What I wish I knew before dropping to 12% body-fat — Transcript

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1. 0:00At the start of this year, I looked like
2. 0:01this. Six months later, this is how I
3. 0:03looked. Now, while I did ultimately
4. 0:05reach my goal, there was a number of
5. 0:08mistakes and pitfalls and things I wish
6. 0:11I knew that if someone had told me
7. 0:13before I started my cut, would have made
8. 0:16the entire process just so much easier
9. 0:20and probably quite a bit faster. So, in
10. 0:22today's video, what I want to do is run
11. 0:24through what I wish I knew before I did
12. 0:27my weight loss cut. So, hopefully you
13. 0:29can take these lessons and whether
14. 0:31you're in the middle of a cut or you're
15. 0:32just about to start one, it can make
16. 0:34your process just that little bit
17. 0:35easier. If you're new here, my name's
18. 0:37Louie. I'm a personal trainer who trains
19. 0:39online and in person. I've been doing it
20. 0:41for a number of years now helping people
21. 0:43look and feel better in their bodies.
22. 0:45So, let's get into the first one. Now,
23. 0:47the first point is you'll actually look
24. 0:49worse before you look better. Now, this
25. 0:52is one that actually stressed me out
26. 0:53quite a bit because I've spent a good
27. 0:55few years building up some muscle. And
28. 0:58if you're familiar with the muscle
29. 0:59building process, then you know how
30. 1:01tedious and slow it really is. At about
31. 1:04the 4-month mark of my cut, I started to
32. 1:06feel a lot smaller. Now, obviously by
33. 1:09then I'd already burnt quite a lot of
34. 1:11fat. So, I was definitely leaner, but I
35. 1:14felt smaller in the sense that I didn't
36. 1:16have as much muscle density or visible
37. 1:19muscle. And honestly, for like a month
38. 1:21or two, I was kind of bummed out and
39. 1:23stressed that I'd started to lose a ton
40. 1:26of muscle that I'd spent years building
41. 1:28up and I was going to have to spend
42. 1:29those years rebuilding lost muscle. But,
43. 1:32what I actually didn't know is when you
44. 1:33do a deep cut, your body loses its
45. 1:36glycogen stores. Now, those glycogen
46. 1:38stores are what's actually responsible
47. 1:40for your muscles holding water. That
48. 1:42water is what gives your muscle that
49. 1:44dense full look. But, fortunately, once
50. 1:47I started eating carbs again and I got
51. 1:49back to maintenance, those glycogen
52. 1:50stores replenished and a lot of that
53. 1:53full density that I was losing in the
54. 1:55muscles actually came back. So, the
55. 1:57first thing I wish I knew before I did
56. 1:59my cut that would have saved me a lot of
57. 2:01mental stress, was you'll look worse
58. 2:03before you actually look better. Now,
59. 2:05the second thing I wish someone told me
60. 2:07about before I lost the weight is you
61. 2:09won't stay lean for very long. Now, for
62. 2:12me, I went through this whole process of
63. 2:15getting under 12% body fat because I had
64. 2:17a holiday coming up that I wanted to be
65. 2:19comfortable taking my shirt off for. I
66. 2:21wanted to enjoy the beach. Now, I did
67. 2:23get a week of living the good life, but
68. 2:26it didn't take long before I lost that
69. 2:28extra lean crispiness that I worked so
70. 2:31hard to achieve. You see, to go from 15%
71. 2:34to 12, you've got to really work hard.
72. 2:36To go from 12 to 10 is even harder. You
73. 2:39have to be intentional with what you
74. 2:41eat, how you eat, when you eat it. But,
75. 2:44to go from 10% to 12% back up the line,
76. 2:47it might be a week of bad eating. So, if
77. 2:50I were to go back and do it all again, I
78. 2:52would be far more careful on that refeed
79. 2:54phase, and I would work harder to
80. 2:56maintain that level of leanness. Now,
81. 2:59the third thing I wish I knew before I
82. 3:00started my cut was it takes longer than
83. 3:03expected. When I started my
84. 3:04transformation, I was expecting the
85. 3:06whole process to maybe take me 3 months.
