Category Archives: Body

Why The Kinobody Fat Loss Approach Works

March 27, 2016Body, Food, Mindadmin

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There has been an increasing amount of talk about what the best way to lose fat is, whether it is calorie counting, paleo or even going vegan.

Today I will like to talk about how Greg O’Gallagher’s Kinobody program is an effective way to lose fat loss, and why I am a big fan of it.

For those who do not know, Greg is a fitness Youtuber under the name Kinobody, who has had an insanely rapid increase in popularity recently, going from 24k subscribers in April 2015 to 176k a year later…

kinobody

As you can see Greg has gained quite the following, however, he does get his fair share of criticism too. Without further ado, let’s get into it!

What is Kinobody’s Approach?

Greg is a big advocate of intermittent fasting, calorie counting, and training for strength. His approach is very much based on the fact that cutting your favourite foods out, becoming obsessed about meal timings, and spending hours in the gym chasing the ‘pump’ is just plain stupid. This is why Greg advocates intermittent fasting and focusing on key compound movements.

Greg believes that fitness should not take over your life; you should still be able to eat foods you love, and that is why he is a big fan of intermittent fasting. If you want a guide to intermittent fasting then click here.

In regards to exercise, Greg focuses on key compound movements such as weighted pullups and incline bench press as compound movements stimulate your muscles most effectively. Therefore, you will be able to retain the most amount of muscle mass during your cut.

Why I think Greg’s approach is effective

1. Calorie Counting + Intermittent Fasting works

Personally, I believe that if you definitely want to make sure you’re losing weight then you have to calorie count. This way you can make sure that you are aware of exactly what you are eating and how your weight progresses with it.

When you go on a paleo, keto, or any other form of diet which does not involve calorie-counting you do not really know if you are losing weight or not. If done correctly these diets should help you lose weight, however, it is still completely possible to overeat without realising. For example, with the paleo diet it is so easy to overeat by eating too much fruit or nuts, as they can so easily rack up the calories. Little things like these make the diets so much more unpredictable, and calorie counting prevents that.

Calorie counting paired with intermittent fasting is absolutely perfect to balance out your diet and lifestyle; due to the fact that you are not eating breakfast, you have more calories to play around with for lunch and dinner which allows you to eat more and actually have satisfying meals. This results in you being able to go out with friends and eat and drink and have some fun, as you will have those extra calories to consume in the evenings.

Also, I hate feeling hungry after a meal, and having 5 small meals does nothing to me; I have to eat until I am full, or I cannot live. Period. Intermittent fasting lets me eat bigger meals, and that alone is a huge reason why I recommend Greg’s approach.

2. You do not have to cut anything out of your diet

If you have read UNIGAINS at all you will know that I am not a fan of cutting things straight out or making radical changes; I’m all about making slow and consistent changes which you can handle. If you try and cut things out immediately you are most likely going to fail as not only will you likely give in to cravings, but you will also start to deem fitness as a burden and a sacrifice, instead of a motivating and fun journey.

The Kinobody approach allows you to not give up things you love such as chocolate or carbs but instead requires you to balance them with your diet a bit better. Greg clearly points out that some foods will not make you as full and may be bring less health benefits for you, and that if you want them you have got to make space for them – it will be tougher but if it helps satisfy your cravings then it may be essential to help you stay on track.

I’m not hating on paleo (if done properly it can be really good!) but I could not keep it up because I LOVE PIZZA. I honestly love the shit out of pizza and eat it quite a bit. When I gave it up to eat paleo I felt like I lost the love of my life. However, making this sacrifice was not essential to lose weight; with Kinobody’s approach I could make space for it. In fact, the abs below were achieved through eating pizza 3 days a week using Greg’s approach – this is another reason why I vouch for it.

2015-12-02_1449094846

3. Exercising for strength is efficient whilst cutting

You know how when you go for a run you get a huge hunger burst and want to shove your face with a shit-tonne of sugary food? So whose idea was it to do cardio when you are already in a calorie deficit? Personally, it just seems illogical, especially when a 45 minute jog burns the same amount of calories as not eating a donut. Doing cardio is just going to make you more hungry, which will lead to you inevitably eating the calories back or even more – for me it is simply counter-productive.

When it comes to strength training, Greg favours lower reps and higher weight instead of training with higher volume to get that ‘pump’. Again, I personally find the lower rep higher weight better for cutting as the volume is lower; this results in preventing myself from getting into the cardio-like situation above, whilst applying significant stress to my body to maintain as much muscle as possible.

Also, I have found that the higher weight allows me to maintain more of my strength during a cut, which is key for future muscle gain. I 100% completely agree with Greg that size is a by-product of strength, and if you are keeping up your strength as much as possible then not only will your muscle-loss be minimized, but you will be able to pack on size a lot easier when you finish your cut.

