Anyone CAN dramatically improve their body composition in three months, but not everyone WILL. There are lots of reasons for that. The primary reason people fail to follow through with their resolution to lose weight has to do with their approach to behavior change. They underestimate the challenge of behavior change and overestimate their willpower and motivation. They fall victim to the most painful gap in existence, between WANTING and DOING. Another reason people fail to transform their bodies is that their diet and exercise programs don’t allow them to build or at least preserve muscle while they lose weight. They end up losing muscle, which causes their metabolism to slow down, making additional weight loss more difficult. The result is a skinny, fat body with a slower metabolism, hardly the transformation they wanted. My second book, Lean By Habit – A Bulletproof Plan for Body Transformation goes into greater detail about the implementation strategies necessary, but this article can get you started. I am going to show you how to transform your body in just three months using the same techniques I used when I competed in the Body-for-Life competition. There are approximately 12 weeks in three months, which means you can safely lose approximately 12% of your body weight. Even if you have more weight to lose, a 12% drop in body fat will transform your body, especially if you also add muscle, which is possible if you haven’t followed a serious training program in the past or are a former athlete getting back into training. You don’t want to lose more than 1% of your body weight each week because doing so could cause you to lose valuable muscle. Healthy weight loss requires you to stay above your basal metabolic rate (BMR). When you go below your BMR, your body may start cannibalizing your organs and skeletal muscles for energy. If you don’t know your BMR, many online BMR calculators are available. I recommend you visit http://www.calculator.net/bmr-calculator.html BMR Calculator to determine your BMR, learn more about your metabolism, and avoid the mistake of undereating while dieting.

THE 5 STEPS TO BODY TRANSFORMATION

1. Have a Written Goal

2. Establish a Hard Deadline & Track your Progress

3. Log Your Food or Follow a Meal Plan

4. Prioritize Strength Training & a High Protein Diet

5. Get Adequate Sleep

Step 1 – Have a Written SMART Goal

Most people don’t bother to write down their goals, and then they wonder why they never achieve them. People who write down their goals are 42% more likely to achieve them, according to Dr. Gail Matthews. [i] The simple act of writing down your goal makes it more concrete. You are probably familiar with the SMART goals approach – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-Bound.  Let’s say you are 200 pounds and want to reduce your body fat percentage by 12%; your Smart goal might be to lose 24 pounds in 12 weeks.

• Specific: 24 pounds
• Measurable: yes
• Attainable: yes
• Realistic: Absolutely
• Time-Bound: 12 weeks

Step 2 – Establish a Hard Deadline & Track your Progress

Deadlines help establish priorities and prevent procrastination. I have always gotten in my best condition when I had an event or competition I was preparing for at the time. If you are serious about getting in shape, you can find a body transformation contest online by clicking HERE. If competitions aren’t your bag, you could schedule a vacation where you plan to take photos in your swimming suit or schedule a photo shoot. Whatever it is, schedule it. Set a hard, non-negotiable deadline. Set a firm deadline and make a solid commitment to achieving results. Without a firm deadline, there is no urgency, and you will invite procrastination. Make the commitment as binding as possible. In the examples given, register for your event or race in advance, purchase your airplane tickets, book hotel reservations, schedule the photography session, etc. You can sign up for a one-year gym membership, which often saves you money over month-to-month memberships. You can sign up for personal training sessions and share your goals with your trainer. Doing so will further commit you and create an additional layer of accountability. The crucial thing is that you create a real sense of urgency. If your goal is to lose 24 pounds over 12 weeks, this translates to 2 pounds per week. You need to track your progress. Here is a scorecard I’ve developed to help you track your progress and habits.   Scorecard – Habit Tracker Keeping score doesn’t just track your results; it strengthens them through increased awareness. As Peter Drucker famously said, “What gets measured gets managed. If you want it, measure it. If you can’t measure it, forget it.” I tracked my weight each week and made adjustments to ensure I would hit my target by the end of the 12 weeks. You’ll discover the weight comes off rather quickly in the beginning, but it could slow down as you get closer to your goal. I’ve heard it described as ringing water out of a towel. At first, the towel is so saturated the water comes out easily, but then as it gets dryer, it requires more effort. Dieting is a lot like that. You may have to decrease your calories as you get leaner. Don’t freak out if you do not see weight loss results on the scale every week. If you are new to strength training or a former lifter, you could be building muscle while losing body fat. An excellent way to gauge progress is by how your clothes fit. Because muscle is more compact than fat, your close will become looser. Another great indicator that you are losing body fat is your waistline; tightening your belt an extra notch means you’re losing body fat.

