Mindconnection Brainpower Informational eNewsletter 2025-01-05

For a long time, it was true that the average American gained 10 lbs over the winter holidays and then lost 8 or 9 of them before the next round of holidays. And this pound or two accumulated over the years. By observation, we know this is no longer true. It is now the exceptional American who accumulates at "only" this rate. The reason is the ubiquity of processed food all year round. Yet each New Year (and at other times), millions of people around the world embark on a fat loss effort. And they generally don't have great success with it.

Some strategies that do not work

Vowing to lose weight. This puts the emphasis on the wrong thing. First, it's fat you want to lose. Not weight (else, you could achieve your goal by amputating your legs). Second, you are focusing on the result instead of on the means to get there.
Joining a gym. This is a very common strategy. A person joins a gym and then embarks on a program that conditions the body to save calories. This includes treadmill and other "cardio". The person fails to execute a program that stimulates the adaptive response. That response causes a testosterone spike with each workout, and testosterone signals your body to reduce fat.
Sucking down protein drinks. This is commonly done after a workout. This will actually cause an insulin response, and insulin is antagonistic to testosterone.
Going to GNC and asking the clerk. This person probably has no clue.
Buying "weight loss" supplements. There are some that work, but generally these are stimulants that will create dependency and also burn out your adrenal system.

The gist of it is there is no shortcut and there's nothing in a bottle that is going to melt the pounds away.

Some other strategies that do not work

Counting calories. It's not as simple as reducing by 500 calories per day and seven days later having lost a full pound. It doesn't work that way.
Cutting out carbs. First, this is not actually possible. Second, people who seek to maximize the adaptive response actually "carb up." But what some people actually mean is eliminating bread and other processed grain products, and that does work.
Adding protein. I knew a guy whose fat loss strategy included consuming a tub of whey protein powder throughout a week. It didn't work, because he was just adding extra calories. And with protein, you have to be very careful to not get too much protein at a time else you will get an insulin response.
Various "special food" diets like the cabbage diet and the "banana recipe". The cabbage diet is a way of reducing caloric intake by displacing higher-calorie foods with low-calorie cabbage. The banana recipe is a way of reducing calorie intake by taking advantage of the fiber in the banana, there's nothing magical about it.
Fasting or severe calorie restriction to hit the target weight or body fat level. This is harsh on your body, and it will also reduce the energy you need for high intensity interval training (HIIT).
Add in treadmill time. Not only is this boring, it is counterproductive. Low-intensity exercise trains your body to conserve fat, not to burn it. This is why you hear Mr. Olympia types talk about their squats and deadlifts, but you never hear them talk about their (non-existent) time boring themselves to death on a treadmill.

My strategy

I use a strategy based on what you might call the bodybuilder fat loss protocol. There isn't an official strategy by that name, but there are practices that work well for body builders. I've adapted these and added a seventh to the list below:

Practice #1. Reduce calories slightly by reducing some macro. Most body builders choose carbs, I choose fat. So does Jeff Cavaliere of Athlean-X fame. We don't eliminate fat, we just cut back on it. I will, for example, use less butter and coconut oil in my sugar-free/wheatless cookies and I may skip avocados for a couple of months. Carb reduction will work, also. One guy told me he stops eating honey during the summer months and cuts back on fruit then too. I didn't ask how much fruit, but this is something I also reduce as a photoshoot gets near. I may, for example, eat only one banana in the afternoon instead of my customary two.

Practice #2. Plan your meals. I meal prep each night, and by meal prep I mean I make the basis for two of my six daily meals. When it's time to eat them, I merely slice up boiled eggs or whatever it takes to complete that meal. The portion size is strictly controlled, because what is there is all there is.

Practice #3. Perform HIIT. To most people, this means a separate effort that involves doing a series of sprints. My approach is to use very short rest periods during my resistance training. This gives more muscle tension with the same weight, thus you get more of the adaptive response with less strain on tendons. It also keeps your metabolic stress high, which also improves the adaptive response. And it just burns more calories, period. Even better, this approach pulls calories from stored fat. The one downside is because it keeps your metabolic stress high, it is very difficult to push through.

Practice #4. Do compound movements. Squats and other multi-muscle group exercises are classed as compound movements. They burn a lot of calories because they use a lot of muscles, including the many small stabilizer muscles. They also jack metabolic stress up. Always start your training session with compound movements, rather than isolation exercises.

Practice #5. Add extra stimulus. You can increase the adaptive response by adding extra stimulus. What does this mean? Find a way to increase any of these three factors: metabolic stress, cellular damage, time under tension. Examples, respectively: use stacking or supersets, change your angle so you emphasize working at the extension, and reduce your weight so you can do more reps.

Practice #6. Eat and train on a schedule, don't leave these things to chance. A skipped meal puts you into calorie conservation mode and a skipped workout will stop your fat-burning momentum. A rushed workout isn't the answer, because there is a difference between checking off the box and eliciting the adaptive response. Plan time into your schedule for these activities, and follow your plan.

Practice #7. Go on a house cleaning binge. It takes a lot of energy to truly clean a house. Many people confuse swishing a brush in the bowl with cleaning a toilet. They fail to clean that "under the lip" area, something that requires a lot of scrubbing to get clean. Especially if you are using a worn-out soft-bristle toothbrush. Wiping every inch of your wall space with a microfiber cloth means a lot of squatting down, reaching over, bending, stretching, etc. It's a workout. Then there are the floors....

Some general principles

Don't expect miracles. Expect the fat loss process to take time.
Always use good form in your workouts. This means much more than simply not tossing the weights up and down. Pay very close attention to your angles and to which muscles you feel being worked.
Keep your traps out of your shoulder exercises. The most effective way to do this for median (side) delts is to put your arms at such an angle that the median delts are at or near full extension during the movement.
Carb up for Leg Day. It is your single most productive training day, don't shortchange it by playing calorie games. If you take in an extra 300 calories by dint of some extra oats the night before or the morning of, that's like a $300 investment that pays you back $1,000. This is so because if you can fully kick in the adaptive response you will have elevated testosterone for several days and testosterone boosts fat burning.
Do not consume wheat, corn, or processed sugar (cane, beet, corn, etc.). All of these stimulate an insulin response, and insulin is antagonistic to testosterone. One sugary drink after your workout, and you just wiped out the main product of that workout. The same goes for downing a 40g whey protein shake, it will elevate your insulin so don't do it.

Mindconnection eNL, 2025-01-05

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