Results.

I just wanted to post a quick note on getting results.

As I get involved with my clients diets, as we work together to tweak, and reduce the bad stuff (alcohol and for my purposes, carbs) and increase the good things (protein, vegetables, fruit and water) I come to realise, as I'm dealing with humans, that results really do come as fast as you listen to me. What does this entail? Roughly this, I call it "Rob's food pyramid":

Bottom (consume most)
Green vegetables, lean protein sources (meats/powders), water.

Middle (consume moderately)
Nuts, legumes, beans (as in borlotti, kidney, baked etc), yogurt, cottage and other lean cheeses, fruit, non green vegetables, lean milks, green tea, fish oil.

Top (consume rarely)
Wholemeal bread/pasta/rice/grains, sweet potato, coffee.

Outside (never consume)
White potatoes/bread/pasta/rice, alcohol, lollies, chocolate, junk food (fast food inc.), sugary drinks (including juices).

That's not hubris, I'm not saying: "I've got it all figured out mwahahaha", simply that there are tried, true, and tested methods for fat loss. Carb/protein manipulation is one, HIIT, is another, as is MRT. Combined, they are fast, effective, and safe methods for fat loss (note-as a basic justification for the avoidance of carbs- when you eat carbs, your body produces an insulin spike, this spikes moves whatever loose nutrients you have in your body to their storage places. When you eat carbs with fat, it puts the fat straight into your fat storage areas (triceps, stomach, ass, thighs). When you eat carbs and protein together it jets the protein to your muscles, thus making them recover, grow and allow you to train harder. As this blog suggests, never eat carbs and fat at the same time).

I've found, the more a client listens, as in the faster a client makes the above changes, the faster results come. Seeing as we live in an age where everyone wants it now, I recommend everyone do those changes immediately.

But, and again, as I said, I am dealing with humans, so I can't force you to make those changes, and realistically, I don't expect you to do them in the first 2 weeks. You want to look like this:

Not too muscular, or lean.

Not a completely unrealistic goal for your average male.

Then you need to keep these goals in mind, and consider what it is that these people do to look as they do. Do they: drink booze every weekend? Eat however they like? Eat carbs at night? I'm willing to go out on a limb and say "probably not!"

HIIT, MRT, carb/protein manipulation. Makes these things your life. Drop programs that focus on running, that focus on undisciplined control and lack progression of intensity, that don't incorporate weight training. Think of it in these terms: everytime you're out doing a 45 min to a 1 hour run, you could have done 10.5 minutes of intervals and received a better fat loss effect. Everytime you do an unfocused session with friends, you could have done a 20 minute MRT session which would yield greater response.

As I get my clients in line, I do take a hard approach. And when I see a client doing something outside of our program, I see a weak link in their program.

A caveat at this point: yes movement is good, yes any movement is better than no movement, this I concede. But this works as a bare minimum expectation for training. I don't train my clients for bare minimum, the programs I write aren't going for a bare minimum response. I write 3 month programs (Circuit EDT, Alternating Set etc) that are designed, by the worlds best strength coaches, to get results, demonstrable, measurable results, in that time.

You go off the reservation so to speak, you eat carbs all day, go to dinners, drink booze, I can't take responsibility for the results, though I still will of course, because it's my job, to show you why you want to give those things up. And it's my failure, if you don't...