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A few weeks ago, I was at home, sick in bed and trying to recuperate.

If you follow me on Instagram, you may know that I make a post on there every day. That’s little more than a marketing tactic.

However, on this particular day, since I wasn’t feeling so hot, I thought: Maybe I just won’t post anything today. I’m not feeling it and I’m sure no one will notice.

But I have some software on my phone that lets me take video templates and repurpose them for social media and I had been seeing some decent feedback from those.

So, at a time of day when I don’t normally post on social media, I found a video I could use, spent about 2-3 minutes tweaking it for my purposes and posted it up.

And, by all comparisons, especially in my little bubble, it went viral.

As of this writing (and it’s still going), this 5 second video has been seen over 950,000 times, it’s been liked by over 22,000 people, it’s been shared over 18,000 times and I have apparently gained over 100 new followers from it.

I’ve not paid to boost the post and there is no special hashtag or caption connected to it that would/should have made it more popular than anything else that I’ve done.

But, if we trust what the social media gurus tell us, it’s a message that resonates and, it contains a clip from a movie that a lot of people love.

Let’s break it down:

I snatched a clip from the movie The Devil Wears Prada (which I’ve only seen once) and it features Meryl Streep saying the line: “By all means move at a glacial pace, you know how that thrills me”.

When I saw the clip, it made me think of how people feel about how fast/slow the scale moves when they’re trying to lose fat.

I thought: I could totally work with this clip.

So, in the text above Meryl’s image, I posted this: When you kicked ass in all of your workouts, adhered to your food plan, got enough protein in, kept your step count up, and the scale dropped 0.2 lbs.

And apparently, a lot of people knew this feeling intimately well and it blew up.

While the numbers are indeed something I’ve been excited about seeing, I actually wanted to break down the context of that post so that you’ve got some practical takeaways from it.

Fat loss is one of those strange areas of life where the effort you put in doesn’t always equate to the results you get in return. There are ways that the body can compensate for a lack of energy coming in and there is enough user error when it comes to estimating how much we eat and, as a result, a lot of areas are left open to interpretation.

I’m going to go line by line and try to clear this up:

“When you kicked ass in all of your workouts…”: Coming from a guy who owns a gym, I am #teamexercise all the way. I want you to be the strongest, fittest version of yourself that you can be. That being said, exercise, despite how some people look at it, is not the most efficient way to achieve fat loss. For one, the average person (who isn’t being studied in a lab) has no accurate way of determining how many calories they burn in a 30-60 minute workout, for instance. Your smartwatch may tell you one thing, but it’s wrong. Your cardio equipment of choice may tell you something else, but it’s also wrong. On the flipside, many people assume that because they’re sweating a lot or that their heart rate stayed elevated that they burned a boatload of calories. The fact is, maybe they did and maybe they didn’t. And it’s not just what you do in that exercise session, it’s how much you expend over a 24 hour period. Suffice to say, if you have a really ass-kicking workout, there’s a good chance that you’re going to be tired afterwards and if you’re tired, guess what you’re not going to be doing? Moving around very much. That extra movement in a day is called NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis) and it actually contributes to a considerable amount of your expenditure in a day. So, as a coach, I do want you to show up for your workouts, and I do want you to move as much as possible, but I don’t want you to overestimate how much you’re burning because we just don’t have a good way to estimate that.

“…adhered to your food plan…”: By comparison, the most efficient mover of the scale is the measure of what you’re putting/not putting into your mouth. As we in the fat loss realm like to say: adherence is everything. So, the best diet plan is the one you can stick with most consistently and that’s not just the choice of foods but the appropriate deficit for your lifestyle. Depending on how conservative or aggressive you are with the deficit you create, this reflects in what the scale will show you. A lot of things can affect the scale though. Wild fluctuations in carbohydrate consumption, sodium intake and hydration all play a role. Stress can also affect how you retain fluids. Also, you may not be removing waste efficiently from your digestive system. Any of these factors can change what the scale says and while the scale is a helpful measuring tool, it’s not without nuance.

“…got enough protein in…”: Often, when people hear that they need to increase their protein intake, they do so without dropping the amount of carbohydrates or fats they’re consuming. As result, even though the increase in protein is generally a good thing, it may also take someone into an energy surplus for the day and (wait for it), they go UP in weight. So, while I absolutely want you to take advantage of all that strength training you’re doing and fueling yourself with the appropriate amount of protein, if fat loss is your goal, you’ll have to drop some amount of carbohydrates and fats to make up the difference and still keep you in an energy deficit.

