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For All My Big Dawgs: Series Introduction
List of posts in For All My Big Dawgs
- For All My Big Dawgs: Series Introduction
- The Myth of Willpower and Fat Loss
- The Snowman Effect, Loose Skin, and Fat Loss
- Obese Men & Weight Training … Why The Fascination? Part I
- Obese Men & Weight Training … Why The Fascination? Part II
- Are You Fat Because You’re Lazy or …
- Obese Guys Please Stop Doing HIIT and Save Your Knees!
- Are You Really Addicted to Food?
- “Eat Less, Move More” Is Not A 50/50 Proposition
As I’m approaching the end of the first four weeks of my current 12 week cycle to reduce my body fat percentage, it’s caused me to reflect more on the challenges that I faced when I first began my journey.
That’s when it dawned on me that I need to start a series of posts dedicated to all my Big Dawgs out there following my blog. And when I say Big Dawgs, I mean those guys who are classified as obese, morbidly obese, or even super morbidly obese!
If you don’t fall into these categories, then understand that this series was not created with you in mind. No dis-respect to the non-obese, but if you’ve never been apart of the club, then it’s harder for you to understand the challenges morbidly obese men face on a daily basis.
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The Three Step Fat Loss Experiment
Many folks don’t realize that I keep a collage of old pictures of myself taped to my bathroom mirror; its caption reads: “It’s OK to learn from past mistakes”. Below this collage, I have another one with current pictures and its caption reads: “To apply to your present and shape your future”.
Listen guys, I share this with you because I know the daily struggles of the average morbidly obese guy walking around today because I played that role long enough, which my pictures remind me of every morning. And let me tell you something that no weight loss commercial, diet book, or pharmaceutical company will tell you: YOU HAVE COMPLETE AND UTTER CONTROL OVER YOUR FAT LOSS JOURNEY!
However, to realize this, you must understand that by allowing your emotions and mindless eating habits to run wild, you’ll always be fair game to being suckered into buying into the latest and greatest fad diet or fitness tool. So, to begin to really get a feeling for this power, I have a simple 4 week experiment I want you to consider trying.
The purpose of this experiment is to show that for you to lose fat, you must consume less calories than you are currently consuming. Also, at this stage of your fat loss journey, nutrition is the most important factor, which I believe this experiment will also reinforce.
It’s a three step experiment that goes like this:
Step One: Mental Preparation
Give yourself a week before moving to the next step. During this week, I want you to be more mindful of when and why you eat. What I mean by this, is try to figure out if you are more of an emotional eater or do you simply eat without thinking much about it. For instance, do you eat more when you’re stressed or do you find yourself simply eating because the bag of chips is by the TV while you’re watching your favorite show?
Once you have an idea of what triggers your overeating, I’d like for you to write them down somewhere that you’ll be able to go back to later.
Next, I want you to promise to yourself that for the next four weeks you are going to be accountable to Step Two of this experiment 90% of the time, and, finally, engrave in your mind that there is NO DAMN WAGON TO FALL OFF OF!
Step Two: Experiment Guidelines
OK, here’s the basics. For the next 4 weeks, you are going to consciously reduce your portion sizes. However, you will not be following any specific diet, counting any calories, or following any structured exercise program.
Also, I don’t care if the majority of food that you eat over the next four weeks is considered “healthy” or not. It’s up to you; all I care about is that you focus on reducing your portion sizes.
So, let me give you a couple of simple examples to reduce the amount of calories you’re eating:
- One easy way to eat less calories is to reduce your grain-based carbs while eating more protein! For instance, instead of eating two or three burgers separately, combine them into one super sandwich and toss the extra buns. Also, down-size everything you order from a fast food joint. Get the regular or small fries and soda no matter what! If you order a diet soda, you can get whatever size drink you want.
- Make 2 to 3 days out of each week water or unsweetened tea only days. Consume no liquid calories on these days.
- Make 2 to 3 days out of the week no grain-based carbs days. Consume no grain-based carbs (e.g., bread, pasta, cereal, etc.) on these days. Fill up on carbs from fruit and green veggies instead.
- Cut your junk food intake in half! Hey, as I said, you’re not following any diet or counting calories, but you are consciously reducing your portion sizes, and we all know that what’s considered “junk foods” are usually very calorie dense.So feel free to eat that candy bar, piece of cake, ice cream, brownie, etc., but consume HALF of what you’d normally consume. Please don’t make this difficult because it doesn’t have to be. If you know that you usually eat a candy bar before lunch, eat half of it and toss the rest. Do the same for that daily bag of chips you usually eat while checking your email in the evening.
- Take every opportunity you can to be a little more active. For instance, take 5 minute walk breaks away from your desk. Get off one floor before the one you’re going to and walk the last flight. Think about moving more, as opposed to exercising.