Step 3 – Log your Food or Follow a Meal Plan

I am going to ask you to log your food for a few weeks for two reasons. First, it will increase your awareness, the first step toward developing better habits. Second, it is the most reliable way of creating a caloric deficit. Numerous studies have shown that people who keep a food journal lose twice as much weight as people who don’t. [i] Food logging seems like a hassle, but you’ll discover it is liberating. It allows you to eat whatever you want, within reason. You can make room for indulgences; just don’t overdo it. I recommend keeping your treats to no more than 20% of your daily caloric intake. Food logging is considered a keystone habit because it causes widespread behavior change. You’ll start making better eating decisions. You’ll identify patterns and remove unhealthy foods from your environment, replacing them with healthier, less processed alternatives. Eventually,  you will transition from logging your meals to planning them. As you begin to see results, you might be encouraged to start exercising because we do better when we feel better, and nothing makes us feel better than progress. Exercise is also a keystone habit, so it will create its own cascade of behavior changes. It will boost your willpower and self-confidence and improve your energy and focus, and since the brain runs the show, you’ll start showing up better each day.

5 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT FOOD TRACKING:

1. The more you track, the more likely you will reach your goal.
2. You can start building the habit of tracking by logging one meal at a time.
3. Tracking gets easier the more you do it.
4. It is always better to track something versus nothing at all.
5. Pick something similar if you cannot find an exact match for what you want to track.

It is best to record everything as you eat or drink it for better accuracy but don’t let good be the enemy of great. If you are in a rush, you can take a photo of your meal and record it later. Taking pictures and recording everything at the end of the day will still get the job done. I suggest you set a daily reminder to complete your food journal. Pick a time of day in which you will not be interrupted. Setting a daily reminder will drastically improve your likelihood of developing this invaluable habit. The app makes creating a caloric deficit easier than ever. Download the app to your smartphone. Sign in using your Facebook account or an email account. Next, the app will ask you your goal: lose weight, maintain weight, or gain weight. You will enter your level of activity based on your occupation, not your exercise program. You enter your height, weight, and sex. The app will ask you your target body weight and your deadline for achieving it. It will also ask you your weekly weight loss goals; options vary between half a pound and two pounds a week. I recommend 1 pound a week. You can set a goal for losing more than 1 pound a week, but as a rule of thumb, you should never attempt to lose more than 1% of your body weight each week. After entering all your data, MyFitnessPal will calculate your daily caloric intake to achieve your goal. I suggest you further customize your diet by adjusting your macronutrients (macros). Press the More icon located in the bottom right-hand corner of the home screen and select Goals. The MORE button is displayed as three dots (∙∙∙). From the Goal menu, select Calories & Macronutrients. I recommend a 40% carbohydrate, 35% protein, and 25% fat diet for those with a healthy metabolism. If you are insulin-resistant, I suggest limiting your calories from carbohydrates to 30% or less of your total calories. You can find many YouTube videos that will show you how to adjust your macro goals to hit your desired percentages.

THE 5 MOST COMMON FOOD LOGGING MISTAKES:

1. Inaccurately estimating portion sizes.
2. Forgetting to log condiments.
3. Believing food labels are accurate.
4. Inaccurate food descriptions.
5. “Air-Macroing.”