86. 3:09I'd sit down, I'd ran through the
87. 3:10timeline, I'd ran through the numbers,
88. 3:13and it all looked easy and manageable,
89. 3:15but that's just it. The numbers in the
90. 3:17timeline makes it look easy, but it
91. 3:19overlooks the emotional aspect of it. It
92. 3:22overlooks how you'll feel in the
93. 3:23week-to-week and day-to-day. You see, it
94. 3:26doesn't account for the random two or
95. 3:28three nights of bad sleep you might just
96. 3:30randomly get that completely wipes out
97. 3:32your willpower to follow a diet. And it
98. 3:35doesn't account for the random social
99. 3:36events that might pop up out of nowhere
100. 3:38that you can't really skip. So, what I
101. 3:40wish I knew before going into my cut was
102. 3:42to give myself an extra month or two
103. 3:44because there might be days or even
104. 3:46weeks where you just slip up, and you've
105. 3:48got no idea why. Now, if you want a
106. 3:51rough timeline on how long it'll take
107. 3:52for you to get to 12% body fat, then
108. 3:54I've got a calculator down in the
109. 3:56description below. It's totally free. Uh
110. 3:58it's pretty kick-ass, so check it out.
111. 4:00Now, that previous point actually leads
112. 4:02perfectly into point number four because
113. 4:04what I wish I knew when I started my
114. 4:06weight loss journey was the amount of
115. 4:08trade-offs and sacrifices I would have
116. 4:10to make, especially as I got leaner. You
117. 4:13see, the thing with weight loss is the
118. 4:14first few months are easy. You can get
119. 4:17away with having the cheat meal on
120. 4:19Sunday or doing something different from
121. 4:22the diet and you're not really going to
122. 4:23get punished for it. But, as I got
123. 4:25leaner, under 15% body fat, those
124. 4:27trade-offs became more and more
125. 4:30punishing. Suddenly, that butter chicken
126. 4:32I was usually having on the Sunday night
127. 4:34would put me two or three days back or
128. 4:36the crackers and cheese that I would
129. 4:38have between lunch and dinner just
130. 4:40wouldn't fit in my meal plan. So, what I
131. 4:42wish someone had told me before I made
132. 4:44my big cut was just how many sacrifices
133. 4:47and the level of sacrifices you'd have
134. 4:48to make to get that lean. Now, would it
135. 4:51have changed my goal? Not necessarily,
136. 4:54but it would have been nice to know just
137. 4:55what was asked of me to get to that
138. 4:57goal. Now, the final point, and it's
139. 4:59kind of the overarching point that
140. 5:01encompasses the entire video, is you've
141. 5:03got to make fitness fit into your life.
142. 5:05For [snorts] me, I didn't stay lean for
143. 5:07very long because my life just didn't
144. 5:09demand it. I was on a holiday with my
145. 5:12family who was going out and having
146. 5:14breakfasts and dinners out, and I'm not
147. 5:16really the type of guy to sacrifice
148. 5:18those nice meals or those outings for
149. 5:21the sake of staying lean, and that was
150. 5:23okay because it was a trade-off that I
151. 5:25was willing to make. The thing is, with
152. 5:27fitness, we think we can just put
153. 5:29everything to the side for the sake of
154. 5:31getting this goal. We think we can put
155. 5:33work and relationships and social things
156. 5:35and just put it over here for now. Let
157. 5:37me just get lean and then I'll go back
158. 5:39to it. But, it doesn't really work like
159. 5:41that. With fitness, you lose progress if
160. 5:43you don't stick with it. So, the better
161. 5:46approach is to try and fit it around
162. 5:48your life from the get-go. If there's
163. 5:50certain social events or events that you
164. 5:52just can't say no to, then don't. Just
165. 5:55say yes and try and fit your lifestyle
166. 5:57around it. If there's certain habits
167. 5:59that you just don't want to give up,
168. 6:01then work around it. Make fitness or
169. 6:03make your goal fit those requirements
170. 6:06because you're better off doing fitness
171. 6:07for 3 years and it taking a little bit
172. 6:09longer than doing it for 6 months but
173. 6:11then quitting. So, that is the fifth and
174. 6:14final thing I wish someone told me
175. 6:15before I did my big cut. Make fitness
176. 6:18fit around your life. That way it's far
177. 6:20more enjoyable and sustainable.
178. 6:22Hopefully this video has been a help.
179. 6:24Remember there's a timeline down below
180. 6:25if you want to check it out. Otherwise,
181. 6:27thanks for watching this video and I'll
182. 6:28see you in the next. Peace.