I wanted to post up some of the questions I’ve gotten from time to time from folk regarding training and diet in the hopes that it helps other folk who are still finding their way. This will be the first of what is likely to be a length series. If you are reading this and have questions that aren’t answered here, feel free to hit me up through the contact links and I’ll be happy to answer.
In no particular order, here goes:
Q: I’ve got lumps of fat that feel like small marbles, kind of squishy feeling. Should I be worried?
A: No, not really, this is called squishy fat and is relatively common. Here’s a good write-up about it by super-smart guy and probably the best nutrition expert on the Internet: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/of-whooshes-and-squishy-fat.html
Q: I want to get leaner (insert bodypart here), how do I do that?
A: Just keep losing weight. Everyone stores fat slightly differently, mostly due to genetics. You can’t spot reduce, and the part of you that is being ‘stubborn’ is likely going to be the last area that fat really drops from.
Q: I’ve lost a lot of weight, but my appearance hasn’t changed much. When will I really start to notice a difference?
A: Well, first, you need to get away from the assumption that weight = fat. Some of your loss is going to be fat, and some is likely to be lean tissue. If your diet contains adequate protein and your training poundages stay heavy, you should retain most of your lean tissue. However, if you don’t lift, do a lot of cardio, and starve yourself, you are going to end up losing a lot of muscle, which may leave you at a lower body weight with roughly the same body fat percentage.
Second, you need to realize that massive changes in appearance don’t really start to happen until you get down to sub-20% BF levels. The difference between 40% body fat and 25% body fat are fairly minimal, but the difference between 20% and 15% is pretty obvious. So, in a nutshell, concentrate on dropping fat, not weight, and realize that the change won’t be really obvious until you get close to your end goals.