Conclusion

I am a big fan of the Kinobody approach and what he preaches, and I have made great results from following his advice.

I would like to stress that I have not bought any of his programs. This is just from me following his advice which he gives out on Youtube. However, it did give me pretty decent results:

Kinobody follows a similar approach to UNIGAINS; keeping it simple, logical, and straightforward.

If you are looking for some more people to follow, then I will definitely advise you add Greg and Kinobody to the list.

-Mike

The Flappy Bird Weight Loss Method

March 21, 2016Bodyadmin

Look. You want to get in shape. You have wanted to for years. If you are anything like the rest of us, I can only assume that you have tried to lose weight before by cutting out every bad thing out of your diet and just trying to grit your teeth and stick with it. Unfortunately, for most of us…

Cold turkey does not work

I know you have that one friend who just decided to quit smoking one day and just did it – that is incredibly impressive and admirable. However, a lot of us simply cannot hack it.

Think about it this way: remember Flappy Bird? When I first played that game I could not get more than 3 points… 3 measly points. 10 points seemed like miles away. But, with time I slowly started to get better and better, and was able to stay focused and more concentrated, and was able to get a better score. Within a few days 10 point was a standard score for me, and after about 2 weeks I got up to 70 or so.

The same principle applies to losing weight: eating healthily and exercising right is the equivalent of scoring 70 points. If you try and do that straight away you will fail, as you have not trained yourself to be able to stay focused and consistent to achieve it. Sure, there may be the odd few you are able to get that score consistently straight away, however, it is rare.

What You Need To Do

Reduce the amount you eat by so little that it is literally a joke for you to not do it.

This is a method which works wonders; just pick one tiny bit of your diet which you can reduce/substitute. I wanted to drink coffee without sugar, and I used to put 3 spoons of sugar in. When I decided that this was too much I reduced it to 2.5 spoons; at first, the coffee tasted a tiny bit bitter, but within a few days it was completely normal. This is the equivalent of getting that 1 point on Flappy bird consistently.

Every few days I would decrease the amount of sugar I drank ever slowly and was comfortable with only 1 sugar in my coffee after about 2 weeks; this is me getting 10 points on Flappy Bird without a sweat. After about 3 weeks I was drinking black coffee – and loved the taste.

I know you are thinking that this took ages, but it is 6 months later and I feel no withdrawal symptoms whatsoever. In fact, I prefer the taste of black coffee now.

The gradual approach allows you to not get that craving to the food/drink, as you are not eliminating it out of your life, but simply controlling how much you have. The fact that it is such a small amount makes things so much easier; it would be shameful if I could not reduce the amount of sugar I have in my coffee by half a teaspoon…

I honestly urge you to take Flappy Bird as inspiration and focus on increasing your score by 1 point at a time, and not try and leap for 70 straight away; losing weight, and keeping it off, are long-term goals and requires you to be consistent – I have found no better way to effortlessly lose weight than to make it so subtle and slow that it is not even a challenge.

-Mike

Got any questions? Email me at mike@unigains.com

Why am I not building more muscle?

March 16, 2016Bodyadmin

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Many of us get so infused into the complexities of fitness; weight to use, reps, tempo, drop sets, and a whole load of other things which we think we have to execute perfectly in order to build muscle.

But, we are forgetting one thing…

WE ARE ANIMALS.

Let me explain…

Do you think lions, bears, monkeys and apes think about how much time they need to rest between exercise bouts? NO.

Now I know we are not monkeys, lions, or bears, but the point is that if we put stress on our muscles we will adapt.

The kind of stress does affect the kind of adaptation, however, we are still overthinking it.

Basically, if you are doing a set of exercise which lasts no longer than a minute, you are working towards getting stronger.

This will lead to you putting more stress on your muscles, which will result in you building muscle if you are in a caloric surplus (eating more than you are burning).

If you are doing anything more than this then you are working more towards increasing your endurance.

This will lead to less stress on your muscles and more on your aerobic system, meaning that you will not be building as much muscle if you were to be in a caloric surplus.

That is all you really need to know if you want to know where to start.

A lot of builders have a fairly substantial amount of muscle. Now compared to what fitness experts say, they do not do a 30-60 minute workout of 4 sets of 8-12 reps… they lift heavy all day every day.

This just shows how our bodies will genuinely adapt to the amount of stress we are putting on it; as builders are generally putting a high amount of stress on their muscles they are stimulating them to grow.

This combined with the fact that they are probably eating when they are hungry will lead to them eating enough to generally be in a surplus to build muscle, and therefore they get bigger – simple.

