Setting Yourself Up For Success: Trust the Process

It's time for some serious honesty. Being a fitness coach with integrity is really hard sometimes. Do I ever consider sacrificing my integrity in my profession? Absolutely not. But is it hard to keep my integrity and make a big splash in fitness within the first year or so? You freaking bet. 

Although it's difficult, I have to trust the process. I have to understand that doing the right things now will pay off later on. There are so many options out there that could make instant money and recognition for me. I could easily photoshop pictures of myself and post them on Instagram saying that my program will get people ripped in 6 weeks or less. I could pay random individuals for pictures of transformations they completed on their own, say that I did that for them, and create a library of false testimonials in no time. I'd make a killing.

But that's just not what sets fire for me. Relationships do. Educating, encouraging, and building community with my clients is what sparks a fire inside of me. I just have to understand that if I want to pursue what gives me purpose inside of an industry like fitness, patience is a must. 

I have to understand that choosing the integrity route is going to cost more time, effort, and energy with minimal reward now, but in the end it'll pay off more than anything else would.

The same goes for your fat loss journey.

You can take diuretics, eat nothing but bananas, and take all sorts of pills but if you choose to go that route, you have to understand that your progress is going to die quicker than a middle schooler's self-esteem after his first taste of rejection.

Understand That It's a Process

I talk about state of mind a lot. I did so in my last article about how to crush your resolutions. In that article I talked about how coming to a place of understanding is one of the best things you can do if you want to achieve a goal. This is especially true when it comes to fat loss. 

If you hear anyone or anything tell you that fat loss is quick, easy, or simple, they're lying to your face. Or are they? I guess technically, they're right. You could wake up tomorrow and eat nothing but bananas and you'll probably lose weight. But is that the fat loss you're truly after?

Didn't think so.

The fat loss that you're after is long-term, sustainable fat loss that will enable you to stay leaner year-round. I mean, I guess you could choose to lose 10 pounds, put on 20, lose another 15, and put on 30, continuously gaining more and more fat over the course of your life, but hey. It's your life, not mine. Personally, I think that method is freaking miserable and it makes "health" and "fitness" become two bad words that I'd never want to say again.

Anyway, achieving long-term sustainable fat loss is similar to my story of making a splash in the lives of thousands. It's a looong process. Why? Because it involves doing things the right way. It involves taking the time to build lean muscle tissue that will support a faster metabolism. It involves prioritizing your sleep schedule so your body can rest, recover, and support it's hormone levels. It also involves knowing your body well and learning how it processes and digests certain foods. It's much more than just working out more and eating less. Does that say that it's extremely difficult and nearly impossible? 

Of course not.

 It just takes more time than you might expect. But if you go into it understanding that:

1. it's going to take some time
and
2. it's going to be more beneficial for you in the long run,

losing fat and staying lean won't bring any negative thoughts to your mind. In fact, you'll go into it with so many more positive feelings because you've already accepted the fact that you're sacrificing the easy way out for a process that is going to benefit your health and body composition for the rest of your life.

Trusting the Process

Understanding the fact that something worthwhile takes time is one thing, but completely surrendering to it and trusting it is a completely different animal. 

We can sit here all day long and talk about the different definitions we all have for trust and what it means to us on a deep level. But let's not. Let's keep it simple.

To me, trusting the process involves being educated in the process. It's too difficult to trust something that I know nothing about.

What's easier, fully placing trust in the person you're closest to, or placing your trust in the person you picked off the side of the road? The former, I'd hope. 

Perhaps you've never trusted your fat loss journey because you've never fully understood it. What does it mean to build lean muscle tissue? Why does that have an effect on your metabolism? How could sleep possibly play a role in you losing fat? Ask yourself questions like these, and if you don't know the answers, find them. 

I believe knowledge builds trust in things. 

For me, knowing why it takes time to make a make an impact in the lives of thousands helps me get up in the morning with a fire under my butt to GSD (get sh*t done). If I went into this expecting maximum rewards from minimal effort, I'd be pretty discouraged.

Same thing goes for you. Educating yourself on the requirements of long-term sustainable fat loss will make hitting your goals so much easier. You'll be more motivated, and the chances of you giving up half-way through will be much lower.

So figure out what that looks like for you. Maybe you need to learn more from a coach. Maybe you know quite a bit and you just need to remind yourself of that. Whatever it is, find someone or something to help you build trust. 

Then, GSD and crush your goals.

Thanks For Reading!

