The RULES of getting leaner
Do you ever feel like you aren't getting leaner or stronger?
This can be really frustrating when you're sticking to your diet AND going to the gym too!
Don't worry, lot's of people feel the same way.
But why do some people get good results from eating well and training hard, yet others flat out fail?
THE MIND TENDS TO SHOW YOU NEGATIVE THINGS FIRST
I guess this is a survival mechanism in the brain, the 'chimp brain' - which is always looking for danger. Emotional or physical.
Over millennia, rather than deluding ourselves with positivity, negativity kept us safe.
"should we go into that dark cave? It looks scary. It might have a bear inside"
Problem is, how your chimp brain 'feels' your results are going is NOT a good way of gauging progress on a fitness plan.
Here's an example:
Let's say you start a new diet (introducing "Ricardo's 14-day-Flex-N-Shred!" 🙄)
You're training too. With weights. Quite intensely 3x a week.
Problem is, 8 days in you 'feel' like you're gaining weight.
You jump on the scales, which show you HAVE gained weight!
After crying, eating a tub of ice cream and moaning to your mates about how you're a little failure (and always have been....deep) you then QUIT the plan.
Now here's THE thing....
Let's say we removed emotion and accurately measured your muscle and fat levels on this plan.
Let's say we found:
1) you had started training intensely and so gained MUSCLE weight
2) your diet was effective and you LOST FAT
Would you have quit then?
Hell no!
But because the net weight gain went up your mind ASSUMED it was fat gain and you quit.
The moral of the story is:
YOU CANNOT TRUST YOUR EMOTIONS
In RSG we scan all our members with a clinically proven body composition machine.
Every 4 weeks, they jump on the machine and it shows:
1) how much muscle they have gained or lost
2) how much fat they have gained or lost
3) percentage body fat (which will go DOWN if you gain muscle, being leaner is not just about fat loss)
This STOPS emotional reactions from jumping on their bathroom scales.
We can help tweak their calorie intake whether the results are good or bad.
And, my favourite, this works the OTHER way too, and will show one of our members that they are gaining fat when they lie, and say they've been eating healthy stuff.
Talk about accountability!
Here's something you can try TODAY:
1) understand that weight can go UP and it may be muscle, which is good. The more muscle you have the more intensely you can train, the more calories you can eat without gaining fat, and the more calories you'll burn from each workout, speeding up fat loss.
2) take measurements of your upper arm, neck, waist and mid-thigh. Google the US NAVY SEAL body composition method. You can estimate muscle and fat levels quite accurately.
Again, move away from the bathroom scales!
Trust your results
Remove your emotions
Rise Above
Ant
Anthony Shaw
Head Coach
Raw Strength Gym, Warrington
PS - want our help to get started?
Get more info on our 6 week introductory program here: http://rawstrength.co.uk/built/