If you noticed I have used the word generally a lot.

As I have mentioned before, this is because CONSISTENCY IS KEY.

If you are in a calorie surplus 80% of the time, and putting a decent amount of stress on your muscles more times than not, then you will build muscle over time.

If you keep at this consistently, then you will soon build a sizeable amount of muscle.

So when you do not have access to the gym or are too lazy to go, just remember that any stress placed on your muscles is better than none.

It does not have to be exactly 3 sets of 8 followed by a 30-second rest; it could simply be doing one set of pushups to failure, or sprinting on the spot.

ANY EXERCISE IS GOOD EXERCISE!

Never think that just because you do not have a time for a full workout means that you should not do anything.

EVERY LITTLE HELPS.

Tesco is right (UK fans will know).

Please, do not focus on overcomplicating things, overthinking was what led to me building no muscle whatsoever.

If you are trying to build muscle, just eat enough and put some relatively intense stress on your muscles consistently.

-Mike

Got any questions? Email me at mike@unigains.com!

Your Complete Step-By-Step Guide to Fitness Success

March 8, 2016Body, Mindadmin

If you have landed on this page then you are a lucky, lucky person… let me tell you why:

I feel nice today, really nice, and I have decided to detail to you step-by-step how to plan your fitness journey right from the very start – I’m going to tell you how to develop the correct mindset, set effective goals, and actually go out and achieving them effortlessly…

Honestly, what I’m about to give you here could have been made into an ebook and sold for $20, but I will lay it out all for you right now out of the goodness of my heart, and my desire to transform your life.

Think I cannot possibly be more generous than that? Keep reading.

If you have been having a rollercoaster ride with fitness and have not seen results, then this is the guide for you.

So are you prepared to finally get into shape? Bookmark this page and share it with your loved ones so they can get their act together too.

STEP 1: The Mindset

We are not here to work hard for 2 weeks then give up… you are in it for the long term – for life.

The commitment you are going to make right now is bigger than marriage, this is going to define you in ways unimaginable.

The main thing that you have to get into your mind is that you cannot get up and run 100 miles.

Imagine your goal is to walk/run 100 miles. Are you really going to try and sprint it? No… you are going to pace yourself, and focus on one step at a time.

The same applies with achieving the body you want; do you really think that going on a crash diet and trying to achieve it in two years is feasible? NO… It takes years, and you are going to have to pace yourself.

Now I bet half of you are thinking of closing this page and going about your normal life as it’s just not worth it – “what is the point in putting in so much effort into something that may take months before I see the slightest results?”

Well, the beauty is that it can be so effortless – most of you can walk a mile so easily – right? In just over 3 months your 100 mile goal is achieved without breaking a sweat.

On the other hand, if you tried to run 10 miles each day it will seem like the worst thing in the world and even I would go ‘fuck it, not worth it’.

Look, I know you would love to have a better body than you do right now… who doesn’t want to be a little bit leaner, be a bit more muscular/toned, and just be able to do more shit without being tired?

All you have to think about now is whether you want to try ridiculously hard and try and achieve it quickly (crashing and burning miserably), or taking the effortless route and achieving your goal later down the line without even realising… it’s a no-brainer.

So now we have our steady and consistent mindset in place – good; now let’s move on to goals.

Step 2 – Goals… and forgetting about them.

People over emphasise the importance of specific goals; for fitness, I actually think that they can be detrimental.

Fitness is a journey which takes time, and constantly reminding yourself of a goal so far away which seems so impossible can be the most demotivating thing ever.

Also, with fitness you do not really know how long it takes to achieve specific goals, and whether the goals actually make sense.

A lot of the time people who want to be leaner only focus on the weight aspect, without realising that sometimes losing weight will not actually make always look better.

Over-focusing on specific goals may not be the best course of action.

I would love to bench 140kg; but I am only at 105kg, which is ages away – setting a goal to bench 140kg by the end of the year will lead to me failing it miserably and becoming demotivated.

Instead, I just focus on being consistent in the gym and increasing my weight.

So what should I do?

Set yourself an ideal goal – for me it is benching 140kg, squatting 180kg, and deadlifting 220kg.
This goal should stay at the back of your mind and you should rarely think about it; you are ages away – it is probably not going to happen anytime soon.

The main point of your goals is to know the direction you want to head in – there is no point in losing weight when you actually want to get stronger.

Now it’s time to be a little more specific about what we actually need to achieve, and the steps we need to take to achieve it – I like to call these action plans.

In reality, the action plans are still very simple…

Getting Leaner: Decreasing weight and maintaining strength levels
Building Muscle and getting stronger: Increasing weight and increasing strength levels

Now you want to go slightly more detailed when you have your general action plan, and develop action points – these are things you want to be achieving on a daily basis.