Thank you for taking time out of your day to hear what I have to say. I truly appreciate it. No matter where you're at along your health and fitness journey, remember that you've got a guy. I'm here to help you take that next step, regardless of what that might look like. From a simple note of encouragement to completely tailored coaching, I'm here for ya. God bless.

About the Author

Adam is a fitness professional, Chipotle fanatic, and cookie enthusiast based in Fort Collins, CO. After hanging up the baseball cleats, he found a strong interest in the human body and how it performs. Since then, Adam has been transforming lives through fitness in a fun and encouraging atmosphere. 

As an ACE CPT and Fitness Nutrition Specialist, he's constantly moved to helped people improve in all walks of life. If you're interested in hiring Adam as your coach, fill out an application here.

How I Get Clients to Eat More and Get Leaner

I get it, the title doesn't make any sense. It seems like a paradox. It seems like the two concepts of eating more, and getting leaner contradict each other.

Why is this the case? It's so simple, I'll answer for you. 

You've been lied to.

For real.

As you've heard before, misery loves company. This plays out in the health and fitness industry all the time. Everyone who is miserable wants you to be miserable with them. Your friend Jane who is on the 500 Calorie Diet (where she idiotically eats 500 calories per day) wants you to eat 500 calories per day, too. And you're just sitting there like.. "You know what? Screw you and your 500 calories, Jane. I'm perfectly happy enjoying Ben n Jerry's, delicious salads, and Pizza Fridays." 

And you should be. Getting lean, burning fat, building muscle, and catching looks on the beach doesn't require you to suffer. It doesn't require you to cut anything out. It doesn't require you to live at the gym.

Heck, that's the case for all of the clients at Poehlmann Fitness. I love seeing the reactions at first. 

"Wait, you want me to add food?"

"Wait, you're going to start taking my cardio down?"

"Wait, I can eat foods that I enjoy?"

The looks on their faces are even better. Especially when Holiday season rolls around and they slowly turn their confused face into a joyous smile, jump, and cheer saying "I CAN ENJOY THE HOLIDAYS!!!"

Once they get over their confusion and shock, most all of them come back to me with the same question:

"Can you explain how that's supposed to work"

So that's what I'm going to do for you today. I'm going to explain to you how I make all of my clients' lives more enjoyable as they get closer and closer to their goals. 

The Foundation

All of the clients that I work with come from a wide range of starting points. Some of them have been working out for years and have a good amount of muscle mass. Some fiddle with different training programs every month and can't figure out what's best for them, and some haven't been active in the last 10 years of their life. Regardless of where the individual is coming from, a foundation needs to be build that is going to enable them to have a sustainably healthy body and lean physique. 

If we're talking in terms of building and maintaining a lean and sexy physique that doesn't require the endless demand of intense activity every day in order to maintain it, weight training and eating to increase lean muscle tissue is going to be the best way to set yourself up for success.

I know that this is going to trigger all of those cardio-heads out there, so I'll say this:

Cardio isn't bad, and I'm not against it. A lot of my clients do cardio on the side because they enjoy it. However, I do not believe that cardio is the best way to build a lean body with a well-working metabolism and I'll explain why. 

Metabolic Rate and Muscle

It is known without a doubt that having more muscle on your body is going to increase resting metabolic rate (the amount of energy required to maintain weight while sedentary). This has been shown in numerous studies (specifically using this one for this article) (1) over a long period of time. It is irrefutable. My body is going to require much more energy to maintain its weight than a 180 lb male with 20% body fat. Therefore, I can get away with eating more calories than the other individual (remember weight gain comes from eating more calories than you burn). Sure, there are most definitely some genetic aspects that play a role in metabolic rate, but there is no doubt that you can increase it by putting more lean mass on your body. So at this moment the questions is now "how can I increase muscle mass on my body?"

Resistance Training

Resistance is the answer to the question above. Before I continue on I want to make sure that you completely understand by the term "resistance". Any type of resistance can help your body adapt in order to build more muscle. Bands, machines, and free weights are all great examples of resistance training. Heck, even bodyweight movements involve resistance because gravity pulls agains you during the movement. Although there are a few different types of resistance training, working with free weights is one of the best ways to increase lean muscle tissue because of the volume, intensity, angles, and other things you can apply to it without being restricted. For example. You can only move so much weight (your bodyweight) during a pushup, but more resistance can be applied in a dumbbell bench press because of the availability of different weights. Anyway, the point of resistance training is to send a signal to our bodies that's going to cause it to adapt to the load by increasing its strength and muscle mass. 