“…kept your step count up…”: While I would never want to steer someone away from the neurological and physical benefits of traditional cardiovascular exercise, one of the best ways to burn a few extra calories with the least risk of injury and the lowest barrier to entry, it’s walking. Now, you don’t have to aim for 10k steps a day (unless of course it’s an easy number for you to hit), but you can see plenty of benefit from establishing a baseline of steps you currently get and aiming to increase that number as consistently as you can. Another added benefit is that walking is a lot less likely to increase your hunger which is an important factor to consider when you’re trying to lose fat and stay adherent to your plan.

“…the scale dropped 0.2 lbs”: Herein lies the rub. You can be doing alltherightthings and the scale will barely budge (or it may even go up). The problem that a lot of folks forget is that, even when you’re checking everything off the list, the scale won’t always reflect the number. The best tip is to look at the data point over a period of weeks and see if the number is trending down. If the number remains flat, then your intake is roughly in line with what you’re expending in a day. Sometimes, people do hold steady in a weight plateau for a period of weeks and playing the waiting game is the best they can do. In other words, don’t change anything. Keep following the plan you’re on and see if other areas of the body are changing. Many people report that when the scale isn’t moving down, their body is actually shifting in composition. Maybe they notice that they’re using an extra belt loop or their pants feel looser. Keep in mind, that to lose one pound of fat, you’re trying to drop approximately 3500 calories. It’s not perfect math and it’s not a perfect process. If you truly feel stuck, try making a slight drop in intake or by trying to make a slight increase in what you’re burning. Make that effort consistent and see what changes.

Of course, it’s not always easy to spot where we’re getting stuck and that’s where having a coach alongside you can help. If you need guidance, drop me a line.

As for the original viral post, it’s wild to see how well it performed but it says a lot about a common frustration for so many people struggling to get that damn scale to play along nicely with our goals.

Over the last several years, I’ve made a few posts about my therapist, Collin. 

He has been of immeasurable help to me at times when I was in need. 

Last week, I found out that his heart no longer has the strength it needs to keep him with us beyond a year. In his words, he said he has about 6-12 months left. 

In our conversation, he said that he would continue to see clients as his health allows and I asked if he could slot me in for some time. 

I’m fortunate that, as of late, I’ve not felt “in need” of therapy as I have in the past but, at this point, me meeting with him is less about what he can do for me, and more about how I can repay his kindness and guidance before he leaves this world. 

I hope you don’t mind that I take a few detours with the blog to leave you with some of his wisdom during the remainder of his time left.  

Collin has been instrumental at reminding me what happens when you leave childhood trauma unchecked and unhealed. He gave me books to read and homework to do on my own time to help me understand what happens when we don’t heal our wounds. Speaking only for myself, trauma that isn’t processed hurts people who should never be targets. 

Throughout our time together when he and I were meeting more routinely, it wasn’t uncommon for me to spend most of our hour together going on and on about what was happening in life, good and bad, and him listening patiently as I spoke.

He would ask a few questions along the way, gaining more insight, but more often than not, Collin would find a way to sneak in a question or a statement that would stop me dead in my tracks. I would often tell people: that one “thing” would make the cost of the session worth every penny. 

Collin would rarely give me advice, rather he would shine a light on my thought process, offer a perspective, and allow me to marinate on the rest. 

A sentiment he shared with me early in our time together, which I reflected on several years ago was this: when you’re in enough pain, you’ll change. 

The context for his comment is of less importance than the lesson itself. Often, we stay stuck in certain patterns because we fear change or we’ve convinced ourselves that where we are, despite the discomfort, is the path of least resistance. Only when we’ve determined that the pain we’re in can no longer be tolerated do we find the resolve to change. 

So profound was that sentiment that it inspired an article of its own on this site about four years ago. 

When I was looking for a therapist in 2019, I knew I wanted a man, not because I wasn’t comfortable with a female therapist, quite the contrary. I wanted a male therapist because I needed a paternal voice after losing my father in 2011. Collin became that voice.

It stands to reason that the thought of losing him brings back memories of losing my Dad.