It is natural for people to blame their metabolism when they fail to lose weight despite tracking their calories, but it is rarely the problem. Calorie counting is more challenging than most people realize. Studies have shown that overweight people tend to underestimate their energy intake and overestimate their physical activity. A study that monitored the energy intake and expenditure of obese subjects with a history of diet resistance found that they underreported their caloric intake by an average of 47% and overestimated their energy expenditure by 51%. The study concluded, “The failure of some obese subjects to lose weight while eating a diet they report as low in calories is due to an energy intake substantially higher than reported and an overestimation of physical activity, not to an abnormality in thermogenesis.”[ii] Inaccurately estimating portion sizes is an easy way to overeat. Whenever possible, weigh your food. It will improve your accuracy and your ability to estimate portion sizes. The more experience you have with weighing three ounces of chicken, the better your ability to estimate what it looks like. You can use some everyday items for reference. For example, a 4-ounce portion of protein is approximately the size of a deck of cards, and a 1/2 cup portion of carbohydrates is the size of a regular cupcake wrapper. Another easy way to overeat is by forgetting to log cooking oils and condiments. A tablespoon of oil can add 120 calories to a meal. One ounce of olive oil can add as many as 250 calories. Duplicate that mistake a couple of times a day and sprinkle in one of the other common errors, and you will be frustrated with your lack of progress. I have made a few of these errors myself, but I know I must be missing something when I fail to lose weight. I know I am eating more calories than I think I am. I look for ways to simplify my meals so I can more accurately estimate them. The first thing we are taught when counting calories is to read food nutrition labels. It makes sense, but remember that they are not accurate. The FDA allows food manufacturers a 20% tolerance to over or underreport calories. That means the more processed foods you eat in your diet, the more difficult it will be to estimate your energy intake. You can bet that food manufacturers underreport their food’s caloric content to make them look better. 40 calories here, 70 calories there, and soon you aren’t creating a caloric deficit. You can mitigate this tolerance by increasing the portion size eaten by 20%. For example, a 200 calorie protein bar is recorded as 1.2 servings with an estimated caloric content of 240 calories. We must be as precise as possible when logging our food. How food is prepared must be accounted for. For example, rotisserie chicken is fattier than grilled chicken because of how it is prepared. Baked sweet potato fries eliminate the cooking oil that makes fried potatoes so rich. Cooked pasta absorbs a lot of water during the cooking process, so there is a big difference in the caloric density of cooked and uncooked pasta. The more accurate your descriptions and measurements are, the more predictable your results will be. Intentionally neglecting to log snacks and caloric beverages is so prevalent that it has a nickname, “Air-Macroing.” We don’t gain anything by lying to ourselves. Our body keeps an accurate record, so the only one you are hurting is yourself. The smallest indulgences can be enough to wreck your progress. For example, eating half a cookie in the breakroom can add 120 calories. Even healthy snacks can pack lots of calories; for example, an ounce of almonds, approximately 23, contains 160 calories. Just because the samples at Costco are FREE doesn’t mean they are calorie-free. That 1-ounce sample of organic granola could contain 135 calories, approximately three-quarters of it from sugar. Marketers use buzzwords like fat-free, Organic, non-GMO, antioxidants, multigrain, and gluten-free to suggest their products contain fewer calories or are better for you, but this isn’t usually the case. Most of these foods are loaded with added sugar. A great example is the fat-free movement of the 1980s. Food manufacturers doubled the amount of sugar in the products to make up for the fat removed and discovered that people ate more fat-free food than full-fat food. Step 4 – Prioritize Strength Training & a High Protein Diet

