As you can imagine, I receive a lot of questions regarding how to lose weight. Let me begin by saying what the type of exercise I endorse can, and cannot, do for you. Our workouts are designed with three goals in mind: 1) Developing Power (Load X Distance / Time), 2) Improving Athleticism (speed, balance, coordination) and 3) Burning Fat. Practically speaking, Power is usable strength. How quickly/easily can you move yourself or something else a predetermined distance? Athleticism is the ability to direct your newfound powers and use them in the name of good. And when most people talk about "losing weight," they really mean they want to look slimmer and, thus, be more confident in their bodies. So, in essence, that's what The Fitness Camp (TFC) is created for - to make you more powerful and athletic, and to help you look better naked. Three valid goals.

The Facts of Losing Weight

Taking into account the fact that no one knows anything for sure, to the best of anyone's current knowledge this is how gaining and losing weight works: If you consume more calories than you expend each day, over time you will GAIN weight. If you expend more calories than you consume each day, over time you will LOSE weight. Since most people who approach me with questions about weight are in the business of wanting to lose weight, I'm going to address that side of the coin.

Studies have shown that, in general, a person is prepared to take action (i.e. ready to exercise) before he/she is prepared to make behavioral/lifestyle changes. And that's great, because sometimes it's easier to adopt one aspect of a healthy lifestyle (exercising) and make it a habit before adopting the next aspect (a more conscious way of eating).

So let's say you begin working out at The Fitness Camp, the Most Awesome Boot Camp in All the World :-). A few weeks have passed. You think you look a little slimmer. At the office, someone makes a comment along those lines. Your clothes are a bit looser. Then you get on the scale. What?! You weigh exactly the same. Or, horror of horrors, you've actually GAINED a pound. Crushing disappointment and despondency kick in. You're working SO HARD. How can you be the same weight? Speaking in broad generalities, this is how: The burning of fat and the gaining of muscle and the accompanying body composition shift, combined with your calorie intake versus calorie expenditure, results in less fat between your skin and your developing lean parts (muscle & bone), but no appreciable weight change.

What can you do?

I believe in the candid style of addressing issues, both individually and collectively. That said, if you weigh more than you should, here is the hard truth, despite all protestations or excuses to the contrary: The balance of how you eat versus how you exercise (or don’t exercise) has delivered you to this point. Therefore, your current dietary habits are not working for you, and are not serving you well. You may believe you eat well. Indeed, you may. Maybe cookies and cake and bowls-full of fettucini alfredo are not parts of your daily nutrition plan. You are a fruits & vegetables & lean meats junkie. Even so, the empowering principles of weight gain and weight loss tell us that if your body expends 2200 calories per day, yet each day you eat 2700 calories-worth of apples and broccoli and salmon, you will STILL gain a pound per week. Certainly, you'll feel better than the guy who eats 2700 calories-worth of lemon meringue pie per day but, like it or not, if you weigh more than you should and want to steadily lose weight, you must eat less or exercise more.

A note about everything in this essay: I arrive at my conclusions - both on exercise and nutrition - through the "black box" method. Everything I talk about and lay out there as "fact" is determined through a mixture of respected research journals, osmosis from expert sources (e.g. Erin, our RD), self-experimentation, and experience within the individual and group training environment. I pass on nothing from pop-culture sources such as Self or Men's Health (which are shouldered with the unenviable task of coming up with yet another way to tell you what's wrong with you, improve your sex life, build your abdominals and help you lose 10 pounds in the next 15 days each and every month), and I try to avoid disclaimers whenever possible.

That said...

If you want to lose a pound per week, you must maintain a 3500 calorie deficit per week - 3500 calories below your base metabolic rate (BMR). Your BMR is the amount of calories you burn, on average, each day while sitting, breathing, walking, climbing, and attending TFC. A 3500 calorie deficit works out to 500 calories per day. Dropping a pound per week is safe and maintainable. It's what I did to lose the final 12 pounds of fat over a period of about three months, from 210 to 198. Here's how you get your BMR: Go online and type in "BMR Calculator" or "Base Metabolic Rate Calculator" and hit the enter key with a growing sense of commitment and enthusiasm. Go to 5-10 different calculators and fill in the information. Different calculators use different formulas, so it's best to find a meta-number using a variety of sources. If you attend TFC 4-5 times per week, you are highly active. Once you have your multiple sources, average them. This will give you a fairly valid BMR to work with. Now decide how quickly you want to lose whatever amount of weight you want to lose. You want to choose a weight and a rate of loss and a lifestyle you can maintain once you reach your ideal weight. Again, one pound per week is a good rate of loss. If you eat too far below your BMR your body will go into starvation mode and it will conserve fat. Not a good state to be in. So take the slow, gradual approach. The time will pass anyway. Two or three or six months from now either you will have lost the weight forever through a safe and maintainable approach, or you will have tried yet another fad-type diet with no success. So accept the common-sense approach, know your BMR, use it to your advantage, and be successful.

Here are some things to avoid:

DO NOT "reward" yourself with food. "Today was a tough workout and I bet I worked off an extra 400 calories. I earned that cookie." Burn off 400 calories + eat an extra 400 calories = no change.

DO NOT "punish" yourself by withholding food. "I skipped camp today. I'm not going to go to dinner with my friends." Don't make exercise and eating the enemies.

DO NOT strike your favorite foods from your nutrition plan. Even if your most-loved dish is vanilla ice cream with hot fudge sandwiched between two Belgian waffles (a childhood favorite of mine), DO NOT deprive yourself of it. Just be reasonable and eat it occasionally instead of every day for breakfast. The fastest way to fail any diet is by making your meals miserable. Populate your plate (there's a phrase for the ages) with foods you enjoy. We can help you with it if you're uncertain how to begin.

ONE BIG TIP: The more protein you eat - animal sources, NOT soy products - the easier "dieting" will be. This does not mean adopt an Atkins approach. Don't. It's not maintainable and I think it's unhealthy. What it does mean is that, if you eat a quality source of protein at every meal or mid-meal, you will experience far fewer cravings and the diet won't be particularly difficult. Two other effective, interesting and related methods of eating include the Paleo diet and the Primal method.

To conclude this essay on weight loss, let me summarize: If you weigh more than you should, your current habits are ineffective. Don't fight the reality. Don't make excuses. Don't weaken yourself by lying to your own face and insisting you've tried this before and you are the one person on earth for whom "expending more calories than you consume" doesn't work. Just accept the facts you already know and take action: To achieve any goal you've yet to achieve, you need to develop better, more beneficial habits, directed toward that goal. The ability to gain or lose weight is ENTIRELY within your power. It's an exciting proposition. YOU control what you eat. YOU control how often you show up to camp. If you'll take care of the consumption portion of your day, we’ll take care of the expenditure portion. You handle the aspect of your physique reflected on the scale, and we’ll handle the aspect reflected in your mirror.