I’m not ready to lose Collin. And I am certain that he has other clients who are in the same boat as me: unwilling to say goodbye and trying to make the best of the time that’s left.

If you currently see a therapist, especially an effective one, you know how valuable they can be.

If you’re not seeing one and you feel stuck in certain parts of your life, I will always advocate for that search. It’s worth it.

I know that I will have to be on the lookout for another therapist again, but in the meantime, I hope to give something of the “gift” back to the man who helped me find my footing.

(Pictured below, a photo of Collin and I from 2023.)

There’s hardly a week that goes by that I don’t talk about protein requirements with a client and I’m not sure that I’ve gone in to much detail about it on the site before.

Before we get into the quantity, let’s cover a few areas of importance for those who may need the refresher:

-Most people consume some combination of three primary macronutrients: protein, carbohydrates and fats. Alcohol counts as a macronutrient as well but I won’t cover anything about alcohol in this post.

-Protein assists with muscle recovery and repair (which is important if you’re doing any manner of strength/resistance training). It is arguably the most satiating macronutrient to consume which is why it helps to keep the number higher when you’re in a fat loss phase. Protein intake also helps with immune support and contributes to healthy hair and skin.

-Unless you have a diagnosed concern with your kidneys, a high(er) protein diet should not have any negative side effects.

-By and large, even with the information provided below, protein doesn’t need to be more than 30-40% of your daily intake.

So, let’s get into the numbers. The RDA recommended amount is 0.8/g per kg of bodyweight. That means that a 200lb (91kg) person only needs 73g of protein per day. However, this number is widely disputed, especially in the fitness community because the RDA amount basically makes sure that you’re not deficient in the nutrient NOT that it’s been maximized for performance, strength or fat loss.

What I find, in practice, is somewhere closer to 1.2-1.6g per kg of bodyweight. Taking our same 200 lb individual, that’s approximately 109-146g of protein per day.

Of note, the numbers don’t need to be perfect. If you find that you’re really struggling to hit the lower number but you’re getting somewhere to the tune of 100g per day, that’s perfectly fine. You don’t need to agonize over every solitary gram.

If I had to work off of a given trend, most women who come to see me for fat loss average 50-60g of protein per day. I do what I can to get most of my female clients closer to 100g right out of the gate.

What many women find is that, while it can be a challenge to push the protein up initially, once they get in the groove with it, it’s less of an issue.

On the flipside of the numbers, there’s nothing wrong with overshooting the upper end either. Some people (myself included) feel better with a high(er) protein intake.

If you’re in the elderly population, bear in mind that your body may not metabolize protein as efficiently as when you were younger so in addition to keeping your protein intake high enough, you may also need to pick one meal each day with a significantly higher serving of protein by comparison. For example, if you were shooting for 100g of protein per day, rather than aiming for 4 servings of 25 grams, try 2 servings of 25 grams and 1 serving of 50 grams.

So what about the sources? There are many options available that can provide protein to the body, the biggest obstacles being: A) what do you enjoy B) what is the best bang for the buck?

Generally, you want to aim for leaner sources of protein where possible and that may include skinless chicken, skinless turkey, certain cuts of beef, most seafood, yogurt, and certain protein shakes/powders (not a comprehensive list).

Fattier sources of protein could include many cuts of beef, bacon, sausage, hot dogs, cheese, salmon, nuts, chicken/turkey with the skin on and prime rib (also not a comprehensive list).

You can find protein in many grains, legumes, vegetables and soy. However, with plant based options, you’re not just getting the protein itself but some carbs and fat as well. Vegetarians and vegans tend to struggle a bit more with getting the higher amounts of protein and still keeping the sources lean which is where protein powders/shakes can be helpful. Current research as shown that as long as protein/calorie intake is matched, plant-based protein can be just as effective as animal-based protein for strength and fat loss.

For those who have gotten into the world of macro tracking for fat loss, allow me to simplify the process for you. Make sure your calories are in line with your goals, set a protein range, and then let carbs and fats fall where they need to. You don’t need to lose your mind over every gram of every macronutrient to be successful.

One other point of consideration is how each source may affect your hunger. Protein shakes/powders, while convenient and practical, may not be very satisfying when it comes to improving feelings of satiety. Where possible, aim for whole food sources which actually require you to chew your calories as opposed to just drinking them, and this should help.