Along with resistance training, eating an adequate amount of protein, carbohydrates, and fats in a caloric surplus is important when it comes to building muscle.

Don't be mistaken. It doesn't require a significant change in muscle mass in order to increase your resting metabolic rate. Even a few pounds of lean muscle can make a big difference. Having said that, ladies, you don't need to worry about looking like a shemale (is that PC?) on gear from lifting weights. In fact, you'll look lean, toned, and sexy instead. I promise. 

Cardio and Adaptations

I'm sure at this point you've asked where cardio plays a role in all of this, and I'll explain. But before I do so, I'd like to talk to you about what happens with your body when you are performing cardio so you understand some of the simple science. 

Remember just a minute or two ago when you were reading about the body adapting to resistance training by increasing strength and muscle mass? Good. It's the same concept when you perform cardio for a period of time. When you perform cardio (especially low intensity, steady state cardio) you're sending a signal to your body that's going to cause it to adapt. This time, the adaptation is different. Your body now knows that in order for it to be better at that cardiovascular exercise, it needs to get rid of weight (including muscle) in order for it to be more efficient. It asks your metabolism to be more efficient too. Not only does a decrease in muscle lead to a slower resting metabolic rate, but a more efficient metabolism is going to hold onto calories better. In short, cardio is telling your body to be more efficient, and your body can be more efficient by decreasing it's lean muscle mass and decreasing resting metabolic rate. 

Ever thought about the differences the body of a long distance runner vs. a sprinter?

"So does that mean I shouldn't be doing cardio at all?"

Meh. That's my answer and I'm sticking with it. It just depends. If your goal is to run a marathon and absolutely kick tail, then yes you should be doing cardio. If your goal is to be lean, strong, fit, sexy, and healthy for your entire life, I recommend that resistance training is the staple in your programming, and you sprinkle in cardio if you enjoy it or want to use it to burn some more calories here and there. If your weight training is extremely lackadaisical and your heart rate isn't increasing at all either, cardio would be great just for the health benefits alone. 

Thus far, you've learned this much:

1. Resting metabolic rate increases with more muscle mass.

2. Muscle mass can be increased through resistance training as well as a caloric surplus

3. Cardio shouldn't be the staple when seeking to build a sustainably lean and fit physique, but it should definitely be sprinkled in.

Now that we know these things, we need to put it all together and develop a takeaway that you can use along your fitness journey. 

The Solution: Eat More, Work Less

I know that this sounds crazy and absolutely too good to be true. This is one of those cases where it's real. It's real because in some ways it's a paradox.

The reason my clients love working with Poehlmann Fitness is because one of the first things we do to their nutrition is ADD food. Yes, ADD food.

I do this in order to build a solid foundation. A foundation that has lean muscle tissue and can maintain it's weight at a high amount of calories is going to have the most potential for success when starting the fat loss process. 

I'd like you walk you through one of the cases with a new client I picked up not too long ago. This young lady came to me looking for a solution just like everyone else. She was at a plateau forever and she was absolutely sick of it. She kept working harder, taking more and more intense classes, and eating less in order to try to lose weight. All she was doing was repeatedly running into a brick wall that would never cease to knock her right back down. 

My job as her coach is to fix that and give her the opportunity to enjoy life again. So the first thing I did was evaluated her nutrition and training for a week. I saw that she was eating around 1100-1300 calories (which is really low), while taking high intensity bootcamp classes up to 5 days/week. Why do you think this is? Because she's been doing an hour straight of cardio, while in a caloric deficit for a long period of time.

So the first move here is to start over and build her a solid foundation. As I explain earlier, I do this by slowing down her cardiovascular activity slowly over time and reintroduce her to resistance training in order to increase her resting metabolic rate. I also add calories to her daily intake during this time.

Over time, I continually add volume (weights x sets x reps) to her training regimen and calories to her daily intake as long as she maintains her weight. 

Once she gets to a point where she's eating a lot more and maintaining weight, I'll begin the process of SLOWLY eliminating calories. So with this specific client, we got to a point where she was maintaining her weight at 2300-2400 calories at the same weight she first started at. Keep in mind this is over 1000 calories more than she was eating at the start. Crazy, right? Now she's in a place where we can keep her activity pretty similar and slowly take down those calories. Now that her body is used to maintaining at 2300-2400 calories, a drop to 2000 calories caused her to lose body fat. And it did. So wrap your mind around that. After a while, this client was losing body fat eating 2000 calories as opposed to her 1300 calories before.