PRIORITIZE STRENGTH TRAINING

Prioritizing the number of calories per minute a training modality burns over the adaptation response it produces is a common mistake. It’s counter-intuitive, but strength training, not cardio training, should be emphasized while dieting. The human body adapts to the stresses placed on it, so it will be more resilient the next time it encounters it. When you emphasize long, slow cardio sessions in your weight loss program, the body adapts to this stress by reducing total body weight and becoming more efficient at performing the movement. Good news, right? Yes and no. Yes, you will lose stored body fat, but since long, slow cardio places so little demand on strength, the body will also reduce total body weight by cannibalizing muscle. Sure, running and biking will produce a muscle pump, but if the effort truly taxed your muscles meaningfully, you would not be able to do it for more than a few minutes. Sprinters are a lot more muscular than marathon runners because their training requires them to generate explosive power over short distances. Marathon runners’ training, on the other hand, requires them to cover long distances at a relatively slow pace. As a result, the marathon runner will have a scrawny frame, especially in their upper body, because big, strong muscles are a liability. Any weight, muscle, or fat will only slow down the long-distance runner. When you emphasize strength training in your weight loss program, the adaptation response is to build and preserve muscle and strength, assuming you consume enough protein. That’s because forcing your body to lift heavy weights tells it to maintain muscle out of necessity. You cause your body to burn fat almost exclusively to meet your energy needs, and unlike cardio training, strength training will reshape your body by adding calorie-burning muscle. A good rule of thumb for body transformation is to spend twice as much time strength training as cardio training. An eight-week study compared the results of three groups: the first restricted calories and strength trained, the second restricted calories and did cardio, and the third just restricted calories. All three groups lost roughly the same amount of fat, but the cardio and diet-only groups lost twice as much muscle as the strength-training group.[iii] Another study compared diet and strength training vs. diet and cardio training. The 12-week study found that the cardio group lost more weight than the strength training group (32 pounds vs. 28 pounds), but the strength training group had lost a lot less lean muscle mass.[iv] The type of weight you lose is more important than the amount of weight you lose. That’s because if you were to begin a diet at 30% body fat and lost 10 pounds, but 5 of those pounds were muscle, you’d barely reduce your body fat percentage. Worse, by losing muscle, you’ve decreased your metabolism, making further weight loss harder. The result is a skinny, fat body with a slower metabolism, hardly the transformation you wanted. So, while cardio training may be the most effective at promoting weight loss, strength training is the most effective at improving body composition, which is what we want. The study concluded, “The addition of an intensive, high volume resistance training program resulted in the preservation of lean body weight and resting metabolic rate during weight loss with very-low-calorie diets.” When you lose body fat while building muscle mass, you transform your body by reducing your body fat percentage. You will become leaner, stronger, and fitter. Your ability to burn calories will increase instead of decrease, which will help keep the weight off after you resume a maintenance diet. Strength training also improves insulin sensitivity, so you feed the muscle and starve the fat.  Studies have shown that weight training, like High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), raises your metabolism for hours after your workout.[v] Your body will also burn calories to repair the muscles damaged during a challenging workout. Muscles are constantly being broken down, recreated, and synthesized. These processes require energy. Strength training also makes daily activities, like climbing stairs or carrying groceries, easier by improving our general physical preparedness. We become more capable in general and better able to perform a variety of tasks, from changing a tire to moving a sofa. As Mark Rippetoe likes to say, “Strong people are harder to kill than weak people and more useful in general.” More and more endurance athletes include strength training in their off-season regimens to correct muscle imbalances, reduce the risk of injury, and improve biomechanics, muscle activation, and performance. As you get stronger, each stride, stroke, or pedal will require less effort, translating into improved performance. I hope the countless stories of women losing weight and dropping dress sizes on programs like CrossFit have finally dispelled the notion that lifting weights will make you look bulky. More and more studies suggest it is the best type of exercise for slimming down and improving insulin sensitivity.