Feeling confused and don’t know where to start? Drop me a line and let’s see if we can get your food plan heading the right direction.

(Photo courtesy of Sam Moghadam Khamseh)

Throughout all the years of my (and his) life, I never heard my father speak an unkind word about or toward his mother, my Oma.

This sentiment applies as well to my mother. Not once have I ever heard her speak an unkind word about or toward my grandmother.

In saying this, it’s not that there were never disagreements, there were.

But the response was always thoughtful and respectful.

I would love to tell you I absorbed all of that when it came to my own mother, but that’s not entirely true. I did have times when I was unkind and didn’t act with the respect I should have.

I grew out of that.

Watching my mother as she became a grandmother was also inspiring.

The last seven years (if we include time during pregnancy) of Marissa’s life have been where I think she has changed the most, as a mother herself.

We do our best to raise Sebastian in ways that when he thinks of or speaks to his mother, it’s with respect. (It’s a work in progress, I’m sure you understand).

The day before Mother’s Day, Sebastian asked Marissa if he would be receiving any gifts for the holiday.

I said: Sebastian, the woman in front of you is your gift. The best gift.

I look around me and I am surrounded by strong, capable, inspiring women: my wife, my mother, my grandmother, my mother-in-law, and all of the mothers who come to train at RevFit (online and face-to-face).

I remember my Oma fondly as she embodied these characteristics as well.

I pay tribute to my Aunt Virginia, who passed away peacefully just last week, only days before Mother’s Day. My sincerest condolences go to my Uncle Brian and my cousins Mary and Joey not just for the loss but because of how close it falls to this holiday. If there’s one thing I knew about my aunt, she dearly loved her family.

I’ll leave you with this:

If you’re a mom, I hope that Mother’s Day was a special day for you.

If you have a great mother, I hope you had a way to celebrate the holiday with her.

If your mother is no longer with us, I hope you did something beautiful and loving in remembrance of her.

If your mother was not the person who you hoped she would be, I hope that it serves as inspiration for you to do and be better.

Whether you are a mother to one or several, or you have fur babies who can call you their own, I hope the day was a great day for you.

As for me, it’s an endless show of respect for the women who make my life what it is today.

Before you read this entire article, I want you to perform this workout.

Are you ready?

30 Jumping Jacks

5 Push Ups

25 High Knees

7 Burpees

10 Crunches

7 Squats

5 Push Ups

10 Crunches

5 Push Ups

7 Squats

30 Jumping Jacks

Do this workout and you’ll burn over 2 pounds a week.

Sound too good to be true? You bet.

Let’s talk about it.

I snagged this workout from a social media “influencer” who claims that this workout can make you lose 1kg (2.2 pounds) of weight per week. Said influencer has around 160k followers and at the time that I came across this post, it had over 10k likes.

Wow.

Here’s what they didn’t tell you.

-They didn’t tell you how many times you should perform this workout in a day or in a week.

-There was no indication of how many calories you can burn when you perform the workout. For the record, a less conditioned person will likely burn more calories during this workout and a more conditioned person will likely burn fewer calories.

-There was no instruction given for what kind of diet you should follow to help you lose the weight.

Is there anything particularly wrong or unsafe about this workout? Not necessarily, assuming you don’t have any pre-existing conditions or injuries preventing you from completing it.

Is there anything particularly magical about this combination of exercises or the rep scheme that makes it better at burning fat? Nope.

Dear readers, when it comes to exercise, always go for what you enjoy and can consistently stick with. If someone is trying to hand you a workout plan that claims “XX” amount of weight loss, be skeptical.

More importantly, what exactly are you losing? Weight or fat? Which one is more important to you?

The sad truth is that there are no magical fat burning workouts. If you want to magically burn fat, do the really boring stuff over and over (and over) again: stick with a movement plan consistently, lift weights, walk, drink your water, get a decent night’s sleep, find an deficit you can adhere to with your food intake, and be agonizingly patient.

(Photo courtesy of Element5 Digital)

This is my fifth attempt to write this article.

I don’t normally struggle to write once I have the idea for a post each week but this one is different.

I think I’m simply overwhelmed with the fact that Revolution Fitness & Therapy is officially 15 years old this week.

I kept thinking of clever little stories I could share with you but none of them seemed to take off the way I wanted them to.

