How To Lose 20 Pounds In 5 Minutes

Back “in the day”, when I used to do coaching programs full time
at my New Jersey Health Club, the first thing I would always ask
my client during the initial consultation was:

“Tell me what you want… and I’ll show you how to get it.”

Typical reply from client:

“I want to lose 20 pounds fast.”

My reply:

“Are you SURE that’s what you want? …If I can show you how to
lose 20 pounds REALLY fast, will that make you happy?”

They nodded their head affirmatively as their eyes lit up in
anticipation of the secrets I was about to reveal…

Their face went white when I – with a totally straight face -
pulled out a hacksaw and started walking towards them….
menacingly

Partly laughing, but partly in real terror they said,

“What the heck are you doing?”

“You said you wanted to lose 20 pounds fast. This is the
easiest, surest, most effective way I know to take 20 pounds off
you FAST! In fact, I figure that right leg of yours might even
weigh 25 pounds!”

I kept walking closer and started to get into sawing position,
wielding my fast, effective and guaranteed weight loss tool…

“Bear with me because this IS quick, but sometimes it takes a
few minutes for me to cut through the bone..”

By this time, my client (and I) are either completely cracking
up, or I have seriously scared the living you know what out of
them, or they just think I’m a complete lunatic… (it depends
on whether I was able to keep a totally straight face or not)

Finally, the light bulb goes on, and my client would see where I
was going with this:

“Okay, smart alec,” I get it… I don’t want to lose WEIGHT, I
want to lose FAT.”

Sometimes I would be having so much fun, I would just keep on
playin’…

“But why not? This is easy, fast and guaranteed – just what
everyone wants these days… it’s even better than taking a
pill! Come on… let me hack it off! You’ll be my next
testimonial: ‘I lost 20 pounds in 5 minutes!’ Imagine what that
will do for my business!”

“Very funny. I told you, I get it, I get it! I want to lose FAT,
not muscles and bones. I need my leg!

Naturally, of course, I don’t always have to pull out my trusty
blade. Every once in a while… about as often as a total solar
eclipse… a client answers my question like this:

“What do I want? Tom, I want to lose 20 pounds of body fat in
the next 12 weeks. I want to do it slowly, safely and
healthfully and then keep it off permanently. I want all the fat
around my hips and thighs completely gone and I want a firm flat
stomach. I want muscle all over my body while still looking
feminine. I’d like to see myself at about 16% body fat and
maintain all my muscle or gain a few pounds of lean mass if I
can, especially in my arms. This is important to me because I
want to set a good example for my kids, I want to be healthy and
live to at least 90 and I want my husband to look at me and say,
“I love your body, honey,” and I want to be able to *honestly*
say back to him, “me too!”

It is on these rare occasions that I know there is still
intelligent life on this planet.

If you could answer the question, “What do you want” just like
this woman did, I don’t think you would ever have any difficulty
reaching your health and fitness goals… or any other goal in
your life, for that matter.

This answer is what you call a very “well-formed” goal, backed
up with lots of emotional motivation-inducing “reasons why.”

“I want to lose weight” is a poorly-formed goal.

“Weight” is not the same as “fat.” Weight includes muscle, bone,
internal organs as well as lots and lots of water.

If you only learn ONE thing from all my newsletters, articles
and books, PLEASE learn this:

WHAT YOU REALLY WANT IS TO BURN THE FAT, WHILE KEEPING THE
MUSCLE!!!!

FAT LOSS is what you want, not weight loss.

If your body was 100% rock-solid muscle, with absolutely nothing
that jiggled (unless it was supposed to), would you care how
much you weighed?

I bet you wouldn’t!

STOP WORSHIPPING THE SCALE AND START MEASURING YOUR BODY
COMPOSITION

By measuring your body fat, you take the guesswork out of your
health and fitness plan and you get an accurate picture of
what’s really happening in your body as a result of your diet
and exercise program.

Instead of worrying about whether you are losing muscle, or
wondering if you are losing fat, you can measure it and KNOW for
sure. (I always get a good chuckle when someone tells me they’re
worried about losing muscle when they don’t even measure how
much muscle they have!)

Instead of being confused by all the “opinions” from weight loss
and exercise “experts” who are all telling you something
different, you can MEASURE your body composition and based on
the results, you can KNOW for sure whether your program is
working.

A very wise man once said,

“A single measurement is worth a thousand opinions.”

So, how do you measure body fat?

There are many ways. Thanks to technology, there are some
methods today that are so accurate, they can tell you whether
your left pinky has more fat than your right pinky!

