How This Busy VP Lost Five Pounds In His First Week Working With Me
Is it possible to lose 5 pounds in one week?
It is. My new client, Daniel, is living, breathing proof! In his first week working with me, he’s down 5 pounds. On April 4th, he was 170 pounds. On April 11th, he was 165 pounds. Plus, he did it all while balancing his roles as a father, VP of a company, and insanely hardworking beast (that last title is informal).
Here are three simple things (you can start today) that helped Daniel shed 5 pounds in 7 days.
He strength trained 4 times
That’s it? That’s it!
No daily workouts or two-a-days required. He did four workouts that took about 45-60 minutes/each. His split was:
Day 1: Upper body push
Day 2: Deadlifts and upper body pull
Day 3: Upper body (shoulder focused)
Day 4: Upper body (arm focused)
Outside of these, he rode his bike a few times and walked between 6-8k steps/day.
I’m telling you, guys! You don’t need to slave away on the treadmill for 2 hours/day to see fast fat loss progress.
2. He tracked his food with ruthless precision
If it was food and passed through his lips, Daniel tracked it.
No, tracking your food is not the most fun use of your time. And no, you’ll never be 100% accurate, but that’s okay. Finally, no, you don’t have to do it to make progress. But, after working with 100+ clients, tracking your food results in faster fat loss 9/10 times.
Daniel not only tracked consistently, he also hit his calorie target - even when eating out! Peep hiss extremely flexible Friday below, when he had McDonald’s, Mexican, and Mexican and STILL hit his targets.
Finally, in his stellar first week, Daniel did something he had never done before - eat enough protein.
3. He ate at least 120 grams of protein every day
If you read my articles consistently, you may be thinking, “If John tells me to eat more protein again, I’m going to dump my protein powder out of the window and punt a chicken breast”, or something like that.
Relax, pal! I’m not going to nag you today. I’ll just share what worked for Daniel, and what has worked for every single one of my online fat loss clients:
Eating .8-1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight.
Why does it matter so much that I’m willing to be so annoying about it? Because a high protein diet:
Helps you stay full (hunger is the most uncomfortable of losing fat)
Helps you hold onto more muscle as you lose weight (this means, proportionally, you’ll lose more weight)
Helps you burn more calories (30% of the calories consumed from protein are used for digestion).
In his first week, Daniel ate plenty of steak, ground beef, turkey, chicken, brisket, eggs, egg whites, protein bars, and protein shakes.
The result? Minimal hunger, great workouts, and 5 pounds lost.
3 Caveats, 2 Closing Thoughts, And 1 Funny Pic
3 Caveats:
The 5 pounds Daniel lost wasn’t 100% fat. He certainly lost some water weight/glycogen, too.
The scale is not the only important marker of progress. We’re also assessing workout performance, diet quality, energy levels, mood, progress photos, and more. We want to make sure Daniel loses the right kind of weight (fat) and doesn’t sacrifice his quality of life along the way.
Unless you have a lot of weight to lose (I’m talking >50 pounds), losing 5 pounds/week is not sustainable. I don’t expect he’ll keep up this pace for long, but if he does, we’ll bump up his calories so that he loses closer to 1-3 pounds/week. This will help make sure he loses primarily fat and minimal fat as he gets leaner.
2 Closing Thoughts:
If you’re struggling to lose fat and you’ve never tracked your food, please do. Even if it’s just for 2 weeks. Be as accurate as you can (use a food scale and be honest). It may be the most impactful action you can take to see progress fast.
Some resources to get you started:
MyFitnessPal - better, faster Calorie tracking. TOP 10 TIPS (2021)
Jordan Syatt - how to track your calories if you don't know how many calories are in the food?
Email me with any and all questions you have! Happy to help
2. If you desperately want to get in shape in time for summer, but have no clue how to eat or work out to make progress, please schedule a consult call with me here. It’s free and quick, and I’ll lay out a roadmap to help you reach your goals.
1 Funny Pic:
This was in my local mechanic’s shop. Peak dad humor.
Thanks for reading today,
John
3 Steps You Can Take
Apply for coaching - If you’re ready to start, you can fill out a coaching application here (it takes 90 seconds or less). Best case, you change your life. Worst case, I’ll help you draw up a road map to get closer to your goals.
Sign up for my newsletter - If you’d like to hear more, sign up for my mailing list here.
Keep learning - You can check out my other articles here. Nobody asked me to, but I’ve spent a ton of time researching everything from artificial sweeteners to saturated fat to testosterone and more, so you don’t have to.