Instead, maybe I’ll just keep the message and the sentiment as short and sweet as I can muster.

No business makes it to 15 years without the customers/clients to help it get there. I am sincerely grateful to every person who has walked through our doors in our physical location(s) and to every online client who has been a contribution to the work we do. I am not just grateful to the clients who have remained with us for years upon years but I am also grateful to the clients who came to us just for a month or so. You gave a little boutique fitness studio a chance and even if we were nothing more than a stepping stone to something that worked out better for you, the fact that you gave us that chance is something I am very thankful for.

No business makes it to 15 years without a dedicated staff who shows up to help provide the services. While my initial debt of gratitude is to the three gentlemen who currently service our roster at 4940 Darrow Road (Coaches Mike Roder, David Cameron and Nick Morton), it is also to every coach who has provided a lending hand along the way. I do not say this lightly, I could NOT have taken this business this far without you. I am in your debt.

RevFit has changed in a lot of ways over 15 years and the clients who have been with us the longest have seen the greatest stages of (r)evolution during that time. While I think/hope we’ve only gotten better and have streamlined the quality of the service over the years, that is my biased perspective and the best people to ask about that are the ones who’ve been along for the ride. Thank you to the people who have committed literally years of their hard work and their hard earned money to the life of this business. I truly hope that your body has been the greatest benefactor of your time here.

Selfishly, it’s not just that I get to say, we’re celebrating 15 years of business this week, I also get the honor of telling the love story that could not have happened if I hadn’t opened these doors: When one Amanda Montigney told me that she would be my first client and through her, I saw these pictures of a young woman who would later become my wife. Amanda hadn’t intended to play matchmaker and, believe me when I say, there was a mountain of reasons that Marissa and I couldn’t pull it off, but we did, and in grand fashion. We started dating the end of my first year of business, got married in 2014 and welcomed our son Sebastian into the world in 2017. Had I never started RevFit, this reality would have never played out.

So, I thank my lucky stars that they aligned in more ways than one.

I won’t tell you a lie and say that all 15 years have been smooth sails. They have not. The year of COVID aside, there were many occasions where I thought the bottom might fall out. I have made some very accurate and beneficial decisions with this business and I have made catastrophically poor ones. Thankfully, the former won out.

But like so many things in life, you keep trying, you keep stretching what’s possible, and you learn to fix the things that need fixing. Often, what needed the most repair was me.

And I’m okay with that.

For a business that has existed for the primary purpose of improving the lives of as many people as possible, it has probably improved my life the most.

For that, again, I offer my gratitude to all of you.

You’ve heard it all before but when you support a small business, you are supporting someone’s dream and you have all made that dream a thrilling one. Thank you for giving life to what I brought to the world, thank you for sharing it with your friends and family, thank you for helping me support a family of my own. Thank you for allowing me the position and place to employ a staff of coaches to help you along the way.

If there is anything we can do for you, drop us a line and let us know.

Let me add one more opinion to the dumpster fire of opinions you’ll hear about exercise.

Asked simply, where is your gap? How will you improve it?

This article is primarily for general population and is not suggested to be the best advice for competitive lifters or seasoned athletes.

Walking

Depending on who you are and what your current level of fitness is, I’m going to start with walking. It’s easy to do, it’s easy to recover from, and while it certainly isn’t the most aggressive in terms of burning calories (assuming that you’re aiming to do so), the benefits add up. It’s good for the brain, good for the heart and good for the body. Start here: If you have a smartwatch, look at your average daily steps. Try to improve that number. If you don’t have a smartwatch, put your smartphone in your pocket while you go about your day or buy a pedometer and set it on your waistband. Let’s assume you average 3000 steps a day. Try to increase to approximately 5000-6000 a day. It will take concerted effort but see if you can push your average up. You don’t have to do it all in one go. You can split your walk up into separate bouts throughout the day. Some people will say that walking isn’t exercise but that really depends on the individual. For some, walking is all they are able to do and I am #teamstepcount all the way. Get that average up and make a commitment to stick to it. You don’t have to do 10K steps a day unless you’re already in the vicinity of that number.