Unfortunately, many of them are either too expensive or they are
inaccessible, being found only in hospitals or research
facilities

If you want to learn a LOT about various body fat testing
methods, refer to chapter 3 in my e-book, Burn The Fat, Feed The
Muscle at www.burnthefat.com

Instead of re-hashing it all, let me give you three quick and
easy, practical suggestions:

Suggestion 1: Have a trainer or fitness professional measure
you, if this service is available at your local health club.
Sometimes, there’s a charge – usually $15 – $25, although some
clubs offer the service for free to all their members (we do at
our club)

Suggestion 2: Purchase an Accu-measure skinfold caliper. Do a
google or yahoo search to find a reseller, or just visit
www.accumeasurefitness.com.

The Accumeasure was designed to allow you to measure your own
body fat in the privacy of your own home (you don’t need someone
else to measure you)

Some people wonder if this is really accurate. Truth is, it’s
not quite as accurate as a multi site skinfold test from an
experienced tester, but it’s better than nothing. Besides,
what’s most important is not the “accuracy” per se, but the
reliablity and consistency of your measurements so you can track
your progress. Skinfold calipers in general are not accurate or
inaccurate, it’s the person doing the test that is accurate or
inaccurate.

Here’s the page where you can download a study about the
accuracy of the Accu-Measure (Journal of Strength and
Conditioning Research, December 1998):

http://www.accumeasurefitness.com/study.pdf

Suggestion 3: If you have a spouse, roomate, or friend who can
measure your body fat, you can purchase a Slim Guide body fat
caliper from Creative Health Products: www.chponline.com

The Slimguide is the best inexpensive caliper available (About
$20), but it wasn’t designed for you to measure your own body
fat. You’ll need someone to measure you with this caliper. Other
models of body fat calipers (if you want to splurge), range from
$150 to $450. (At our health clubs, I use the electronic
“SKYNDEX” caliper with the 4-site “Durnin formula.”)

The calipers come with instructions, or you can use these
formulas, which I have used and found to be very accurate:

4 Site formula for men (abdomen, suprailiac, thigh, tricep)

% fat = .29288(sum of 4 skinfolds) – 0.0005(sum of four
skinfolds squared) + 0.15845(age) – 5.76377

4-Site Formula for women (abdomen, suprailiac, thigh, tricep)

% Fat = (.29669)(sum of 4 skinfolds) – (.00043)(Sum of four
skinfolds squared) + .02963(age) + 1.4072

Source: Jackson A S, Pollock, M (1985) Practical assessment of
body composition. Physician Sport Med. 13: 76-90.

Body fat percentages vary based on age and gender, but 20-25%
body fat is average for women (15-19% is ideal), while 15-20% is
average for men (10-14% is ideal). I have detailed charts for
body fat charts in my e-book if you’re interested.

Once you know your body fat percentage, then weigh yourself and
record your weight and body fat on a progress chart such as the
one found in my Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle Program (a fat loss
program, not a weight loss program). This chart is how you will
track your progress and “keep score.”

You can calculate your lean body mass (muscle and other fat free
tissue) very easily just by crunching some numbers:

For example, if you weigh 200 pounds and you have 10% body fat
then you have 20 pounds of fat (10% of 200 = 20). That means you
have a lean body mass (LBM) of 180 pounds.

Now we’re talking! With this data, you can get a really clear
picture of how your exercise and nutrition program are affecting
your physique.

Losing weight is very easy. Losing fat – and keeping it off
without losing muscle – is a much bigger challenge. If you
simply wanted to lose weight, we could just chop off your leg.

Or… (slightly less painful)… I could show you how to drop 10
- 15 pounds over the weekend just by dehydrating yourself and
using natural herbal diuretics. Bodybuilders and wrestlers do it
all the time to make a weight class.

But what good would that do if it’s almost all water and you’re
just going to gain it all back within days?

You don’t have to “throw away your scale” like many “experts”
tell you to. By all means, keep using the scale, the tape
measure and even photographs and the mirror – the more feedback
the better, but body fat is where it’s at.

By the way, I recently bought a chain saw and a shiny new axe
from Home Depot, and I’ve been practicing my “American Psycho”
and Jack Nicholson, “The Shining” impersonations… so if you
want to come to my office any time soon for personal
consultation, you’d better have the right answer to my question,
“What do you want?”

One last thing – If you found this information useful, then
you’ll want to know that I wrote an entire new e-book on body
fat testing, called “How to Measure Your Body Fat In the Privacy
Of Your Own Home.” Normally the retail price is $19.95, but I’m
offering it for FREE at www.burnthefat.com with the purchase of
my fat loss ebook, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle. (Note: BFFM is
a FAT LOSS program, not a WEIGHT LOSS program!)

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