The 5 Steps To Win The Weight-Loss Game

Just to clarify, when I say, “weight-loss” what I really mean is fat loss.

After all, lean muscle tissue makes your body look trim, toned and tight; so we certainly don’t want to lose any of that.

Lean muscle is also what helps you burn more calories and keep your metabolism up. So, in just a minute, I’m going to show you how to preserve what you already have and then how to spike your metabolism by creating a leaner, more toned physique.

But first things first: If you really want to win at the weight-loss game, then you’re going to have to stop playing around. To win, you need to act like a champion. This means you’re going to have to get serious and commit yourself to a real game plan, regimen and course of action.

This doesn’t mean you’ll need to quit your joband revolve your day around what your next meal is going to be or when you’ll be working out. But it also doesn’t mean you can allow yourself to believe that you’ll actually get around to eating right and exercising if you don’t make it a priority.

Some people love to dive 100 percent into a new weight-loss plan, while others are willing to dip only their toes. I have my opinions on what I’ve seen work best, but today I want to lay out a plan that lets you decide at what level you’re willing to play.

To be honest, it doesn’t matter if you just start with step 1 or if you’re going to tackle the whole program. What matters the most is whether you adopt this “new you” as a permanent, healthier version of your former self.

(And don’t worry, you can still have cheat meals and skip a week of working out every now and again.)

So, without further ado, here is a simple, five-step outline to help you win at weight loss once and for all:

Step 1: It’s What You Eat, Not How Much

There’s absolutely no way around this one. If you eat the processed versions of starches, dairy, artificial sweeteners and oils, you rob your body of life and you gain fat. It is what it is, so what we need you to do is toforget about counting calories and instead focus on eating foods in their natural state, foods that have not been pumped full of chemicals or been heated up through pasteurization. Dead food does not provide maximum nutrition, which is what your body is crying out for (not calories).

Step 2: Why Are You Still Up? Go to Bed!

Seriously, I’ve written dozens of research-backed articles on sleep, but I don’t think most people realize how important it is to their personal health and weight loss. Just because you can survive on six hours of sleep doesn’t mean that is optimal. I won’t go into how sleep and getting to bed before 10:30 p.m. affects your cortisol, growth hormone, detoxification ability or insulin; but I do want you to know that without proper sleep you may never fully reach your true potential.

Step 3: Walk Much?

Sometimes, the simplest things yield the greatest results. No, walking will not spike your metabolism for 38 hours as intervals can, but guess what? It doesn’t have to. I’ve seen amazing results from online and studio clients that walked their 10,000 steps per day. Another fringe benefit from walking 10,000 steps per day: When you’re walking, your mind isn’t focused on food, but instead on the healthy benefits you’re providing for your body, which will in turn pay off when it’s time to step on the scale.

Step 4: Shorter Workouts = Better Results

If you’re anything like me and the majority of my clients, then you have better things to do with your time than work out every day of the week for 90 minutes or more at a clip. Remember: We need to make this whole plan a permanent part of how you live your life. It just isn’t feasible for most people to work out for hours on end.

So, in order to maximize the time we do spend working out, we need to make sure every minute counts. This translates to doing highly metabolic resistance-based workouts using cables, weights, bands, body weight or anything else you can think of that can provide an intense training stimulus. The great thing about this is that if you get the workouts right, you have to do them for only 20 to 45 minutes every other day. I say every other day, because the training stimulus actually lasts for a full 31 to 38 hours. This basically means your body is more metabolically active for about a day and a half after your last workout. This is a powerful concept when you apply it correctly.

Step 5: The Icing on the Cake

I call “cardio-based” interval training the icing on the cake because if you spend four to 10 minutes after your workout doing it, you almost guarantee that you’ve supercharged your results. And, if you’re ever short on time and have only 10 minutes to work out, you can literally blast through a high-intensity interval workout and be done for the day.

Some of my favorite interval exercises are mountain climbers, squat thrusts, swings or the Airdyne upright bike. Here’s a free video demonstrating what a quick fat-loss interval looks like:

http://stephencabral.com/40-second-fat-loss-interval.html

Keep in mind as you’re reading over and reviewing these five steps to winning at the weight-loss game that they are written in a particular order for a reason.

Step 1 is king. If you skip step 1 and jump to step 3, your results will be lackluster. You simply can’t out-train (or out-sleep) a bad diet.

So, I recommend that if you’re just getting started on a weight-loss plan, you begin at step 1 and then work your way through each step as you successfully build off of the previous one and continue to incorporate each one into your new, healthy lifestyle.

And, of course, if you’ve already been exercising and eating better, then I suggest supercharging your metabolism with steps 4 and 5.

I wish you the best of success not only at playing, but at winning the weight-loss game!

If you’re interested in seeing the exact plan I use with my online and studio weight loss clients, see Stephen Cabral’s PROVEN weight-loss system here.