- While not required, I strongly suggest that you start keeping track of your calories at www.fitday.com. Start off with tracking 1 or 2 full days instead of committing to doing an entire week or the entire experiment.
Step Three: Reporting Your Results
Weigh yourself at the beginning of this little experiment, and continue to do the same thing at the beginning of each of the four weeks. If you are losing more than 3 pounds a week, you’re cutting back too much on your portion sizes big guy. I’m not asking you to starve yourself for 4 weeks! 
If you’re keeping the 90/10 ratio, you can expect to lose anywhere between 1-3 pounds a week. If the scale’s not moving, try adding another day, or two, of drinking no liquid calories or eating no grain-based carbs.
Keep track of your weight, and at the end of your experiment, do me a favor and come back here and leave a comment for me.
My No BS/Hype Clause
Guys, if you follow the simple experiment I’ve outlined above, then you will lose fat. But, let me be very clear about what’s going on here because I don’t want to sound like yet another snake oil salesman peddling the latest “secrets of fat loss”. What I’ve outlined above it an attempt to do what ALL diet plans, regardless of author, is trying to get your to do: consume less calories.
Since I know that these authors rarely, if ever, tell you that you don’t need their plans to lose fat, I will. Not only will I tell you that you have a lot more power in this process than you think, I’ve given you a guaranteed three step experiment to prove it to you.
How can I be so sure and guarantee success? It’s really simple. If you fall into one of the three categories of obesity that I mentioned at the beginning of this post, then you have a lot of excess stored energy (read: body fat) and water that your body is more than happy to part with. So, once you consciously reduce your portion sizes, even slightly, your body will start to use the excess stored energy, and guess what? You’ll lose fat.
There’s NO magic or special formula that you need to master Big Dawg! Work on getting that ravenous appetite under control by consciously reducing your portion sizes first. Give yourself 4 weeks to prove to yourself that eating less does actually cause you to lose fat, and then we’ll talk about all the other minor details in future posts in this series.
April 26th, 2009 at 8:58 pm
Ok, I admit…I’m in the Big Dawg Club. I’ve been reading your blog for months but never applied any of it. Calorie counting and portion sizes seems easy enough to start. Can’t wait for the next in this series.
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Muata Reply:
April 27th, 2009 at 6:23 am
David, thanks for your comment and mentioning where you are now. Yes, calorie counting and reducing your portion sizes is “simple” but not really “easy”. I say simple because there’s not that much too understand, very few moving parts; however, easy means that not much effort is required to accomplish the task at hand, which ain’t the case with fat loss. Focus on the simplicity of the experiment, and no that it will take work on your part. David, please keep us up to date on your progress my friend …
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April 27th, 2009 at 6:03 am
Muata, as you know I have been reading every post you put out since April 2008.
I am here to tell you and all your readers , you are right on the mark. I started as Morbidly Obese and I am no longer in that cat.
It ain’t magic , it works. Great post.
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Muata Reply:
April 27th, 2009 at 6:30 am
Bill, I appreciate your comments and you blog! The more guys that lose fat and proclaim that it ain’t magic, the better. While we may never compete with all the diet and weight loss commercials on TV, hopefully we can start a grassroots movement of formerly obese guys telling everyone that there’s NO MAGIC PILL! Congrats on moving from the Morbidly Obese category Bill; I remember when I did my “time” in that category as well. To those of you currently in the Big Dawg Club, check out Bill’s blog for an “in the process” look at fat loss from a Texan Cowboy.
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April 28th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Hi Muata,
I was with you until you got to that part about eating less
Just kidding.
I have an event to attend in Chicago at the end of June… I’ve been increasing my workouts but starting to do some time management. I am devoting the first couple of hours after I get home to visiting with my wife and working out… I’ll check the computer as I can after dinner.
The other hard part I have been having is portioning. In the evening I tended to eat more… I have less control. I like that you substitute non-calorie liquids a few days a week.
I’ll take this to heart and work it into what I am doing – and keep a log for the month of May. And yes I will report back.
Thanks for the continuing motivation and more importantly – the ideas!
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Muata Reply:
April 29th, 2009 at 6:12 am
John thanks for your comment! Please come back and let us know how things are going. Oh, if you tend to eat more in the evening, why not try eating less during the day and saving the majority of your calories at night. As long as you don’t feel that you’re overeating, moving your calories around won’t hurt your fat loss as long as you’re still in a calorie deficit. Keep up the good work …
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May 10th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
Congrats on finishing the first third of your cycle. You are going to have to change your name to Mr. Really Low Body Fat or Mr. No Body Fat.
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Muata Reply:
May 11th, 2009 at 8:32 pm
No no, I won’t be doing that any time soon … LOL! Let me get to close to 5% first!
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March 4th, 2010 at 3:38 am
OK.
Here it goes.
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Muata Reply:
March 4th, 2010 at 1:37 pm
John, did the rest of your comment get lost in cyberspace?
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