Video: Flexible Dieting Explained

A little video blog about Flexible Dieting that I shot after training the other day.



I kind of wish I had tidied myself up a bit first but whatever, some good information if I do say so!



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Should I eat above BMR when trying to lose weight?

A bit of an epic reply I just sent to a young lady who asked the question above.

well.... here's how it works.

first off though i don't know your stats so i don't know if you actually have any weight to lose, but either way... if you do, or if you just want to see better results from training while already at a sensible weight... the same applies.

BMR is how much your body requires just to function without so much as rolling over in bed all day. So, cell regeneration, keeping your heart beating, bone and muscle and organ maintenance, skin and hair and fingernail growth.... god I don't even know, all sorts of other stuff that's required to be alive.

And right now, eating below BMR means you're not even giving yourself enough fuel for that - let alone to build the lean & toned figure I imagine you probably want. Or even just to move around a bit during the day. So what that means is your body has to find a way to compensate and survive on so much less fuel that it really needs. It manages this through hormonal changes.... thyroid shuts down, adrenal glands pump out more cortisol.... in simpler terms though your body is trying to conserve and store energy because it thinks "i'm not getting enough, if i run out of what I have stored in reserve i'm fucked". So in other words your body wants to store fat and it will sacrifice muscle and bone mass to do this. Very bad stuff.

So screw doing that. If you really want to create the body you really want, you need to dial in a plan that provides enough fuel not just to replace what you burn just by being alive + moving around a bit + exercise... you need to put in enough to actually be able to adapt to training. That would mean storing more energy in the muscles, strengthening your bones with increased density, more lean, toned muscle mass.... if we get it right your body goes "well bloody hell I only JUST have enough resources available to manage all this... these fat stores can GO I have other priorities right now"

Makes sense?

So... we can dial in appropriate calories to support an appropriate weight, put all of that fuel to good use... and end up healthy, strong, sexy and happy. I have girls who are eating seriously over 1000 cals a day more now than they were when they first came to me for advice and they are so much happier with their results and just in general because of it, eating all the nice stuff whatever they fancy!

So that was a long answer but in short "yes you need to eat more than your bmr and you'll be much happier with your results if you do".

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This week in review

I've neglected this blog slightly due to working on some other stuff.

Quite probably the most interesting thing that happened this week is that I received my "Team DaveHPT : Flexible Dieting" silicone wristbands in the mail. I'll be mailing some of these out to clients / fans who want to represent me, early next week.

I thought I'd have some fun with advertising too, as follows:

Post by Dave Hargreaves Personal Training.

I had plans for a more elaborate ruse but you don't get to put much text on these things. You can see that this ad leads to a new page that I set up earlier in the week, trying a different format that I basically stole from more successful marketers. Of course, unlike most similar pages I actually talk a lot of sense so who knows if it will be as effective or not. We can only hope!

Over on my main blog I wrote a new entry about Vegetarian Health & Fitness, and another one about How Unhealthy Foods Can Help You Lose Weight.

I guess that's all? Also we're two weeks out from FitX which is pretty exciting.

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CRAZY Personal Trainer shares entirely sensible method to produce amazing results exactly as you'd expect.

Studying up on marketing techniques over the weekend, and I UNEXPECTEDLY learned this one WEIRD TRICK that produces UNEXPLAINABLE results... I'm AMAZED that everyone isn't doing it this way.

Uh... that's the trick. Talk about how it's something "weird", "unexpected", "unexplainable", and "amazing" and so on. So for my online coaching system it might be "CRAZY PT SHARES ONE WEIRD TRICK FOR UNEXPLAINABLE AMAZING RESULTS IN WEIGHT LOSS" or something like that.

Except there's one problem applying this to what I do. There's nothing weird about it, it is entirely explainable either by the laws of science or just common sense, and the results are exactly what you'd expect. Amazing I can still use because people usually are amazed at how easy they find it, when they are actually armed with the right strategy. Also crazy cos I'm somewhat eccentric.

When you eat the right amount to maintain a goal weight, you end up at that weight. When you train constructively rather than just to burn calorie, you build your goal body type. In due time you arrive at your goal weight, in your goal condition. Very simple!

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A little music to training analogy

Some of you might or might know I was quite an accomplished musician earlier in life. If you watch my training videos there's usually some of my music over the top of the sound of weights clanging and grunts being grunted.

Now, some musicians play by ear. This means they don't really know the theory but they do know to play. Sometimes this might mean their repertoire is somewhat limited, but on the other hand some of the worlds most acclaimed musicians fit this category.

When I played, I had a reasonable knowledge of theory but got to the point where I could kind of ignore the theory and just play what I wanted to hear. My good friend and now online PT client Dean Gaudoin who's talent and knowledge of theory greatly surpasses my own would be able to hear what I was playing and tell me "oh you're playing the minor seven with the added fourth, so I'll play this to accompany it"... and I'd have to look at my fingers for a bit and then think "wow he's right, that IS what I'm playing".

Now then. For some reason  I can remember many years ago reading an interview with guitarist Joe Satriani, and the interviewer raised something about a particular player "not using scales". In other words, playing by ear. And Joe explained "whether he realises it or not, what he is actually playing is the pentatonic blues scale".

So... just because you're not aware of the theory, it doesn't mean that what you're doing is not explained by theory.

Training... or more specifically, dieting for weight loss and body composition goals is very similar. If you are successful it is because you have hit suitable total calories, fibre and macro ratios. You might not be tracking your intake or setting targets, you may not agree with or believe in the "If It Fits Your Macros" concept, but that is still what you are doing.  The only difference is in actually determining those nutritional targets and having a plan to ensure you hit them, rather than just happening to get it right by eating random amounts or random foods.

I see a lot of industry types and assorted know-it-alls scoffing at the concept of Flexible Dieting or IIFYM, interpreting it as "you're saying you can just eat as much as you want of whatever you like?" Clearly that's the opposite of what it really is. What it really means is having targets corresponding to your requirements for energy, protein, dietary fats, fibre and so on, and then choosing appropriate amounts of different foods to meet those requirements. 

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