3 Months of Fat Loss + Muscle Building
Breaking down my training and methods over the last 3 months
Today I’m going to break down what I’ve been doing the last three months to hit 10% body fat, increase my total lean muscle mass and lose fat while improving my strength and endurance (oh and I even ate cinnamon rolls - craaaazy). I am not the leanest, fastest, or strongest, but hopefully I can deliver some realistic takeaways and expectations to improve your training and physique.
First, my intention is not to lose weight. As long as I’m between 195-205 lbs I feel good running, lifting, and doing higher intensity training. A key concept I focus on is not worrying about what the scale says, rather focusing on how I feel and my body composition. I focus on this so much because I was someone who worried about the scale a lot growing up. I was the thicc kid growing up, hitting 130 lbs before the 6th grade. So yes, I played center on my football team (and yes we were undefeated that year, you’re welcome).
As a point of reference, I tested my body composition in November 2022 and Today (14 FEB 2023). I dropped 1.5 lbs to about 201 lbs, increased my lean body mass by 1.5 lbs, and dropped by body fat to 10.1%.
Training
During this time my training has been extremely consistent, if not boring. I am following my expanded Phraks guide that is free and available right here on substack or on my site as a free download (link). It consists of lifting 3x per week, 1-2 high intensity sessions or METCONs per week, 1-2 steady state running sessions per week and a Saturday long run. This boils down to working out 5-6x per week, most days never going in excess of 90 minutes for total daily workout time. It is an extremely simple program, very efficient, and allows me to focus on other things (like building the Gambit app, writing here, and my day job).
The main variety (spice!) in my training comes from my METCONs. 1 of those sessions I alternate with long or short distance running intervals, then mix in fun METCONs that suck. For reference, today’s was:
For time:
1 mile run
21-18-15-12-9-6-3: Cal Row + Push-Ups + Chin-Ups + T2B
1 mile run
Final note, my Saturday long run is usually anywhere from 7-13 miles at an easy pace.
Nutrition
My nutrition is also extremely consistent. I do this because it allows me to not have to track everything that goes in my body. Tracking calories and macros is extremely beneficial and if you’ve never followed a strict macro plan. I highly recommend tracking for a period of 3-6 months at a minimum. This will teach you vital information and allow you to eat intuitively in the future. When I talk about “putting in the work” this is what I mean. It takes actual work to be conscious about you’re eating and to learn how different foods affect you. Also, if you are struggling to lose weight tracking is helpful to know if you’re getting sneaky calories from something you didn’t expect.
But over time once you get in a rhythm of eating and understand the calories from different foods. You’re able to eat more intuitively, especially if you eat the same thing every day like me (boring I know). But I like boring. I occasionally go out to eat, eat pizza, or even have cinnamon roll (because the bakery down the road from me is amazing). I’m an advocate for enjoying life, and as long as your days of eating outside your regimen make up a small percentage of your total weekly caloric intake there’s no problem.
My biggest focus is on protein intake. I don’t track total daily calories, however each day I have a rough count of how much protein I consume in grams. The easy answer is at least 1g per pound of bodyweight, but if you want a specific number I recommend using my nutrition calculator in the Gambit App!
As for the specific food I consume, it is incredibly basic. This is perfect because I can prep it quickly on the weekend or during the week. Breakfast usually consists of a protein shake, 4-6 cooked or raw eggs (delicious if shaken with a vanilla protein shake), and oatmeal with peanut butter. I’ll then eat 2-3 more meals which are pretty much the same: a rice or potato bowl with 85/15 ground beef OR chicken thighs/breasts OR roasted salmon. Each of these bowls are supplemented with some form of vegetable. Additionally I may consume a protein bar and fairlife chocolate milk during the day, and some fruit as well (apples / bananas / blueberries / strawberries). This is as basic of a diet as I can come up with, but allows me to hit all of my training goals while staying alert throughout the day without any drops in energy levels. Your body’s metabolism of carbohydrates and their impact on energy level is a write up for another day!
Habits
Surprise! Again, my habits are consistent and boring. I sleep about 7 hours every night during the week, and get 8-9 on the weekend. For myself, anything less than 7 leads to lethargy during the day and less ability to focus. I also consume at least 4L of water per day, 1-2 LMNT salt packets depending on my workout intensity, and try to walk 5-10k steps per day. It is simple, boring, but highly effective. But simple does not equal easy.
Conclusion
Common trends in everything that I do is consistency and simplicity. I don’t need to complicate my life further and as a result prioritize keeping everything as simple as possible to stay completely consistent in order to hit my goals. If you have any questions feel free to drop a comment below!