No one is perfect. There are multiple occasions when I have been trying to lose weight and binged 4,000 calories in one go… but I forgave myself and moved on.
A lot of us use this as an excuse to give up when in fact it should be nothing to worry about.
REMEBER: YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE 100% PERFECT. 80% IS FINE. RELAX. MESS UP. IT’S OKAY. JUST DO GOOD THINGS MOST OF THE TIME.
This should not really happen too often if you are following step 1, as your goal should be so easy that it is simply embarrassing to fail.
3. Tell the whole world what your goals are
I have told everyone that I am going to make this blog a success and have told all my mates that I will deadlift 220kg, squat 180kg, and bench 140kg. Now I have no choice but to make it happen.
Telling people helps you feel accountable; you will feel a little bit determined to achieve your goals as you will feel as though you are not just failing yourself, but your loved ones too.
Also, write them down. When stuff gets written down it becomes official. That’s why written contracts are more important than a verbal agreement. Create proof and evidence what you say you are going to achieve.
BONUS: Do not lie to yourself
I truly do not understand why people make excuses; what is the point in lying to yourself about why you could not achieve a goal? It is not because of genetics, or natural talent; you are always able to become a better version of yourself. Fact.
Instead of making excuses, write down why you failed and what you can do to fix it. It may just be spending 1 minute of stretching to try and touch your toes, or sacrificing 5 mins to learn a new language.
Great success stories do not go like ‘I attempted to succeed, failed, then gave up like a bitch’… they go like ‘I attempted to succeed, failed, then stopped being a bitch and tried again.’
Looking to lose weight? My eBook is currently half price! Get your copy now!
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…
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.
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:
Proof!
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.
I know it’s a bold statement, but I have my reasons for believing this, and let me tell you why…
They shun down dreams
Don’t get me wrong, I love my friends and family; they make my life happy and fill it with joy.
But… a lot of the times they inhibit your ability to turn dreams into targets, by (often unknowingly) making that dream appear to be unachievable.
Let me give you an example:
I was in my final year of secondary education, and I applied for university and got offers from some really renown institutions (LSE & Warwick being the main two). However, I also discovered a really promising opportunity to go straight into work and actually obtain the qualifications I needed to a year earlier than if I were to go to university. They only difference would be that I would not get a degree, but the qualification was worth way more than the degree, and when you got the qualification the degree had no extra value.
When I expressed my opinion to many friends and family members, I received so many single-minded and naive answers (no offence) – these were mainly based around the fact that it has been ingrained in so many of our minds that university is the only route to success, and if you get good grades you need to go to university.
Luckily for me, I have very strong self-believe, and I was able to overcome the negativity by arguing my point and actually changing the views of some who originally opposed the idea.
Deciding to not to university was a great choice for me, but it was a tough and ambitious decision to make.
Now I fully understand that my friends and family were trying to do what’s best for me – however unfortunately sometimes their opinion is not always the best.
When it comes to fitness it is just as bad.
A lot of the time when you finally decide to be ambitious and transform your life, the closest people in your life can still face you with adversity.
Again, this is likely unintentional, but it happens.
In quite a few occasions, it’s just that failure in fitness occurs so much, so as soon as an ambitious goal is mentioned it’s often faced with comments such as ‘yeah right’, or ‘good luck with that’.
They may not be downright negative comments, however, it just pushes that ambition a little bit further into that dream-world.
When I first wanted to follow a caveman diet back in school, it was hard as hell, because my mum didn’t believe in it and essentially refused to buy me the foods I needed. That paired with the subtle peer-pressure to go out and eat at McDonald’s and Subway etc. made the goal even harder.
So how do you overcome this?
The internet is your friend.
There are so many people out there with such similar ambitions to you, and who can help you out with your journey and help you head in the right direction.
I like to call these people ‘ambition friends’; peers who have similar targets and goals, and who will help you push you to make your dreams a reality.
Again, I have nothing against my friends or family… I’m probably coming across as an ungrateful bitch… all I’m saying is that sometimes the people closest to you may inadvertently shun your dreams down ever so subtly, and it may be wiser to find people with similar goals and ambitions to help you achieve them.
-Mike
Like my content? Share and Tweet and Spread the word!
Zero-calorie versions of fizzy drinks are becoming more and more commonplace; nearly all fizzy drink manufacturers have their ‘zero-calorie’ alternative.
I have seen a lot more people replace Coke with Coke Zero, as they are ‘dieting’ or ‘watching their weight’ – but does it actually help?
Will Coke-Zero help me lose weight?
Well, from a numerical point of view – Yes…
But for a lot of people – NO… and here’s why:
There are 140 calories in Coke and about 4 in Coke Zero; replacing Coke with Coke Zero is the equivalent of not eating a Kit-Kat!
There are some arguments that Coke Zero does not help you lose weight due to the shit they put in there and the effect that it causes on your body.
I am not going to go into detail because honestly I am not too knowledgeable on it, but the reality is this:
We have made the choice to drink Coke or Coke Zero, and we know that they are both pumped with chemicals and shit that are not good for us – they are basically as bad as each other… but if you had to choose based on a purely macronutrient standpoint, then Coke Zero should be your choice to lose weight, as you will be consuming fewer calories.
Just look at this video here for a simple reason as to why I would suggest the Zero-Calorie alternatives.
WAIT, for most of us it will not do SHIT
It is all about our mentality and approach to fitness.
So many people out there who make the transition from Coke to Coke Zero start to eat worse; because they are making a ‘healthy-substitute’, they end up eating more rubbish.
I don’t know if it’s a psychological thing that drinking Coke Zero causes, or if it’s just people making excuses to eat more.
If you are that person who drinks Coke-Zero but still has a packet of sweets and some crisps in the other hand, then Coke Zero is not going to magically shed the pounds.
As part of a planned, conscious change to lose weight, Coke Zero can help, and can help a lot – but if you are just doing it so you can eat that KitKat ‘guilt-free’, keep dreaming..
-Mike
Need help to stop ‘trying’ to lose weight and actually lose it? Email me at mike@unigains.com and Subscibe to my mailing list!
