"Ya Gotta Wanna"

The quote in the title is one that a number of us on the Lean Bodies Fitness forum have gotten used to seeing - namely from one long-term LBC client and personal friend, Ileen Natic. It's a quote she stands by in the pursuit of her physique goals and it's powerful in its simplicity - if you're going to achieve something, you have to want to achieve it. And really want it. Rather than do Ileen any injustices in my sharing of her journey to where she is now - someone admired by many of her peers for her consistently strong effort and as a result, consistent payoff with results and physique improvements - I'm just going to post... read more 13 comments

Hunger and Fat Loss

A conveniently timed blog post from Lyle McDonald adds more to what I've been harping upon for the last few posts about hunger, expecting it when dieting, and fat loss. One quote in particular: There are other adaptations, folks often decrease their activity levels (conserving energy), fat burning goes down and fat storage goes up, appetite often goes up so that people eat more when food is made available. In common parlance, this is often referred to as the ’starvation response’ and, yes, there is something to it. Unfortunately, it’s basically the price that has to be paid for losing body fat to any significant level. People talk constantly about avoiding the starvation response and things of that nature but the... read more 0 comments

Refeeds - Mine!

I'll put up a bit more on refeeds at a later time, but for the time being I wanted to show what my most recent one looked like to give you an idea. Starting weight Thursday morning - about 213lbs. My food for day included (I'm just grouping it all together as opposed to breaking it up into meals) 8 egg whites 9 oz of chicken 1 1/2 scoops whey protein I think that was it for direct protein. :lol: 55g oatmeal + 70g berries (non-refeed meal, as I decided to bump it up a day after I'd already eaten Meal 1) 4 toasted Cinnamon-Raisin bagels with low-sugar raspberry jam 6 toasted English Muffins 8 blueberry Nutrigrain bars 5 Breyer's Ice Cream Sandwiches 1 large container of Black Cherry... read more 8 comments

It's Simple, But It's Not Easy - Follow Up Again

Ok, let's finish this off ... I know I'm starting to sound like a broken record with some of this stuff ... Hard. Back to that for a minute. As I said above (more than once now), it's the same as saying it's not supposed to be easy. By saying it's supposed to be hard, I simply mean, don't be surprised if it does carry a measure of difficulty with it. Again, “hard” is a word of degree; it's all relative. It's HARDER to be very lean or exceptional compared to the population norms than it is to be average or overweight. Can anyone deny this? Let's also remember that higher bodyfat (here's our population context again) – is... read more 5 comments