PRIORITIZE PROTEIN

High protein diets are the most effective at producing weight loss. Protein has some key characteristics that make it the macronutrient of paramount importance when dieting. High protein diets produce a higher thermogenic effect, help manage blood sugar and insulin, and trigger protein synthesis, preserving muscle mass. The first advantage of a high-protein diet is that it makes dieting easier. A Harvard School of Public Health study concluded, “Evidence is also convincing that higher-protein diets increase satiety when compared to lower-protein diets. This may enhance a person’s ability to ‘stick with’ a hypocaloric diet over the long term.”[vi] The same study concluded that high protein diets significantly increase total weight loss and likely the percentage of fat lost both in the short-term and long-term. Although more research needs to be performed, the study suggests that a high protein diet’s thermogenic effect and increased satiety are probably more statistically significant over the months and years. Here are a few workout programs to choose from and some workout guidelines.

• Program Log & Workout Guidelines
• What You Will Need to Get Started
• Minimalist Cutting Program
• Cutting Program (Commercial Gym)
• Cutting Program (Home Gym)

You can find more FREE material at:

• • https://leanbyhabit.com/free-downloads/ or
  • https://leanbyhabit.com/program-pdf/

Step 5 – Get Adequate Sleep

Icannot overstress the importance of sleep. Sleep plays a vital role in weight management and overall health. Strive to get eight hours of quality sleep each night. Like exercise, it improves mood, focus, and self-control, while a lack of sleep does just the opposite. Don’t compromise your willpower by starting the day exhausted. When we don’t get enough sleep, it drives leptin levels down, which decreases our satiety. Lack of sleep simultaneously causes ghrelin levels to rise, stimulating our cravings for junk food. Both conditions lead to overeating and undesirable weight gain. Experts suggest that sleep deprivation stimulates our body’s desire for sugary foods because they provide quick energy, and the spike in insulin they produce temporarily counteracts the stress hormone cortisol. The effects of inadequate sleep are so profound that it is often compared to intoxication. Like inebriation, it impairs our judgment and impulse control. Unfortunately, chronic sleep deprivation is common. In our hustle culture, it has become a badge of honor. More time awake means more work is getting done. Right? Not necessarily. Besides impairing your ability to learn, focus, and problem-solve, a chronic lack of sleep increases your risk of heart disease, stroke, and early death. Death, you know, can take a real toll on your productivity. Sleep’s ability to positively impact our behavior is so profound that it is considered a keystone habit. Keystone habits like exercising, journaling, getting sufficient sleep, meditating, and food logging bolster our willpower. They tip the scales in our favor by improving our self-control. People with greater self-control eat better, drink less alcohol, smoke fewer cigarettes, use their credit cards less, and exercise more. If you are used to only getting 5 or 6 hours a night, you will feel amazing when you start getting at least 7 and a half hours a night. Studies have shown you will wake up primed to tackle complex problems. You will get more done each day, and you will stop feeling that all too familiar afternoon drag. If you are serious about being your physical and mental best, I recommend you purchase a fitness tracker, like the Oura ring, that measures your recovery, sleep quality, and duration. Because as you know, the best way to improve anything is to measure it, and few things impact your health and performance as much as sleep. Numerous studies have demonstrated all the incredible benefits of adequate rest. A few of these benefits are:

• Improved mood
• Improved focus
• Greater self-control
• Enhanced physical and mental health
• Improved weight management
• Less anxiety
• Improved recovery

SLEEP DEPRIVATION IS LINKED TO OBESITY

In a study involving more than 6,000 male participants, researchers found that shorter sleep periods were associated with higher Body Mass Index (BMI) levels and larger waistlines. They also concluded that sleep deprivation interferes with recovery and growth hormone production.[vii] Research published in The American Journal of Human Biology explored how a lack of sleep impacts appetite regulation, impairs glucose metabolism, and increases blood pressure. Dr. Kristen Knutson from the University of Chicago says, “A review of the evidence shows how short or poor-quality sleep is linked to increased risk of obesity by de-regulating appetite, leading to increased energy consumption.”[viii]