Mind.

Blown.

Although this approach is much more enjoyable, much safer, healthier, and more sustainable than most, others, it does take a good amount of time for this to happen. 

But by the time this client was done with this process, her lean muscle mass increased, her body fat decreased, her scale weight increased (another reason to not care about the scale), and her relationship with her weight, appearance, and self-worth improved. And, she had the freedom to eat more food.

War won.

Closing

After reading this, I hope that you can leave with some knowledge on how your body adapts to the different signals you're sending it. I also hope that you understand that getting fit and reaching your goals doesn't require you to suffer. It only requires some dedication and consistency.

Speaking of those two things, the Holidays are approaching and it seems to me that this is the time of the year where people think health and happiness can't live in harmony.

As explained in this article, they can. And if you're interested on making those two things take precedence at the same time in your life, apply for coaching from Poehlmann Fitness to get a head start.

Thanks for reading!

References

1. Zurlo, F, et al. “Skeletal Muscle Metabolism Is a Major Determinant of Resting Energy Expenditure.” Journal of Clinical Investigation, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Nov. 1990, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC296885/.

Adam is a fitness professional, Chipotle fanatic, and cookie enthusiast based in Fort Collins, CO. After hanging up the baseball cleats, he found a strong interest in the human body and how it performs. Since then, Adam has been transforming lives through fitness in a fun and encouraging atmosphere. 

Adam is an ACE CPT and Fitness Nutrition Specialist. His years of experience in fat loss, muscle hypertrophy, and sports performance training have helped people improve in all walks of life. If you're interested in hiring Adam as your coach, fill out an application here.

Don't Crash Diet. Eat Mo' Food.

"Our ancestors did this", "our ancestors did that." 

Whoopdie freaking doo. Our ancestors pooped outside all the time, too (hehe that rhymed). How's that going for ya?

I can hardly handle all of the fads that our going around just because "our ancestors did it." Believe me, I understand that hunter gatherers exercised more, ate more nutrient-dense foods, and were leaner and just healthier all around. 

But what if I told you that their diet and exercise wasn't the big difference between them and western civilization. What if I told you that hunter gatherer groups have similar energy expenditure that you and I do?

Here comes the bomb.

They do.

Hunter gatherer groups aren't leaner and healthier because their burning so many more calories than we are, according to a recent study (1). 

Then What is it?

I'm sure that you've heard this several times over: Your body is smart. 

And it is.

It will adapt and change they way it does things based on the environment that you put it in. So how does that translate with the Hadza population that was studied?

The Hadza is one of the few remaining hunter gatherer populations left. Located in Tanzania, they forage for their food individually and sometimes cooperatively for a diet that consists mainly of honey, fruits, and occasional meat. Just like you'd think, they're on the move constantly during the day in order to gather and hunt. 

Since we've been taught that eating less and moving more is the ultimate key when it comes to burning calories and losing fat, it would be fair to think that these people are plowing through calories each day, right?

Interestingly enough, they're not. Why?

Their body is smart, and their metabolism and energy expenditure has adapted to the environment it has been placed in. Think about it. They don't eat much food - I'd be willing to guess 1000-1200 calories per day (and that's generous). On top of that, they're constantly moving around. Walking, running, jumping, walking, running, jumping. What does that combination tell the body? 

BE EXTREMELY EFFICIENT AT UTILIZING THE CALORIES GIVEN.

The body has no other choice. The body wants to survive and that's what it's always going to revert to. 

Survival.

All of that activity and minimal calorie intake is just telling their body to be reeeally good at utilizing the energy it's been given. So how does it do that?

By expending less energy. The less energy the body has to expend, the better.

What Does That Mean For Us?

Great question. Because we're not hunter gatherers, right? 

Right.

But our bodies work the same way. In fact, if you've been attempting to lose fat at some point in your life and you reach a plateau, I'm willing to bet that you reached a state where your body has become the most efficient it's ever been. 

Here's why. 

As I mentioned before, we've been taught that eating less and working out more is the ultimate, be-all end-all for fat loss. So, what do we do? We begin to control our portions, and we start exercising more. As a result, we lose some weight. 

But we want to lose more.

So what do you do? Eat even less, and workout even more. By this point, you've hit a plateau and you're doing all you can to beat it. Eating 1000 calories per day, ramping your cardio up to 1 hour per day before or after you lift weights. What have you done?