Low Intensity Cardio

If you’re already walking or your step count is not an area of opportunity, find 2-3 days per week when you can add in some structured low intensity cardio. This could be on an elliptical, an elevated treadmill (or power walk), a rower, or a bike. If you can slot out 20-30 minutes per day, that would be awesome. My favorite tip is to tell clients to use that time with your favorite streaming device to crank out your cardio while you zone out to an episode of your favorite show. Keep in mind that traditional cardio may drive your hunger up so if you’re using cardio to help with a fat loss plan, you’ll want to be attuned to those hunger signals. Similar to my thoughts on walking, it doesn’t have to be done in one-go depending on your schedule but if you can get it done in one bout, have at it. And just like walking: good for your brain, good for your heart, good for your body.

Sprints

At some point, you may want to spice things up a bit and sprints are another way to do so. I won’t give an exhaustive opinion on sprints but I do want to give you some options. If we were gauging exertion on a scale to 10, with 10 being as hard as you can possibly go, walking would be a 1-3, low intensity cardio might be a 3-6, and sprints would be around an 8-10. They should be difficult but short in duration.

Consider these options:

-10 second sprint with a 20-30 second recovery

-20 second sprint with a 30-40 second recovery

-30 second sprint with a 30-60 second recovery

A recovery can be a full stop of the movement or it can be at a much reduced rate.

Typically, you can run these alternating sprint intervals for 5, 10, or 15 minutes. It stands to reason that if you can go HARD for 10-20 seconds, you may not be able to sustain that same intensity at a 30 second sprint. Do the best you can but you’re aiming for high on that exertion scale. I normally only suggest sprints 1-2 times a week. They can be performed on elliptical, rower, treadmill, bike or you can get creative with kettlebell swings or battle ropes if you have access to them. I’ll reiterate: sprints done effectively are good for the brain, good for the heart, good for the body. Ask your doctor if you believe you have a condition which might make sprints too risky for you.

Strength Training

I don’t want to dismiss any other forms of movement like yoga, barre or Pilates. They are all beneficial and they all serve different purposes. Ultimately, it’s of primary importance that you find a style of movement you enjoy and can stick with. I’ll let my bias show that strength training (using bodyweight, dumbbells, kettlebells, barbells, machines, etc) is the other area I’d like you to consider. For many people 2-3x/week of strength training is adequate. Whether you train full-body or you separate into splits (upper-lower, push-pull-legs, etc) is up to the person, the preference and if you’re seeing the results you want to see. In a “perfect world” you’re looking to see yourself make progress via an increase in reps, sets, weight, time under tension or with variations in recovery time. While there is nothing “wrong” with doing something different every time you workout, it is much easier to chart your progress with certain exercises when you can stick with them for a lengthier period of time (like a 4-6 week training cycle). Listen to your body but CHALLENGE your body. If you can lift a weight for 12 repetitions and it’s not challenging by the end, it’s probably too light. By the same token, if you crush yourself every time you walk in the gym, you may be negatively affecting your recovery. There are few things more discouraging to your personal progress than an injury and while it’s nearly impossible to not get some annoying ache and pain along the way, you do want to build enough resilience that you can bounce back quickly if an injury occurs. Lifting weights isn’t just about vanity and aesthetics, it’s to push back against sarcopenia and osteoporosis as we age. As one of my favorite coaches Matt Gary said: Strength is always an asset, it’s never a liability.

So, in reading this, find the area(s) you feel are missing from your plan. Start with the simplest one to implement that you can do consistently. If you’re currently lifting weights but your step count is abysmal, try improving the walking. If you’re walking every day but you’ve never done a sprint, add one day a week of sprint work.

Lastly, for whatever reason you choose to train your body, look at the long game. Lift, move and recover in ways that make it possible for you to do so for a lifetime. In doing so, make sure the foods you nourish yourself with support those goals as well.

And if you need my help, drop me a line.

Sometimes I get so lost in my own little nutrition and fitness bubble that I forget bad diet information runs rampant in social media.

I was recently scrolling through Instagram and saw the claim that you can drop 10 pounds in one week by consuming this drink each night before bed:

2 TBSP apple cider vinegar

2 TBSP lemon juice

1 TBSP raw honey

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 cup hot water

Let’s cover the basics: There is nothing, I mean NOTHING magical about this drink or combination of ingredients that can make you lose 10 pounds in one week.

However, here are few things that “could” (keyword) happen.

