- Look, we'll gotta start somewhere.
And the way things currently are,
most people looking to get lean end up being paralyzed
with all the information about calories,
macros, fasting,
body fat percentages,
keto, cardio,
high-intensity intervals,
different weight training programs.
And this paralysis actually ends up being
one of the main reasons why most people
never reach their fitness goals.
And this is why in this video,
I wanna share with you a couple of really critical things
you need to know as you're getting into this journey
that no one else talks about.
I've been a fitness coach for eight years now.
I worked with more than 600 clients,
and this is not just theory.
I'm gonna share with you what actually works
in the real world and what you need to know,
'cause what I've noticed is also that a lot of us
have a similar goal in mind.
We want to get the fitness side of our lives handled,
we wanna create a healthy life balance and ultimately
live a healthy, sustainable lifestyle long-term.
Which brings me to the first thing you need to know.
Most people getting into this,
set the wrong goal body weight.
I hear this all the time,
but Mario I'm five foot eight, 145 pounds.
It feels like a really low body weight for me,
which is 65 kilos on 172 centimeters.
Or someone who's five with thin,
will say that they haven't been 160 pounds
since they were in college
and they're gonna look really really skinny
when they get there,
which is on 72.5 kilos on 178 centimeters height.
And look, I gotta be straightforward with you here.
Most of your expectations about
your ideal target body weight are false.
A part of that is because of Hollywood
and magazine talking about different numbers,
but then there's also social media.
Where we have fake natural athletes sharing their stats
and they're big and lean and ripped all year round,
but obviously failing to disclose that they're using
a lot of performance enhancing substances on the side.
And then there's also this thing where in our society today
being overweight is the new normal, that's the majority.
So, we've lost the references for a lean weight
for a specific body weight.
For example, I personally walk around
between 165-172 pounds,
which is 75-77 kilos and I have five foot 10,
which is 178 centimeters.
And most people when they see me,
they think I weigh much more than I actually do.
And this is with 10 years of dedicated weight training,
really working on this area of my life and being
very very consistent throughout this entire period of time.
And the reality is if you're someone who hasn't spent years
seriously weight training to build a solid base of muscle,
and if you're looking to get leaned down to 10 or 12 or 15%
body fat for the first time,
you will likely have to cut to a much lower body weight
than you initially expect.
And you looking to resist this fact, then not embrace it,
will make things mentally a lot harder
'cause most people seriously underestimate
how much body fat that you really have to lose
to get to those lean levels.
Part of the problem is that most people
use either smart scales or online calculators
to estimate their body fat percentage.
And both of these can be very very generous.
I've had clients come to me that said
that they were at 15% body fat
and when I saw their photos afterwards,
there were above 20% body fat.
So if you think someone who is at 200 pounds
looking to get lean,
and they mentally only think about getting down
to 180 pounds and they eventually get there,
and now they're very disappointed
'cause in their minds had only 20 pounds to lose,
now they're doubting and they're not sure what to do next.
Should they continue cutting?
Should they not continue cutting?
Did they do something wrong?
They lose a whole bunch of muscle.
They don't understand what's going on.
So if you're someone who's looking to get lean,
there are two main things that I would like you to do.
First; be very honest about your starting point
and get a proper estimation of your body fat percentage.
Then you can do this in two very very simple ways.
First; you can do a DEXA scan
which I would consider a gold standard assessment
to see where you're roughly at
when it comes to your body fat percentage.
And I've actually met a lot of people over the years
that were pretty shocked when they got their first report
from a DEXA scan and just realizing
how much body fat they really have.
And the second way would be to then
take photos of yourself and compare them
to people that have done DEXA scans
or other different methods
to estimate their body fat percentage
and then compare it to get a rough estimate
of where you're at.
And I'm gonna leave a couple of examples here
where you can compare yourself with,
to see where your starting point is.
Now, if you're someone who doesn't have
a lot of weight training experience
and if you're in between different percentages,
I would definitely recommend putting yourself
in that higher percentage,
because if you've gained weight over the years
and you weren't weight training to build muscle
you've then just put on a bunch of body fat.
Now, if as you're losing weight,
you actually get to a target body weight
and that was your initial goal
but you still have a lot of body fat to lose,
You want to make sure you keep going.
And then when you hit below 15% body fat,
if your body weight is low,
now you can focus on building more muscle
and embracing a lean bulk, which will naturally
add more weight and you no longer will have
to deal with that issue.
On this journey, it is very very important
to have the right expectations and also to have goals
that go beyond that initial weight loss.
This then keeps you focused on the long game,
which actually brings me to the next point,
which is that on this journey,
it is inevitable that you will screw up.
