Let’s discuss one of the biggest problems we face as men concerning our appearance. Fat loss.

I’m sure that you all have been subjected to this very subject a million times from experts who conducted this trial and that study. But I want to speak with you all man to man and address some real issues while pointing out a few facts.

As men we have a tendency to disguise our insecurities in life and in the gym.

Sure we go to the gym, however often we put up a wall that reveals itself in one of two ways.

We isolate and don’t seek out help and if we do, we seek it out from persons about on the same level as ourselves.

We pretend to be satisfied with what we’re doing and use phrases like ‘I just want to be fit’, ‘I just wanna gain 5-10 pounds of muscle and lose a little fat’…

lets address these things..

If we keep our mouths shut we don’t eat. Asking someone in better shape than ourselves has no shame. I do it. I’ve paid folks to draft up a workout plan for me based upon how they appear physically.

Excuses are like assholes, everybody’s got one. We allow ourselves to stay comfortable. It’s called working out for a reason.

Put in some real work. You didn’t go to the gym to not get in shape.

We opted to get in shape and it is inevitable that we will want to get bigger muscles.

Maybe not look like a bodybuilder, but definitely to get bigger. Lets think about the realism of adding 5-10 pounds of muscle and how long that’d actually take.

Realistically if you trained properly, ate properly, and rested properly (note the use of the word properly) a grown man without any issues within his endocrine system, or use of anabolic steroids depending upon his age could gain .025 – .50 pound of muscle per week, or roughly 2 pounds of muscle tissue per month for a total of 12 pounds per year optimally.

Here’s the problem, remember that word ‘properly’?

Most of us will continue to eat wrong and simply up the calories in an attempt to gain muscle and end up gaining fat. Most of us discount BMI charts, don’t know our Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) and are programmed to accept certain things visually in regards to our own appearance.

We pat the dog rather than beat it.

If you don’t know your BMR how can you justify adding ‘X’ amount of calories? You might not be eating enough, you might be over-eating and require a caloric deficit.

How can you know? Now I’m mentioning things such as BMI, BMR and making honest visual assessments of oneself, but I know quite a few of us men just won’t do it even after this discussion.

I just had to put the information out there so when you fuck it up you can’t blame the Black-Asian guy writing this article.

So now that we’ve pointed out some of the reasons we haven’t managed to trim up, or muscle up lets focus on some common sense things that we simply might overlook:

HYDRATION

Water is essential to proper bodily function, transportation of nutrients, muscle recovery, and fat loss believe it or not. Most of us drink items other than water in excess and still are technically dehydrated.

My recommendation is to drink at least one gallon of water a day. Preferably two so that we know we have sufficient hydration to ensure our body’s functioning at maximum capacity.

If you’re dehydrated, your circulatory system is often times constricted. That hodge podge of sugar loaded blood within your veins is sluggishly delivering nutrients and chemicals/hormones produced within your body as fast as a tortuous. This is counter-productive to your health and fitness goals. Drink water and lots of it regardless of your fitness goals.

An easy way to drink enough water is to drink 12 fluid ounces before each meal as well as when thirsty.

TAKE A MULTIVITAMIN

Take a good multi-vitamin to ensure anything absent within your diet is still being made available to you. You’d be surprised how even trace minerals affect hypertrophy. Certain vitamins are necessary for healthy living.

Stop being a tight ass and buy some and take them. Just pretend its one of those jelly beans you love only it tastes like shit.

Supplement with Ginger and Tumeric as well serve as an anti-inflammatory.

Suggested Over the Counter Supplements:

  • CoQ10 – Good for the heart, blood pressure, and migraines.
  • Kidney Bean Extract – Helps block excessive carbohydrate uptake and maintains a good blood glucose level.
  • Tudca – To keep kidney function at full function and recover from any strain placed upon them.

BE REALISTIC

I had some guy interrupt my training in the gym to ask me how much I weighed. I told him, and then asked him, why?

Stupid look should hit your face after you read this…

He said “Because I’m trying to figure out how long it’ll take me to get like you.”

Go ahead and make the face now.

If you want to get some size on you here’s the best tip I can give anyone:  Train with a sweatshirt on, drink water, eat clean, and train like your inner bitch just died from a massive heart attack!

STOP FUCKING DRINKING ALCOHOL!

So many guys come at me with the excuse “I don’t drink much, it won’t hurt.”

Yes it will.

Scott, Mr Leavingweakness himself, recently released this article about his struggles with alcohol addiction and how his life improved in everyway possible once he got sober.