-Apple cider vinegar “may” have some appetite suppressing effect. It won’t have this effect on everyone but it may for some. If you find that your appetite has been curbed, there is a chance that you’ll eat less than normal and that can contribute to a downtick in weight.

-You could also decide to swap out a meal for this drink. Let’s say you decide to opt out of dinner each evening and have this drink instead. That choice alone could save you hundreds of calories in one sitting and also contribute to a downtick in weight.

-Sometimes, when people embark on a new “diet hack”, they start changing other behaviors as well. Maybe they start walking more, maybe they snack less, or maybe they alter some other habit to either a) increase expenditure b) decrease intake. Either way, this “magic drink” becomes the catalyst for changing other behaviors and *voila*…fat loss.

The best part about seeing this B.S. post is what was in the caption. The creator of the infographic was actually leading you to their 21-day smoothie plan where they claimed you could lose an additional 15-20 pounds.

Let’s take this apart too.

Further inspection shows that each of these smoothies (you can enjoy 3 a day), average around 200-300 calories each. That means, you’re consuming a whopping 600-900 calories a day in smoothies.

OF COURSE YOU’RE GOING TO DROP WEIGHT.

Any grown adult will lose weight on this plan, they will also lose muscle which is NEVER a good idea if you can help it.

I hate to be “that guy” but I will in this case: if it sounds too good to be true…

Listen, it’s ultimately your body and your choice of what to do when it comes to fat loss. My first issue is the far-reaching claim that your body weight will plummet when you follow these plans. Much of that has to do with what your starting weight is and the rest comes down to what else you’ll change to get the scale to move.

Oh yeah, and then there’s that other issue of: what happens when I go back to the way I normally eat?

You guessed it, those pounds will come happily back.

If you’re feeling stuck, drop me a line. There’s a more sane way to approach fat loss.

(Photo courtesy of Francesca Hotchin)

*Note* This article is not meant to replace the advice of a medical professional or physical therapist.

My first gym-related injuries of note occurred around 8 years ago.

Over the span of a year, I injured myself twice on trapbar deadlift and traditional deadlift respectively.

After the second injury, I had to ask myself what was more important: To find ways to continue to use those lifts in my training plans or to find ways to make progress without them.

I chose the latter.

You’ll find people out there who could take similar circumstances and roll the dice differently for themselves but it was a decision I was comfortable making.

Now, when I do those lifts, it’s at a very low weight and only enough to show a client how to perform the lifts for themselves.

My lower back has remained a vulnerable area ever since.

Fortunately, I know enough about how my body behaves to know which exercises provide more risk than reward. I’m also fortunate that I have someone overseeing my training plans (Shout out to Nick Morton) for helping me stay in the gym with as little time off as possible.

Nevertheless, sometimes aches and pains come along and they can be significant enough to make me rethink how my body moves.

A few months ago, I started dealing with a pain that was affecting my left pec, shoulder and triceps. As a result, I removed all pressing movements from my routine. The good news is that, despite the injury, I’m making perfectly good progress with pulling movements, some bicep/tricep work, and leg work. When the left side starts acting right again, the pressing exercises can shift back in.

Often, people take their injuries and stop training.

Please don’t read what I’m not writing, depending on the nature of the injury, you may need some time off.

However, I’ll do everything possible to keep my body moving in every way that I can.

I do that for several reasons:

-I hate giving up.

-My body can still be used in a variety of ways to make progress.

-It makes me feel physically and mentally better to move my body.

-I would much rather have the soreness of a workout over the soreness of being sedentary (Even though soreness is not an indicator of an effective workout.)

-It helps me to be a better coach when the modifications I can make for myself could also serve my clients as well.

I’m fortunate to have a stable of people who also help me recover as quickly as possible since the demands of my job mean that I don’t get a ton of physical recovery. Shout out to Dr. Robert Ault (Ault Chiropractic), Dr. Austin Foguth (SCOR Performance and Recovery, Dr. Aline Mille (Gaitkeeper PT) and my massotherapist Tom Young (Gavin Scott Salon & Spa).

The goal for me is strength for a lifetime. I can’t do it on my own, I need my “team” behind me and I have to take the ideal with the less than ideal and make it all work.

I don’t need a flawless body. I need one that can handle the stress and strain of everything that comes its way.

This won’t be exhaustive but let me take a few moments this week to give you a rundown of some things I’d like you to know before you start your fat loss journey.

