eat
Let’s talk about the good stuff first.
You are allowed to eat all of these – as much as you want:
All Meats – No meat is superior or inferior to another. Chicken, beef, fish, mutton, pork – humans – anything. Eat as much as you want. At least twice a day. Eat grilled, fried, or cooked anyway.
Don’t look if the piece is fatty or lean. Red or white. Thick or thin. Just eat.
Meat will form the baseline of your nutrition. Ignore it and you will feel hungry all day.
All Vegetables – Just like meats, no veg is superior or inferior to another. Eat as much green or red, as you like. Eat raw, steamed, cooked, or fried.
Vegetables will provide you with the necessary dose of carbs.
p.s. Potatoes are not allowed! I know I said all vegetables are equal – but potato is an exception. It’s too high in carbs so it’s usually considered a substitute of rice.
All Daals (lentils and legumes) – Lentils and legumes are a great source of both proteins and natural carbs that don’t spike the blood sugar.
They can be a part of your every meal or you can just have a bowl between lunch and dinner. They are cheap and fulfilling.
All Nuts – For your munching habits, you will have to shift you from Lays and Pringles to Nuts (peanuts, almonds, cashew nuts, etc.)
Nuts are high in fats so they will fill you up quickly. A packet of nuts forms a great asset to snack on between lunch and dinner.
All kinds of Oils and Butter – Finally someone is telling you not to care about how much oil there is in your meal. Hurray!
Olive Oil is still better for other health reasons (e.g. cholesterol control), but for weight gain or loss, all oils are the same. Feel free to choose any. So is butter. Cook in butter or just eat a butter cube with your tandoori chicken (like I do).
Eat everything on Cheat Day – Now the best part of this uncommon guide is that you get one day off every week to eat all the shit you want.
For most people, it is either Friday or Saturday, depending on which night you go out most, and drink and eat junk.
No restrictions on this day. Eat fast food, drink alcohol, eat biryani – whatever makes you feel good.
Start with a proper no-carb protein-rich breakfast to set the baseline right. Then from lunch onwards, till you sleep (or pass out), go crazy on food. Eat 5000 calories if you can!
The psychological benefits of having a cheat day to satisfy your cravings far outweigh any potential negative effects.
Our body can store just as much extra calories in the form of fat in a day. All the excess calories you will eat will be excreted out so don’t worry about eating a lot.
This one day fuels you for the entire next week.
I would not only recommend but emphasize that you stick to having one go-crazy-day every week. Otherwise, you will burn out within a week or two.
For all the uncommon people who have completed at least a 30 Day Experiment, binge eating on a cheat day has not contributed in any weight gain or reduced the rate of fat loss.
This is your day! Enjoy. And even take me out for a drink 😉
Section 4: What You Are NOT Going To Eat
I have clustered them into the 4 commandments of food religion.
Every time you hit a situation in which you have to ask, whether or not you can eat this, run that item through the list of 4 commandments. If it is there, it’s a forbidden apple. Unless of course, it’s your cheat day.
Here are the 4 commandments:
Supplementary carbs – these include bread (both brown or white), rice (both brown or white), roti, parata, chips, fries, biscuits, wrap or crepe, pasta, and breakfast cereals.
These are usually what we eat with our meat, vegetables or lentils / legumes. All of these have to be avoided completely. All of these will result in blood sugar spike and storage of fat.
Even a small portion will hack your mind into thinking that more carbs are on their way, so it will not shift your metabolism to burning fat.
At first, it will seem odd to not have rice in your plate with meat and vegetables. But after a while, it will become natural.
I’ve always found that one way to spot a fat person in an office is to see on whose desk you will find a pack of Pringles. Don’t be that person, please!
The only exception to the rule is oatmeal or oats.
Sugared drinks, sauces, spreads, and candies – this category deals with all coca-colas, packet juices, milo and sports drinks, to ketchups and other sauces in Subway, to Nutella, and candies.
All of these have to be avoided completely unless it’s a cheat day.
But wait a minute, that doesn’t mean you can’t eat anything.
Mayo, mustard and ranch sauces, and peanut butter are all almost zero-carbs and full fat. All of these are allowed.
Dairy (milk and yogurt) – Irrespective of whether you are religiously following the above 2 commandments, if you are taking even a little bit of dairy, it can fuck up the rate of fat loss pretty badly.
Same principle: mind gets hacked that more carbs are on their way.
You might wanna ask whether skimmed milk is better than full cream milk. The difference between the two is that one is fat-less and the other is full-fat. Both of them have an equal amount of carbs. Did we say we are avoiding fats or carbs?
Now the great thing here is that cheese is allowed. Why? Cheese is made from milk when you take all the carb component out of it and are left with fats only. Isn’t it awesome?
Fruits and fruit juices – Ah, this commandment always receives the most hatred. It’s like ‘Thou shall not have sex outside wedlock’ type commandment.
But unfortunately, fruits are nothing but carbohydrates. They contain fructose, which is converted to glucose – and what is glucose? It’s sugar.
Trust me, you won’t die if you don’t eat fruits. Just leave it till you reach your target weight then you can have them back forever. You shall eat the forbidden apple forever!
But we always have exceptions to the rule, don’t we? Yes, we do!
You are allowed all kinds of berries (strawberries, blueberries, etc.). Go finish the stock in your supermarket!
Section 5: Sample Meal Plans
Using all the information above, let me give you some options of how my meal plans and those of other uncommon people look like.
Breakfast (between 8-10am) options:
- Protein shake in water (1min)
- Protein shake in water, mixed with peanut butter in a mixer for enhanced taste and more fulfilment (2min)
- 3-4 eggs – either scrambled, boiled, half-boiled, or made into omelette (10-15min)
- Lean Shake from GNC (1min) – slightly higher priced
- Protein bar (should be 20+ grams in protein) – higher priced
Lunch (between 12-2pm) options:
- Any meat dish from any restaurant with vegetables and lentils
- Beef steak with vegetables (usually broccoli and carrot)
- Grilled chicken or grilled dory with salad (and mayo/mustard, if available)
- Hot ‘n spicy chicken / chilli chicken / chicken chop / basil chicken / chicken kebabs, etc.
- Cooked chicken from supermarket
- Nando’s (anything), McDonalds (grilled chicken salad), Subway (anything without bread or wrap), or any burger place (throw the buns, just eat what’s within – trust me one of my friends do that)
- Make your own combination!
Late Afternoon snack (between 4-6pm) options:
- Bowl of lentils / legumes (masar, moong daal, red beans, yellow daal, orange daal, red daal – whichever you like or find) – get in the habit of eating with a spoon
- Chicken hams (with or without cheese)
- Protein shake / protein bar (any combination from breakfast options)
- Boiled sweet potato (different from potato)
Dinner (between 8-10pm) options:
- Any one from the lunch options
Midnight snack (optional) options: I’ve a problem going to sleep if I’m not full on stomach. You can avoid this.
- Protein shake / protein bar (any combination from breakfast)
- Bowl of lentils / legumes
- Boiled eggs crushed with fork and mixed with mayo and black pepper (YUM!)
Folks, this is pretty much all you need to change your life in 30 Days.
I know once you start it, you will have tons of questions like:
Can I miss breakfast?
Is Alcohol zero carbs? etc.
For this, I have prepared an extensive 6-pages of FAQs that will answer all your questions (pretty much!) and hold you by hand every step of the way. You can download it here: Uncommon Guide To Superfast Fat Loss
I can’t wait to hear your transformation stories.
Email me at [email protected] when you see those extra pounds being melt away.
I love reading awesome stories! 🙂