Utilizing something like Kratom is a much superior option for health focused individuals such as ourselves.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

  • Use drop sets and super-sets in your training. to up intensity and burn more calories.
  • Minimize rest period between sets. Try to keep breaks at no more than 60 seconds.
  • Leave the little dumbbells for the kiddos. I hate to see guys curling 25-pound dumbbells. Going through the motions is not how it works. Push thyself young knave.
  • Learn how to squat and or utilize the leg press properly and know the value of different foot position to work a area completely. Compound movements will greatly help you reach your goals.
  • If you can’t lift a lot, lift what you can…  not what you want. There is a difference.
  • Train faster, increase the tempo and shorten rest periods
  • Limit yourself to one carb source per meal. Double carbs will thwart your fat loss journey.
  • Don’t drink sodas
  • Don’t drink fruit juice. Minimize the consumption of fruit to one serving per day,
  • Limit breads. They will convert over to sugars.
  • Limit sauces on foods. You can use them, but just enough to lend flavor. No need to saturate.
  • Eat foods like Eggs, skinless baked chicken, turkey, lean beef, bison, shrimp to lower fat intake.

For the Enhanced Male (same principals apply to natural persons):

Here’s where it gets interesting and yet complicated because here you have to be even more mentally mature because the same thing that helps you can hurt you as well. Anabolic steroids enhance protein synthesis, help maintain a positive nitrogen balance, and elevate testosterone levels.

Therefore gaining muscle and losing fat should be a piece of cake right? This thought has helped many a man become a large, strong fat ass.

Here are the two biggest and most important reasons why so many men on anabolic steroids still look like shit:

  1. Diet. If you don’t know how to eat in a manner that is conducive to a healthy lifestyle already, if you don’t learn how to and implement it immediately, all of those factors that are supposed to help you will make you look like a fat, water retentive, pot bellied, gynecomastia  having slob. Too many people think that AAS is the magic pill, or shot that will fix all their issues that they have failed to address. In reality AAS will exacerbate any of your flaws and bad habits and take a toll on you physically both outwardly in appearance and internally medically.
  2. Training is not intense enough to maximize full use of AAS’s capabilities. Here’s the thing and I’m going to be honest as fuck… most of us don’t know how to train and our ego’s often get in our way. Mine did for years. We look up whatever it is that we look up in an effort to help ourselves and that’s a good thing to an extent. However, we don’t fully have a grasp on what it is that we need. We find a training partner, often someone like minded in the gym and enjoy perhaps a steady tempo and routine. There’s the problem… we find routine.

adjective: routine

1.   performed as part of a regular procedure rather than for a special reason.

“the principal insisted that this was just a routine annual drill”

The word itself suggests complicity and mundane existence within itself. So why would we want to have that word associated with how we try and improve ourselves?

How do we go about meeting our goals to lose a little excess weight, or add some muscle?

First accept that it is a learning experience and exercise in our own discipline. If we half ass commitment then we will get half ass results. 

When it comes to training let go of your excuses. This is something any person, natural, or enhanced can learn from.

The words ‘I just wanna put on a few pounds’, ‘I don’t wanna get too big’, ‘I just want to be fit’… they’re all excuses you have to not meet your goals.

Your goals are what they are, but the way to get there is the same. The only way you will met your fitness goal, weight goal, any goal is to train intensely and adjust your nutritional intake to accomplish it. Those excuses above will only delay you on your path.

You honest to god, don’t have to worry about getting ‘too big’, why?

Because that my friends takes years upon years to do.

The fact you even say that is indicative of what you don’t know about weight training. Here’s a fun fact that you don’t know initially, but realize after it has begun. Once you put on some muscle and lose a little body fat and someone notices it, you get more motivated to achieve more of what you have gained.

Regardless, of your goal, if you push yourself and adhere to at least some of what I have discussed you will see a difference in your physique. You will like the difference and seek more of it, how much more is up to you.

Seek advice from people who know what they’re doing.

Don’t hire a trainer that will allow you to over discuss training rather than train. I saw a guy and his trainer waste over 20 minutes of his one-hour session talk about a variety of things that won’t help him reach his fitness goals.

If you want to pay for someone to talk to… I’ll Skype the fuck outta you for $75 hr!

You are only allotted so much time on this Earth. So why not take advantage of it?

Realizing your goals in life sometimes means having to second guess yourself. And admitting that maybe you aren’t the guru you thought you were.

It requires letting go of dead weight. Surround yourself with positivity and by that I do not mean people that will let you celebrate the smallest of achievements. But by associating with people who will say ‘that’s great, what’s next?’.

Remember that no one achieved greatness without being driven!

Open your mind, seek resources, accept nothing less than greatness, and let go of your excuses. The only person holding you back is you. Once you accept that fact, you’ll be better off. Regardless of your goal, this shit is addictive and fun, most of what restrains us is…… us.

Let your inner bitch die.

-THE 44

The 44 is regarded as the leading authority in the anabolic community. He Is also owner of one of the best bodybuilding websites on the internet. 44onSwole.com advocates brotherhood and knowledge with no hidden agendas.