-Not everyone needs to count calories or track macros. If you like the quantitative approach to your food intake, it can be helpful to learn the skill of tracking. Regardless of which food tracking app you elect to use, I normally advise clients to start your process with a goal of weight maintenance. You’ll be asked questions like: age, gender, height, weight and level of activity so that your calories can be calculated. Remember that all numbers given are estimates and none of them are perfect. If you decide to count calories, spend a few days learning how to measure food, weigh food and/or scan UPC codes for the best accuracy you can provide. Unless you truly love tracking your food intake every single day, I believe it’s best used for a short-term snapshot of your current intake so that you can determine where and how you want to make reductions for fat loss.

-Your body does not burn the same amount of calories per day and most conventional smartwatches and cardio machines are inaccurate at estimating what you burn. You’d be much better served to use your exercise as something you check off the list that it was accomplished rather than assuming that you burned 560 calories when you may have only burned 320. Someday (maybe), those smartwatches will be more accurate in estimating expenditure but we’re not there yet.

-You can eat a nutrient rich diet and lose fat or you can eat a nutrient poor diet and lose fat. I’m not encouraging you to do the latter, simply stating that it can and has been done. Ideally, I want you to eat food that is as nutritious as you will enjoy and stick with. If you need room for some “fun foods” and you can still achieve an energy deficit then you’ve got the ideal scenario for fat loss and ultimately living at a maintenance weight you’re happy with.

-I would love for more people to increase their protein intake. Not because I want you to be a bodybuilder but because more protein tends to correlate to greater satiety and fullness cues. This is important when you’re dieting. No one enjoys the feeling of being hungry. You can play with loose ranges of 100-120g of protein on a lower end and see how you feel. That equates to 400-480 calories out of your day. It’s not easy for everyone to do it and even if you can get close to 100g you’ll probably be in a good place.

-Following on the heels of protein, fiber is another component to your diet that can not only assist with overall gut/digestive health but may help you stave off feelings of hunger as well. At least 12g of fiber (from multiple sources) for every 1000 calories you consume is a good minimum. Sources of fiber worth considering: whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, many fruits and most vegetables.

-The jury remains out on how much water you should consume to help with fat loss. It’s not necessarily that X amount of water is the secret it’s that dehydration may make you hungrier. If you need a very simple test that you’ve had enough, the urine test is a good way to go. You’re aiming for light yellow to clear in color (be advised that certain vitamins can make your urine stay brighter for longer).

-It’s a bit of a game in semantics but fat loss done right isn’t really about sustainability. If you do it right, it’s a very short term process leading to a maintenance outcome that IS about sustainability. As for the fat loss part, you need to find a process that you can do consistently enough to get the right results. No one signed up for yo-yo dieting and said: YES, this is what I was born for.

-Some people can do aggressive dieting and have little to no negative outcomes. Many people cannot. If you’re fighting like hell to slash and burn calories every which way you can and your quality of life sucks, then something needs to change.

-There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with slow fat loss. Everyone I’ve ever worked with wants to achieve their fat loss goal yesterday. I’ve found, with rare exception, that the people I’ve worked with who take a slower and more conservative approach to fat loss tend to be really good at keeping the weight off.

-Fat loss does not solve every problem. Some aches and pains will exist even if you lose the weight. Some people will hate their body even if the weight comes off. It sounds very “woo” but if you don’t find something (or several things) to love and respect about your body, fat loss becomes just another avenue giving you the ability to mistreat or speak poorly about your body.

-Even if you’re doing “all the right things” the scale may not reflect the outcomes you want (yet). Be patient, make sure that your actions are in alignment with your goals and track trends over time. For the ladies, the days leading up to and during your period are not a great time to weigh yourself. If you’re “feeling” less bloated after your period, you can try hopping on the scale then for a more accurate measure.

-I can’t overstate how many people have basically ONE area of their diet that’s in the way of their fat loss goals: they snack too much, they keep eating after dinner, they drink too much, they have too many sweets, they dine out too often, etc. That doesn’t mean the problem is easy to change but it does mean that it isn’t more complicated than that. Any diet approach you use, if it doesn’t manage to tackle that ONE area will only end up causing you more frustration. Try tackling the problem first before you drop $25 on a best-selling diet book that’s more fiction than fact.

(Photo courtesy of AllGo)