William, a 31-year-old attorney from Los Angeles, shares with Men’s health how you burned fat and built muscle by reviewing your lifestyle and committing to consistency in your diet and training.
My job is incredibly stressful and lends itself to staying up late, poor eating habits, and alcohol / substance abuse. Fortunately, I saw those risks ahead of time and tried to avoid them from the start. I started exercising in February 2019 on my own, aiming to lose around 20 pounds and gain a six pack, through a combination of running and dumbbell weightlifting. While I did lose weight and gain some definition, I didn’t see the kind of results I really wanted. I did that for a while until mid-2020 and ran my first half marathon (pretty much, due to Covid).
In October 2020 I had a health problem and passed out in my apartment. I went to the ER and the best explanation from the doctors was probably stress and lack of sleep. After that, I was afraid to exercise. I was worried that I might pass out again and be in a place where I would seriously hurt myself or where no one could help me. I also gave myself a lot more leeway with my diet and turned to comfort foods like pizza repeatedly throughout the week. Over time, the weight that I had slowly lost returned and I was back to where I started. By May 2021, he weighed around 169 pounds with 27% body fat. I don’t remember being embarrassed by my looks, but I wanted to change. I knew I had to get back on track and change my lifestyle forever.
I started exercising in Top performance Los Angeles three times a week doing weight training: deadlift, bench press, hack squat, pendulum, pull ups, lateral pull downs, and accessory work with machines and dumbbells. I also started running again and ran a few miles a couple times a week. And I made sure to take at least 10,000 steps a day every day. I also used to do a Peloton HIIT class once a week, along with a 10 minute abs video on YouTube a few times a week.
I had worked with dumbbells before, but not with a barbell. Honestly, I was intimidated by weight training and worried about looking like an idiot in the gym or worse, getting hurt due to poor form. Lateral pulls were very difficult for me at first. I felt a lot of work on my forearms and I would tire out pretty quickly. Kevin, my trainer, taught me to focus on feeling my shoulder blades rise and then focus on consciously pulling my shoulder blades down while doing the exercise. Thinking about it more during reps really changed the way I was doing the exercise and made sure I was working my lats to the max. I tried to focus on the growth that discomfort was going to bring me when I was in the middle of a difficult set.
I cut out processed foods and focused on eating whole foods with several servings of vegetables a day. I made sure to eat at least 165 grams of protein and tried to drink as close to a gallon of water a day as possible. For the first two weeks of the program I was on an extremely low carb diet of around 50 grams a day to restart. For the next several weeks of the program, I ate about 130 grams of carbohydrates a day. It is so simple. But just because it’s simple doesn’t mean it’s easy.
A typical meal day for me during the transformation was an egg white and whole egg omelette with spinach and onions for breakfast. Lunch usually consisted of boneless, skinless chicken thighs (which I prefer over chicken breasts, but had to account for the extra fat) with cauliflower rice, zucchini, broccoli, or bell peppers. Dinner was generally similar to lunch with the protein be it chicken, salmon, sea bass, or a lean steak.
I also eliminated alcohol almost completely. I like to drink, but I don’t need to and I really didn’t want anything to stop my progress. I attended a bachelor party for one of my best friends in the middle of the transformation, but Kevin and I planned that and I stuck to liquor instead of beer. As the transformation continued, I drank a glass of wine or a cocktail from time to time, but by then I already knew how to explain it correctly and not let it get out of hand because it ruins my diet for the day or how my body feels. the next day. day.
Kevin really helped me to be consistent and patient, teaching me not to overreact to fluctuations in weight, but to focus on trends over time. It also taught me a lot about proper form and how to get the most out of every exercise we did. I no longer feel intimidated entering a gym and I am much more comfortable with weight training than before I started working with Kevin.
I travel a lot for work and had a trial in the middle of the transformation. Kevin worked with me to develop a program that I could use while I was away from the Ultimate Performance facility, but it was up to me to make sure I did the workouts. What I realized is that even when we seem overwhelmed by work, there is still time we can spend on the things that really matter to us. So I found a 24-hour gym, and most days I got up at 4 a.m. the court began that day.
Over the course of five months, I dropped from 169 pounds to 149 pounds, lost 30 pounds of fat, and gained 10 pounds of muscle. I also had a DEXA scan that showed that I had reduced my body fat to 9.7%. I’ve never really had a problem with self-esteem, but my body composition now definitely makes me feel more confident about my physical attributes. The most important thing I gained was greater confidence in my ability to achieve whatever goal I set for myself. I haven’t tracked the health markers or done any blood tests, so I have no idea how they may have changed during the transformation. But overall, now I feel healthier with my lifestyle. I’m eating better, sleeping better, working better. Exercising is a great stress reliever for me. So even though work stress has increased in recent weeks, keeping my exercise schedule consistent has helped me adjust and cope with work in a much healthier way than in the past.
Maximum performance
The next goal for me is to run the Los Angeles Marathon in March. I started training for that towards the end of my transformation and am eager to power my body in another way. I will say that I have noticed that all the strength training that I have been doing has had an incredibly positive impact on my running. I am recovering faster and I am not dealing with as many lingering injuries / ailments. May that good fortune continue.
If you want to improve your own fitness but don’t know where to start, my advice would be not to be afraid to ask for help. Just try to educate yourself on what you need to do to achieve your goals. There are many fitness snake oil vendors, but you can find proper way videos or different exercises for free on YouTube. The most important thing is not knowing where to start, but to start anyway. As has been said so many times, nothing changes if nothing changes.
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