Weight loss
I decided to share some very useful things I came across while studying and figuring out how to tackle weight loss. There is several key areas that I will mention here and I am sure to some of you, things I found will be new or simply unexpected. So prepare for unexpected is all I will say before you read on.
1. Calorie Deficit
This is one of the best concepts I found and learned about. To drop 1lb or 0.5kg of weight, you need to drop 3500 calories weekly which is 500 calories per day. When I say drop, I mean you 1st need to figure out what is the maintenance calorie intake (plenty of calculators online to help you with it) that your body needs daily and from that number take away 500 calories a day. If you want to drop 1kg per week without any exercise, then you need 1000 calories per day deficit to keep this going.
The key thing about calorie deficit is it doesn't care what kind of foods you eat, as long as you stay in calorie deficit you will loose weight! This is so important and to me groundbreaking. I always thought that you must eat specific number of grams of protein, carbs and fat to loose kgs but the reality is very different. Our body doesn't care what you eat, it cares only how much you eat in relation to what your body needs in calories. If you eat less then what your body needs, you will be in calorie deficit and therefore loose weight. If you add working out, walking, running or any sort of activity, those things will not only be great for your body mind and mood but they will speed up the process of weight loss and allow you to eat more while in deficit thanks to it!
2. Loosing weight while maintaining or increasing muscle
This is the 2nd thing I discovered how to do while doing research (watching tons of YouTube videos and reading blogs online). If you create calorie deficit, you will loose weight. By now that should be very clear, but if don't work out or eat enough protein, you will also loose muscle in the process! Now, depending if you just want to loose weight regardless of muscles (example: you don't work out nor don't want to take care of your body that way but just want a number on the scale that fits you) then you can eat whatever you want and just follow the calorie deficit rule. If however you want to like in my case, maintain muscle and drop weight from body fat, then you need to think more in depth how to do that. 2 key ways are : 1) Exercises focusing on strength training which increases muscle 2) Creating calorie deficit but focusing on right amount of proteins, carbohydrates and fat. Number 1 is fairly easy concept. You can work on body weight exercises as well as compound movements such as squats, dead lifts and such. Those exercises will increase overall strength and muscle in your body which will in return boost your muscles while you are on calorie deficit and loosing fat. In my example I am pretty sure that past 2 weeks I dropped 1-2kgs of body fat but on my weight scale it didn't show significantly because I am gaining muscle along the way with training. 2nd concept is very important. In Crossfit they recommend 40-40-30 macro split for carbs, protein and fats. Conventional dieting is 50-30-20 carbs protein and fats. There is Keto diet which focuses on fat and protein and zero to very little carbs. I use intermittent fasting, eating 1st meal around 1:30pm and ending at 9-9:30pm. During those times I can never really put in my body 2000 calories (even 1500 calories is a stretch for me!) because I get fed up with 1 large quality meal with enough protein healthy salads (fruits and vegetables). Excellent example for my strong meal is Cesar salad but made in a special way that I tell food place to make me. I also like to eat Spinach egg omelet again made in special way for me at food place.
3. Body fat% and why it is important
After doing research on body fat%, I found out that besides making you look good/great/amazing shirtless it has numerous health benefits. I strongly suggest you do reading on your own if you are interested in this area.
There are numerous online calculators where you can enter your age, height and body fat % and it will show you how many kgs you need to drop to get leaner or add to bulk up. In my example, I am 33 177cm and I wrote in 88kgs with 18.9% (body fat% that I had on 27th of July - estimate it is lower now 10 days later thanks to better dieting and stronger trainings!) and it showed me that I need to get down to 78kgs to get down to 10% body fat. With 10% body fat your 6 pack abs will be visible and your muscles will be very defined. There are people with 6%-8% body fat, they look absolutely ripped but that is not my goal right now, I want to train hard and through correct dieting to loose weight and drop body fat to acceptable level where my workout results will show.
It is important to notice that this is a long road, unlike spins where you can win 200x in 1 game, this has to be achieved through daily dieting, working out with increased goals and focusing on strength and then in 4-6-12 months depending on the pace you do things and where you start at, results will definitely show.
I very much look forward to my transformation from 18.9% to 10% body fat. I take once a month pictures of how I look and weight myself regularly.
4. Calorie tracking, booze and other "unhealthy" things
I strongly recommend you install application on your phone MyFitnessPal. You will set how often you work out, age, weight and your goals after which application will give you daily calorie intake in order to loose or gain weight. You can then each day as you eat and drink things add what you are taking and it will show you exact calories with macros included. The app is amazing because it allows you to scan products in stores and it recognizes them and what amazed me is there is Serbian foods when you type in Serbian language - really brutal stuff. Examples for Serbian foods that I typed are Palacinka (pancake), Pileca Prsa (Chicken Breast), Fornetti (bakery product), Sladoled (ice cream) etc.
So thanks to this application I am tracking since recently my calorie intake focusing on having 500 calories deficit each day. Remember, calorie deficit equals weight loss! Your body does not care if you drink all day and don't eat anything or eat and not drink. To loose weight you need the calorie deficit period! So that leads me to the next points, drinking booze eating ice cream and such "unhealthy" things.
Alcohol has empty calories. The reason why they are called empty calories is because they don't fill you up like when you eat something. Also, depending on what you drink, it has very little protein and a lot more fat and carbs in comparison to food. This however doesn't mean that you shouldn't have alcohol when dieting. You can still fit it in your diet for loosing weight as long as you are still creating that 500 calories deficit or whatever your goal is for weight loss.
Ice cream is great example of carbs and fats. In my example I love ice cream and when I did food tolerance test found out that I can only eat peanuts the rest of the seeds I am allergic to - so I take my fats from things I love which is Ice cream. Yesterday I had nutella pancake because my intermittent fasting allows me to do so 
So I suggest you start tracking your calories daily, follow your targets and don't be obsessed with what you can and can't do. You should enjoy your dieting while focusing on just hitting the right daily number. This concept is so amazing to me, it literally changed the way I look at eating and drinking. My mind now has 100% clarity what it needs to do and what to focus on, the rest is automation - eating and using the app + training hard for results to show later.
Final thoughts
I am very happy and determined that I have a clear cut plan what I need to do and how to do it.
My weight goal is to drop to 85kgs which is well within the reach now. 2nd weight goal is to keep maintaining muscle and adding some as well but dropping weight to 80kgs (5kgs more after I reach 1st target). That will give me 12-13% body fat and it will be very cool.
Body fat goal long term is to get to 10% from 18.9%. It is really hard to say if I will be able to get there by the end of this year since it is greatly affected by trainings and how my body will react to it. I do know that it is all about long term process and as long as I train hard an challenge my body with more weights, it will give me results in the long run. So in next 20ish weeks by the end of the year I will likely train 80 times, 60 times with Sensei and 20 times on my own. During these times my hope is to increase targets on each of the exercises that I currently do, increase muscles in the process while dropping down body fat.
Finally, dieting while working out. My long term goal is to drop anywhere from 0.5-1kg per day. With such goal I need to eat 1500-2000 calories per day which is no problem really since I use intermittent fasting and am since recently tracking all my calorie intake.
In next 6 months I will do an updated version of my results, until then training eating and taking care of sleeping hydration and stress will be the key.
I hope you found this interesting and useful for all of you that are looking to add or loose weight. It took me 45 minutes to write it all out here but I am sure it was worth it to some of you feeling lost, stuck or simply don't know where to turn and seek help for such things. This post was directed to all of you with such issues.
Wish you a great week on and off the tables!