The main focus should be on consistency.

For example, a good action point is going to the gym 5 days a week, eating a certain amount of calories, or taking one less bite of that donut every day; it should be something that you can track and measure. We will touch on this more in the next section…

Need help creating long-term goals, action plans, and action points? Email me at mike@unigains.com and I will help you out for free – I’m feeling really nice… don’t miss out.

STEP 3 – Implementation

Okay, by now you should have a rough understanding of what you would generally like to achieve, and the direction you want to be heading in.

It is now time to implement this – this is where most of us fail… but not today.

I’m going to plan out two routes – one for losing weight and one for building muscle, which you can implement right now to start seeing some results.

You know what? I’m feeling so nice that I will give you free weekly reviews for a month if you email me your progress on a daily basis – Email me your progress at mike@unigains.com.

Losing weight

First of all, measure your weight. Email me it.

For the first week, all I want you to do is log everything you eat (see, I told you this will be easy!)
Just track every single bite you eat on your phone, then look at it before you go to bed and ask yourself one question – am I happy with what I ate?

Email me what you ate each day and how you feel.

At the end of the week, measure your weight again. Email me it.

It is fine if you don’t lose any weight, I don’t expect you too. The reason for this task is to build up your character and consistency.

There is also another reason – and I will talk to you about it at the end of the first week.

Now carry on writing down what you eat each day, but identify one thing that you would like to change. This should be so small that it takes no willpower whatsoever.

An example of this is literally eating a bite less of the muffin you eat each day with your coffee, or swapping one chocolate bar for a piece of fruit.

Exercise-wise, it could be doing just one set of wall pushups a day – just one set.

Focus on one thing each week, and watch as you slowly and effortlessly accumulate momentum and willpower.

I want you to do this for 3 weeks. That’s 3 different small tiny changes.

Every day I want you to email me how you feel your day went, and give me some feedback on the action point set.

I will reply back with feedback and advice once a week (free for a limited time – don’t miss out!).

If you are struggling in identifying action points, tell me everything about yourself; your goals, your lifestyle, your struggles etc. This will allow me to help you select some key relatable action points which will help you progress so easily.

You now have the key fundamentals in place to make steady, consistent progress to lose weight – all you need now is guidance on your journey.

This is why it is key that every day you email me your progress and how you are doing.

Let me guide you and help you stay on the right path.

Once I believe you are ready, we can move on to calculating calories and really start creating that unstoppable momentum – prove to me that you are capable and willing to get results.

Building Muscle

Honestly, building muscle is so easy – as long as you forget about it.

Building muscle is the longest thing ever, and that’s why thinking about it will just lead to us becoming demotivated as we are making no progress. Instead, let’s focus on getting stronger and heavier, as this leads to you getting bigger.

Again, the problem lies with consistency, so that is what we are going to focus on.

For the first week, if you have a gym membership, all I want you to do is get in the gym – that’s it.

Every day, just get yourself in the gym, you don’t have to do anything – you can chat to some girls then leave.

If you do not have a gym membership, I want you to do literally just do 5 pushups a day – It does not have to be in a row, just do 5 pushups.

You can do one in the morning, one at lunchtime, two in the afternoon, and one before you go to bed – or you can just do 5 in one go.

Again, email me how you do every single day at mike@unigains.com – this is KEY FOR SUCCESS.

Now for the next three weeks, if you have a gym membership, just keep on turning up for the next three weeks and have a laugh. That’s it.

If for some reason you cannot go to the gym on a particular day, then follow the no-gym method below on those days.

If you do not have access to a gym, then move on to doing 7 pushups a day in week two, 9 in week three, and 11 in week four – That’s it.

“But seriously Mike, are you having a laugh? This is honestly too easy…”

I know.

But do you know why this is so key? It builds character.

They key is to build that winning mentality of being consistent and disciplined, without even trying – this is how you achieve fitness success.

I will assess your progress and feedback over the 4 weeks, and may give you slightly more challenging tasks depending on how you are progressing.

The above is the bare minimum that you have to do.

If you do the above for the next month and email me every single day, you will be on the right track for success.

Remember, I’m doing this for free because I really want to help all of you out there – it is up to you to prove to yourself that you really want to make a change to your life.

Just follow out these extremely easy steps each day, and be consistent.

If you start making excuses about not being able to spend 1 minute writing down what you ate and sending a quick review to me; then you don’t want it enough.

If you want to make a change and need the guidance and help to do so, then join me now and work with me to transform your body and mind.

I look forward to hearing from you!

-Mike

Got any questions? Email me at mike@unigains.com