you know what i am going to talk about. DIETING. for some it is a pain in the ass and for most, it is the most difficult thing to do. there is not easy way out there. or is there? i have done major transformation once in my life.
this was like 2023. i was around 105kgs.
this was 2 years later. lost 28kg. i was 72kg here.
since i have done this before, i know what needs to be done now. and maybe i can help you too. all of it coming from my own experience.
we are currently being bombarded with information on what to eat and most of it is noise. let me help you break the noise from the signal. here how's to unlock the key to diet your way to glory.
Chapter 3 - The Warrior Diet
first thing you have to understand is that, eating to loose weight and eating healthy are two different things.
on one end - you can smoke, drink and eat pizzas and yet you can loose weight. and, on other end - you can eat as much healthy as possible and still gain. it's about calories. i mentioned earlier as well - the equation is to burn more calories than you consume. that's it. you don't need to know more. this is the foundation knowledge. everything builds from here.
usually my style of writing is that i just ramble on, but for your sake i'll step-by-step. so there you go:
step 1 - know how much calories you eat which got you to your weight
that's your maintainance calories. they are the amount of calories - which, if you keep eating which keep you on the same weight. you won't gain and you won't loose. when i got 22kg fatter because of my shitty job 8 months back - i must have been like 4,000 calories. ideal average daily required calories are 2000-2400 calories. so yeah, i ate a lot. mostly due to stress. at one point, when you start thinking there is nothing is in your hand which you can do, you start itching for atleast something which is. you like chewing because atleast it's make you alive for a moment. you fill your emptiness in life and your stomach and you don't wanna stop.
wait did i ramble again. sorry, not sorry.
so now you have your maintaince calories. just google the calories what you eat or use myfitnesspal or something to calculate.
step 2: know what calories you need to eat to loose the weight
easy. what you need to use is a TDEE calculator (search google) . put your current weight, height, age and activity level and find out how much calories you should eat to get to sane BMI level.
step 3 - choose your food
this is the tricky part. till step 2 - everything is theoritical. this is going to be your first decision. there are food which make your tummy feel full(satiating) and there are food which don't help at all. the more fibre the food has, the more satiating it is, generally. but you eat your lentils and chapati. that's okay if that makes you full and stay within calories. for me, i need to eat rice to feel full. for me 500g cooked rice > 4 chapatis.
then there is protien. see, you don't really need to eat protien. as i said, you just need to stay within your calories. but their is a beautiful thing about protien which very few people know. in technical term is called thermogenic effect. basically you body burn calories just to digest some food. fat is just 0-3%, carbs are 5-10% and protien is.. wait for it...20-30%. so if you eat 100 kcal of protien, you body will take 20-30kcal just to digest it. crazy right. practically, to apply it to your diet - make sure your big meals have as much protien proportion as possible. this is a cheat code.
lastly, style of eating. some eat 3 times a day, some do intermittent fasting, some even do 'one meal a day' - all are fine. whatever help you stay within the calories. i do intermittent fasting - i don't do dinner. currently, i am eating 2000kcal daily - 500-600 kcal breakfast, 800-1000kcal lunch and protien shake, some fruit and coffee here and there.
for the first 3 week of my 12 weeks challenge, i have sincerly followed till step-3. and i have already lost almost 5kg. i know i have to loose 15kg more but i know it'll happen.
step 4 - walk, stand, move a lot
in most cases, people will tell you to go to gym and all. it's good but the purpose is different. a lot of you go to gym and just treadmill for 40-60mins daily, which will show some results but i'll tell you something much better.
neat.
non-exercise activity thermogenesis.
big words - let me make it easy for you. it is the calories that are burn when you are not sleeping, eating or doing workout. it's the small walk, fidgeting on a chair, standing up while on call, taking the strairs instead of elevator. this small non-exercise activities adds up to a lot - for some 15% and for people who care about it - around 50%.
and this is mindset shift. i am not telling you to go to gym. i am telling you to be active person in life. do what humans are meant to do - move, move, move.
step 5 - gym
here it is. what you were waiting for. gym.
first of all, gym is not to loose weight. atleast not how you think. for someone going to gym - their primary goal should be to gain muscle, that's it. lift weight, go hard and build muscle. when you calculated your TDEE - out of that 60% are actually taken up by your BMR (basic metabolic rate) - this are kcal that is burn by your beating heart and a lot of while you sleep. here's the cheat code - the more muscle you have, the higher is you BMR. i repeat again - the more muscular you get, the more leaner you get. build muscle
step 6 - cardio
obviously, i am not going to skip cardio. but cardio is truly, last of the steps. i remember i started doing cardio only after i achieved like 16-17% body fat - i makes sense only. i lost almost all of my 28kg weight loss from first 4 steps.~10kg just from step 1-2-3 and next ~10kg from step 3-5-6. it is then next 5-8kg that took me cardio to do it.
step 7 - wait it out
listen, it's very important to understand that this all takes time. the process is easy but what's difficult is to understand your body. but here a good news - as you lean out, you lose fat, you body shrink - you know what also shrink with it? - you stomach. yup, you stomach actually gets smaller as you lean. so now, it takes less food for you to feel full (you FEEL full when food gets in your stomach and start pushing the walls from inside out).
not only that, as you do more cardio, you get better in burning calories. a 30mins jog which burned 300 kcal will now be buring 500kcal because you are able to exert more. and i have already told you about getting muscular - getting more muscular also help you losing more weight.
so now you understand - all this compounds. if you stack all these on top of each other and just wait it out - it won't be long you'll be in best shape of your life.
but i also know where you might fail, so here are 2 meta-tips from myside.
MINDSET 1 - it's okay, fail, but do it again and again
you know why even after knowing this i couldn't loose weight all this time. it's because all this is mental discipline. you taste defeat in your life and life forces you to kneel. you push yourself and it smacks you down. BAM. what you need to do here is try again.
i have tried to execute these simple steps like 10-12 times and failing till one day i didn't (the day i wrote my first letter to you). and you feel it. you exactly know that this is the time you'll win. it's that hunch of surity.
MINDSET 2 - the grass is actually greener on the other side
i remember the time when i was sitting on a chair and trying to tie my laces but couldn't because i had to bend and my tummy would be squeezed by my body and i would feel like someone tied a rope around my waist and strangled it. i would walk up the stairs and sit down for two minutes so that i can catch my breath again. i hated it. and it is exactly the reason which pushed me to be better. throughout your journey as well, you might also feel that is following this regime, this strict diet actually that important, when i can go out and eat whatever i want and without any care - don't.
the days i have been fit have been - by far, no competition - the happiest days of my life. having that jump on your feet, being able to move quickly, wearing anything and still looking good - this feeling cannot be replicated by any food anywhere. so yes, grass is actually greener on the other side.
i think i have covered most of the stuff. i didn't go in too much details. also threw around some big words. just google or use your AI or you know you can reply to this letter as well and i can help you out. but anyway, enjoy your warrior diet.