It is not a matter of if, it is a matter of when.
There is no straight path to success here.
A lot of these screw ups will be caused by life events
that are completely outside of your control.
And when you do lose momentum,
is not gonna feel good
and your mind will start playing tricks on you.
Even basic habits,
such as tracking your food with MyFitnessPal,
weighing yourself daily will feel 10 times harder.
And they don't actually change in difficulty,
it is your perception,
your emotional state has temporarily changed,
now, making it all seem much more difficult
than it actually is.
Most people unfortunately don't realize this
and it can take them months
until they can get themselves back on track.
And if you're someone who has been struggling
when you lose that momentum, you can three get it as easily.
There are three things that you need to do.
First; prepare yourself mentally
for that inevitable moment when you do lose momentum
and don't let it catch you off guard.
Number two;
make sure to hit that like button below the video
because that's gonna definitely help you get back on track.
Number three;
when you do end up losing that momentum,
when you do fall off track,
remember that it takes way more energy to start a routine
than it does to keep a routine going.
So it will get a lot easier
if you simply get started back on those habits
that you wanna have in your life.
And this will help you not let that one bad day
turn into a bad week and then turn into a major setback.
And remember in the grand scheme of things,
"you don't have to be perfect to get great results".
A couple of little slip-ups here or there, if they're minor,
if they're not happening all the time,
and if they don't throw it into a disaster
will not be enough to hold you back.
Remember if you have a calorie deficit
of let's say 3,500 calories per week,
and you've just ate an extra 1500 calories,
it was an honest mistake.
Well, you still have 2000 calories of a deficit left,
which is gala now to lose more than half a pound,
more than a quarter of a kilo,
even with that mistake that you just made.
And so you don't want to let that little slip up now,
get to you, get in your head
and turn into a major setback
where you're off for a whole month.
And remember, nobody's perfect.
Not where you, you wanna keep learning from mistakes
so you can do better next time.
But overall, you just wanna make sure we keep going,
stay consistent to keep improving yourself over time.
Now, you know how you hear people say
that having a great physique is 90% diet.
So if you just handle the diet side of things,
everything else falls in place.
Well, that's not necessarily true.
And yeah, sure for getting lean diet
and nutrition is definitely 80 90% of it,
but if you're looking to have a great fit physique,
well, that think is just revealing the gains that you have.
And if you don't have much muscle built up,
you're just gonna look like
you've undergone a starvation experiment.
And for most people,
they don't have that much muscle built up
and they're just starting to learn about these things,
then they hear 90% dieting.
Sure, then I don't have to do as much weight training.
I can just dabble around or wing it,
or even start lifting a little bit later
because I wanna lose weight first.
This thought will seriously hold you back on your journey.
So if you're currently looking at this and you're skinny fat
or someone who has a lot of weight to lose
and he don't have actually much muscle built up,
or you haven't trained in recent history
where you've been very very consistent with it,
you must take care of this right now.
Set time aside for three to four sessions per week,
which are optimized for building muscle.
And this isn't high intensity interval training,
circuit training, doing a bunch of jumping jacks,
I really mean sessions that are optimized
for building muscle,
resting enough between sets, focusing on compound lifts,
making sure your form is dialed in,
making sure that you're progressively getting stronger,
that you're training each body part to three times per week,
and that you're training consistently.
Make this your number one focus when it comes to training
and you're gonna be much happier with the overall results.
And let's not forget that this is a journey after all.
Even if I could snap my fingers
and you have six back abs right now,
you would regain the body fat of very quickly
and be back to where you are today,
because it's about the skills and the habits
that you gain through the process of reaching your goal.
And the same thing applies to other areas of life.
I've heard one said that
"if you were to take all the money in the world
and you equally divided among everybody,
it would soon find its way back to the same pockets."
Most people don't realize that managing your finances
is a set of skills and the same thing applies to fitness.
The most important question to ask yourself isn't,
what am I getting out of this?
Or how long it's gonna take to reach my goal?
But it is who am I becoming?
Who are you becoming as a result of this journey?
Because this is a journey of personal development
and it's about becoming a type of person
that can sustain that healthy routine
where you have that lean, fit, healthy, strong body.
And that takes practice, and that takes patience and time.
There is no quick fix.
There is no straight line to success.
It's not easy, but it is definitely worth it.
And what's gonna help you on this journey
is making sure to hit the subscribe button below
and then notifications by hitting the bell icon,
get details for coaching on description below.
Check those out as well.
I'm gonna leave a video here then
that's really important for you and your fitness journey.
So check out that video
and I'm gonna see you right there.