You've become the Western Hadza, my friend. 

Your body is now an efficiency machine, and fat loss is extremely difficult.

Reverse Dieting

Getting to this point of efficiency isn't a bad thing, unless your calories are super low, your cardio is hours long, and your life is absolutely miserable because of it. But since most people on a fat loss plateau feel this way, I'm going to speak through that lens. 

Reverse dieting is the answer to this problem.

It's exactly what it sounds like. Simply put, reverse dieting is a term used when slowly increasing calorie intake over a period of time. If your body is extremely good at using as little energy as possible in order to do the things it's being asked to do, we need to change that.

We want to make the body inefficient at doing the things we ask it to do. The word "inefficient" sounds like a negative thing, but it's not. We simply want your body to use more energy to operate. Whether you're training, resting, or performing NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis) - which is fidgeting, doing chores, etc. - we want your body to need to use more energy for those tasks. Why?

Well, the more energy that is required for those tasks, the more food you will be able to eat without putting on weight. In this case I'm speaking of your RMR (resting metabolic rate). The higher that number gets, the easier it will be to lose fat. Say your initial RMR is 1500 kcal per day. You'd need to eat like a bird in order to lose fat. Now say you increased it to 2000 kcal per day. Which would you rather lose fat on. Dieting at 1300 kcal, or 1800 kcal? I'd choose 1800.

Mo' food baby, mo' food. 

So how do you increase your RMR to make sure your body is using more energy to perform? I'm sure you could've guessed it:

LIFT SOME HEAVY A$$ WEIGHTS (2).

It's simple, and you've heard this before: the more lean muscle tissue your body holds, the more calories you'll burn at rest. So make weight training a staple in your routine. 

"Good talk Adam, but how the heck do I start? What do I do from here?"

Great question, fake person in this article. Here are some simple steps on what I would do if I was in your shoes:

1. Figure out your daily maintenance caloric needs. You'll need to eat this many calories to maintain your weight. If you don't know your body fat percentage, get it tested. Because that plays a huge role in this number. 

2. Once you've found your maintenance number, begin tracking your food intake. If your maintenance number is HIGHER than what you normally eat, and you haven't lost weight in a while, slowly at carbohydrates and fat to your diet (2-5% increase in cals per week from carbs and fats) until you get there. 

3. Once you've been eating at your maintenance level, continue to increase your daily caloric intake each week. If you don't mind a little extra fat gain, bump your cals from carbs and fat by 6-10% each week. If you want to stay as lean as you possibly can, bump your cals from carbs and fat by 2-5% each week. Also, slowly take away your cardio sessions each week. Remember, we want the body burning max calories with the least amount of work. 

*Keep in mind, this is all assuming you're eating 1g of protein per pound of lean mass.*

4. Once you feel comfortable with your caloric intake or you feel like you wouldn't be comfortable eating more than that, begin decreasing your calorie intake SLOWLY each week from carbs and fats. I recommend 2-5% decrease in calories. 

5. Following that decrease, sprinkle in some cardio or take cals down a bit more. As you hit plateaus. Whatever you do, DO NOT decrease calories significantly in a short amount of time, or add a ton of cardio to your routine in a short amount of time. 

Takeaways

Your body is smart, and it will adapt. Don't continue to starve and run, run and starve. Slowly increase your caloric intake so you can set your body up to use energy like crazy. Build muscle and RMR (resting metabolic rate) with resistance training, and sprinkle in a slight decrease in cals or some cardio as needed, but NEVER overdo it. 

Thanks for reading!

References

1. Pontzer, H, et al. “Energy Expenditure and Activity among Hadza Hunter-Gatherers.”American Journal of Human Biology : the Official Journal of the Human Biology Council., U.S. National Library of Medicine, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25824106.

2. Pratley, R., et al. “Strength Training Increases Resting Metabolic Rate and Norepinephrine Levels in Healthy 50- to 65-Yr-Old Men.” Journal of Applied Physiology, American Physiological Society, 1 Jan. 1994, jap.physiology.org/content/76/1/133.

Adam is a fitness professional, Chipotle fanatic, and cookie enthusiast based in Fort Collins, CO. After hanging up the baseball cleats, he found a strong interest in the human body and how it performs. Since then, Adam has been transforming lives through fitness in a fun and encouraging atmosphere. 

Adam is an ACE CPT and has years of experience in fat loss, muscle hypertrophy, and sports performance training.