CONCLUSION

There you have it. That is what I did. If you follow the step-by-step plan I have outlined, you will achieve great results. If you struggle to implement the plan, I suggest you purchase my book and learn the simple science of behavior change and achieving a strong, lean body for life. If I can help you, please email me at LeanByHabit@gmail.com. Best wishes and best health! Jeff Subscribe to our Newsletter by visiting LeanByHabit.com and entering your email address at the bottom of the page. ____________________________________________________________________ SAMPLE THE FIRST HOUR FOR FREE: leanbyhabit.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/LEAN-BY-HABIT-Better-1.m4a Small Changes, Fantastic Results If you are looking for a simple, common-sense approach to weight loss that creates a strong-firm body for life, Lean by Habit is it! It contains everything you need to get in great shape. You’ll have eight free downloadable training programs to choose from based on your goals, a flexible diet, a habit tracker scorecard, and other execution-focused materials to help you succeed. Lean by Habit combines the best behavioral and exercise science to produce outstanding results through short-daily bouts of exercise. Fifteen minutes is all you need to start getting leaner, fitter, and stronger. If you are motivated to improve how you look and feel, the time to act is NOW! Don’t give your motivation a chance to wane and your excuses time to talk you out of it. When it comes to improving your life, there is no place better to start than with your habits, and there is no better program than this one to help you do it. Click HERE to get it delivered to your device and start taking those small steps that produce tremendous results. Act now before the book increases to its normal price of $9.99. This book contains:

• The Three-Step Process for Behavior Change
• The Four Elements of Execution
• Eight Programs (with downloadable training logs)
• A Habit Tracker Weight Loss Scorecard
• A Flexible Diet

[i] Lora E. Burke, PhD, MPH, FAHA, FAAN, Jing Wang, PhD, MPH, RN, Graduate Student Researcher, and Mary Ann Sevick, ScD, RN, Research Scientist, “Self-Monitoring in Weight Loss: A Systematic Review of the Literature,” J Am Diet Assoc. 2011 Jan; 111(1): 92–102. DOI: 10.1016/j.jada.2010.10.008. [ii] Lichtman SW, Pisarska K, Berman ER, Pestone M, Dowling H, Offenbacher E, Weisel H, Heshka S, Matthews DE, Heymsfield SB, “Discrepancy between self-reported and actual caloric intake and exercise in obese subjects,” N Engl J Med. 1992 Dec 31;327(27):1893-8. [iii] Geliebter A, Maher MM, Gerace L, Gutin B, Heymsfield SB, and Hashim SA, “Effects of strength or aerobic training on body composition, resting metabolic rate, and peak oxygen consumption in obese dieting subjects,” Am J Clin Nutr. 1997 Sep; 66 (3):557-63. [iV] Bryner RW, Ullrich IH, Sauers J, Donley D, Hornsby G, and Kolar M, and Yeater R, “Effects of resistance vs. aerobic training combined with an 800 calorie liquid diet on lean body mass and resting metabolic rate,” J Am Coll Nutr. 1999 Apr; 18(2):115-21. [V] Greer BK, Sirithienthad P, Moffatt RJ, Marcello RT, Panton LB, ”EPOC Comparison Between Isocaloric Bouts of Steady-State Aerobic, Intermittent Aerobic, and Resistance Training,” Res Q Exerc Sport. 2015 Jun; 86(2):190-5. doi: 10.1080/02701367.2014.999190. Epub 2015 Feb 12. [vi] Thomas L Halton, and Frank B Hu, MD, PhD, “The Effects of High Protein Diets on Thermogenesis, Satiety and Weight Loss: A Critical Review,” Department of Nutrition, Journal of the American College of Nutrition, Vol. 23, No. 5, 373–385 (2004) [vii] Guglielmo Beccutia and Silvana Pannain, “Sleep and obesity,” Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2011 Jul; 14(4): 402–412., DOI: 10.1097/MCO.0b013e3283479109 [viii] Kristen L Knutson, “Does inadequate sleep play a role in vulnerability to obesity?” American Journal of Human Biology, January 24, 2012, DOI: 10.1002/ajhb.22219 [i] https://scholar.dominican.edu/psychology-faculty-conference-presentations/3/